Reward And Punishment In Our Lives, Part 8

A person has to exist on two different levels. One level is his usual, egoistic attitude to the world, which exists in him by nature and is concerned only with taking care of himself.

The second, a higher and a more advanced level, which he needs to build in himself, is the awareness of the integration he must achieve in order to conform to the general reality, that is, caring for others.

In this, a person does not sacrifice himself, he just begins to realize that concern for others is his real life. This is similar to anyone who does something kind for their own children; it feels no different from doing something kind for themselves.

Question: How does a person perceive unfolding events from these two levels? Can punishments that happen to him on his animal, egoist level be perceived as rewards on his integral, “human” level?

Answer: Of course, that which I perceive as evil on an egoistic level, I see as a reward on an altruistic level. This is with respect to any event in our lives.

Question: And what if, G-d forbid, something terrible happens to my children?

Answer: It is difficult to explain this question because there are too many personal feelings involved here. But, in reality, there is no evil in the world. That is what we discover when we rise to a higher level.

If we look at life from the most narrow and egoistic angle: here is my life, my children, me, and our perception does not include anything more than that, then it is impossible to explain anything. If a person looks at reality through the general system, then for him, on the material level, there is no life or death, no rewards and no punishments; all calculations are only for the common good.

The general system is eternal and complete; therefore, there is no such thing as death in it. Although in the physical body some cells constantly die as millions of cells are renewed each second, new cells come to replace the old, and life continues.

Therefore, if we look from the perspective of the general system, then our understanding of reward and punishment moves to a completely different level.

And we even see the same thing in our everyday life. If a little child cries because his mother doesn’t give him what he wants, is the mother is evil or kind? It’s impossible to say because each level has its own understanding of reward and punishment.

Question: What good actions should I do in order to receive only rewards, only positive responses from the system?

Answer: The only action that guarantees success is to find people who are already involved in developing this integral level within themselves. And then together you will learn how to connect to the physical general system and the spiritual one.

The most important law of the Torah is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the sign of connecting with the entire system in an integrated way. If you completely connect with the entire system, then it will, without doubt, affect you only in a positive way.

Question: And what if someone screams at me or hurts my feelings?

Answer: We have to understand that he is, as yet, an uncorrected part of the system and we must help him to correct himself.

The system is perfect and behaves according to one law: love of others. And if we want to be connected with this system, then we must learn to love!

All so-called rewards and punishments come to us only in order to direct us to this single law of love. And even if right now it seems to us to be the opposite, we need to follow this law with faith above reason, and then we will come to a higher wisdom.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/2/17