Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Egoism Is Embedded in the Nature of Every Person

The nature of each and every person is to exploit the lives of all other people in the world for his own benefit [without considering the profit of another at all]. And all that he gives to another [by using him or her] is only out of necessity; and even then there is exploitation of others in it, but it is done cunningly [by distributing prizes or rewards, privileges to disguise the exploitation], so that his friend will not notice it and concede willingly.
– Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

Anything outside one’s own body is regarded as unreal and empty. And any movement that a person makes to love another is performed only…to receive a reward. Thus, such an act cannot be considered “love of another” because it is judged by its end. …But making any kind of movement only as a result of love for others, without…any hope for any kind of self-gratification in return, is completely impossible by nature.
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 13
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