What is Selflessness?

[Tim Gardner]

What does it really mean to selfless?  Does it mean not having a sense of

self or does it mean putting others above your human needs?

 

I've heard an enlightened human can still be what people call

selfish even though they don't have a sense of self. 

 

[Gnosis]

Your life is already over! Get over it man!

[Cathal]

if 'I' the self was truly identified as the whole world/universe not in thought but just was, would the most selfish act I could partake in be helping and contributing to the entire world?

[eputkonen]

12 hours ago, Tim Gardner said:

What does it really mean to selfless?  Does it mean not having a sense of

self or does it mean putting others above your human needs?

 

Selfless means ceasing to refer to the self...and other (i.e. other than "me"). 

It does not mean putting others above, because that would require a reference to a "me" to put "others" above or below.

The truly selfless cease thinking about themselves.  Self-referential and self-centered thoughts cease.

 

12 hours ago, Tim Gardner said:

I've heard an enlightened human can still be what people call selfish even though they don't have a sense of self. 

 

People might call a lot of actions selfish...especially if their view of selflessness is "putting others above your human needs".  So such a person might call any action done that does not put all others first "selfish".  It does not matter what people might call selfish...they don't really know the "motivations" (so to speak) of others...assuming they even really know what selflessness is.

 

Say you are at a tea party and the host has brought out a tray of various expensive-looking desserts...just enough for one for each person.

Most would realize it is not being selfless if you rush in to get the cake that you long for, but it is also not being selfless to wait until everyone has already chosen and just accept whatever is leftover (the idea being let everyone get what they want and I will take what is left).  Both wanting to be first and putting everyone else first (i.e. wanting to be last) are both being self-referential and self-centered.

Edited February 20, 2022 by eputkonen

[allislove]

@Tim Gardner

There is no enlightened human.

To be selfless is to live as one, to live as one is to follow your intuition, one source. Have to be recognised directly via meditation practice, questioning every belief, seeing as it is.

[Inliytened1]

12 hours ago, Tim Gardner said:

What does it really mean to selfless?  Does it mean not having a sense of

 

If you became One with the Universe and there was no difference between your mother and you, or your dog or you, or your house and you...literally..then there would be no separate self.  You could not have a preference for your self as a human because you are now identifying with the Universe.  You could not have a bias towards yourself as a human because you no longer identify as a human you identify as God and since God is One..it is formless or selfless.   But you would be dead.

Thus uou cannot become totally formless while in form or identifying with form.  You can have enlightenment in which your self will dissolve/die and you will become one with the universe (ego death) .   But ultimately it will not be permanent until you forgo all attachment to a finite form.  That's why you come back to the dream.

That said since you cannot become totally selfless in form, you can still embody the principles of selflessness in your life.  Honesty, Truth, Love, others before yourself.  Because as God/Truth in its purest form there can be no deception.. you are a limited form of God now but no less God..you just have limitations on how selfless you can be.