Do you feel burned out? Jaded? Like nothing matters anymore? Like the problems of the world are so endemic and entrenched that you can’t even make a small dent in them? There is one key to making your actions matter — faith. Not a juvenile or simple faith — but a confidence in the higher unknown that lies beyond the rational. If you can expand your world to include what you cannot explain or understand, you’re on the way to making your actions matter. How? Read on.
A Platform for a Life of Meaning and Purpose
True and healthy faith creates a platform for a life of meaning and purpose, a life in which our actions matter and our experiences are driven with direction. While a life of no belief may feel alright, it renders life as a random set of circumstances, with survival of the fittest being the cardinal rule. We live in a world in which we are being taught that people are essentially selfish creatures, driven by self-interest. In the Darwinian-Freudian model of life, which is the prevalent theory impacting every aspect of our existence, our psyches are being continuously inundated with how insignificant our lives truly are. The driving ethos of all creatures as “natural selection” basically renders every human virtue, every noble act, every thing we hold dear, as a method for billion-year-old bacteria to adapt and survive.
The Soul Is Beyond Selfishness
While its true that every person has a selfish inclination, we also have a transcendent side, which is capable of the noblest behavior. The deepest part of the human being is the soul rather than the “id.” The essence of the soul is a bulletproof, eternal source of goodness. The easier route may be the narcissistic one. But the more meaningful route is the benevolent one. A person always has the choice to overcome his/her primitive temptations and access the transcendent soul within. The soul is a rich resource, with layers and layers of potential. The challenge is to recognize and draw forth this dimension, which can lay concealed beneath the outer shell of material survival.
Believe in Yourself
“Impossible. Absolutely impossible.” How often do we hear these discouraging words, pouring cold water on our freshly hatched ideas? Don’t you think that the first inventors of the airplane or any other technology were told by their peers that their dreams were an impossibility? Yet, they persisted and finally prevailed. History is witness to countless stories of humans achieving the impossible.
And how else do we explain the seemingly irrational — or more accurately: supra-rational — drive that we can overcome any challenge. How, for instance, are doctors utterly convinced that they can ultimately conquer every illness?! It is because we have an instinct that all is possible. This instinct stems from the power of the soul — the inherent faith and trust we carry in our soul — that transcends mortality and all the limits and shortcomings of human existence.
It is critical that we believe in ourselves to be able to achieve anything in this world. That we can touch the infinite and the eternal. But we must also know that our psyches are under a constant assault of many forces reminding us time and again about our limitations, feeding our insecurities and fears. You have the power to be Divine, and with ease! You only need to believe that it is possible.
Exercise: Ask yourself: How sacred do you feel your life is? How pure are your activities? How indispensable do you think you are? Do something — one act — infused with the absolute confidence in your soul’s infinite capacity. Perform a good deed that will live on into eternity. Journal about it in your MyMLC journal.
Go deeper into this subject: Possibilities | Pure Ones | Lonely Man |
SOULGYM I MASTERCLASS
Live with Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Why Did a Spiritual G-d Create a Material World?
May 24, 2023 @8:30pm
Live Stream | Podcast
Amen and excellent! Moshiach now!
Amen and excellent! Moshiach now! One of your best!