Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

Applying To Work For The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to be the Creator’s worker without any preconditions?

Answer: Suppose you say: “I don’t care what I do, I am ready to do anything from being your deputy or your chief foreman, to being the last, lowest, most despised cleaning man. I am ready to work for any wages from half the kingdom to nothing at all. I don’t care how pleasant the work is, whether I receive pleasure from it, or whether I am beaten. I am ready to be beaten every workday as long as you allow me to work for you. I beg you, take me without any preconditions!”

Everything depends on your tolerance here, on your patience, and on whether you are ready to withstand the unpleasantness and the pleasantness, the rewards and the punishment involved. Thus you advance above your “donkey,” above your ego that feels good or bad, and receive half the kingdom or blows in return for a day’s work. But the human being in you is totally adhered to the landlord. Do you agree to work this way?

You want to be given such conditions since it helps you attain the pure intention with regard to the landlord. But if you didn’t have such conditions you wouldn’t understand where you are and whether it is your ego that motivates you, lies to you; you are like the thief running before everyone shouting, “Catch the thief.”

You want to know exactly who is managing you, and it is possible only according to the changing states. You will attain nothing by feeling bad alone; there is no Light without darkness, and there is no darkness without Light; you need to feel both.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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Necessity And Competitiveness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The revelation of the ego in our daily life, especially in the economy, is expressed by the increasing aggressiveness of people towards other people and countries towards other countries, as each side tries to swallow as much as possible, building pyramids in every area by which they minimize the number of players. Will this trend continue?

Answer: On the whole, it’s for the best because people will understand what is going on.

We will reach the state in which everything depends only on me in whatever I do, and I play the leading role which eliminates the redundant play in the competition. It’s valueless anyway, and in fact, it puts me in a position where I can clearly understand what I do and whether it’s necessary or not.

The problem is that even if I can dictate whatever I feel like to the market, people’s desires change. Suddenly the need for what I offer them disappears, which in turn forces me to act differently.
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From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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You Are Invited To The Stage

Dr. Michael LaitmanMany people in the world are connected to all kinds of groups, associations, alliances, and communities, and they are quite satisfied with these “hobby clubs.” In addition, people also cooperate in businesses in order to make a profit together.

There are the great and small, supervisors and subordinates, but, ultimately, there is a clear goal for everyone, and they understand that everyone needs to have his own place and contribute for the benefit of all. The picture is clear when the result is felt in the pocket or our desire for pleasure is delighted in some other way.

All the ways and forms of connection differ, including the religions. However, in general, people enjoy shared interaction that provides everyone with some benefit.

It seems to be different when a person asks the question about the meaning of life, “Why and for what am I here?” After all the searching, this question only grows, leaving a sensation of emptiness inside. So, finally, the person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

However, in addition, he opens books and doesn’t find an answer. Essentially, the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t reveal anything. On the contrary, it is called the “concealed wisdom” because it removes the cover and only shows a person that something is hidden from him. What is this exactly?

What is concealed from us is the Creator. He is what we are missing. If we were to discover the higher power in nature that activates all of its forms—the still, the vegetative, the animate, and the speaking—then everything will become clear to us.

So, actually, in our world, in our life, there is no other question than the discovery of the Creator. In this way, we will solve all problems. We will understand what is happening to us, how we should act, what the consequences of our actions are, how they come back to us, and so forth. In brief, everything will be revealed to us. When we go beyond the limitations of this world, we feel not only the shortness of material life but also the entire way that stretches to Infinity. All this is provided that we discover the Creator and understand and feel reality in the same way that He does.

In addition, we don’t understand and feel. Here, the question arises, “What do I get out of this understanding and feeling?” The wisdom of Kabbalah answers like this, “You can understand and feel to the degree that you can become like the Creator.” In other words, the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t make it possible for us to recognize that particular phenomenon called the “Creator” but presents a condition that is not characteristic of our world.

Here, we look at things from the side. For example, I go to a ballet performance and see people dancing on the stage. I enjoy watching them, but I can’t perform like them myself. However, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, this would not be called attainment. True attainment requires that I carry out this activity myself. From this, I will understand and feel what is being said; I must be “on stage.”  [Read more →]

Integral Force And Its Expressions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are four fundamental interactions known in physics: strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational. Is it possible to say that these four interactions are the individual expressions of the integral force (interaction)?

Answer: Yes, at the level of inanimate matter these are expressions of the integral force, which summarizes them at the inanimate level. It’s Keter (Malchut) with regard to the rest of the Sefirot.

Question: You are talking about the four levels: matter, energy, information, and interaction (in the spiritual form, meaning in the form of mutual bestowal, love). At what level does the integral force act?

Answer: The integral force, the Creator, is clothed in your single (summarized) integral desire. You built it from your individual egoistic desires by annulling your individual egoistic desires through the aspiration to the mutual guarantee in order to attain the revelation of the Creator in it.
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Under The Authority Of Money

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At this time, the entire healthcare system in many countries is being transferred to government rails and pretty much reminds one of a conveyor belt. Physicians strive to see as many patients as possible and spend as little time with them as they can. In order to get additional attention from their doctors, patients have to pay extra money.

Throughout the entire era of medical field development, doctors have never been rich. They were famous, knowledgeable, but never wealthy. In accordance with the advancement of desires, the aspiration to be rich comes first. After that, there comes a desire to be respected and famous, whereas an aspiration to become knowledgeable follows all of them. In medicine, it works the other way around. Why has our medical system fallen so low? Why does it value money before respect, knowledge, and even before the desire to help others?

Answer: This phenomenon is going on not only in the field of medicine, but in all spheres of human activities. People (as opposed to inanimate, animate, and vegetative matter) constantly grow due to their egoism, the basis of human nature. Our desires become more egoistic; they increasingly control us, thus detaching us from each other.

At some point, we lived in big families, but now we reject having even a small family. Everybody wants to live separately nowadays; the number of divorces increases, people don’t want to marry, have children, etc. Our egoism has grown to a level where it separates us much more strongly than before and instead of elevating our desire to obtain knowledge, attain, and achieve, it brings money forward and makes our lives very pragmatic. The entire world depends on money; everything is subject to money. Money is power.

Previously, respect, glory, and power were not contingent upon money. Honor was above everything. During the last one hundred years, our egoism grew to the extent that we can see nothing except dollar signs. All spheres of human activity such as science, arts, or any kind of creativity that continue to attract many people previously were considered noble; things like poetry or scientific research made many artists and scientists sacrifice their lives. Nobody considers them worthy any more.

Today, things like arts and science are fully controlled and completely suppressed by money. Artists and scientists simply have to comply with this level. Sometimes they still experience self-sacrificing tendencies, but they have to suppress them right away. Artists and scientists are kept in narrow frames because they understand that their success directly depends on their sponsors’ support and on the size of their bank account.

Nowadays, spheres of life that are extremely dear to us directly depend on money because prevailing financial systems buy them out, thus taking them under their direct governance. All of the above also applies to mass media that completely depends on those who pay them.

Even education in schools doesn’t get due attention because its goal is to promote a herd instinct in students and suppress their individuality so that they don’t cultivate a benevolent, non-financial, unselfish attitude. By doing so, it makes it very easy to determine how much one is worth, how much one can buy, and who is in control.

The last half-century demonstrates the same tendency in the healthcare system all over the world. The principal reason for it is the fact that this field is extremely sought after. Almost everybody uses it: We are born into this system; we continue our development in it, we have to constantly use it, and we end our lives within the same system too. So, the field of medicine is extremely “fertile” and brings enormous remunerations, thus making doctors rich and allowing them to take advantage of the system.

Moreover, our reliance on numerous medications (most of the time not even needed) prescribed by doctors no matter whether they are really necessary, obligates us to take them; it translates into enormous profits. Even if medications don’t cost much, their sales still turn the healthcare system into a monopoly that constantly drains resources from the population. That’s why numerous rumors are being spread about “terrible diseases,” various threats, etc.

This explains why there is great competition among drug manufacturers. Moreover, a lot of unnecessary “diagnostic” equipment is produced. The circles that financially take advantage of this state of affairs pressure their governments to include medical-related expenses into a basket of “free” and “mandatory” health care. In other words, we are tied up with a system that exploits us at our own expense; we all are completely defenseless here.

Alongside the mandatory, state healthcare system, there is also a private sector that is much more expensive and even more unexplainable. Of course, it justifies itself to a certain point, since private doctors simply have to cure their patients; otherwise, they won’t have clientele. On the other hand, people have to pay very high costs to receive proper treatments. So, humanity has already received all sorts of proofs that egoism is the main cause of the devastation of our health and that it prevents us from the correct way of life.

These doctrines apply not only to healthcare, since health starts with pure air, balanced food, good ecology, and a caring attitude toward each other. That’s why all of life requires correction in order to build a good basis for maintaining human health.

The big question is if today this task coincides with doctors, pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturers health care interests. One thing is very obvious: common people suffer from the way it’s currently arranged.
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From KabTV’s “Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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Egoistic Fuel For An Altruistic Purpose

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself” (as explained in Items 2 and 3, examine it thoroughly there). This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs.

This condition seems clear, yet in fact, all of reality is concealed here, all that life can give us. And since there is only one condition that stands before us which must be maintained, “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” so everything that happens in my personal life, in relationship with myself, with my family, with the environment near and far, with humanity, with the world, everything that has happened to me up until this moment, must be directed towards only one goal. And at every moment I must check, have I lived it to reach love for others?

If I begin to evaluate myself in this way, then understandably, at every moment there will be many questions for me: “Why? What for? How is one thing connected to another? What do I get out of this?” and so forth. Rejection and resistance will grow, but if I truly want to clarify what must be clarified and corrected, then everything will be considered according to only one criterion, according to that phrase, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.”

It’s written that this is a major rule in the Torah, in other words, this is the principle that includes all of reality, includes all of my incarnations, and in general, everything that has been. Therefore, someone who is ready to accept this principle as a basis, as a measuring rod for his life, he is ready to accept the Torah, the method of correction. You see, the whole Torah is designed only to realize this principle.

And conversely, someone who doesn’t direct himself towards this, he doesn’t need the Torah. He can read it, be interested in it as a historian, or use it in some other way. Throughout history, everyone has wandered through it as they saw fit. That said, the true Torah is revealed to me, moves me, and opens the way before me only on condition that I aspire to “And you shall love your friend as yourself.”

In this way I begin from a distance, from the greatest resistance, from an absolute lack of understanding, from the furthest place, until I gradually begin to understand that this is important, that this is connected to the entire reality, to the world, to all other people and  to my ego. I begin to be interested in this principle at least in an egoistic form, with the hope of somehow gaining from this. And so I have something to hold on to already; this expression becomes important in my eyes because I see this as a means for receiving pleasure, knowledge of self, an opportunity to get something new. And even if this connection is not arranged as I would like it, and passes through the reverse side, this is still a connection, and it’s very important.

A state like this is called “Lo Lishma,” and it’s a high level where I am already holding onto the principle of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” and through it, love for the Creator, Who is to be found in the other, in the community, as is written, “I live among My own people.” Therefore, everything is arranged for me except the intention.

First, from my “healthy,” materialistic, egoistic desire, I grasp this principle strongly; then it’s possible to speak about intention. First of all, it’s necessary to build a healthy relationship, as is written: “Educate the youth according to his way.” And the more ruthless his desire to fulfill himself, the better because then you can open the way before him and explain to him upon what progress depends.

In general, all the steps leading to both purity and impurity are subject to the same dependency and are found in the same way. Only the relationship is different. About this it is written: “The Creator made this opposite to that” (Ecclesiastes 7). We use the same Kelim for both egoistic and altruistic actions; and only in intention are these actions opposing.

Before me is the system of my relationships with the group. I give myself over to it and through it to the Creator, Who is within it. I want to adhere to Him and thereby fill myself with all the Light of Infinity. This is the desired, worthwhile and imperative approach.

If I begin to confuse myself with superfluous considerations, I only reduce my desire even before it grows, so that I will have something to correct. A person corrects only what is discovered in him, and one should not be ashamed or be timid because of his egoistic spiritual aspirations. This is normal. The main thing is to be clear, that specifically in the system called a “group” I will reveal the Creator.

In general, this system includes all of reality, and even though it now seems to me to be divided, later I will see that everything is included within it. So, it’s important to see the real state, even if at this stage it’s for my own benefit.

This is the beginning of self-nullification; this puts me in front of the perpetual questions: “How can I be incorporated into the system? How do I enjoy it?” And then the Reforming Light works on me. The system is built such that the posterior side of the upper is found in the front side of the lower, and therefore, even if I think about ascent egoistically, the upper perfects my defect and gives me a remedy for my ego. After all, this ego is directed towards “And you shall love your friend as yourself.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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One Stone Against The Other

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Letter 40: And should you ask, “What can one do if he feels that he has a heart of stone toward his friend…”

The advice is very simple: The nature of fire is that when rubbing stones against each other, a fire starts… And only when both of them intend for a gift and not for charity, through the wearing out of the hearts, even of the strongest ones, each will bring out warmth from the walls of his heart, and the warmth will ignite the sparks of love until a clothing of love will form. Then, both of them will be covered under one blanket, meaning a single love will surround and envelop the two of them, as it is known that Dvekut [adhesion] unites two into one.

When a person begins to work in a group he doesn’t feel repulsed by others. But as soon as he feels the need to connect with the friends, as it is the means for attaining the goal, the vessel for the revelation of the Creator and through this connection one attains bestowal and adhesion, and only after that are the others called “friends” and not before; this is where the problems start. These people don’t seem like strangers anymore: Everyone takes on a certain color, a form, and becomes versatile and full of different emotions.

The friends summon in him very complex emotions and it isn’t easy to connect with them anymore. He doesn’t want to connect with them anymore. He doesn’t want to hug them and to sit at the same table with them for a meal or to dance together.  Different evil thoughts overcome him with regard to his relations with others and he begins to feel that it’s very difficult to connect with them.

The more he understands the need to connect, the more distant and unrealistic it seems to him. New interruptions are increasingly evoked. It’s about this kind of work that the Torah tells us first in the story of Abraham and Isaac and then about Jacob, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Eventually, this work becomes the exile in Egypt, when a person feels such terrible distance from others that it’s impossible to ignore it and it’s impossible to connect.

The more a person tries to overcome his ego and to connect with others, the less he succeeds. He experiences “seven years of satiety” and “seven years of hunger,” with regard to the connection since the whole war against the evil inclination is only over the connection. Then there are the plagues of Egypt, the plagues of Pharaoh, that force a person to finally understand that only the upper Light can help him.

He decides that he cannot live without absolute love anymore, that will break his heart and the shards of his heart will penetrate the hearts of his friends. This is the only thing he wants and nothing but it. Thus he begins to work on the love that doesn’t immediately turn into true love, but starts from some preliminary connections, but this is at least a certain connection.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/13

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The Pictures Of Reality That Come To Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe true reality is the Creator because He exists on His own, independent of any additional force. He just exists and that’s all! However, the existence of any other reality except the Creator depends on two opposing forces.

None of them alone can provide this existence. Only due to their connection, they produce grains of our temporary, artificial, short-lived reality, which is called creation (Beria) because it is outside (Bar), outside of the Creator, and exists only under certain conditions. This artificial reality is our life today.

However, the Creator has given us the opportunity to understand and connect creation from below upward with the help of two opposing forces: bestowal and reception. Thus, we complete the universe, which was created by the propagation of these two forces from above to below, adding to it our own consent from below to above. It turns out that we seemingly bring to life the artificial creation that was created by the Creator, making it real.

By our consent, accepting the Creator’s thought in order to assemble ourselves from two opposing forces at every step from below to above, we give creation the real force, being the Creator’s partners as equals, on the same degree. After all, we take His mind, His direction, and His attitude, and we add this upper divine mind and attitude to the forms that spread from above to below, due to which they seemingly rise from below to above.

The two forms, receiving and bestowal, come to us already prepared. We are not responsible for the evil, egoistic nature and, moreover, for the kind nature of bestowal. However, due to our yearning for good properties, we make our own contribution, achieving understanding, knowledge, adding our personal attitude that is becoming united with the Creator.

What matters is not the two forces themselves, receiving and bestowal, but their connection—consequence, “derivative”—the notion of unity that is born out of the work of the mind and heart.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/13, Writings of Rabash

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Willing To Prepare

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does the desire to resemble the Creator appear in a person?

Answer: That is called a gradual approach to confronting Mount Sinai when I have prepared myself for a new system of values to be formed within me, when the attribute of bestowal becomes for me the highest and most important quality, and although I have no previous conditions for this, I am ready to part with everything for it.

This desire penetrates through the point in the heart that from the beginning exists in each person. But if it is still asleep, lost within the depths of a person’s ego, then there is nothing to be done. One needs to bring it out though gradual influence in a suitable environment that will awaken this point through all kinds of egoistic actions and influences perceived correctly by the person, and a person will feel that it’s worthwhile to do this since the environment confirms it.

This means that we wash and cleanse these layers in order to reach the point in the heart, and when it begins to come forward, a person is willing to give everything in order to realize it.

This is because the questions are unable to receive an answer in the egoistic dimension. This is the result of the previous steps of the influence of the Light on it. Concerning all the questions about his ego, a person gives one answer: “Because that is what I want!” After all, there is no other way to answer the ego. He is not able to justify this unacceptable act from his viewpoint.

However, one needs to approach this gradually. Thus, we need to understand that our dissemination of this system to the world should be done to the same extent that the world agrees and is ready to listen. And on the other hand, the general crisis operates in such a way that people are already able to listen to it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/18/13

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The Technology Of The “Wisdom Of The Crowd”: A Unified Image

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In an integral group everyone needs to humble himself towards all and simultaneously rise above all. What does this mean?

Answer: When we discuss something, uniting between each other, we nourish each other. Suppose that our friend is speaking. So, on one hand, we seemingly try to enter him, to feel him, to be together with him. On the other, when I am speaking, then everyone is included within me.

It follows that when my friend expresses himself, I nullify myself completely and try to absorb everything that he is feeling and thinking, in heart and mind. And when it’s my turn, I bring everything out of myself, and everyone else is included in me in an identical manner. This is the first, smallest precondition.

In addition, people need to understand that they have to rise above the ego and not look at the faces of the others: I don’t like your glasses, I don’t like his nose, I don’t like his hair, and so forth. This is to say, I completely divest myself of the external appearance of those participating in the conversation. We try to gather our emotions, heart, and mind together. And when this shared heart and shared mind, that is, the feelings and thoughts that typify an individual are united, this creates one unified image that is called a “crowd” or a “group”; otherwise this is not even a crowd.

In our world we consider a crowd to be a mob that gathers in the town square to beat someone. It’s very easy to manage an average crowd. This is not so in the integral society. In this group of people, clear protection appears. In fact, no external force can do anything to them because they rise to another level, working at another frequency.

When people create a unified image, all of our usual earthy stereotypes, disturbances, and influences don’t affect them—they have another level of perception.
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From KabTV’s “The Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/6/13

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