Many people believe that the path to enlightenment means living a selfless life. It means focusing on being of service to others, rather than one's own self-interest. In my view that is an old paradigm perspective.
In order to understand this it is necessary to make a distinction between unevolved self-interest and enlightened self-interest. The difference between these has to do with whether you are following self-interest that is serving a higher part of you, or self-interest that is serving a lower, defended part of you. If you are doing what feels good to the higher part of you, the result will end up being good for everyone concerned. That is enlightened self-interest. Examples of enlightened self-interest are desiring a loving connection with another person, discovering what your purpose in life is, and eating healthy food. Examples of unevolved self-interest are eating comfort foods that are bad for you, in order to avoid emotional pain; buying a sports car you can't afford, in order to feel successful; and pressuring your significant other to buy something for you in order to feel loved.
Being of service to others assumes that they are needy and you have what they need. It's based on believing that the source of people's survival and well-being is other people, rather than based on a larger Divine or Universal Source. You believe you can be the source for other people, rather than Divine Source being their source .
When you focus your life on being of service to others, you are focusing your life on what other people's experience is. You are orienting your experience of reality around something outside of your present moment experience. You can only connect with the here-and-now from within your own present moment experience, inside of you. This is important because being connected to the here-and-now is how to connect with a larger Universal or Divine source.
What is needed is being in the right relationship with Divine Source. That results in you being in a co-creative process. When you are in co-creation with Divine Source, every breath you take will end up benefiting the whole, because you are playing your part in the Divine design of things.
You cannot know what other people need, but you can know what your right relationship with them is. You access that right relationship from inside of you. You access it by being in contact with what is in alignment with, and feels important and good to, the higher part of yourself in relation to them. You can do great good in the world, without "being of service."
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Author's Bio: Jane Ilene Cohen is an Intuitive & Transformational NLP Counselor, and an NLP & TimeLine Master Practitioner, with a private practice in San Diego North County (Encinitas). She does individual counseling (includes the NLP TimeLine Process and hypnosis), works with couples and families, and facilitates groups and workshops. She is also the Founder of the "Life is Meant to Work" thought system.
For more about Jane's counseling services, go to www.janecohencounseling.com/content/counseling-services . For a free phone consultation to decide if this is right for you, call Jane at (760) 753-0733.