Medium published my new article “Above Our Petty Selves”

Detecting new phases in the development of humanity is easy: If a new level of interconnection and interdependence emerges, it’s a sign that we’ve moved into a new phase. COVID-19 is a classic case of emergence of a new phase.

Until now, even in the worst blows that humanity had suffered, such as the two world wars or the Black Death, not all of humanity was involved. The coronavirus brought about the first pandemic that truly merits its name. This is a clear sign that the evolution of reality has entered a new phase. The sooner we accept this and stop expecting life to return to the pre-coronavirus mode, the better it is for all of us.

This supergerm isn’t just another virus. Its impact on the world is forcing us to rise to new levels of connection. Until recently, very few people would as much as think about someone else’s health. Now, all of us are thinking about everyone’s health. Although there is clearly a self-centered motive in this thought, it is nevertheless a level of connection we could not achieve before. Even as the level of contagion in society decreases, we will continue to think about others’ health since we will not want them to become sick and endanger our own health. In this way, the virus has inadvertently connected us and made us considerate of each other.

Once such a level of interconnectedness and interdependence manifests, it does not decline. From now on we will have to calculate all our moves as a society rather than as individuals. Clearly, this is a very difficult shift that our egos shun, but evolution does not cater to our egos. Evolution advances in its path, which has always been toward increasing complexity, increasing interconnectedness and interdependence, and therefore increasing consideration of others. The fact that our egos are uncomfortable with it is irrelevant. This virus or the next, or the one after will impel us to learn to think of others no less than we now think of ourselves. To the extent of our obstinacy, so will be our pain.

Nature’s goal is not to torture us. Its goal is to lead us to greater and much deeper joy than we can even imagine today. It aims to open our eyes to all of reality, to make us omniscient. Yet, nature can do this only if it lifts us above our concentration on ourselves. It has to lift us to heights from which we will be able to see the whole world, not just our own little bodies. To do that, it needs to raise our gaze above our petty selves.

Just as a mother painfully presses her baby out of her womb through a narrow birth-canal, all of humanity is now being pressed out of its old worldview into a new reality, a new world. And just as a baby has no choice but to be born, so will we be born into the new world, as pang by pang our consciousness accepts the reality of our interconnectedness. But once we accept it, we will discover that the world we had lived in before was dark, cramped, and inhibiting.

Through sympathy with others we will learn what true love means, what mutual responsibility is all about, and how each of us is so unique that the whole world will not be complete if we’re not there to give it our share. We will live in a reality of total personal expression and absolute devotion to humanity all at the same time. We will feel satisfied and safe, and we will give that feeling to everyone around us and to all of reality. Life will stop being a nightmare and will start being the dream world that we all feel it should be.

Achieving these rewards depends entirely on our mutual contribution. Only if we all pitch in, the new world will emerge. And until we pull together, we will have to endure the likes of the coronavirus.
[264363]

Filed under: Coronavirus, Egoism, Evolution, New Publications - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 5/6/20

We often state that the human ego causes all the problems and without it everything would be great in the world. But there’s a very good reason for the existence of the enormous human ego.

The ego is what separates us from the rest of the animals. It is the engine behind every human invention since prehistoric times. As harmful as it is, the ego is what has made us the apex of creation. The problem with the ego begins when we misuse it. When used correctly, the more we use of it, the better.

To use the ego correctly, we need to see the truth: Reality is one complete system whose components are interdependent. Then, just as a mother uses her ego for the sake of her entire family, we will use our egos for the sake of the entire planet—humanity, animals, plants, and minerals alike.

Our innate perception is that only we matter. Therefore, education must begin with changing our perception to a more integral one, which encompasses everything around us. This is called “Integral Education,” and today we must all be somewhat “educated” in that direction. This is the key to building a world that does not exploit people and nature, and does not produce pandemics like COVID-19. Integral Education is the real vaccine against any virus.

Filed under: Coronavirus, Education, Egoism, Facebook - No Comments →

The Cause of Unfounded Hatred

Question: Our desires, on their own, are neutral. Is egoism the intention of how I use my desire?

Answer: Yes, because actions themselves do not determine anything. The main thing is the intention that precedes the action. Therefore, I cannot say about a person whether he is an egoist or not if I don’t know his intentions.

Question: There is such natural hatred between people called unfounded hatred. Why unfounded? I understand that if someone offends me, I have a reason to hate him. What is unfounded hatred?

Answer: Unfounded hatred is when I want to humiliate another person because I am an egoist and I have such inner impulses.

Question: But still there must be some reason?

Answer: The reason is very simple—my egoism, which acts without any excuse or reason. Since there are still others like me, I want to be above these people, to suppress them all the time, and to feel superior. It brings me pleasure.
[258393]
From Kab TV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel, Part 8,” 3/24/19

Related Material:
The Essence And The Root Of Unity, Part 7
The Essence And The Root Of Unity, Part 6
The Essence And The Root Of Unity, Part 5

Filed under: Egoism - No Comments →

Question: On one hand, we need to reduce the ego and annul it. And on the other hand, it is said that the ego is not destroyed and even grows. What does it mean?

Answer: The fact is that we do not destroy the ego but its use for our own sake.

Desires for our own sake are called selfish desires. Desires for the sake of the Creator are altruistic desires. We must shift our intentions from for our sake to for the sake of the Creator.

So do not worry, nothing disappears or is destroyed. Understand that the ego is specially created from above to be a minus against a plus. Therefore, when minus and plus work together, we can receive the energy between them, some kind of productive effort.
[262164]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/16/20

Related Material:
A Desire For Pleasure Is Not Egoism
How To Work With Egoism
Does The Creator Deceive Us?

Filed under: Egoism, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Could imposing a fine on the ego help in correcting people if such a fine were introduced in one or several countries?

Answer: The restriction on using the ego is possible only by voluntary awareness of the person; otherwise, it will not be a correction but a modification of the ego.

Question: How can I strive to bring contentment to the Creator if I do not imagine Him as existing outside my sensations?

Answer: You try, and gradually the picture will become clear in your sensations.
[262114]

Related Material:
Answers To Your Questions, Part 239
Answers To Your Questions, Part 238
Answers To Your Questions, Part 237

Filed under: Egoism, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/16/20

The coronavirus, or COVID-19, is a stern teacher. It does not speak, but its actions speak volumes. Its lessons are painful, intimidating, and overbearing, but they are forcing us to learn what we should have learned long ago were we not so obstinate: to be considerate of nature and of one another.

Lesson No. 1

At first, the virus forced us to stay six feet apart from one another, as though preventing bullying and physical violence. Then the virus forced us to wear masks, as if shutting our mouths so we would stop humiliating one another verbally. Finally, it told us to #StayHome altogether because we have exploited and ravaged one another and the earth.

Once we confined ourselves to our homes, nature let the animals free and they began to roam where they had never roamed before, in our cities and parks. Nature has reclaimed Earth. Our confinement cleaned the water, cleared the air, and that was all that nature needed in order to rejuvenate.

Without a word, the virus showed us how damaging we have been to our own planet. It could not stand us any longer so it locked us up in our own homes. No environmentalist could ever demonstrate so decisively how harmful we had been, and how beautiful the world is when we stay out of the way.

Lesson No. 2

Now that the superbug has taught us about Earth, it is beginning lesson no. 2. Incredibly, French president Emmanuel Macron has initiated an agreement to back a call by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire. Even more incredible, his initiative quickly secured the backing of four out of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, the US, the UK, and of course France. Russia, Macron hopes, is likely to express its support in the coming days.

Who would have thought even a few weeks ago that such a notion was even conceivable? If anyone had as much as mentioned an idea of global ceasefire in early March, he would have been ridiculed, disparaged, and openly declared as delusional. But lo and behold, by mid-April, that idea has come to make perfect sense to the leaders of the world’s mightiest nations. COVID-19 did not have to utter a single word in order to achieve this feat. Instead, it made us realize that fighting simply makes no sense now.

But when did it make sense, before there was the virus? So, when the virus is gone, will war make sense again? Will people be willing to return to that backward mindset? If they are, would it not be better if we never get rid of the bug?

Lesson No. 3

After we are taught not to plunder the planet and one another, the virus will teach us its final lesson: to care for one another. We stayed away from each other in order to make it disappear, and we want to stop fighting in order to make it disappear, but it will not leave until it teaches us its final lesson: how we should connect to one another properly.

Bit by bit, we will come to see that when we, as a society and as individuals, relate to one another positively, our health becomes increasingly robust. The novel coronavirus crisis is not only a biological crisis; it is first and foremost a spiritual one. It is a transformation from the self-centered spirit with which we treated one another into a spirit of mutual care and concern. This stage in our existence will not happen overnight, but the sooner we begin to work on it, the sooner it will manifest. Then, as in the previous stages, what seems unreal today will seem like the only possible reality.

In recent years there has been much talk about a new world order. Indeed, a new world order is coming, but it is not the domination of a certain group of people or a new world government. The new world order is corrected relationships among all people; it is the progression of the world from a global village to a global family. And this progression is the vaccine we have all been looking for.

[Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic, makes a television statement about the coronavirus pandemic. Paris, April 13, 2020. Emmanuel Macron, president de la republique, fait une declaration televisee a propos de la pandemie de coronavirus. Paris, 13 Avril 2020. Reuters]

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Egoism, Facebook, News - No Comments →

Question: Today, great solidarity and mutual guarantee are required in order to understand the situation because people transmit the coronavirus one to another. Moreover, they may not even know they are doing it because they have no symptoms.

How do we reach such solidarity? The government demands this from us, but we are all different, each one has their own principles.

Answer: Very interesting phenomena are appearing in society today, which we did not notice before. We understand that we should stay away from each other, not to sneeze, not to cough, not to talk, and not to approach within two meters of each other. We understand that people have their own free space, and we should be separated in our room or apartment.

All these states, basically, are not very logical and not very natural for our world because we are used to constantly jostling in the subway, trams, buses, we mix in the streets, etc.

And today, if a person sneezes a few meters away from me, I am immediately seized with fear. In general, we see how the state of people has been changed, and it is not imposed by anyone or anything. So, what if you get this virus? In principle, there is nothing to worry about. Are people dying from it? They are. But they die from ordinary flu too.

It turns out that a completely different attitude to this state has appeared, and it is as if it is not dictated by any phenomena in our world. It is just that people have become different. They perceive it as if we are in a state of chemical war.
[262620]
From KabTV’s “Coronavirus is changing the Reality,”3/19/20

Related Material:
How Do You Feel During These Difficult Days?
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 4
The Global Pandemic

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, Health - No Comments →

Question: At the very beginning of the epidemic, people were allowed to gather up to 5,000 individuals, then up to 2,000 people, then 500, 100, to 10. And today you cannot get together with 10 people. That is, nature forcibly separates us, but for what purpose? What will happen next?

Answer: Kabbalah says: The assembly of sinners is bad for them and bad for the world. And the separation of sinners is good for them and good for the world.

Question: What is our sin?

Answer: It is that we were originally born in sin. And these are not religious phrases. Human nature is sinful in that we are egoists and think only about ourselves, how to make things better for ourselves and worse for others. Everything is relative. We live by constantly comparing our personal condition with others.

Therefore, the separation of people from each other, in principle, weakens their envy and jealousy and thus calms the state of society. After all, if society is comprised of people who are friendly to each other, to the extent of their friendliness, they can get closer. And if it is selfish, then to this extent they should move away from each other.

Question: That is, nature created us as selfish, so it is as though there are no claims against us?

Answer: Yes, it is said in the Torah: I (the Creator) created egoism. Exploring nature, we see that the attraction and rejection of all its parts, all the laws of nature, are based on the egoistic properties of matter.

Question: So, if we do not use our egoism correctly, then nature generates all kinds of viruses and other cataclysms so that we recognize the need to correct the ego. Is selfishness the same virus?

Answer: At any moment in time, we wish to receive maximum pleasure, and even better, if it happens at the expense of others. Our whole selfish nature is a virus. Inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and humans are in His power and manifest themselves only in this way.
[262648]
From Kab TV’s “Coronavirus changes reality,” 3/19/19

Related Material:
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 2
The Global Pandemic
Coronavirus—A Consequence Of The Imbalance Of Nature

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, Health - No Comments →

At Times of Global-Scale Problems

Question: Does the virus affect only the animate level, our biological body, in order for us to change our attitude at the “human” degree, that is, on the spiritual, psychological level?

Answer: Yes. The fact is that the highest connection between people is an emotional one—their mutual relations with each other and the intentions of one person to another.

If these intentions are good, aimed at connection, nature moves to its absolute integral state, and then, of course, everything goes fine. People see only the assistance of nature, as far as their actions are good.

However, if they establish more and more egoistic relations with each other in order to profit at the expense of others and even harm others, then obviously nature manifests itself in the opposite way with regard to them.

This is where all sorts of biological problems come in, like this virus. It can also be environmental problems, wars, or anything at any level: inanimate, vegetative, animate, or human.

The main thing is to disperse. As it is written, “Disperse the wicked; better for them and better for the world.” People keep a certain distance from each other in order to gradually draw the correct conclusion and begin to connect again, but in a good way.

Question: So nature forcibly integrated us, and now somehow isolates us from each other through cataclysms? Are you saying that according to Kabbalah this is how it influences us?

Answer: Absolutely. This is what has happened throughout history starting with the sin of Adam, when there was one single system, which then broke into many parts. Now we must reconnect them by correct interaction with each other.
[262279]
From KabTV’s “Coronavirus Is Changing Reality,” 3/12/2020

Related Material:
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 7
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 6
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 5

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Egoism, Globalization, Health - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/5/20

First, Coronavirus taught us how beautiful nature can be when we are forced out of it, as images from around the world showed animals strolling in places that were once filled with only one species – humans. Next, Nature Magazine writes that “Researchers who study Earth’s movement are reporting a drop in seismic noise — the hum of vibrations in the planet’s crust.” Against our will, but almost instantly, we have become kind to nature, and nature is rejuvenating.

Now it’s time to take our (compulsory) kindness to the next level, to our fellow men and women, and put on masks. We must wear them not because we don’t want to catch the bug; that’s a given. We must wear them because we don’t want to pass the bug to others! If we all think of ourselves as infected, we will all put on masks and the plague will stop in no time. It’s as simple as that.

Indeed, we are infected, with ill-will. This is what’s causing our ill-health. Let’s let COVID-19 teach us how to fix our ill-health together as a first step toward correcting our ill-will toward each other.

Filed under: Coronavirus, Egoism, Facebook, Globalization, Health - No Comments →