What is Selflessness? Being selfless means to put the needs of others before your own – a form of self sacrifice. Let’s see how the dictionary defines it: Selflessness – the quality of unselfish concern for the welfare of others; acting with less concern for yourself than for the success of the joint activity. ~thefreedictionary According to many religious texts, selflessness is the way to greater spiritual awareness. Of course, we must understand that since we are human, we automatically have some form of selfish desire. But we must work at reducing our selfishness (also known as ego) so that we can achieve peace in this life. The ego is selfish – it is the opposite of spiritual awareness. What kinds of emotions are related to the ego/selfishness? Jealousy, anger, violence, discrimination, and materialism are just some of the manifestations of the ego. When your ego is out of control, your life is filled with inner-strife and uneasiness. Do you ever find yourself thinking these thoughts? I’m not good enough because that person is showing me up. This person just got a new _____ so now I feel inferior. I have to prove that I’m better than them! I’ll show them! I’m so much better than this person because ______. These are all examples of your ego causing you strife – they are selfish thoughts. Can you see that the internal dialogue going on here is causing discord? It’s in your best interest to reduce or eliminate these harmful thoughts so you can actually have more productive, peaceful thoughts. Many people may think that you cannot be a leader if you are selfless – nothing could be further from the truth. Take a look at this quote from the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 7 The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled. So the Master stays behind, therefore she is ahead. In other words, practice selflessness and you will be on the right spiritual path. Think about how you can help others. How can you serve? And the point of serving is not for you to be rewarded. You must give without the expectation of a reward. It’s like the saying, “Be good for goodness sake.” Jesus agrees with this selfless way of thinking by saying “Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Now that we know what selfless living is, let’s talk about what it is not: Being selfless does not mean that you fail to protect yourself from obvious dangers in this life. Also, being selfless does not mean that you should neglect caring for yourself. No, in order for you to effectively serve others, you must take care of yourself physically and spiritually. And remember, it takes time to change your thoughts to a more selfless way of thinking. The fact that you are even reading this post proves that you are on the right path in terms of spiritual awareness. Become aware of your thoughts, and then work on improving them. I will leave you with one of my favorite, beautiful quotes: Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, “you owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky. ~Hafiz
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:09:26 +0000
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