Of all parts of Nature, only man puts his own interest before the needs of the system. Kabbalah shows how we can operate according to the altruistic laws of Nature, which in Kabbalah is the same as God.

In a presentation at a Tokyo hall in November 2005, evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Sahtouris stated that "Every molecule, every cell, every organ ... has self-interest. When every level in the body shows its self-interest, it forces negotiations among the levels. This is the secret of Nature. Every moment in your body, these negotiations drive your systems to harmony."

Quite similarly, Kabbalists state that cells in organisms unite by reciprocal giving for the sake of sustaining the whole body. Each cell in the body receives what it needs for its sustenance, and spends the rest of its energy tending to the rest of the body. At every level of Nature, the individual works to benefit the whole of which it is a part, and in that finds its wholeness. Without altruistic activities, a body cannot persist. In fact, life itself cannot persist.

Both science and Kabbalah acknowledge that the biggest, if not the only, problem with our world is us. Below are two examples of such states of mind:

"I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image" (Stephen Hawking, British cosmologist and physicist).

"And in simple words we shall say that the nature of each and every individual is to exploit the lives of all other people in the world for his own benefit, and all that he gives to another is only out of necessity. Even in that there is exploitation, but it is done cunningly, so that his friend will not feel it" (Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), "Peace in the World").

Thousands of scientists, judging by the latest reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, already state that we must stop working against Nature, as we have been doing for centuries, and begin to work in harmony with it. They explain that Nature already knows what to do and when to do it. If we only get out of the way, things will sort themselves out. Just as each body has its immune system, Nature has mechanisms that maintain its balance.

This balance is a dynamic equilibrium controlled by interrelated regulation mechanisms, in which Nature thinks not of particular elements within it, but of the whole system. Just imagine the havoc our body would fall into, if each organ cared only for its own good, instead of caring for the good of the whole body.

In such a state, organs would steal blood vessels from one another, denying neighboring organs nourishment and oxygen. Organs producing antibodies would direct them against other organs because other organs would be considered foreign bodies, and the ones with the strongest antibodies would destroy the other organs. Soon, very soon, the body would die, and its self-centered organs would die with it. When such a process happens in an organism, it is called "cancer."

The fact that Nature does exist and that it isn't destroying itself every single moment is proof that Nature does not work egoistically. It is a proof that Nature works as a system, putting the well-being of the system before the well-being of its parts. In Kabbalah, when the system's needs come before the needs of the part, it is called "altruism." In an altruistic system, the particular elements constantly contribute to the system, whether it is an organism or a human society.

Humans, in almost every aspect, are just another animal species. But there is one aspect in which we are different from Nature: We put our own interest before the interest of the system. This is the essence of egoism. We don't need to teach animals, plants or rocks how to behave. Their behaviour is always in harmony with Nature, altruistic, putting the system's needs before their own. This is why when prey animals hunt, they hunt only enough to sustain themselves, and thus maintain the natural balance of their habitat.

But humans don't hunt to eat; they hunt to gain wealth, to exploit. This is why we have penalties for poaching. The only problem with the human race is that, unlike animals, it runs on an egoistic "operating system" instead of an altruistic one. To mend ourselves and to stop disrupting Nature's homeostasis, we need to install an altruistic operating system instead of our current, faulty system.

And to find the missing disk, you need to go to the "program vendor," the Creator. In Kabbalah, the words "God" and "Nature" are synonymous. This is why they have the same numeric value: 86. Kabbalists have discovered and upgraded a method that teaches how we can replace the egoistic disk with an altruistic one, and today, when many already recognize that a real change of heart is necessary, they are stepping to the fore and introducing it to the world. 

January 13, 2008

Image under license with Gettyimages.com

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