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Evolution has been taking place since the Big Bang, from still through vegetative, then animate, and human levels, but today there is a feeling of a dead end. Why is this happening? Why now? And can anything change the situation?
Let us begin at the very beginning. The internal force behind all development in the universe is the force of desire, the desire to exist, live, and grow. While in the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels we see a clear order, with human beings everything seems unrestrained.
Animals instinctively follow internal laws embedded in them instinctively. There is an inner programming within them that guides them on when to reproduce, where to live, who eats whom, and so on. Everything is connected in a closed and integral mechanism.
The additional desire that develops in humans, beyond that of animals, gradually takes on a rather destructive form. It is not instinctively managed by nature, and as it grows it increasingly harms the environment, society, other people, and ultimately the human being themselves.
A calf that is born quickly knows what it needs for life, while a human infant might take twenty or thirty years before being able to function independently in the world. In addition, the surrounding society strongly influences human development and determines its direction. Since our environment is egoistic, each person thinks primarily of their own benefit, and one person’s success usually comes at the expense of others.
Consider, for example, the development of science. If human beings had studied nature in order to understand its laws and conduct themselves according to them in all their actions, then all technological developments would have benefited humanity and the environment. But because science has become a tool in the hands of humanity’s egoistic desire to control others, every technological development eventually takes on a harmful form. Take, for example, the enormous investments in the arms industry, cyber warfare, and information security.
Another characteristic of human desire is that it continues to grow and never becomes satisfied. An animal that receives what it needs becomes calm, but a human being is never at rest. They want something, achieve it, and immediately want twice as much. Without feeling a lack, they do not feel alive. So they constantly stimulate themselves, inventing new businesses and adventures, seeing what others have, thinking how to obtain more and come out ahead. Envy, desire, and honor drive them, while losses in this competitive race cause sorrow.
From this develops hatred toward others, whether consciously or not, and a tendency to build oneself upon another’s downfall. In ancient sources it is said that the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth. If small children do whatever they want without considering others, adults are driven by the same impulse but learn to conceal it under more sophisticated coverings.
Therefore, humanity has developed egoistically throughout the generations. However, today we are reaching a very special situation.
Suddenly we discover that our world is becoming increasingly interconnected, with growing levels of interdependence. When everyone is in the same boat, whether you do good or harm, everything eventually returns to you.
Life is forcing us to change our paradigm, to change our attitude and perception of the world, of life, of reality, and of ourselves. At the same time, however, an opposite process is also taking place.
The human ego is growing rapidly, and people find it increasingly difficult to tolerate one another, whether in relationships, families, workplaces, or at the level of nations and humanity as a whole.
Year by year people feel more distant and detached from one another, even alienated from themselves and sometimes feeling a quiet sense of aversion. This is the root of emptiness, loneliness, and depression, and in essence of every pain and illness, every crisis and problem.
What will happen to us next? That is the great question.
Based on “New Life 116 – Integral Course, Part 2” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.