No Need to Envy Your Cat

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we examine nature and human behavior given the egoistic desire to rule over others, we see that the only way to influence it is through the society. It is a fact that once a person provides for his corporeal needs, he wants to rule over others, use them for his own benefit, and make them suit him. And this is why he depends on the society.

For this reason if we were to give him an environment that demanded a good attitude from him to be accepted in it, whether he likes it or not, he will have to change his qualities, like jealousy and passion for pleasure and respect, according to the demands of the society.

It is his egoistic inclination that demands this connection with a society, a connection where he is the ruler. But the society, can give him an opposite understanding without breaking this connection: Go ahead be great, be proud, be above others! But do it through good, not evil!

In other words, the desire, which he used to use in a way that harmed the society and benefitted him, gradually begins to change through his dependence on the society. There are many examples like this in life.

For example, a person is running for an election. What does he want? To rule, prove his abilities! He wants to make new laws, establish a new order, and head the government. And what does he say? Something completely opposite: I will serve everyone, work for the common good, I will treat you the best I 
can, and love you like a father.

It follows that a person’s connection with a society forces him to have an altruistic attitude towards it, even if it is nothing but words, even when his actual intentions are completely egoistic. For this reason, if we give a person a proper society to educate him, the problems will disappear.

When a person, egoistically running for president, promises the people to carry out all their demands: create jobs, provide shelter, safety, etc., the society must treat him the same way.

You want respect? Work for us, do good for us, and you will be valued. Then you will have what you deserve according to the good deeds you do for us.

It turns out that we do not complain, do not blame, and do not require a person to change; these demands are meaningless and unreasonable. But we can influence a person in an indirect manner, through the environment, so he would easily accept everything necessary.

A person will grow like in a greenhouse, acquiring a form that corresponds to the heat, moisture, atmospheric pressure, and other external conditions. He will enjoy doing it as a game, just like children grow and become wiser by playing.

There is no point discussing the way each one of us needs to change since everything depends on the influence of the environment. We simply need to act like in a play. It will be a game—a life-changing game, but still a game, which is so much fun that we will dedicate our free time, freed by our ego from daily 
obligations, to forming a good environment.

We will grow without effort and will easily change with the support of teachers and educators just like children who grow and are changed by playing. We only need to know how to use our free time and knowledge, which we are now receiving, to change the right way.

But why haven’t we done it earlier? What prevented us from doing this a thousand years ago, when we were living in an underdeveloped society in past generations? Then we were not able to know and recognize our evil. We thought that the ego helped us develop and didn’t feel that it was bad. The ego pushed us toward progress and development, and we did not consider it to be evil.

Well, we became distant from each other, created separate families, marked social and state borders: All these were good things. We never thought that this would bring us to such a big common destruction.

Only recently did we start to realize how hopeless our state is, and that the only way to form a new person is by building a new society.

Like an incubator, greenhouse, or the hands of a maestro, this society prepares new people out of us who use all the strength they have on top of the animal level for the good, and not evil—and they will become good people instead of evil people.

We will try to use the power in the group, society, and humanity in a good way so that when every person connects with others, he would feel that he is close to them both in his heart and soul, in one thought like in one body. He will feel so close to them that he will feel and understand thoughts and feelings that fill the world.

Every one of us will include the entire humanity within himself, and then we will see nature has brought us to this wonderful state through our development where every person feels that he is a collection of everyone. This way a person goes beyond the boundaries of the perception of his brief and insignificant life and begins to feel our integral world through the entire humanity.

This way we realize the main force of our life, egoism, which distinguishes us and lifts us above the animal level. It actually lifts us, and does not lower us to an unhappy, miserable life where I would feel afraid and powerless, which is worse than the animal level, in fact sometimes when I watch my dog or cat, I envy their lives.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 9, 1/6/12

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