Entries in the 'egoist' Category

We Are At The Threshold Of A New Civilization

Our "I" Is Outside of Us!Our civilization has gone through many transitions from one socio-cultural framework to another, but all of these transitions occurred on the animate level, the level of human egoism. This is why the frameworks were always changed in minor ways, but never in the way of an inversion. It is because they were all founded on egoism, where people’s end goal was “to get the most.” And because a person always “gets the most” at others’ expense, all our existing institutions were founded with the sole purpose of holding people back from annihilating one another.

Eventually, all these institutions will naturally transform to their opposite, because people will change inside. Once transformed, these institutions will support us in a way that enables us to complete each other, give to each other, love and fulfill each other.

However, none of these changes will be carried out “from above” – by the authorities, but rather, they will happen because every individual will go through an inner transformation. New ways of relating to each other will develop from the ground up, just like our civilization developed; this will happen in accordance with strict laws of Nature, guided by the development of informational data or genes – Reshimot.

The science of Kabbalah says that one way or another, we will reach the final state. It says, “You will reach a state of being in harmony with Nature and equal to the Creator. However, your path there can be good and fast, or you can be brought there through suffering and blows of fate.”

This is the same as the treatment that a child receives: If he is smart, he understands what is being demanded of him and sees that there is no other way to go but to become a human being and to learn. He then applies his own efforts to get there. But if he doesn’t acknowledge the need to change, then he will be forced to do so by way of “beatings.” Either way, he will have to change. Thus, the current crisis is Nature’s way of pushing us to advance and become human.

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Will People Get Used To The Crisis, As Government Leaders Hope?

laitman_2009-06_3382_w1A question I received: As a child, I asked my grandmother about the war she lived through, and she said, “You know, people get used to everything, even war.” So, in the current situation of economic uncertainty, this would mean that what’s happening isn’t so bad, because people will simply get used to having smaller salaries, and eventually everyone will simply forget about the crisis completely.

My Answer: This is exactly what the government leaders are hoping for: that our living standard will gradually decrease and reach a humble type of existence, a much lower living standard than today. This will also improve the ecology and the public relations. When everyone suffers together, people are comforted and everyone is in agreement.

However, what people don’t realize is that the crisis was not caused by overproduction or market speculation, but by the fact that human egoism has grown so much that we have lost all control over it. We are now at the final stage of egoism’s development, and Nature is now leading us to the next stage of our development – altruism. The fact that we are revealing a total interconnection between us and Nature means that this stage is already here. It is being revealed, and we have to adapt to it.

The only thing that can help us go through this period more smoothly is the dissemination of Kabbalah’s wisdom, which will explain the situation and the means to correct it. The government leaders will not be able to correct anything; in fact, they cannot even reach an agreement regarding anything. It would be good if they were able to reach a consensus at their G8 or G20 meetings and decide how much each country should lower its living standard for the sake of the common good.  However, instead they are involved in protectionism, where each is trying to separate from the rest. And this kind of behavior often leads to war.

Nevertheless, I am hopeful that the situation will reach a good outcome, and I do hope that they will discover the true reasons for the crisis and the solution, which is explained in Kabbalah. The program for everything already exists in Nature. However, this program does not include anything that’s artificial, such as the measures they are trying to take.

Unfortunately, for now they are still talking like regular leaders: “I have power, an army, police, and money.” Thus, they rule the world and every individual country using two things: the authority of money and the authority of force.

But what people need today is to be enlightened, educated about the global world we are now living in, and about the fact that all of our suffering is caused by a faulty global connection among us.

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We Only See What We Want To See


In the News (from News Bureau): “Those unsure of own ideas more resistant to views of others” We swim in a sea of information, but filter out most of what we see or hear… The analysis, reported this month in Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association, was led by researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Florida, and included data from 91 studies involving nearly 8,000 participants… The researchers found that people are about twice as likely to select information that supports their own point of view (67 percent) as to consider an opposing idea (33 percent)… The researchers also found, not surprisingly, that people are more resistant to new points of view when their own ideas are associated with political, religious or ethical values.

My Comment: Most people will always hear what they want to hear, and you don’t need to conduct expensive studies to discover that. This is because our nature is founded on egoism, or the desire to fulfill our desires, whether we desire fame, prestige, power, wealth, or knowledge. And this determines what we are capable of hearing, seeing, feeling and understanding.

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What’s Mine Is Mine And What’s Yours Is Mine


Imagine that you’re an egoist in your own family and that you treat your family members the same way you treat the rest of the world: “maximum reception and minimum bestowal.” You lie to your son in order to get something from him, all the while feeling great as you do it! You steal your children’s food from the refrigerator and you try to con and swindle them. This is just as your attitude toward the whole world is: “work less, earn more.”

If the whole world today is interdependent and we’re all one family, whether or not we want it to be this way, our behavior towards the world is like using our children for personal benefit. 

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Making Calculations For The Benefit Of The Whole

laitman_2009-03_7958A new general system of Nature is being revealed to us today. This general system is driven by the law of universal interrelations. If we are all connected to each other, then every good or bad action influences me!

The formula for success depends on this general system and the condition of all who act within it. There isn’t a single computer or form of intelligence in the world capable of making a calculation specifically for the future. What happens if a person wants to advance according to his own desires, rather than just escaping the blows that currently assail us?

I depend on what others do and cannot change this. If I want to advance on my own accord, I must know all the conditions in advance. However, no one knows anything in advance. We all have freedom of will but how can anyone be free if he depends entirely on the conditions created by others? It’s a vicious cycle. We are incapable of commanding the situation using our common concepts of time, space and motion within our conventional egoistic and habitual ways of thinking.

There is however, a simple and logical solution. If we wish to direct such a system, we have but one possibility: we have to rise above our personal calculations and start making calculations only for the benefit of the whole, ignoring our own situation or the others’ conduct. It does not matter what kind of state that big system is in, we only have to rise above ourselves and “give” to all. This is the only correct decision in a closed system. There is no other formula for success!

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Is There Such A Thing As A Formula For Happiness?

 

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the news (from The Daily Mail): A psychologist has come up with a formula based on friendships, weather and holidays… Dr Cliff Arnall said the joys of spending time with friends and loved ones, appreciating nature in the sunshine and looking forward to the weekend and time off work combine to be at their strongest today… Dr Arnall said. “The most important things in our lives are our relationships – and no amount of money can buy that,” he added… According to his complicated algebraic formula, happiness equals O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He.
O means being outdoors, N is nature and S stands for social interaction. Memories of childhood summers are represented by Cpm, temperature by T and excitement about holidays by He.

My Comment: This is only the case if I am an animal. But if I desire more, if my egoism grows at a faster rate than when I was a child, and I cannot satiate it no matter what I do – then the happiness formula won’t work. Both millionaires and paupers will remain miserable. The doctor’s prescription won’t work!

Happiness is when a desire is being fulfilled. But if my desire grows and demands fulfillment which is greater than the sum of the formula, then what am I to do, doc?

In fact, man’s desire does outgrow this world – and it can only be fulfilled with the sensation of the purpose of life, its eternal harmony. This desire is being revealed in us as we speak! We were programmed this way! While the true remedy lies in revealing eternal life, all that doctors can do is hand out sedatives and anti-depressants.

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The Most Important Task In Life


Today, all of humanity is operating in a global system. If we correct the ties between us in that system, it means we correct the souls to reveal the Creator here within that bond, in this world and in our lifetime.

The science of Kabbalah states that the breaking of the souls happened in their descent from one of the exalted spiritual degrees. Before that descent, all of the souls represented one common soul, called Adam.

Adam split into many separate parts, and absolutely all of them fell into this world, giving rise to all of humanity. There is no difference between the common soul and any person in this world. All we need to understand is that we are inside a closed system, where everyone is stuck in his ego. Thus, there are now seven billion separate parts. Each of them has been growing, influenced by their own unique ego until this time, a special time when the broken connection between us is being revealed: billions and billions of connections – linking each person.

People say that each person knows everyone else in the world through no more than five or six degrees of separation. However, we have yet to reveal that everyone of us is literally connected to everyone, since the link is corrupted and each one relates to the others based on his ego. It’s not our fault that ego is inside us – we had it to begin with. However, the fact that it has become revealed means that we must correct it. Besides this one task there is nothing of greater importance or meaning that we must do in our lifetime. For if we correct the ties between us, we discover the World of Infinity itself.

To the extent that a person reveals the true bond with others by his correct attitude towards them, he begins to feel the Upper Force – the force of bestowal and love. He then transcends the boundaries of his perception of the world and begins to see the world around him as it really is outside of him, and in this way, he reveals the Creator.

That is precisely what we must achieve in this generation. All the conditions are laid out before us; Kabbalists wrote about it and outlined the entire method for us, and all we are left to do is to realize it. We have been given every opportunity to do just that.

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All Our Feelings Come From The Creator


Two questions I received on our roles in life:

Question: You said that we have to follow the rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” but you are not answering my questions! What’s more, ever since I began studying Kabbalah, everyone has turned away from me and I feel completely alone.

My Answer: I receive hundreds of questions, but I only answer those that are new (that don’t repeat something that was already answered) and that adhere to my topic.

As for the feeling that you are alone, it naturally emerges in the process of studying Kabbalah, and it is meant to help you search for the Creator. After all, doesn’t this feeling come from Him?

Question: Recently I was wondering whether all people are different or the same.  Since everyone has the same essence – egoism, is it correct to say that the roles we play in life are just clothes we wear over our egoism?

My Answer: Egoism forces us to play these roles, which are all manifestations of our egoism. Our task is to follow the Creator’s example and adopt His role.

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A Proposed Fine For Politicians And Bureaucrats Who Use The Word “Crisis”

laitman_2008-11-14_7040Artūras Zuokas, the former mayor of Vilnius and current leader of the Liberal Union, has proposed to penalize politicians for using the word “crisis” in their public speeches.

“Today the main crisis lies in the heads of government politicians and bureaucrats. The crisis is proof positive of our own helplessness and hopelessness. That is why we must change the term ‘crisis’ to ‘challenge.’”

My Comment: He is absolutely right – it is a challenge for us, to our egoism and reason. We must understand the reason for this “challenge” and remove it by correcting our connection with Nature and expressing it in our attitude toward one another. The crisis or the “challenge” is a demonstration of our imbalance with the general law of Nature, of which we are integral parts and with which we must act in complete accord and harmony.

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A Lesson For Everyone Who Has Bad Luck


Egoism has reached its maximum development on the individual level, and the individual egoisms have started to bond. This is why people have begun to reveal their interconnection and interdependence. Here is a lesson for everyone who has bad luck: if your desires and thoughts are aimed at the common good, then you will succeed at everything you do.

The recipe for success is to do everything you can to bestow upon others. This means that you only keep what’s necessary for you to have a normal life. For a business, “working to bestow” means that the only revenue it makes is the amount necessary to cover its expenses This is how people should set the retail price of goods and services. No one should make a profit that just “sits there” in their bank account.

This approach is completely opposite to what is happening today. However, by the end of the crisis, everyone will shift to this system. Not a single business will be able to operate differently.

This is because everything that one receives in excess of what is necessary for him, is a violation of his balance with nature. In order to be in balance, a person should consume as much as he needs in order to exist, the same as any other animal. The suffering people feel and Kabbalah’s explanation of the cause of the suffering will help people to understand that best way to exist is to serve others, in the same way as cells, organs, and body parts do.

One way or another, Nature (the Creator) will prevail. This can either happen forcefully – through suffering on our part, or voluntarily, with understanding, because people will realize that they have to obey Nature and its law of harmony.

As soon as we begin to cooperate with Nature, It will begin to treat us differently and our condition will change. We will suddenly have enough water, food and all the other things that everyone needs.

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