A question I received: How can I fulfill someone’s desire if every person likes something different?

My Answer: It has to be an inner attitude to another person: You have to care for them the way you previously cared for yourself. You should demand for the Upper Light to make your friend just as important as you deemed yourself in the past, egoistically, for your own sake.

Don’t do anything artificially. We have to let the Upper Light do all the work. It makes the corrections. All we can do is ruin things! We don’t have the strength or the understanding to do anything. Therefore, if we try to change, we only do so externally and artificially, and that is not correction.

Rabash gives an example using a parable about cats that were supposed to be trained to be noble and important waiters, in order to prove that it’s possible to change one’s nature. But when the cats saw running mice, they threw away their trays and rushed to catch them. We are the same: We perform externally beautiful changes until we blow up and violently jump on each other. These are certainly not the changes that Kabbalah speaks about.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/27/10, “Matan Torah”

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We need to understand that someone from Above is playing with us. Now I perceive myself as something that is most precious. However, I am simply programmed to perceive in this way. There is nothing special or unique about me. I was just created to care most about myself. A program was instilled in my internal apparatus that makes me fixated on myself; thus all the time, just like a robot, I care only about myself.

Yet really this program is really more alien to me than something I perceive to be outside of myself. It is important to discern that this internal program is operating me and to understand that it’s completely opposite to the truth. We have to try to move to the outer program. We have to build the outer program ourselves. Building this means that we return to the act of creation.

We, instead of the Creator, begin to act. We use His power of Light to program ourselves in relation to our outer desires (Kelim), in the same way the Creator programmed us regarding our current desires. We perform the same work. In so doing, we study what the Creator has done; we obtain power over reality, and become as wise as the Creator. We acquire the same perception.

Although this work is called “above reason,” it doesn’t mean that we perform it without any mind. On the contrary, I constantly check what the Creator has done in me, and now I have to transfer it outside of myself. However, I have to learn about my ego gradually because, on the inside, I work “above reason.” The Creator programmed me to constantly take care of myself, but through this work, I check and see that it is so artificial, unjustified. I see that on top of being useless, it harms me. Hence, I use this to learn how to switch the program to the opposite direction – from inside to outside.

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In the News (from Time): “The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell” The dreaded millennial meltdown never happened. Instead, it was the American Dream that was about to dim. Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era.

My Comment: In the past, suffering pushed us to develop and so we saw a brighter future ahead of us. Now, since egoism has reached its peak and we have become globally interconnected, egoism doesn’t need more growth. It only needs correction.

Therefore, suffering will not push us forward (in other words, there is no future), but will worsen our current state, until we agree to correct our nature.

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In the News (translated from YoRead): Western scientists have done research on the phenomenon of true friendship, concluding that “selfless friendship” is a myth. Every person looks for friends only out of selfish purposes. By helping a friend, a person subconsciously hopes that the friend will return the favor.

My Comment: Since ancient times Kabbalah has taught that human nature is absolute egoism. Therefore, what we really have to research is how to change our nature to bestowal. This, too, is described in the science of Kabbalah.

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Opinon (from IPS): “ENVIRONMENT:  Rethinking Jobs for a Sustainable Economy” John Talberth, president for the Center for Sustainable Economy said, “…there’s no reason everyone should work their butts off 40 or 60 hours a week. There’s got to be more incorporation of leisure time.” Judy Wicks, founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies said, “Maybe if we changed our values, you don’t need as much money, you don’t need to work as much… that’s something [good] about indigenous cultures. They spend a lot of time talking to people and making music together… we lack [this] because we’re on this treadmill of making more money to buy more stuff.”

My Comment: Egoism won’t let us relax and go back to a more primitive lifestyle, or be satisfied with the necessities, because it was created by the Creator, and its intended purpose is not to find satisfaction with life on this earth, but for our advancement to the Upper Goal. All the statements and wishes made in the news story above are nice, but they are naive. The program and the Goal of Nature is to bring us to the level of the Creator.

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Two questions I received about the growth of egoism:

Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for almost two years now, and there is something bothering me. It seems that the more I learn about my own nature, the more I’m disgusted by it. I feel as if I’m getting even more bothered than I already was. I simply can’t focus on the goal and the beauty of it, while I’m feeling so disgusted by my own nature, and that of everyone around me. What should I do?

My Answer: You have to be glad that egoism is being revealed within you. It’s the Upper Light that reveals it, and you must appeal to the Creator without getting deeper into the egoism. You must rise above it and be thankful for it as it will continue to grow as the soul uses it to develop.

Question: Please give us your advice on how can we find the strength to make the efforts toward connection when our egos are so strong that we feel like we can only surrender to Him and not make those efforts that we must make?

Sometimes we feel like “We know we must do this, but we don’t want to at all and we have no strength to do it.” These are frustrating moments, as our egos seem like the strongest power that exists!

My Answer: This is because you don’t invoke the power of the Creator! The Creator is the one that has to stand against Pharaoh while we have to be like Moshe, standing in the middle letting them fight!

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Two questions I received about other methods of attaining spirituality:

Question: If Amit Goswami is “a practitioner of spirituality and transformation,” does that mean that there is also “spirituality and transformation” in other methods besides Kabbalah?

My Answer: Everyone says this about their methods. Whether a method is built upon utilizing egoism rather than suppressing it, this is both the question and the answer, and also the method’s practical value. This is because one cannot eradicate egoism since doing so leads to troubles. One should use his egoism properly by rising above it and using it as material for creating the soul.

Question: What is the difference between Kabbalah and yoga? Both seem to have the same goal – union with Divinity.

My Answer: All practices and religions were created by man and are therefore artificial. They all use methods that are based on suppressing egoism, while Kabbalah was discovered as a science by revealing Nature. This science says that everything in man is indispensable and therefore, everything must be developed. Kabbalah teaches us how to utilize everything properly.

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A question I received: If one asks to be brought closer to the Light, is that not an egoistic request? After all, he is driven by the desire to feel better.

My Answer: That doesn’t matter. This is what is called Lo Lishma (to desire spirituality egoistically for oneself).

One wants to sense the spiritual world, to receive the spiritual life, the sensation of true reality, and to see that his life isn’t being wasted. After all, life passes by and no one knows how much time they have left, so one doesn’t want it to go by meaninglessly.

Initially one cannot think of anything other than his own profit. Consequently, if one doesn’t desire spirituality egoistically by envisioning the benefit it will bring him, he will never turn to it.

Therefore, the spiritual path begins with egoistic attainment (Lo Lishma). But then, under the influence of the Upper Light (Ohr Makif), one’s egoistic attitude toward spirituality is replaced by an altruistic one (Lishma).

That is why one’s ego is called “help against him” (Ezer Kenegdo), since it brings one to a state where he suddenly realizes that it is precisely his ego that stands in his way.

The same ego that used to help him and push him forward must now be destroyed. What must be destroyed is not the desires themselves, but only their egoistic intention. This is how one is gradually changed by the Light.

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A question I received: What is universal ego, and how can one take care of seven billion people? What should I do for them and what should I feel while I’m doing it?

My Answer: We don’t have a better example than a family. Humanity is one family, but not the modern-day kind, where each member is ready to turn his back on the rest; rather, it is the traditional kind, where all are tied together with strong bonds. You watch out for all family members – their health, sustenance, well-being and success. If any member of the family is in dire straits, the whole family suffers. This is how we must take care of all seven billion people.

As a matter of fact, nothing could be easier. You only need to exit your egoistic desire, and then you will discover that there is no difference in relating to seven billion people, one person, the Creator or several friends. The difficult part is to free oneself of egoism. To achieve that, you need to witness how interconnected we are. Kabbalah helps “open your eyes” to this connection.

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A question I received: We know that egoistic desires motivate us to battle laziness. So, if a person corrects his egoism, what will act as a stimulus for him? Every system has elements that help control it. So who or what will carry out this function in a non-egoistic society? How will we choose the managers?

We know that many people work in fields where they produce things a person can do without. What will happen to these people? By correcting their egoism, won’t an altruistic society become helpless against the egoistic society?

My Answer: Everything in the world is controlled by the forces of nature, so the more we correspond to them, the better off we will be, and our society will be better as well. If we only produce the things that are necessary, then everyone will have time left over for spiritual work, for studying Nature (the Creator). Then we will reveal abundance, according to the law of balance with Nature.

We don’t have to worry about what is not up to us – leave that to the Creator. The purpose of our lives is to change ourselves in order to become similar to Nature (the Creator). This will give us prosperity.

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