Selfishness is Good

This should fire alarm bells because we know that if I am selfish and you are selfish we shut down a large number of positive possibilities such as trying to help each other. Its a very limited form of existence.

However there are toxic forms of selflessness.

Especially in Christianity the idea of self-sacrifice is really just a form of anti-selfishness. It is still selfishness but instead of benefitting me, it harms me. There is no difference between the harm caused by selfishness and the harm caused by selflessness.

Now a very dangerous form of selflessness is the rejecting of personal enjoyment and pleasure. If we just deny ourselves inner experience then actually we are just closing ourselves down. Closing ourselves down is just stunting ourselves and this serves no purpose.

However it's not a simple equation because indulging enjoyment and pleasure is also dangerous when it causes us to focus on our self.

So perhaps taking 30 minutes out of our busy schedules to meditate feels selfish. It starts by focusing on our breath and drawing our focus inwards inside of us taking our mind off the world around and all the worries and concerns we have. This may seem highly selfish, and perhaps a form of denial. maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Meditation is deeper than these concerns and while we may not be able to see that at first, it's important to have the faith that meditation comes from the Buddha and will lead us and everyone out out suffering. This indeed is one important thing we can do to overcome the sense that meditation is selfish but doing it for the benefit of all beings. If we meditate not just to benefit ourselves and achieve personal gains but to help everyone this starts us in the right direction of overcoming the sense of selfishness is taking 30 minutes out of "our" lives.

But even Christians will observe that taking 30 minutes is not taking time out of "our" life but 30 minutes of the life that God gave us, and once we get there we wonder where we are going in meditation? If we are interrupting the life that God gave us, surely we are just adding something else that God gave us when we meditate. So its not stepping aside from anything it is just meditating. It is not selfishness it is just meditating.

So  Selfishness is not actually Good, but this is just to say that Selflessness can be Bad and sometime selfishness is closer to the truth than selflessness.