Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “What has the Coronavirus taught you in your life?“ The coronavirus is teaching us all to recognize our global interdependence. Before the coronavirus, we were in a world of vicious egoistic competition, where the more we could exploit others, the more we could profit. Today, however, we all depend on each other, as any breach of the social distancing conditions set before us could mean another coronavirus victim. We have been given a mutual adversary in the coronavirus, and we need to exercise our mutual consideration and responsibility in order to beat it. However, our true rival is much deeper than the coronavirus. As much as the coronavirus is a nearly-invisible particle that has brought about much death, sickness and has overturned our socio-economic infrastructures, there is a much more cunning and complex enemy that has no physical form at all—our egoistic human nature. The human ego, which is the desire for self-benefit at the expense of others, innately pits us up against each other, making each person constantly toil for his or her superiority over others. Any success we have in such a constant struggle is short-lived, as if we are all in a game of tug-and-war and one of us momentarily manages to pull stronger than the others, before losing that grip and once again becoming pulled along by everyone else. Ultimately, such a struggle leads to us all falling down, as the coronavirus swiftly showed us. How, then, is it possible to defeat an attitude that is embedded in our very nature since birth? It is possible firstly by paying more attention to how it acts to our detriment even though it seemingly serves to benefit us; and secondly, it is possible to overcome our egoistic nature by re-prioritizing our values. Instead of appreciating successful, wealthy and powerful individuals as we did at least until the onset of the coronavirus, if we instead appreciate positive human connection, and acts that serve to increase love, care and unity in society, then such a surrounding positive social influence would give us the necessary tools to shift our mindset: from egoistic use of others for self-benefit, to altruistic use of oneself in order to benefit others. The coronavirus has taught us that humanity can quickly reach a common ground when conditions call for it. Using this example, we can take further steps to more and more unification out of our own free choice. In other words, instead of waiting for nature to inflict us with more suffering in order to unite us once again, we can take our unity into our own hands, and actively seek how we can place the benefit of others over self-benefit in our day-to-day and moment-to-moment interactions. Photo by Nick Bolton on Unsplash. Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Education, Globalization, Health, Q&A, Quora | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Faith above reason requires a special mind. The fact is that the people of this world, you and I, each one of us, are built from egoism, the desire to receive, within which we feel all of reality.

We feel only that which can bring us pleasure or vice versa, cause us suffering, that is, plus or minus relative to our egoistic desire to live pleasant lives.

But here, a special approach is required of us. I do not want to feel what is pleasant or unpleasant to me, so I try to break free from this dependence, rise above it, and assess reality in terms of what is good or bad for others. In this way, I will begin to see what is outside of me. Otherwise, I do not see anything; the whole world for me is only what determines my own egoistic benefit.

I limit myself with this; I do not go beyond being an animal that thinks only of its own stomach or a small, naive child who understands only his own pleasure and does not take others into account.

Then, the child grows and seems to begin to take care of others, to see and understand the world more clearly. But, in fact, we do not see the world, we simply expand the field of our interests more and more, and can evaluate what will be in our favor and what will harm us.

The sensor with which we perceive reality is created from a single desire to receive; we must realize this. We live within our egoistic desire and this is called the creation of this world. In fact, there is no “this world, the future world, or the upper worlds.” There is only one reality that depends solely on our perception, on our attitude toward what is happening.

There are some phenomena in the world that we do not feel at all because our perception is determined only by what is good or bad for us. We just do not notice anything else.

If the signal is not picked up by my egoistic sensor, the desire to receive, either as positive or negative, then I do not feel it at all. Maybe something grand is happening around me, but I do not see anything.

Kabbalists who have attained the upper world say that it is right here. We do not need to go somewhere else, to the other end of the universe, to another galaxy, all the worlds are already here, next to us.
Only we do not feel them because we perceive reality only through one narrow parameter: I feel good or I feel bad. It turns out that all of reality is limited only by my primitive, egoistic interest.

But how can I see more, feel more, understand more, and start to come out of my cocoon? This is possible if I rise above the feeling of “I feel good or I feel bad” and acquire the quality of bestowal, the quality that is called faith. Then I will feel everything not in relation to my own benefit, but in relation to others.

If I begin to evaluate reality in this way, I will rise above myself and find a new sensory organ: faith above reason. This is how I enter a new, external perception of reality independent of my egoism. I will be able to feel what others feel outside of me and, thus, my view will become relatively objective depending on how much I can separate myself from my own interests.

I begin to see the objective reality that I was able to reveal: 125 spiritual degrees, five upper worlds, and I can then gradually develop this view until I am able to see everything that is outside of me. And what is outside of me is called the Creator or Boreh, meaning “Come and See.” Now, in my desire to receive, I see nothing, but I have the opportunity to attain the Creator, the reality that is outside of me.

Then, I will understand where I really live, what nature is, and what is happening to me. Therefore, this technique is called Kabbalah (receiving) because it teaches how to get a sense of all this boundless reality. A person who has developed such feelings is called a Kabbalist because he perceives reality objectively, not distorted in his egoistic perception but as it really is.

Even the very first exit from your egoism allows you to feel that the higher, spiritual reality exists! So, I begin to understand where I am, what I exist for, and why, as well as what process I must go through and what state I must achieve. Before that, we are completely blind, insensitive, and we have no way to look beyond our egoism. Only faith above reason can help us break free from it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/20, “Concerning Faith Above Reason”