Altruistic Egoists of the Future

Question: It turns out that a person who is an egoist by nature has to understand that to give to society is better than to receive from it. How is this possible?

Answer: Integral education is required for this, which explains to a person how he needs to be in balance with society by giving to it in proportion to his abilities and receiving from it according to the necessity.

This is opposite to his nature, according to which he wants to receive as much as possible and give as little as possible. This is why the education that makes this correction is required. Due to the integral education, he connects with others and feels them close to him, like friends or his family on which he depends. According to this, he can correct himself and give to society more than he receives.

After all, everything depends on society and at the end everything comes back to a person, that is to himself. Let’s say, I earned $10,000 and I am required to receive only $2,000 from society and leave $8,000 for society.

I know that the corrected society will spend this $8,000 for good: it will build subways, houses, hospitals, and schools for children. I understand this and therefore gladly give the money to the society. If I and society become one body, then it doesn’t seem to me that I tear something from myself by giving to the society. Everything depends on education.

It is customary to take children on excursions to different organizations and explain how they work, study economics with them so that they would know why taxes exist, how the government functions, and how decisions are made.

This is how we need to show to a person that all government systems work for his benefit so that he will be convinced that he and society are inseparable from each other. Then he will see that all the property of society belongs to him.

Integral education lets a person understand that he and society are one integral system. There are things that he consumes through society and there are other ones that he receives personally.

Question: Does integral education change the nature of a person?

Answer: One’s nature doesn’t change; a person remains an egoist, but an altruistic egoist. It is explained to him how the country is built, which acts only for the sake of the people’s good in which everyone is connected.

The $8,000 that he gave away will also be used for his benefit through all sorts of systems. It is now that all the charitable donations are stolen along the way and remain in someone’s pockets, but then everything up to the last cent will be used properly.

It will be possible to check through the computer how much money was paid to each citizen in the country for the general benefit: part was used for an army, part for education, part for culture, part for hospitals, and for everything else that people need.

Of course, we are talking about the corrected country, and not about today’s. Integral education should create people who understand that everything exists for their benefit. There are such benefits that a person consumes personally: everything that relates to food and family. And there are benefits that are received through society.

Question: Is it enough for a person to understand that we all are one body or does he need to feel this?

Answer: We need to feel that we all are like one family. Due to education, we should become like one family. This is not against egoism. During war, everyone feels as one family because the common disaster brings people together. A person understands that he depends on the environment and therefore is interested in making this environment richer and stronger in order to have more hospitals, schools, and many useful services that are available to everyone.

In essence, this is the direction toward a correct socialistic society where the country and society assume many responsibilities that usually fall on an individual. He no longer has to worry about anything. Why should each one have to think about where to educate and raise children, about sport schools and classes—everything should be free of charge.

There will be no need to buy tickets to the theater and to pay for your child’s classes. Each child will receive everything he requires, irrespective of his father’s salary. Everything will be free of charge both at home and in the community; after all, we are one family. And inside the family each one is interested in organizing interesting classes, good education, medical care, and leisure for his children.

If we all want to do this and will work together, then it will be a heavenly life. No one will be stealing because everything remains in families. If the entire country is one family, then everything belongs to the family. Imagine how much we will save, because today no less than 60-70% is stolen.

Therefore, integral education is necessary. After all, when the middle class disappears completely and only a few thousand rich people remain and the remaining billions are beggars, it will lead to an explosion.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/17, Lesson on the Topic: “Mismah Arosa” (Arosa Document), “Plan for Getting Out of Crisis”

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New Life 860 – The Good And The Evil Force In Man
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How does the desire to enjoy develop us?

The evil force does not disappear and neither does the good force. They only keep growing. A person has to learn how to manage them correctly.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 860 – The Good And The Evil Force In Man ,” 6/1/17

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A person has to exist on two different levels. One level is his usual, egoistic attitude to the world, which exists in him by nature and is concerned only with taking care of himself.

The second, a higher and a more advanced level, which he needs to build in himself, is the awareness of the integration he must achieve in order to conform to the general reality, that is, caring for others.

In this, a person does not sacrifice himself, he just begins to realize that concern for others is his real life. This is similar to anyone who does something kind for their own children; it feels no different from doing something kind for themselves.

Question: How does a person perceive unfolding events from these two levels? Can punishments that happen to him on his animal, egoist level be perceived as rewards on his integral, “human” level?

Answer: Of course, that which I perceive as evil on an egoistic level, I see as a reward on an altruistic level. This is with respect to any event in our lives.

Question: And what if, G-d forbid, something terrible happens to my children?

Answer: It is difficult to explain this question because there are too many personal feelings involved here. But, in reality, there is no evil in the world. That is what we discover when we rise to a higher level.

If we look at life from the most narrow and egoistic angle: here is my life, my children, me, and our perception does not include anything more than that, then it is impossible to explain anything. If a person looks at reality through the general system, then for him, on the material level, there is no life or death, no rewards and no punishments; all calculations are only for the common good.

The general system is eternal and complete; therefore, there is no such thing as death in it. Although in the physical body some cells constantly die as millions of cells are renewed each second, new cells come to replace the old, and life continues.

Therefore, if we look from the perspective of the general system, then our understanding of reward and punishment moves to a completely different level.

And we even see the same thing in our everyday life. If a little child cries because his mother doesn’t give him what he wants, is the mother is evil or kind? It’s impossible to say because each level has its own understanding of reward and punishment.

Question: What good actions should I do in order to receive only rewards, only positive responses from the system?

Answer: The only action that guarantees success is to find people who are already involved in developing this integral level within themselves. And then together you will learn how to connect to the physical general system and the spiritual one.

The most important law of the Torah is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the sign of connecting with the entire system in an integrated way. If you completely connect with the entire system, then it will, without doubt, affect you only in a positive way.

Question: And what if someone screams at me or hurts my feelings?

Answer: We have to understand that he is, as yet, an uncorrected part of the system and we must help him to correct himself.

The system is perfect and behaves according to one law: love of others. And if we want to be connected with this system, then we must learn to love!

All so-called rewards and punishments come to us only in order to direct us to this single law of love. And even if right now it seems to us to be the opposite, we need to follow this law with faith above reason, and then we will come to a higher wisdom.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/17

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New Life 859 – Our Approach to Life: The Solution For Anxiety
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

When we learn to connect to the upper Light, our life will be perfectly secure and happy.

A person who feels absolute love is not afraid because he is close to the Light and the Light fills him.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 859 – Our Approach To Life: The Solution To Anxiety,” 5/23/17

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Question: People believe that they will be rewarded if they keep the commandments of the Old Testament and punished if they break them. Is it really like that? I know that some people put on tefillin before going for a medical check-up and believe that it will help them.

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person is one big desire to receive, which makes him opposite to the system of nature in which he exists.

In order to achieve connection with the system, he must correct his desire from egoistic and caring only about himself, to altruistic and acting for the benefit of the general system. Obviously, only then will he be fulfilled because he will belong to the entire system and not be disconnected from it as he is now.

That is why our entire work is centered on transforming our nature from radical individualism to complete integration with the system. This transformation happens as a result of correcting the desires of the individual. As we begin to correct our desire, we discover that it is not just a single desire; it consists of 613 parts.

All these 613 parts are egoistic, but they can be corrected with the help of a certain force hidden in nature, called Light. When we attract this force of bestowal and love that corrects and transforms, then is can be said that we are keeping the Torah and Mitzvot.

Every time we correct another and another egoistic desire, we connect it to the general system with the help of this Light that Reforms, the Torah.

In the Kabbalistic sense, keeping the Torah and Mitzvot is engaging in the work of correcting desires from egoistic to altruistic and integrating this connection with the general system. Ultimately, a person becomes an integral part of the entire system. To the degree that he connects with the system, correcting one desire after another from individualistic to altruistic, he begins to sense the system to a greater and greater degree.

This means that he increasingly reveals the general system of all of reality, climbing the steps of attainment of worlds, spiritual levels, understanding increasingly more and experiencing it. This is the revelation of the true reality for a person that is offered to him by the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Where are the rewards and punishments in all of this?

Answer: Rewards become everything that help me correct another of the 613 desires and connect it to the general system. In this manner, from complete disconnection, I come to complete integration with the system and this becomes a reward for me because now I can be a useful element of the system. And punishment is the revelation of my disconnection from the system.

Question: There is a spiritual punishment for breaking the commandments that is called karet, which literally means “excision” or “cutting off” from the collective soul of Israel. What is meant by this?

Answer: The separation of a person from the general system is the punishment of karet.

Question: What does “death penalty” mean? Why does the system enact such punishment?

Answer: Punishment by death can only be on the egoistic desire, like s a person treated with chemotherapy or radiation that kills a cancerous tumor within him. That is, punishment by death is carried out on the tumor. In the general system there are no such punishments, only in egoism.

The entire system of reward and punishment is only with respect to a person’s egoism. Egoism can receive punishment and even the death penalty, while at the same time, the person begins to live as an integral part of the system.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/16

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New Life 857 – Punishment And Atonement
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Are we punished for our sins, what is atonement, and how will we direct ourselves according to the system of nature in which we live?

When one reaches the love of others, one climbs into super-reality, complete and eternal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 857 – Punishment And Atonement,” 5/18/17

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In the modern world, people are becoming evermore individualistic and with this we discover ourselves increasingly tied to each other, even though these ties do not bring us any benefit.

There was a time when we thought that we would continue to uncover more of the world: we discovered new continents and international trade. But ultimately it ended in great disappointment.

Humanity’s entire development was only geared toward finding ways to egoistically exploit nature in a one-sided fashion, not taking into consideration its interests. And that’s why our development was always negative.

We see that it brought us to a state where, on the one hand, humanity can provide complete fulfillment for itself with all kinds of material pleasures on the level of the body, its animal level, while at the same time, it suffers more and more on the human level.

As a result we do not know what to do with ourselves. We suffer psychologically and spiritually from the lack of correct connection between ourselves and with the rest of existence.

Question: How, then, do we behave correctly in this system so that we could actually reach a positive result?

Answer: We need to reach an integrated state. That is, we need to take into account the entire system, how it works, how we can be its integral components, and through our actions, bring it to balance and unity.

Because right now it is we who are bringing it out of balance, like cancer cells. Cancer in our bodies is symbolic of cells that think only of themselves and therefore they destroy the entire body and themselves along with it. An individual does exactly the same thing; that’s why we need to study.

We live in a special period of evolution when people finally begin to ask about the meaning of life, about the system governing us, and about how to understand, uncover, and actively engage with it.

Question: How does the transition from ordinary calculation happen when I count the absence of desired fulfillment as punishment and its reception as reward, to a new calculation for the entire system, disregarding what I need personally?

Answer: This depends on upbringing. If we receive integral education and begin to sense the system, then we will change our calculation.

What does an infant lack compared to an older child? An older child takes into account more factors of his existence: relative to the father, the mother, school, other people, friends, and neighbors. And that is why he interacts differently with reality. It is still relatively limited, but not as much as for the infant, it is already more developed. This is exactly the kind of developed relationship we need to learn. Without integral education and the development of sensory organs that enable us to reveal the system, we will not be able to progress further. The system demands our active, aware participation, not blind actions.

Question: Many think that they can receive the reward of benevolent response from nature in return for their good behavior. Is it so?

Answer: This is very correct, we only need to figure out what constitutes good behavior. This is impossible to understand until we, at least minimally, get to know the system, each time advancing more and widening our circle. Then only within this framework, within the boundary of the circle, where I understand, sense, and can make correct decisions, do I act. And I do not yet go outside the boundary of this circle.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/17

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Question: From the perspective of nature, which of our actions are considered correct and beneficial and can lead us to a good life so we don’t receive punishment from nature?

Answer: All of nature is a closed, integral system, all parts of which—inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human—are bound by the same network.

The law of an integral system is that each element influences all others. This means that each particle must sense itself as belonging to the entire system and behave in a way that benefits the entire whole. Not for the benefit of some individual part, and not for its own benefit, but absolutely for the entire system.

People don’t understand this law and are unable to reveal it. However, aside from people, all other parts, that is, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, are integrated within this closed system.

The entire universe is one integral system. And if we pick any fragment of planet earth and study it, it will be clear that all elements are absolutely interrelated, as if connected by one inner network that is hidden from us and follows a specific program called nature.

We can ask, “What is a human being?” A human being is a special case. On the one hand, because of his animal body, he belongs to the animal world. And so it is clear the body must be obligated to be in a specific instinctive connection with the system. But there is also a part in him that belongs to the speaking level because  of which he is called human.

In this part, it is as if he is disconnected from the system and behaves as if the system does not exist. A person does not instinctively feel the connection and does not feel unity with the web of nature; therefore, he behaves in whatever way he pleases. This “free” form of behavior, without any connection with the system, is called egoism. In his relationship with the system of nature, a human being only considers his immediate benefit.

Maybe he will think differently twenty years from now, but that is not important to him because he is only fixated on the stream of momentary experiences of his life that he perceives now. If in this moment he does not possess that which he desires, then he considers it a punishment. And if suddenly he receives what he needs, then he deems it a reward.

Naturally, while being disconnected from the general system, these rewards and punishments turn out to be false because a person does not see all that is dependent on his actions and that is why he makes mistakes. He exists within a system, but he is not able to take into consideration all its elements, he doesn’t feel these interdependencies. It turns out that all of his perception of reality is incorrect.

Question: If I feel this as reward and punishment, then why should I care that they are false? I received what I wanted, didn’t I?

Answer: Then why are people unhappy? If we judge what reward and punishment is only by our immediate experience and act only according to this, attempting to gratify our momentary desires, then we will have to put up with one disappointment after another.

If we could always win in this way, then it would be possible to accept this objection. However, we see that we are constantly losing. The further a person advances, the more he has to defend himself as a result of his egoistic relationship to life and his pursuit of immediate gratification.

No matter how much we develop society, government, family, sciences, and medicine, we still cannot compensate for the damage and negative reaction of the system to our behavior. Wouldn’t it seem that as we progress in our development we should be able to increasingly understand and sense nature?

But it turns out to be the opposite: we progress more and more in our development of our incorrect relationship with nature. We are constantly growing further from nature, from connection to the integral system, and ultimately, we turn into such individualists who are no longer concerned with anything at all, except our own gratification.

In the end, a person may turn to drugs, not wanting to think about anything. He doesn’t want to tie himself down to anyone in order to remain completely free and without any obligations…
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From KabTV’s “A New Life #822,” 2/2/17

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Question: If we live in a system of nature that trains us like a mother bringing up little children, then do rewards and punishments for our actions really exist in this world? Society conditions a person by defining rewards as good fortune, success in family, work, and money.

All of reality is divided into winners and losers; the winners celebrate, while the losers suffer. In other words, reward is considered being the most successful, important, and rich. How are we to change this association?

Answer: This association changes by the virtue of the fact that we see how our world is moving toward a crisis and people find themselves in despair. We continue to develop further, and thanks to our advances in development, we are left without a job. Year after year we are becoming poorer and unhappier. Judging by this, we are able to decide whether we are behaving correctly or not.

If Mother Nature is treating us in this way, doesn’t it mean that we are doing something wrong? Clearly we exist inside a closed, integral system. And if we behave correctly, then we must receive a positive reaction, which is the reward.

A person must know if he is advancing correctly within the system and what his next step must be. Correct interaction with the system is like the connection a child has with the mother, who teaches him: “Do it this way, my dear, not the other way!” I must feel the response of the system to my actions and understand its attitude. But for this, it is necessary to study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: And what if I am already successful in life?

Answer: But we have no idea what success is! Maybe what we call success, in reality, is actually a failure? We celebrate when we are able to reach that big cake and eat the whole thing ourselves. And we cry like spoiled children if we don’t get that cake.

True success is knowing the intention, desire, and goal of Mother Nature, becoming partners with this system and merging with it. In other words, to begin working jointly with the system. Success is developing in such a way that in our awareness, duties, desires, and actions, we are able to become the system’s correct, active parts who are conscious of what they are doing and can actually benefit the system by connecting to it.

Every mother wants her child to be healthy, smart, understanding, sensitive, and respected in society; she wants him to treat others with kindness and for others to love him. This is how we must behave. But here we are not simply talking about behaving respectfully at work, at home, on the street, or in a bus, we are talking about the general system of all of reality.

And we, judging by the development of modern man, day after day, year after year, are getting further and further away from our comprehension of the system of nature. Our society and our world are growing worse and worse. This is evidence of the fact that we do not understand what Mother Nature wants from us!
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/17

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The method of integral education does not prevent a person from developing his or her inner individuality, rather it allows a person to do so. No one invades this inner world.

But along with this, one also knows that it is possible to feel the world, reality, from a higher and broader perspective, above isolation and individualism, but only through a connection with others.

When this occurs, he begins to sense a world parallel to this one. No one argues that we are all individuals, unable to move like hammered-in nails, but it doesn’t need to disturb anyone because we are building a level of connection above it.

Question: Will a person still feel lonely then?

Answer: A person will not feel lonely because he will be expressing his individuality in connection with others. These two levels—the personal, individual level, and the common, integral level—will exist parallel to each other and will support one another.

Then, the personality of each individual will begin to be expressed even more brightly and distinctly, but this will not lead to negative consequences and loneliness. If each is created with their own unique qualities, then when these qualities are expressed even more brightly, it will only be of benefit to others and never to their detriment.

Two of the most important milestones in child development is the emergence of personal individuality and, above it, mutual interdependence. As it is said, “Love covers all transgressions.” In this context, a person uses his individuality with the goal of correct connection with others.

Nature builds us in such a way that if we use my individual qualities for connection with others with the intention to fulfill them, and others do the same with respect to us, then this is a point where we are not just connecting mechanically as cogs in a machine, but are creating a perfect system.

When we correctly connect to this system, we begin to feel the one who is spinning us—the upper force of nature. And then we begin to interact and spin in harmony with this force; in other words, we achieve union with it.

Question: Why does this painful sensation of loneliness appear within us at this point in time? What does this stage of human evolution mean? This did not exist to such an extent earlier in history.

Answer: We completed our “linear” evolution and now must add to it “circular,” integral development. With all the individuality and uniqueness of each, we must discover how to correctly use our special abilities for positive connection between us and build a perfect system. This is the final stage of the program of creation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/4/17

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