On The Ashes Of Egoism

Question: The meaning of life is sought after by those who have lost interest in the pleasures that life offers. Do you gather around yourself those who are disappointed in what is offered to man as a gift from the Creator?

Answer: Such disenchanted people make up 70% of all of humanity today. People use drugs, sedatives, and sleeping pills; even pets are depressed, not to mention small children. Not only do we constantly feel depressed, but we have forgotten how to admire, rejoice, and accept everything with a smile.

Question: Do you want to lead the disappointed even farther away from earthly pleasures? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to cure them from their lack of interest?

Answer: What could they be interested in? Our egoism is burned out. It does not exist anymore. If there had been interest in food, sex, family, knowledge, honors, fame, and wealth before, it is all slowly fading away today. Talk to the new generation under 30 and you will better understand this.

They just continue to live because it is necessary to exist, but they are generally neither interested in higher realms nor anything else. Even sex does not really excite them. They need very little from life in general.

We see that they are not planning to marry and they do not want to leave their parents. Buying a house is not worth it; it is not worth chasing after anything. I have my own corner and that is enough. This is a result of what they feel, that our world has nothing to offer them.

Question: But how can earthly egoism burn out if it is said, “One who has filled one measure wants two?”

Answer: The concept of “has filled one measure, wants two” refers to spiritual egoism; earthly egoism gradually fades. We observe this in all of life’s occasions. A person does not attain fulfillment. He or she is ready to experience anything, if only to feel fulfillment, even in battle or in death—no matter what—if only it could be genuinely great.

We are no longer fulfilled with the material pleasures of life; we are looking for something else.

Remark: But you always say that our whole history is the constant growth of egoism…

Response: Yes, until now, egoism was developing but now it has started to cave in and burn out. We are at a very serious point in history. If, in the past, a person ran after pleasures, one desire would end and he would immediately rush to the next. Now, the current generation does not want anything—give them a smartphone and that is enough.

According to statistics, this is happening all over the whole world.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/23/17