If one does good then one does not do good...

This type of paradox which is present in Christianity and Buddhism I think I have a solution to.

Jesus says if you go to the altar to be seen by your fellow man praying then that is your reward. But, if you go in silence to pray before God then your reward is in heaven.

Likewise Buddha says in the Diamond sutra that if one thinks that one is helping others, then one is still attached to the form of self and others, and what one does is not truely good.

How then are we to do good, without knowing it?

If what we do, is deemed good in reflection then it was good. However if we need to think about what is good or not good before we act, then our actions are inauthentic! A performing monkey, a robot, can do what it is told, this is not the nature of goodness: and knowing intellectually and telling ourselves is not any better than being told.

True goodness is our true nature, we don't have to struggle or think about being good it comes naturally when we are pure... it IS the behaviour of a person free from delusions... they may comment to themselves that "I am being good", but not dwell upon this unremarkable observation because it is just what they naturally do.

If we find we are doing bad, then we must purify the causes of this ignorance. This is the struggle. For this an intellectual knowledge of good and evil is essential, but our true goodness comes spontaneously from within not from pre-programs or learned traits, and will shine all by itself when we are cleansed.