Description

According to Kabbalah, the ego is defined as the ״will to receive pleasure.״ It׳s not that having a will to receive pleasure causes clashes among us. It׳s that the intention for which we use this desire is aimed at pleasing ourselves. Transforming our intention is the work in Kabbalah.

Transcript

Perceiving Reality: The Ego

Q: How can I get rid of my ego?

Yes once you begin to see the problems and pain it creates for you and everyone around you want to find a way to get rid of the source of that suffering. But before you can do that you need to identify what egoism is, because it doesn’t exist in and of itself. Everything in existence, all the components of what we call creation is just the will to receive; everything is made of that desire. It’s our very substance, which is already perfect and doesn’t need to be changed – in fact it can’t be changed. So the problem is not that we’re created to receive, after all, since the nature of the higher creative force is bestowal then obviously we must be reception, otherwise we’d never be able to sense that it’s giving to us… That our life consists of receiving pleasure is just a fact of nature, its neutral; neither bad nor good and it’s not egoism. Egoism is the intention a person has about the purpose of that receiving.

The word Kabbalah itself means reception. The Science of Kabbalah is the method of how to receive correctly in all our desires. Basically if the reason I’m receiving is to satisfy myself – that’s egoism, if my reason for receiving is to fulfill another, then it becomes giving to that person and ultimately to the Upper Force; the Creator.

But we never do that naturally. This is something that can only be achieved above our nature, not by destroying or suppressing it. Things grow and change as a result of the expansion of desire and we’re purposely given our desires in their egoistic form, it’s our one tool.  Only by expanding the ego and then correcting it can we reach a state in which we are able to exit it. And it’s this process like rungs on a ladder, which allows us to gradually encompass and attain all of reality to achieve the identical nature as the Upper Force.

The outer action doesn’t change only the intention behind it... which is enough because in the causal Upper Force intention is the only action.

Baal HaSulam gives us this example.

Imagine that there are two best friends and one invites the other over for dinner. Because of his love for his dear friend the host prepares a meal made up only of the dishes and delicacies that he knows will satisfy him. Everything is arranged to entertain and please his friend. The guest arrives and sees a perfect feast laid out before him and he suddenly realizes that his friend is the ultimate giver in this situation, and that he’s there only to receive. He admits to the host that he’s overwhelmed by shame and refuses to eat. The host says, you don’t understand, I prepared all this for you because I wanted to see you enjoy all these things, so you’d know how much I like you. If you don’t eat, it will spoil this whole evening for me. Then it dawns on the guest that the success of the dinner is really in his hands, and if he eats in order to please the host, then he’s actually the giver… He begins to eat and enjoy so that the host would receive delight from all that he’d intended and prepared for the guest. In fact by doing that he attained the mind of the host because he now has the identical intention and love toward the host as the host has towards him. 

Lift the glass of wine. (Or take a grape from a bunch)

Here’s to you!