Bait for Egoism

Question: If I am entirely the will to enjoy, then can I really desire to do anything for the Creator selflessly?

Dr. Laitman's Answer: No, I cannot. I am only ready to do something that will give pleasure to my desire. This is my nature and I cannot come out of it on my own. I act only if it is profitable for me. That is how the Creator made me and nothing can be done about that.

In the language of Kabbalah this state is called "this world." But there is also another state, "the world to come" or "the upper world" where I will exist if I don't make my calculations based on the egoistic desire for pleasure, but on the altruistic desire of bestowal.

However, I don't have that desire and I don't even want it to appear! That's true, but you are offered help:

1. Your point in the heart is awakened and you start to think about this.
2. You are brought to the group where you can be strengthened with the help of the friends.
3. You are given books and a teacher, who accompanies you on the spiritual path if you desire it.

This way, you are provided with all the necessary means and an explanation of the fact that besides your own nature, there also exists a higher nature, the Creator's nature, which operates by the calculation of bestowal. The beginning is set: You have a spark, an environment, and books. This is the starting point, the "drop of semen" from which you can develop your future self.

All the other conditions depend on you. The ball is in your court. If you use the means you have correctly, then you will acquire a second nature. Meanwhile, you receive an explanation that this is beneficial for you, that you will feel much better "there," that you will have eternity, triumph, perfection, and so on. You receive an explanation that is clear to your egoism.

However, in reality the spiritual world will not be revealed in your current desire because it will be transformed in the process. It's similar to how in our world kids grow up on "promises." "If you read this book you will get a soccer ball," I tell my son. He picks up the book hoping to get the ball, but as he reads it, he gradually changes and now he no longer needs a ball, but a bicycle.

After swallowing the initial "bait," a person enters the path of development unawares and demands an increasingly "progressive" reward even though he does not yet see the final goal. We too should confuse our egoism in this way in order to participate in the life of the group and gradually be "permeated" by the higher state.

We have to become masters of "swindling" our egoism. A person in this world is an intelligent animal and we have to use the ego, throwing it bait so it helps us on the path, all the way until entering the spiritual world.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, Writings of Rabash