In the end of the day, ironically two conflicting approaches, though complimentary, must reside within all people, all the time
By zevi770 · February 5, 2014
The first is meaning; instead of living like an animal, which is solely run by its instincts, so for example animal-like behavior is addiction; for animals too can get addicted to drugs and we all know how many different addictions there are – the reason things are addictive, is they are pleasurable, so we ignore our minds and follow our instincts.
So instead, we discover the purpose of our lives, which is to be God’s humble servant in always seeing how we can be of benefit to others, and trying to always improve our character, hence our benefit to others!
However, and this is what’s very interesting; on the flip side, we have an ego; so the more passionate one is about their purpose, particularly if they are successful at it – with God’s help – nonetheless, this causes them to feel grand – our ego is the desire for grandeur, and it will use anything positive we do, for its narcissistic tendency.
The problem with ego is, that once a person becomes full of themselves, they lose sight of the original goal, namely giving up oneself for the sake of others!
It seems we are in a double bind.
The answer is humility.
In other words, man must appoint a Mashpia, a spiritual Chassidic mentor and only follow their instructions for what they should do!