Altruism Vs Egoism ....... 🦅

By Thomas F O’Neill 

Most people do not realize that most of our understanding of reality is processed through our beliefs rather than what is objectively real. 

In other words, we come to understand the language of things without fully grasping the essence of things because the human mind filters out reality’s objectivity. 

We can still come to a greater understanding of a person’s worldview in how they perceive and understand reality. We can accomplish this through various psychological methods, if we want to understand how a person thinks, we must utilize their beliefs, their language, and how they perceive and processes information. Gaining an understanding of a person's beliefs provides us with a clearer understanding of the person on a cognitive level. 

Many successful people can place themselves in the center of things by utilizing other people's beliefs to gain their trust. We all have core beliefs, and when we gain an understanding of a person's core beliefs. We come closer to understanding their ego and how they perceive themselves in relation to others. To gain people's trust people must be comfortable and feel as if you think like them, that you perceive the world through their eyes. 

I suppose that is one reason why religion and mythology are so powerful because of how it affects the human psyche. It is passed down from one generation to the next to the point where it becomes the core reality for each individual on a collective level. It clouds the objectivity of our reality and we become the slave to our own beliefs. If we want to move closer to the objectivity of things we must strip ourselves of all beliefs. What we believe reality to be and how we perceive ourselves in relation to others is based on our ego. 

To grow and mature spiritually, we should make a distinction between what is altruistically true and what is egoistically true. Most of the time what we implicitly and intuitively know to be true stands in total contrast to our ego which is part of our core belief system. 

If you are doing things to feel important or to gain the recognition of others, you are working from your ego. On the other hand, if you do something spontaneously because you know implicitly and intuitively it is the right thing to do at that moment you are operating altruistically from your true self. 

There is also the distinction between being truly spiritual and being religious. Religion operates out of our core belief system. It is part of our ego - most people are born into their religion it is a part of their identity. They continue in their religion throughout their life because they want to feel accepted, they want others to see them as being a good person and to please their God so that they will be accepted into heaven after death. 

There is a quid pro quo (this for that) behind religion, we pray for favors, blessings, and miracles. Religion in most cases takes the responsibility away from the individual and places the blame on the mythological such as ‘original sin.’ 

Most religions communicate to us that we are not responsible for what we are and that we must wait for God to change us and save us from our fate such as ‘the second coming.’ Religion can separate us from who we truly are because it builds on our ego. It blinds us from what we know implicitly and intuitively to be true, within us, and in those around us. Altruism leads us closer to being truly spiritual because it leads us to our essential core which is beyond our beliefs and comprehension. 

Our essential core, soul, or what we come to understand as our spiritual nature is life itself. It is synonymous with what we think we understand as being God. Altruism is what we implicitly and intuitively know in the flash of the moment to be true. We don't always act on it because in most instances we are in the fog and cloud of our ego. 

I like to use the example of a soldier in a foxhole. He is sharing the foxhole with four other soldiers and the enemy throws a hand grenade in the foxhole. One of the soldiers jumps on the hand grenade sacrificing his life for his fellow men. He did not jump on the grenade to win the congressional medal of honor from the President of the United States, to have a ship named after him, a building erected in his honor, or to have future soldiers honor him. The moment he jumped on that hand grenade he implicitly knew it had to be done and he just did it. Because it was the right thing to do. He was being true to himself in that spontaneous moment in time. It was an altruistic spiritual act of selfless giving without any expectation of receiving anything in return that is true courage. 

Imagine what the world would be like if we followed our intuition from day to day and we lived not by religious creeds, dogmas, or unjust mandates but by what we implicitly know to be true.

I am reading more and more about scientists making revolutionary breakthroughs and scientific discoveries through flashes of intuition. Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to a friend that his greatest ideas came to him when he was relaxing and taking long hot bubble baths. His mind was not concentrating on the problem at hand but on enjoying a relaxing moment with his imagination. They are the moments when truth speaks to us intuitively through flashes of knowing. I have also come to understand that science and spirituality are beginning to merge and complement each other in our technological age. It is due to humanity striving to comprehend reality's essence which is the core of all things. 

Modern science is not dismissing the spiritual essence of things; it is just beginning to see the infinite and the infinitesimal subtleties and order of things such as in quantum mechanics. Where energy is neither created nor destroyed. Quantum mechanics complement our spiritual understanding and bring us closer to recognizing the infinite and the infinitesimal presence of the eternal. 

When the religious seek the grandiose signs of God, they overlook the infinite and the infinitesimal subtlety of God's eternal presence. I understand the eternal presence as being the eternal love of God - that presence is within us and around us for our existence and the existence of all things is the altruistic outreach of God's Love. 

Always with love from Suzhou, China 

Thomas F O’Neill 

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