Envy That Helps Us Advance

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that envy helps us advance. I don’t understand what we need envy for.

Answer: I envy everyone. Yesterday when people sang during the meal, I really envied them: Why can’t I sing like that? Or when someone quickly grasps the material that we study, I also envy him: Why can he do so and I can’t? Is this envy bad?

Imagine that there are people here that seem on a much higher level than you; it is very good that they have attained something. But I haven’t? How can that be? How can they and not I?

You may say: “So do you want them not to attain this level either?” No, I want them to advance even more, but I want to advance with them, which means that it is positive envy that pulls me forward. I don’t want to bring them down, I want to follow them forward; it is a very important point.

Envy usually means that I don’t want the other to have what I envy in him, but for us envy is different—it means that I want the same thing that I envy.

Question: I have never envied anyone. How can I envy a friend when I know that the Creator has given him a certain attribute? Suppose there is a good computer and a bad computer that cannot be good, this is how the Creator has made it.

Answer: No you are calming yourself by that, because you are lazy. Now you have to feel sorry that you are lazy.

Question: Yes, I am lazy. I understand that this is my attribute and there is nothing I can do about it, so I say to the Creator: “That’s the way we are, the way You have created us, so what do you want of us?!”

Answer: First of all, all the questions a person asks are legitimate and right, since they stem from the desire in him; there is nothing we can do about it. But the whole group should evoke everyone else, otherwise they will continue to sleep. Here we have to play.

Why do we organize different games now? Because I have to show the friends that I am on a higher level than they are, and that there is something else in me: “What, you don’t know yet? I already know this,” etc. We have to tease one another and to hint that there is something great in spirituality, since otherwise we will not move. The Creator will remain concealed until we discover Him by our equivalence of form, so there is nothing we can do. We have to envy one another.

Envy is an essential attribute. Everything is created for a reason. Under no circumstances should you suppress anything in you. You should feel envy.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/06/12, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Envy Is Useful When It Increases Wisdom
Envy Is Not A Flaw
Envying The Friends

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