The Pleasure of Giving to Others

The Key to Spirituality

Nov 2, 2007 Mark Zimmerman

Constantly amplifying the pleasure of giving to others creates a new nature in us, through which we discover spirituality.

Can We Feel Spirituality in Our World?

No, we can't. Our world is completely opposite in attributes to spirituality, and thus cannot contain spirituality within it.

Spirituality Is Total Altruism

Spirituality, in Kabbalah, is defined as total altruism: the intention to do good and give pleasure to everything in existence and not to receive anything "for myself." Spirituality is experienced through attaining the attribute of the force that created our world and everything in existence-total altruism.

Our World Is Total Egoism

Our world, in Kabbalah, is defined as total egoism: the intention to do good and get pleasure for myself, and to use everything I can get my hands on for the sake of my personal wellbeing and benefit.

The Paradox of the Pleasure to Give to Others

Although it may seem to us that we do good to others, we don't. This is one of the hardest basic concepts of Kabbalah to grasp, because it goes against our inborn instincts. Moreover, this instinct of ours which tells us that "I am a good person" or "Yes, I do good to others," is part of the very same nature working on us with the aim of making us feel good.

Every inborn intention of ours has the aim of making us feel good. Kabbalists call it "the intention to receive pleasure for myself." We simply call it "human nature." I only do good to someone else if I feel good from doing it.

The Opportunity to Transform Our Attributes

While spirituality and our world are completely opposite in attributes, from our world, we are given the opportunity to transform our attributes (i.e. egoistic) to those of spirituality (i.e. altruistic) and acquire the attributes of the force that created us. The wisdom of Kabbalah offers us this transformation: to become just like the force that created us.

Why Would We Want to Do This?

It is because pleasure in our world is transient and leaves us empty. Every pleasure we experience is followed by a feeling of lacking something. Moreover, as our desires grow, we can no longer find pleasures which can satisfy us. Thus, in our world, we are faced with the situation of constantly trying to grasp the next fleeting moment of pleasure, and we always chase this moment.

Eternal Pleasure

Pleasure in spirituality - the pleasure of giving to others - is experienced oppositely to how we experience pleasure in our world. It is eternal pleasure. The more we experience pleasure in the spiritual, the more pleasure we feel. This is, however, under the condition that we don't feel the pleasure within ourselves, but within everything that is outside ourselves. It is pleasure through living in the constant fulfillment of everything in existence other than the tiny body I was born into.

The Means for Achieving Eternal Pleasure

The wisdom of Kabbalah has been passed down over generations to provide us with the means for undergoing this transformation of our nature. Using it, we can achieve unity with the force that created us, and feel the eternal pleasure and fulfillment in constant giving.

Related Material:

Kabbalah.info - all concepts presented in this article were learned from the free materials and resources available at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute - www.kabbalah.info

The copyright of the article The Pleasure of Giving to Others in Kabbalah is owned by Mark Zimmerman. Permission to republish The Pleasure of Giving to Others in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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