Question: There are many nongovernmental charitable organizations in the world which honestly yearn to help people. What is wrong with them? After all, these philanthropists seem to feel that their well-being depends on the welfare of the world.

Answer: That’s the root of the problem: They are helping so that they may feel at peace. A small part of the world population feels that it has to help others. A person feels more at ease, and this is what gives him or her personal satisfaction.

In charitable organizations, there are many people who have a natural need to tend to others. They are programmed with an instinct. They have to assist in order to appease themselves. Baal HaSulam writes that in the world, there are 10% of such individuals, and according to the statistics, it is 7% or 8%.

However, all of this derives from egoism and is one of its manifestations. I love the world as my own child, and I feel bad if the world feels bad. I must help Africa in order to get rid of bad feelings. That’s all.

Such assistance won’t help anybody. On the contrary, it only brings harm since the more altruists give, the more their beneficiaries get used to doing nothing and do not evolve.

A similar problem surfaced in Russia today. It turns out that high oil prices are undesirable. On the surface, it fills the treasury daily, but it’s not worth it. After all, we won’t develop like this. We will just sit on our oil pipe, make a feast, and build golden palaces, but at the same time, as a country, as a nation, we will keep degrading. It is impossible to evolve without a need. Hence, despite basic logic, they don’t wish to collect “oil money” any more and are becoming aware of such things.

All present development of the world, along with charities and the commonwealth market, is nothing but egoism’s domain. Nothing good will come out of it, no matter where it is. On the contrary, all parties are only pressuring each other. We have found the law of integral interconnection, but everyone wants to use it egoistically. “Ah, that’s what it is! Global interdependence? Let’s take over the world then. We’ll put everybody in his place, and if anybody rebels, we’ll threaten to cut off their oxygen.” This is how they wish to utilize the integral network that nature reveals to us.

We are now in a very dangerous predicament since if our egoism is tied to global interconnection, it allows it to control the entire world globally, over everyone at once. This is what is threatening us if people lack wisdom and the perception and understanding of what the future holds in store for us.

They quietly decide the fate of the world to fit their petty objectives, having no clue what it will lead to in the near future and even tomorrow. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran are vivid examples of that. In the end, everything will produce the opposite result.

The games are over. We can’t give power to our egoism any longer. When the world locks into a global system, you can’t act as you did before, ruling by gold or force. It won’t work. Iraq is a vivid demonstration of it. America’s shame is before the entire world, and they are still at it. It’s all about lacking the understanding of the integral laws. No might and no brain will solve this problem. Russia has fallen, despite all its riches, and the United States will fall even lower.

Today, the approach must be adequate to a world-wide tendency toward global integration. Otherwise, you will lose.

A little time will pass, and we will witness how even terrorist organizations will start to understand it. It will be impossible to control the world by force any longer. The arising problems will make everybody think about what to do next.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2011 on An Integral World

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