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Sometimes I think the issue with loving your neighbor as yourself, is that it appears so many people do not love themselves. If they would they would not do such destructive things to themselves, their families and even friends. My father always told me look at how a person treats their mother, and that is how they will treat you. My question then, is has egoism actually killed love for ourselves?
Maria,
Let’s look at this like this, when you get up in the morning, whose teeth do you brush? Whose problems do you think about? Who do you make coffee for? When you go to work to earn a living to pay bills, whose bills are you paying? When you are driving and thinking about life, whose life are you thinking about. When you plan to watch a show, whose preference do you consider when you sit to watch something?
In short, all day long, all we do we do for ourselves. That’s it.
Now, if you have destructive habits that you acquired by being around a negative environment with negative influences, so then you need to move yourself to a constructive, supportive environment (you definelty found one here). But don’t confuse having bad habits with being totally self-loving. Everyone does everything for themselves, and if they do for someone else it is only because there is a calculation that by doing for the other it is better for me.
Egoism is defined as love for ourselves.
Seth@KabU
I understand the theory, but the practice doesn’t seem easy, even internally. How do you love a person who doesn’t love you?
Esther,
You are right. It is impossible.
We are built as a will to receive and we only act where we calculate that we will benefit.
So it takes an external force that operates on us, it is called generally the light that reforms, we will learn about it later.
It is not hocus pocus, you can see a similar phenomenon in our world. Remember when you were a young girl in school and your first love, your first crush. You were in school and you never paid attention to boys and then one day all of a sudden your heart flutters and when you look at one special boy. It’s not sexual, there is not touch, nothing, there doesn’t need to ever be, but a moment before those feelings didn’t exist, and then something happens and you have a whole new set of feelings.
So this is an example from our material world. Something similar happens in spiritually, however, the first example comes naturally. Our work and spiritual love comes from what we build together and that is what we learn how to do here together.You’ll see that this whole work is for us to become like the Creator. As He is merciful, we too will be merciful. We become love and bestowal like He is. It means I’m not only loving someone who does me a favor, but I become unconditionally loving. How? Well, that is what I explained above and we will do this together step by step.
Seth@KabU
Mel,
Slow down, don’t go out and try to love the person living in the house next to you if they are mean, maybe violent, who knows what.
Everything happens in a methodical way. For example, first you feed your kids, you don’t just go feed any kid in town. So here we are learning the fundamentals of the wisdom together. Later you will have the opportunity to do practical work in small group of other kabbalistic students who are on the path with you, studying the same sources with you and advancing together. There you will learn to do this work together.
Seth@KabU
As far as I understand it, all mankind can and should be part of tikkun olam. Why are so many rabbis and hebrew sources saying that only jews are allowed and obligated to do tikkun olam (only a jewish soul is cabable of doing so)?
Martina,
I don’t know.
We do not speak for every rabbi and hebrew source.
We found the path and method of Baal HaSulam through the Rabash and they explained all of these matters thoroughly and clearly, that in the work, both Jew and 70 nations exist inside of one person.
Seth@KabU
I as well got goose bumps and emotional. It makes me wonder why we don’t smile more at one another, it feels so good and like we are connected? Instead we yell and curse at each other, or ignore each other which does not make us feel good and nor a part of something bigger than us?
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