The human ego, which has been growing for almost 6,000 years, constantly urges us to aim at bigger and bigger fulfillment. The more we develop, the more we want, and this desire urges us to develop human society, bringing about what we consider as progress in all fields of human activity.
However, as an outcome of such development, we become desperate in the hope of ever truly becoming satisfied. Even many youth growing up in today’s world look around and, in contrast to us, no longer feel the desire to live in this world. Despair, drug abuse, depression and suicide become more characteristic of today’s youth than those in any other era, because due to their past incarnations, i.e. our past life, they feel that this world will fail to supply them with any meaningful fulfillment. This is why they turn to drugs—simply in order to forget about life, to detach from this miserable life and leave behind the empty and even helpless feelings that they have.
This is the reason for so much drug abuse, as well as several other problems like depression, loneliness, anxiety and suicide, specifically in our era. The human ego is reaching the end of its development, to a point where we will have to pass over into a new altruistic world, where we exist in a harmonious and positive connection with each other, and where we will no longer try to fulfill ourselves with constant attempts to absorb egoistically into ourselves from our surroundings. On the contrary, our future fulfillment will come from contributing. There is no limit to giving, and through building a new paradigm that values people’s contribution to society over their individualistic-materialistic achievements, we will pave the beginnings of a new positive direction for the world.
I hope that this will actualize in practice. If it does, then we will see a dramatic reversal in the amounts of drug abuse and other problems on personal, social, economic and even ecological scales.
Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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