A short summary of the Essence Theory
behind PM

1. All created (ex nihilo) entities are essence and the substance of all essence is lack or "desire to receive." All essences, like seeds, have the potential for integration with reality by accomodating the light of reality (which created them) according to the level of their materiality and the conditions of their existence which foster or inhibit development.

2. Human essence is stamped with the form called the "image of G-d." We are microcosms, mirroring existence, and bearing unlimited potential for removing the restrictions which limit us on all levels, spiritual, psychological, social and physical. This form of our essence is our "desire to give" which implies creative vision which can provide us with the images or maps of reality we need to transform our environment into one that is free of restriction and can support natural, holistic development.

3. This creates a fundamental conflict in human nature. Half wishes to be a beneficiary and the other half a benefactor. Cosmology explains how and why this came to be.

4. This conflict separates us from one another and from the light of reality that is meant to inhabit us. These two tendencies, receiving and giving, create four and only four modalities of existence.

   a) receiving for the sake of receiving = greed and crime.

   b) giving for the sake of receiving = commerce and materialism.

   c) giving for the sake of giving = pure giving (altruism) which, beyond sacrificing our very existence is impossible since, as empty vessels, we cannot give without receiving.

   d) receiving for the sake of giving = the channel we were meant to be and the key to unlimited creativity and participation in reality.

5. Essence has many layers, like an onion. The outer layers concern what we all have in common. The inner layers pertain increasingly to our particularities. Desire and thus the capacity for integrating with reality, likewise, has many levels. These go from sleep to waking distraction through subjective consciousness all the way to objective consciousness, omniscience, omnipotence and immortality. The layers of essence have names which are counted from the top down. The fractions of the light of reality destined for these layers are named from the bottom up. This is because the coarsest fractions of light first enter the finest layers of essence as the light of reality begins to penetrate us.

6. Intuition, particularly active in adolescence, permits precocious knowledge of the contents of the inner layers so that we can know our deepest desires and the assignation they imply, allowing us to work towards the purpose we were created.

7. The "realization" of a given layer of essence, through the alignment of its (incarnate) desires into a channel, is called "Being" and connects it with reality. Essence and all of reality is hierarchized according to the the human form (image of G-d).

8. The most exterior, least resistant, least individualizing layers of essence can be realized, to some extent, through artificial, self-directed effort that has very little of giving in it. This is the basis of what is usually called "spiritual work" and serves the discovery of Being and our potential for integrating with imminent reality. This stage corresponds to childhood where selfishness is truly natural justified as investment for the future.

9. Realizing the more individualizing layers requires substantial confrontation and friction with outer reality and eventually with material reality for the purpose of fusing with it. Ultimately, everything exterior must be integrated and interiorized. This is possible thanks to the increasingly powerful desires which make up the inner layers. Pursuing the desire of our assignation against the resistive and restrictive forces of material reality align the "desire to receive" with the "desire to give" and allow creative contact with reality of a very high order.

10. The result of these efforts is, necessarily, world transformation since the material world in which we live is the essence of restriction against which we were created to labor and free ourselves.

Incidentally, this fusion of essence and light called "mind," in Kabbalah, is called "Mochin."

Blessings,
David S. Devor
Project Mind Foundation