In Judaism the purpose of living is to improve
character traits. Mussar is an
ancient Jewish system for personal growth specifically in character
improvement. According to Mussar, there are two important principles to follow to
achieve character improvement: The first is
to understand the process of thought formation. For example, jealousy develops when one has
sinking feeling and thinking about his needs and lack of wealth and prestige and
suddenly sees someone is praised or sees the wealth and prestige of his friend,
that these are the indications of jealousy.
If one knows how the improper thought is generated, it is easier to
guard oneself to develop the thought. Care should be taken, therefore, in
guarding our thoughts, ideas and musings. “Praised is he who follows his advice”.
The second principle is to understand the strength of the force of
habit. Men are born with two
characters; natural and acquired one by habit. Habit is extremely powerful
making man’s intellect to become enslaved to it when a certain thoughts capture
a person’s mind. According to Vilna Gaon
(1720-1797, Lituania), only when the bad habits are straightened, then natural
traits will be established on a firm base and if not, then they will all be
lost. However one can utilize the power
of habit to free oneself from the bad habit. Change in habit does not come easily though,
but it is well known that man merits Divine assistance in proportion to his efforts. Efforts are, in fact, the essence of the
mussar discipline.
In sum, Torah warns us about possible
pitfalls that we may face when it comes to character development, but suggests ideas at the same time how to deal with them:
1) by filling our surroundings with proper people and environment so that we
can be absorbed into proper thoughts, ideas and musings and 2) by acquiring proper habits that can remedy existing improper habits.
By the way, what are the proper or improper thoughts and habits? How can we distinguish one from the other?
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