Leading environmentalists such as Ervin Laszlo, Richard Dawkins, and Elizabeth Sahtouris state that we must stop working against nature, as we have been for centuries, and start working in harmony with it.
They explain that nature already knows what to do and when to do it, and if we only get out of the way, things will sort themselves out. Just like each body has its immune-system, nature has mechanisms that maintain its balance. Biologists call it "homeostasis."
Homeostasis is not something static; it is a dynamic equilibrium controlled by interrelated regulation mechanisms. Clearly, nature doesn't think of particular elements within it, but of the whole system.
Just imagine the havoc our body would fall into, if each organ began to think of its own interest, instead of the interest of the whole body.
Organs would steal blood vessels from one another, denying neighboring organs nourishment and oxygen. The organs producing antibodies would direct them against other organs because other organs would be considered foreign bodies, and the ones with strongest antibodies would destroy the rest of the organs.
Soon, very soon, the body would die, and its self-centered organs would die with it. When this happens on a single-cell level, we call it cancer. When it happens in the whole of the human society, we have a global crisis on our hands.
The fact that the world does exist and that it isn't destroying itself every single moment is proof that the elements in our world are not self-centered. It is proof that nature works as a system, putting the wellbeing of the system before the wellbeing of its parts.
When the system's needs come before the needs of the part, it is called 'altruism.'
Elements in that system are in a state of constant giving to the system, whether it is an organism or a human society. The system, on the other hand, tends to its components, making sure they all receive optimum nourishment and rest. It is a reciprocal system of giving and sharing, a system of love.
Humans, in almost every aspect, are just another species in the animal kingdom, but there is one exception: 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 behavior is always in sync with nature, always altruistic and putting the system's needs before their own. This is why a lion that eats a zebra is not an evil lion. It's just a lion, doing what lions do.
But humans don't always hunt to eat; often they hunt to gain wealth, to exploit, or 'just for kicks.' 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 find the installation disk containing the altruistic operating system, and replace with our current, 'bugged' system.
According to Kabbalah, to find the missing disk, you need to go to the 'program vendor,' its Creator. In Kabbalah, the words 'God' and 'The Nature' are synonymous. This is why they have the same numeric value: 86.
Kabbalists have discovered a method that teaches how we can replace the egoistic disk with an altruistic one, and they adapted it to our generation. 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.
According to Kabbalah, replacing the disk requires conscious work on our part, and some practice. It's not a one-off act, but an ongoing process of self-transformation. Nevertheless, improvement is achieved right from the start. Here is the gist of it:
1. Spread the word: The more people here about this program and partake in it the better. This will create a shift in public opinion, bringing people to believe that there is actual benefit in being altruistic rather than egoistic.
2. Start early: It is easier to start with children, who are not yet accustomed to a selfish frame of mind. If we bring up one generation of altruists, they will naturally bring up their own kids in this way, and the process will flow easily and naturally from that point onward.
3. Give them role-models: The only way education can truly succeed is if we practice what we preach. This means we, too, must behave as if we're altruists. Granted, we're not. If we were, the world would be in much better shape. But if we set a good example for our kids, they will change, and in the process, by setting an example for them, we will be changing ourselves as well.
What is common to these three points is the use of our environment for altruistic education and practice. Kabbalah makes us aware of how much our environment influences our development, and offers a method for using the environment to frame altruistic human development.
The goal of the environment Kabbalists have devised is to guide a person in achieving homeostasis with Nature. As well as being the goal of Kabbalah studies, Kabbalists call this "the goal of Creation." They state that all of humanity is destined to become equal in form with the Creator, i.e. to become altruistic and function as one interconnected body in relation to the Creator.
As with an developing human fetus, first the embryonic shell forms, and then the heart is the first organ to develop, which continues to circulate blood around the fetus; so humanity has formed into a global-scale egoistic 'embryo' over eons of development.
According to The Book of Zohar, the year 1995 saw the emergence of humanity's "heart" - an inner point within a critical mass of people drawn to work for the sake of discovering our true nature: one organism in relation to its Creator.
We still have a long way to go before we start feeling the life of the seven billion people around us - our true self - and not just the single cell we were born into. The more we work on this ongoing self-transformation to enhance our altruistic desires over our egoistic ones, the faster we will come to realize the life of the whole body, as expressed in the timeless words: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." This goal depends on all of us, together, and the sooner we start changing the better.
This article refers to the method of Kabbalah taught at the Bnei Baruch World Center for Kabbalah Studies, www.kabbalah.info