If we feel despair, then we should seek the cause of this feeling. We ultimately feel despair because, even if we live to be 200 years old, we will still be unable to fulfill our desire to enjoy.
Our desire to enjoy is our nature. It pushes us to enjoy via our desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, control, knowledge and spirituality. The problem with this desire is that it is aimed at our personal benefit alone, so any enjoyment we receive is short lived, and we end up feeling emptier the more that we develop.
When we reach a state of despair from living, a state that all people will eventually reach, then in order to best deal with this feeling, we should seek a solution.
How can we exit the feeling of despair? We receive this question ultimately from nature. Nature is whole, perfect and eternal, and we too ultimately demand to be whole, perfect and eternal. We each face this eternal dilemma, and find no answer. Some of us might be able to pacify this question with psychological means or by making do with certain enjoyments for the time being.
However, the more we develop, the more we will be unable to pacify our existential questions, and they will pressure us more and more to somehow find their answers. What, then, can be the solution for our entire existence?
The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that provides the following solution: we need to change the world by changing ourselves. The world is a copy of us. We project our qualities onto whatever is outside of us. Therefore, if we change our qualities into spiritual ones, i.e. to qualities of love, bestowal and positive connection, we will then feel a different world.
In other words, changing the intention upon which we wish to enjoy—from self-benefit to benefiting others and nature—is the key to stopping despair. By doing so, we enter into balance with nature and start feeling its flow of eternity, harmony and perfection.
Based on a talk with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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