01/06/2023
Selfless Joy
We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.
Man is not, by nature, deserving of all that he wants. When we think that we are automatically entitled to something, that is when we start walking all over others to get it. Self absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection or compassionate action. Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others. The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.
Many individuals are so constituted that their only thought is to obtain pleasure and shun responsibility. They would like, butterfly-like, to wing forever in a summer garden, flitting from flower to flower, and sipping honey for their sole delight. They have no feeling that any result which might flow from their action should concern them. They have no conception of the necessity of a well-organized society wherein all shall accept a certain quota of responsibility and all realize a reasonable amount of happiness. They think only of themselves because they have not yet been taught to think of society. For them pain and necessity are the great taskmasters. Laws are but the fences which circumscribe the sphere of their operations. Deceit for personal gain is one of history's most recurring crimes. Man's first step towards change would be thinking, counter arguing, re thinking, twisting, straightening, perfecting, then believing every original idea he intends to make public before making it public. There is always an angle from which an absolute truth may appear just as there is always a personal emotion, or a personal agenda, which alienates the ultimate good of mankind.
Neither fear nor self interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire. Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man. It's way too easy to see the real face of a person. They're amiable and full of pretense when they want something from you, but the minute you don't give in, back away or put yourself first (like they do) is the minute they show you who they really are. It's not my job to make you happy. It's your job to learn that only those who quit selfishly seeking their own happiness find it. No man is more cheated than the selfish man. It is an occult law moreover, that no man can rise superior to his individual failings without lifting, be it ever so little, the whole body of which he is an integral part. In the same way no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of sin, alone. In reality, there is no such thing as separateness and the nearest approach to that selfish state which the laws of life permit is in the intent or motive. Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.
There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good. There are some people that see the half full cup and get upset about where the other half of the cup went. With an attitude like that, they will never be happy. I see a half full cup and I immediately take half of someone else’s cup and then I have a full cup and I’m happy. With the right attitude, life is really very simple. But selfish isn't necessarily a bad thing. It only means you take care of yourself and you have to do that to be able to take care of others. In every class of society, gratitude is the rarest of all human virtues. A true generous heart can usually never revolve majorly with monetary skills nor business acumen nor cunning mind. This world. This human race. It isn't divided into sexes. Everybody thinks it's divided into sexes but it isn't. It's the givers and the takers, the dinners and the diners.
If the entire world sought to make itself worthy of happiness rather than make itself happy, then the entire world would be happy. Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles. What are you really living for? It's crucial to realize that you either glorify self, or you glorify something or someone else. You're always making something look big. If you don't glorify him when you're involved in a conflict, you inevitably show that someone or something else rules your heart. To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit in self were less selfish. The subsistence mentality of a person is a prison in which his personal joy is detained. If you want to live in joy, you don't live for yourself alone you live for others too. Better not to plant seeds of selfishness than try to eradicate them once they have grown into giant weeds. I don’t want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is. You are too full of your own hopes to hold anyone else's. I respect all the innocent souls because they are kind enough to forgive the selfish people around them.
The tide seldom shifts in favor of a selfish individual.
