The Reason for Concealment

Pleasure versus the work to receive it

Everything we do in this world is based upon only one single principle—receiving the greatest amount of pleasure for the least amount of work.

The range of pleasures we receive can vary widely, from direct pleasure such as buying something I want or eating a piece of cake, to indirect pleasure such as the pleasure I receive from helping a friend or my child in some way. Nevertheless, no matter what form the pleasure takes, the desire for it will always operate under that overriding principle of pleasure verses work.

A feeling that there is “more than this”

But when one has discovered that we all exist under this underlying rule, this lowest of states, one begins to sense that there is something higher, a more sublime and correct state. Of course, they are correct in their assumption, but there is a problem. This higher state of existence is concealed from us—and for a couple of very good reasons.

The world in which we live constitute a set of desires in which the normal person believes that this is all there is. The bottom line is that I want. But what I want constantly changes from one form of pleasure to another. And on occasion, we discover a new pleasure. In fact, we have not discovered the pleasure, but rather a desire for some new pleasure to add to the litany of desires we already possess.

For someone who has discovered a very special desire for a pleasure that cannot be fulfilled within this world, the reason it cannot be fulfilled in this world is that it does not operate under that principle of greatest amount of pleasure for the least amount of work. We can think of that principle as a sort of program, similar to a computer program that determines how we will operate toward any given desire.

I want something new

But this new desire is different. Why? This new desire is actually a desire to operate under a totally different program. This is easily understandable if we look at two different computer operating systems, Windows based and Apple based. They both have software that operates under those operating systems, but never the same software. Why? Because they operate by different instructions.

The program we operate under in this world is actually a set of instructions on how we will use any desire that appears before us—that being how it benefits us. It is a program of reception and its only function is to determine whether the pleasure gained is more or less than the work required to gain the pleasure. In other words, it operates under a comparison of pleasure versus pain.

Pain is considered a lack. Therefore, working under this program, we are greatly limited in what desires we can sense by that sensation of pain we feel when we have an unfulfilled desire. The greater the unfulfilled desire, the greater the pain.

A different program

But what if there was a different program, a program not based upon how much I can receive, but rather how much I can give? This program is called the program of bestowal. Now we are not talking about giving like in this world. For in this world, we give in order to receive some sort of benefit, like giving a birthday present.

If we give such a present and the person we gave it to did not like the present, we certainly would not be happy. In other words, we expected to receive a benefit, a pleasure from sensing the enjoyment of the person receiving our gift. And the more important the person is to us combined with the more sacrifice it took us to obtain the gift, the greater the pain will be when it is rejected.

But in this type of giving called bestowal, one rule applies: that my own benefit is never taken into account. In other words, what I feel, good or bad with the result of the bestowing, does not matter in the least. The program operates based not on how I feel, but whether I am giving or not. In other words, it is based only upon who receives the benefit, not on whether I received pleasure or pain from giving. Since the program does not operate based upon how much pleasure I get, many more and much larger desires can be utilized.

Why is the different program concealed?

So why is all this concealed? If I felt these desires, these lacks, as I live in my current state, with my current program of receiving, all I would feel is misery. These desires, called “spiritual desires,” are such massive lacks that the pain would be intolerable. Therefore, these desires must remain concealed from us because as we exist today, under this “will to receive” software, we simply could not handle the massive pain such desires would create.

And there is a second reason as well. For just as our desires have corresponding pleasures with them in our corporeal world, so do spiritual desires have corresponding pleasure with them in the spiritual world.

This creates an entirely different problem. If I was to sense the pleasure associated with these desires as I exist under my current program, I would instantly be a slave to the pleasure. I would be more than happy to bestow all day and all night long as the pleasures here are equally enormous as the desires, but I would be bestowing just in order to receive the pleasure.

So where does all of that leave us? This new desire we begin to experience is actually the desire to operate under this new program called “bestowal.” And in order to fulfill this desire, I must find a way to change my method of operation, the program under which I work with desires, to match the new program’s parameters. Furthermore, I must do this without experiencing the pleasure associated with this new program, or I risk simply falling back into giving but in order to receive for myself.

Choose your operating system

But there is a catch. I cannot operate under both programs at the same time. I must operate under one or the other, just as a computer cannot operate under Windows and Apple at the same time. If my desire is strong enough to operate under this new program, I will find a whole new world opening up, with new desires and a totally different kind of fulfillment than I currently experience in this world.

So what is a world really? A world is simply a level of concealment. This world, our corporeal world, happens to be the level of total concealment, where only the “will to receive” program operates. And that concealment is purposeful and needed. But if I choose to explore further, I will discover that this desire that cannot be fulfilled in this world, that desire for a new operating program, is actually a sense of the true eternal me, the spiritual me ready to awaken to an entirely new world.