We exist in a special state, in a unique world, in which we do not understand what is happening to us. We do not know what will happen to us now or in a minute; we do not see any clear system of reward or punishment or cause and effect of our actions, thoughts, or physical deeds. We live in relative darkness, in emptiness.
Something happens, but we hardly know how and why. We only see the immediate consequences of our mechanical actions in the present moment, and we do not see above this level.
We do not know the consequences of our desires, of good or evil thoughts. Do the thoughts and desires of others affect me? Do I feel it or not? I do not know, it is unclear. In essence, we find ourselves existing in a space of near total darkness. And this darkness does not even bother us; we have grown accustomed to it.
A small child, we see does not understand what he is doing or what is happening to him. He runs, plays, and tugs at things; a child explores the world through some minimal level of contact with it.
And us? Fundamentally, we are also at a minimal level of contact with the world. Even at the physical level, we do not clearly know whether we interact with the world correctly or not. Only in our time, in this century, are we beginning to realize how our interaction with the world impacts the environment, ecology, climate, etc. But how our thoughts affect the world, the strongest measure of impact, we do not know.
In principle, if we trace the hierarchy of our physical interaction with the world from the lowest level, the human level, which follows the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, is, in essence, the level of thoughts, intentions, and a person’s inner attitude toward society or the world in which one exists.
And then it becomes completely unclear where reward, punishment, and consequences of our good or bad actions are to be found.
In general, this is a problem. We are like children running around a room, doing something without understanding its meaning or precise reaction. We say to the child: “Don’t do that!” but he does not understand why. We know, but he does not. And who can tell us what is allowed or not is also unclear.
Only now are we beginning to realize that there is one single higher force (call it nature, or the Creator) that governs everything because it is integrally connected to us, and we must take it into account. We see that everything in nature follows absolute laws that act upon us without asking us. And here arises a very serious system of relationships.
How can we behave toward the surrounding nature, the higher world, the upper force, if we exist within it yet remain utterly oblivious to its presence? Consequently, we, in our folly, inadvertently behave like small children; we imagine we are free to act as we please, only to find ourselves buffeted from all sides by a barrage of painful repercussions.
Yet we fail to give these consequences the attention they deserve, we do not recognize them as the outcome of our own shortcomings, nor do we perceive the direct causal link between our actions and nature’s response. We simply do not understand the underlying formula governing the proper interaction between ourselves and the natural world.
If we were able to perceive and understand this, then our egoism, our innate desire for a comfortable existence, would unerringly steer us in the right direction. But because this system of management remains concealed from us, we continue to behave like small children; whatever interests us at the moment, we immediately snatch to try, without paying attention to the consequences. And if there are consequences, we do not connect them with the cause. Here lies our ignorance of governance and all our life’s problems.
Of course, this is a miserable existence, but there is nothing to be done. The higher management and the clear connection between our actions and consequences is hidden from us to raise us to a level where we ourselves will perform the correct actions not by coercion, but because we will want to be in direct connection with the Creator and will want to be good and kind.
This is precisely what nature demands of us, the unreasoning beings that we are need to realize the reality we exist in and to act in accordance with this awareness.
[247697]
From a Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 3/17/19
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A person should not look back. He should not gnaw at himself or reproach himself for certain actions, nor at the same time praise himself for some of his deeds.
