From: Roger Adams <RADAMS@cerritos.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Unselfishness and spirituality
Date: 22 Jan 1993 18:31:54 -0800
Organization: Cerritos College, Norwalk CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: gap.caltech.edu

In article <1jpcjoINNavg@gap.caltech.edu>, 
fstawit@icomp01.lerc.nasa.gov (Tawit Chitsomboon) writes:

>>........................... Now, Mother Teresa said that she could
>>have gone back to get some more rice to give to this woman that 
>>evening but she decided to wait until the next day. Why? "Because", 
>>she said, "I wanted her to feel that Joy that comes from unselfishness". 
> 
> This otherwise extremely touching story is spoiled by, alas, Mother
> Teresa herself. She should not let the poor woman feel the Joy of
> unselfishness.
> 
>>.........................................This is surrender, ie. a
>>surrender of ego, a surrender and giving up and letting go of 
>>selfishness, no more "i".
> 
> How could she let go of her selfishness when she 'enjoy' it?
> The "i" of hers might have forever been capitalized.
> True love/unselfishness/and-all-those-goodies manifests itself
> through giving/personal-sacrifice without expecting anything
> in return whatsoever, be it in this life on in the after life.


Exactly what the story is speaking of. You seem to be suggesting that the
feeling of Joy (I capitalize it to distinguish this from the ordinary temporal
joy which comes and goes depending on ego gratification) is a sign of
selfishness. But the Joy was felt as a result of transcending ego and the
selfishness where you are just concerned about you and yours. This woman did
not expect anything in return and did not know that Mother Teresa would bring
more rice the next day. That is, I don't think it proper to assume that she did
it for some reward in the this life or the next life - this is a cynical
assumption apparently posed for the mere sake of argumentation. You cannot
judge someone by their religion or nationality that they are doing things for
rewards. Naturally we do like how it feels when ego is transcended even for a
little while. If this were not so, it would mean that the power of delusion
would be stronger and more attractive than enlightenment which would mean that
none of us would be on a spiritual path. The Joy of God, Spirit, Self, Nirvana,
whatever you want to call it is more attractive and stronger than the power of
delusion otherwise it would be utterly impossible to overcome delusion.

> If this condition is not met then love is a mere extension of ego.
> But, i'll take this kind of inter-religious love over killing
> over a god's property in Ayodhya, any time.

Loving your family is greater than just loving yourself. Loving friends
is greater than only loving yourself and family. Loving everyone is greater
than loving yourself, family, and friends. There is an apparent expansion of
love alluded to here which is not an extension of ego but a diminishing of
it. 


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	Roger Adams
	radams@cerritos.edu               To those in whom love dwells,
	Cerritos College                  the whole world is one family.
	11110 Alondra Blvd                             A Hindu Proverb
        Norwalk, California 90650
	USA        		          293 Dwapara :-)
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