Monday, February 28, 2011

unintended selfishness

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Unintended selfishness. What a knotty koan -- one that brings to mind the brisk and perhaps too-facile observation that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

My Zen teacher once observed, "Without ego, nothing gets done." Which raises the question, is there really such a thing as selfless accomplishment?

All I can think is that in order to be selfish, there must be a self and that this proposition is the proper venue for investigation.

Unintended selfishness: In attempting to do something good and selfless, the selfishness is as apparent as in regular old, me-first selfishness... it just doesn't attract as many critics.
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1 comment:

  1. please forgive. it's nice to dot a message with a smiley :)

    even though i do not really know what u are saying, but i woke up this morning reading your message and feel thankful that i am still... i guess.. alive.

    many a zen teacher also used to say before.. 24 hours, a brand new day, time to start anew.

    it is so difficult, but, i imagine that with all the hope i awoke with this morning, i would offer them all to this blog, and then figure out where next to start anew.

    yes i am aware that intended selflessness, sometimes is the greatest unintended selfishness.

    have fun... =)

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