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SELFISHNESS
Intro
"Me
First"
I believe no one should be selfish.
That leaves all the more for me.
Tumbleweed
Selfish. There are a
multitude of justifications for being selfish. Some we hear almost
daily, it seems. A few that come to mind are: "If I
don't take care of myself, who will?" And, "I
have to put myself first so I can take care of others."
If
a person wants an excuse, there are plenty of them floating around.
So,
let's find out what Perusers of Books have to tell us.
*
The
Religious Leaders of Old had a lot to say about selfishness. Let us
begin with Buddha:
"The
Noble Truth of the Origin of suffering is this: It is craving that
leads back to birth, bound up with passionate greed. It finds fresh
delight now here and now there, namely, craving for sense pleasures,
craving for existence and becoming, and craving for non-existence."
(And)
"The
man who gathers flowers [of sensual pleasure], whose mind is distracted
and who is insatiate in desires, the Destroyer brings under his sway."
(And)
"Blinded
are beings by their desires spread over them like a net; covered are
they by cloak of craving; by their heedless ways caught as fish in the
mouth of a funnel-net. Decrepitude and death they journey to, just as a
sucking calf goes to its mother."
*
The
Qur'an of Islam has this to say:
"Have
you seen him who makes his desire his god, and God sends him astray
purposely, and seals up his hearing and his heart, and sets on his
sight a covering? Who, then, will lead him after God [has condemned
him]? Will you not then heed?"
*
Here
are two from the Christian Bible:
"What
causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your
passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have;
so you kill. And you covet and you cannot obtain; so you fight and wage
war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not
receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (And
this famous one)
"The
love of money is the root of all evils."
*
And
Jainism has this to say:
"Even
were the wealth of the entire world bestowed lavishly on a man, he
would not be happy: Contentment is difficult to attain." (And)
"The
ignorant one craves for a life of luxury and repeatedly hankers after
pleasures. Haunted by his own desires he gets benumbed and is rewarded
only with suffering. The benighted [def. morally or intellectually
ignorant] one is incompetent to assuage sufferings, because he is
attached to his desires and is lecherous. Oppressed by physical and
mental pain, he keeps rotating in a whirlpool of agony. I say so."
*
Taoism
has these to add:
"He
who considers wealth a good thing can never bear to give up his income;
he who considers eminence a good thing can never bear to give up his
fame. He who has a taste for power can never bear to hand over
authority to others. Holding tight to those things, such men shiver
with fear; should they let them go, they would pine in sorrow. They
never stop for a moment of reflection, never cease to gaze with greedy
eyes -- they are men punished by heaven." (And)
"There
is no crime greater than having too many desires; there is no disaster
greater than not being content; there is no misfortune greater than
being covetous."
*
Hinduism
also has some powerful statements on this subject, such as:
"Oh
my wealth-coveting soul, when will you succeed in emancipating yourself
from the desire for wealth? Shame on my foolishness! .... I know you, O
Desire, and all those things that are dear to you! The desire for
wealth can never bring happiness." (And)
"Desire
never rests by enjoyment of lusts, as fire surely increases the more
butter is offered to it."
*
Then,
finally, Hinduism has this to add:
"Arjuna:
What is the force that binds us to selfish deeds, O Krishna? What power
moves us, even against our will, as if forcing us?
"Krishna:
It is selfish desire and anger, arising from the state of being known
as passion; these are the appetites and evils which threaten a person
in this life. ....
"Selfish
desire is found in the senses, mind and intellect, misleading them and
burying wisdom in delusion. Fight with all your strength. Arjuna!
Controlling your senses, conquer your enemy. The destroyer of knowledge
and realization."
*
A
lot has been covered by those who should know, and the Writers of Books.
Now
let us see what the Avoiders of Books have to say.
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