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What makes us feel good? What makes us feel bad? How can we make our lives better and safer?
As intelligent beings, we have the capacity to observe, examine, and learn the laws that govern our world and find answers to these questions. This ability distinguishes us from animals.
Animals exist and behave according to instincts ingrained in them by nature. Humans, on the other hand, have a certain degree of free will. But sometimes, this freedom leads to harmful situations where people might harm themselves. Animals, for instance, do not face issues like drug or alcohol abuse.
Like animals, some human desires are instinctively driven, such as desires to eat, reproduce, and build a home. But beyond these, humans have additional desires not governed by absolute natural laws. In these surplus desires, humans are free to act as they wish, to travel, explore, develop science, culture, education, and more.
We are free to enjoy life and the world, yet somehow, we fail to do so. Sometimes, people envy their pets, thinking how comfortable and secure their lives are. Meanwhile, the human suffers, under constant pressure and competition, mentally tormenting himself. He looks at others and feels jealousy, hatred, and a thirst for respect and appreciation.
Our historical development shows that we do not know how to properly use the uniquely human traits we possess. Instead of achieving peaceful and secure lives in the 21st century, we have arrived at the opposite. For the first time in generations, many people no longer believe their children will have better lives than they did.
Our private life journeys also show that life becomes harder as we grow older. From the very beginning, nature prepares a wonderful place for us inside our mother’s womb. We are protected and nurtured. Later, our parents’ love supports and develops us gently. Society also treats young children with warmth and understanding. But as we grow up, life becomes harder and the environment more hostile.
Are we satisfied with this? Of course not. It’s natural to want good, protective treatment, yet sadly, this is not the case. The warm attention we were used to as children fades away.
This contrast is extreme. It exists to some degree among animals, who care for their offspring only until they can fend for themselves. After several months or a few years, depending on the species, the young find their own food, create families, and integrate into the herd. But even this shift is less dramatic than in human society.
Seemingly, humans could have created a different reality. We are intelligent and capable of using our wisdom to make the world better. Why, then, have we not built a more tolerant, pleasant, and supportive world for adults?
Interestingly, ancient humans did live as clans or tribes, where everyone cared for everyone. Men hunted together, and women raised the children together. What changed? Why did we not maintain that fraternity and mutual care even as society advanced technologically, culturally, and educationally?
At the heart of the matter lies the significant growth of human egoism. The personal ego grew in each of us and distanced us from one another. People began seeing each other not as allies but as competitors. Then came the desire to dominate and to enslave others or seize their property. These egoistic impulses began to divide us.
If our wisdom had grown instead of our egos, we would be in a better place. But that was not the case. It was precisely the growth of the ego that pushed us to develop knowledge, achieve new breakthroughs, and uncover nature’s secrets and treasures. In fact, the ego is the only engine that drives us. The pity is that this desire to receive and gain more and more was directed mainly toward individual benefit rather than the common good.
Could we have foreseen this and prevented the ego from dividing us? Could we have channeled our growing impulses for the benefit of society? History says no. The ego inflated until it built a towering mountain of hatred, jealousy, lust, and battles for honor and control between us.
We have thus arrived at our current state, a major crisis. The world has everything, yet due to our poor relationships, we cannot function properly. The more negatively we use our ego, the harder and more troubled our lives become.
Can We Change the Way We Use the Ego?
The question arises naturally: Can we now change how we use the ego?
This does not mean we should suddenly stop being great egotists or suppress our big ambitions. It is thanks to the ego’s driving force that we have achieved tremendous technological progress, giving us the leisure to pursue new goals. But now, we must explore how to use the ego’s power to build a new, balanced, and considerate human society, and elevate our human awareness.
Can we get people to care not just about themselves but about society as a whole? Can each of us feel, as in ancient times, like part of a close-knit clan or small village where we are all siblings? In such a setting, self-centered thinking would be unthinkable. Back then, people saw each other as one unit because the ego had not yet developed. Today, we must achieve the same closeness, but above the developed ego. That is the novelty.
To reach such a feeling toward others, we must build a social-educational process that provides each person with “integral glasses.” With them, we will see everyone as a unified whole. This worldview will naturally awaken a desire to act for the benefit of others and make it easier to solve global problems.
We will not erase the ego within each of us. Instead, we will gradually channel its power to a new direction, for everyone’s benefit. Step by step, we will fill our world with consideration and mutual responsibility. Then, we might finally understand that we ourselves destroy the world, not nature’s malfunctions, but through our poor relationships.
Science teaches that nature is one system where all parts are interconnected and mutually influential. Nothing in reality stands outside this system, not human nature or social behavior.
The forces operating between people, such as the desire to harm or help, to control or assist, are also forces within nature’s system. Desire, it seems, is one of the strongest forces in reality, as the saying goes, “Nothing stands in the way of will.” This gives us great hope. If the desire for balanced human relationships awakens within us, it could bring peace and harmony, not only to human society but to the entire natural world.
So, how can we lead people to manage their ego for society’s benefit?
The study of human nature shows that the right way to advance a person is through the society they live in.
We need to remember that humans are social creatures. Beyond basic needs, we crave human acknowledgment and respect. Society’s attitude profoundly affects us. In fact, we depend on the environment to fulfill our natural need for recognition and honor. This fact can help us in the essential task ahead, to change the way we use the human ego.
The new society should broadcast a new message to every individual, one that opposes egoistic achievements that come at others’ expense and values only positive relations toward others. As a result, people will realize that they must improve how they treat others, or they will lose their place in society. Naturally, the ego will compel each person to adapt to the new social values.
In other words, the same egoistic desire to be respected by everyone can be used by society to convey a new message: “You want to be the greatest? Fine. Just know that now we only respect one thing: the good treatment of others.” Gradually, people will grasp that the rules of the game have changed and that it is wise to adopt a more positive attitude toward others.
A wise and positive influence from society on the individual is the condition for building a new human society. Therefore, it is pointless to blame or demand individual change. We can only influence people indirectly, through their environment, providing them with what they need to improve without much effort on their part.
Why did we not do this earlier? Why are we only waking up now?
The answer is that until now, we could not recognize the ego as evil because it had not grown large enough to make us feel its harm. We thought the ego only helped us progress. True, it distanced us from each other, but we did not see it as negative. Everything seemed fine. We did not expect this separation to ultimately lead to such widespread destruction. Only in recent years have we begun to understand how this has led to a fragmented and alienated society, revealing many problems.
So, what is next? Only by building a new environment can we shape a new person. That person, instead of continuing to misuse human power, will gradually learn how to use it for good. This way, we will fulfill the potential of the primary force in our lives, the ego, in a way that elevates life to a level worthy of human beings.
The inanimate, vegetative, and animate developed over billions of years. Their pace of evolution was not in their hands but determined by nature. Even the development of human society until now has been relatively slow and seemingly random. But now, the pace of development seems to be in our hands because it depends entirely on how wisely we build a good environment for ourselves.
The more advanced a society we build, the more powerfully it can influence us and speed up our development. So, if we just want it, we can earn happy lives for ourselves, and leave a satisfying legacy for our children.
Will we be wise enough to do it? The choice is in our hands.
Based on episode 9 of “New Life” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 6, 2012. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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