Day 102–Selfishness

 

 

self·ish [sel-fish]

1.devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.

 

Selfishness is the lack of caring, or deliberate disregard and reluctance to care for others.  In a word -  Inconsideration.  It is created by ourselves through giving higher value to our individual, personal interests and desires - based on our  interpretation of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘not good’ for ourselves.

 

If we look at our world as a whole, we can easily see that it is completely based in selfishness.  Everyone acting in their own self interest, for personal gain and profit.  Seeking personal experiences so we can ‘feel good’.  What feels good to me MUST be good..???

 

Fascinatingly, our own selfishness is cleverly hidden from ourselves within the belief that deep down… somewhere… we are ‘good’.  This is a very destructive belief.   The reality is – no one is good, we are all collectively existing in selfishness.   The evidence is all around us as the cruelty, war, and destruction of our planet.

 

So in our selfish existence, we seek positive experiences to alleviate our conscious regret and guilt.  We do things like – tell people we love them, or have ‘loved ones’, or give to charity, or work really hard at becoming a ‘better person’, or we (have the audacity to) judge others as selfish… etc etc etc.  All of which only serve to re-enforce the belief that ‘I am a good person’… so that we never have to face the reality of our own selfishness, and, so we can continue seeking positive experiences that we believe will make us happy, yet they never produce lasting happiness, because it is selfishness… in the fear of changing ourselves to become actual caring beings.

 

We are all trained from a very early age to accept selfishness as ‘normal behaviour’.  How could we have possibly allowed this to happen?  Suffice to say it is a combination of self-dishonesty and misunderstanding – yet neither is an acceptable excuse, because neither consequence nor death, accept any excuses.  Death is the consequence of selfishness, and everyone that dies deserves it, through the acceptance and allowance of selfishness.

 

Common sense tells us that we must support ourselves in this reality we have created, so obviously supporting ourselves should not be confused with selfishness.

 

It is odd however that we fear forgiving and changing ourselves, because we are aware that if we commit to changing ourselves, we will have to sacrifice our personal (selfish) desires to do so.  Yet that is the only way to stop becoming selfish, and the reward – though unseen and not understood – is great beyond description.

 

We have to realize that the ‘positive’ or ‘good’ experiences we seek are merely fleeting moments in time that pass away in the blink of an eye.  They are in fact not even real, because they exist in and as selfishness.   What is real, is changing ourselves to become what is best for all, into beings that actually care for all life Equally.