God as "Selfless"

[Gianna]

I was listening to the series What Is Love for the second time. In part two, Leo talks about how God loves everyone and accepts everyone because God is selfless. I can't help but wonder how God is selfless if God is the only thing that exists. How can you be selfless if you have nothing else to be selfless for? Help! 

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Gianna

[Gianna]

I just had a second thought. I see God as selfless if you are considering selfless to be self-less (i.e. without a self; lower case self). But is this what Leo was meaning by selflessness in this episode? Without a self? When he talks about how God, or consciousness, is capable of love it makes me think it is also capable of selflessness. But how can you feel selfless if you are one?

 

p.s. I use the word God because that is the word Leo uses in this episode. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Gianna

[allislove]

@Gianna

'Selfless' means living as a whole, as One. But not through 'thinking' how to behave as One. It is through 'feeling'. By collapsing any apparent separation (duality), by relaxation, by loving, by allowing, by undoing.

[traveler]

It sounds like you are wrapped up in concepts of what God is. God is selfless in the sense that it is without self, meaning God does not exist. Any story about God; "God is doing this, for this or that reason, for this or that outcome" are only stories. You can throw every idea you have about God in the bin, it is all food for the mind. God is a word for everything, the absolute, this. You can use any word, it doesn't matter what word you use, no word will even come close and yet the words themselves are it. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by traveler

[SoonHei]

@Gianna selfless, as allislove wrote is to live as One.

not to have an OTHER to your own being

 

like your body

your body is all your body parts combined

your body is selfless if viewing in the context of the body parts. a hand is ego, a leg is ego/self, ear, head, arm, finger - all are selfs in their own right. but the body is selfless for the body is all

 

god is selfless for He is all - all the selfs are god so god isn't just 1 or some of them, he is all of them... so in contrast to us as being selfs/soonhei/gianna - god is selfless, because he isn't just another amongst us all, he is the all of us combined. we are pizza slices and god is the pizza. 

god is sliceless

pizza slice is a slice, some slices are bigger than the other... but the pizza as a whole is sliceless

[Moksha]

Welcome to the forum, @Gianna 

God is All. Selfless and selfish are dualities, within relative reality. All dualities abide within God, but do not define God. God is both the caretaker of the cosmos, and is beyond the cosmos.

Lord of the gods, you are the abode of the universe. Changeless, you are what is and what is not, and beyond the duality of existence and nonexistence. You are the first among the gods, the timeless spirit, the resting place of all beings. You are the knower and the thing which is known. You are the final home; with your infinite form you pervade the cosmos.

- Bhagavad Gita 11:37-38

[Nahm]

1 hour ago, Gianna said:

I just had a second thought. I actually can see God as selfless if you are considering selfless to be self-less (i.e. without a self; lower case self). But is this what Leo was meaning by selflessness? Without a self? Lmk what you think!! 

Look for an I and or a self in perception (seeing, hearing, etc) and also in feeling, or, that-there-is the presence of sensation. If you do happen to experience finding either, notice, that experience is of a thought, as a label, which doesn’t actually label or define perception or sensation. Even the words / thoughts “perception” & “sensation” only point. 

Why does it really seem like there is? Essentially, thought attachment and the experience of the relief of it, but more so because all appears within, and therefore intrinsically experience is as if all is without. Experience can be no other way than exactly as it appears. 

[Gianna]

Thank you all so much for your help and kindness! I am feeling such a warm welcome to the forum. 
@allislove @traveler @Soonhei @Moksha @Nahm 

[erik8lrl]

Selflessness and selfishness are the same if there is only one infinite God self. You are God.

Edited March 31, 2021 by erik8lrl

[Gianna]

@SoonHei Okay, this gave me the epiphany I needed! YAY!!! I understood selfless as self-less, but your pizza analogy really put it over the top for me. Thank u!! <3 

[Megan Alecia]

There's no God, only human beings, and since the idea of a human being can only exist in the human mind, this must mean that we are inherently selfless beings, albeit caught under the illusion of having one.

[Gianna]

10 hours ago, traveler said:

It sounds like you are wrapped up in concepts of what God is. God is selfless in the sense that it is without self, meaning God does not exist. Any story about God; "God is doing this, for this or that reason, for this or that outcome" are only stories. You can throw every idea you have about God in the bin, it is all food for the mind. God is a word for everything, the absolute, this. You can use any word, it doesn't matter what word you use, no word will even come close and yet the words themselves are it. 

Yes, I am definitely wrapped up in concept! I also misunderstood the word 'selfless'. ah! thanks for your response! 

[Gianna]

8 minutes ago, Megan Alecia said:

There's no God, only human beings, and since the idea of a human being can only exist in the human mind, this must mean that we are inherently selfless beings, albeit caught under the illusion of having one.

Okay, this helps a ton!!! thank u! 

[Gianna]

12 hours ago, allislove said:

@Gianna

'Selfless' means living as a whole, as One. But not through 'thinking' how to behave as One. It is through 'feeling'. By collapsing any apparent separation (duality), by relaxation, by loving, by allowing, by undoing.

@allislove This is exactly what I was wanting to understand. I see God as an infinite mind so when I hear Leo saying God accepts everyone because God is 'selfless' it made me think of selfless in a 'thinking' way like you suggested but I need to understand it from a 'feeling' way. That's so perfect. Thank u! 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Gianna

[allislove]

@Gianna ?

It's a gradual process. Daily meditation may help. If there were only one pointer it would be: "Love whatever arises".

[Leo Gura]

no self = The Infinite Self

A rock is selfless because it doesn't imagine itself as a self.

[SoonHei]

@Gianna xoxoxoxo

I am the analogy doctor

I love analogies myself because it is something we can see directly from where we currently are and then take it and "apply" it to the meta-physical

 

with that being said, have a little taste of this: looking for god is like the wind looking for air

 

[Forestluv]

On 3/30/2021 at 1:59 PM, Gianna said:

how can you feel selfless

By creating a feeling thing called "self" that I am not feeling. 

We can create a thing called "anger". I feel "anger-less" when I'm not feeling anger.

On 3/30/2021 at 1:59 PM, Gianna said:

But how can you feel selfless if you are one?

If all feelings are one, there are no longer any distinctions that create different feelings. I can no longer feel "anger-less" because there is no separate feeling of "anger". Without distinctions, it's all one feeling. There are not longer various feelings for contrast - there is no longer "anger". 

From another perspective. . . There is an experience called "ruvaq". How would you know if you are experiencing the "jidfud" form of "ruvaq"? How would you know if you are feeling "jidfud-less" right now?. . . You wouldn't because there are no distinctions. It's all "ruvaq". And we haven't even distinguished what "ruvaq" is. 

This example seems like nonsense, because it goes prior to making distinctions. The questions you ask are after distinguishing a thing called "a feeling of self". You don't assume a thing called "ruvaq" exists because you are prior to that distinction, yet you assume a thing called "self" exists because your mind space is dwelling after that distinction. 

[SS10]

On 31/03/2021 at 9:48 AM, Leo Gura said:

no self = The Infinite Self

A rock is selfless because it doesn't imagine itself as a self.

How do you know? 

[Leo Gura]

10 hours ago, SS10 said:

How do you know? 

Infinite Consciousness