Since yesterday I have been fascinated by the fact that allowing happiness and harmlessness is the most caring and selfless thing to be done. It is interesting because within ‘humanity’ it is held that it is the one who is prepared to suffer the most who is a good person, that the one who allows happiness for themselves is selfish or has sold their soul to the devil, yet the facts are exactly the opposite.
Firstly it is impossible to be genuinely happy without at the same time being harmless, those people who are seen to cause chaos in pursuit of ‘happiness’ are actually deeply unhappy and thus desperately looking for the next fix of good feelings.
Also it is those people who are devoured by their various dramas and demons who are the most self involved, and in the process they are the ones causing the most harm both to themselves and others. Now they have a choice - to be happy (and therefore harmless) a choice that would benefit both them and those around them (everybody wins) and yet this choice would require that they relinquish a precious part of ‘themselves’.
The choice to remain as ‘I’ am and thus continue causing harm to all is the uncaring one, it is the selfish one. The choice to allow happiness and harmlessness and thus benefit all is the caring one, and it is the selfless one.
I remember reading Peter mention this, that merely chasing after ‘my’ gratification is insufficient motivation, and this makes sense now. Because if ‘I’ am motivated in this self-centred way ‘I’ will remain exactly as ‘I’ am and thus continue causing harm to all, neither happiness nor harmlessness will be allowed as ‘I’ will choose to remain unchanged.
They key then is to see the full picture, to see the harm ‘I’ am causing to all concerned (including myself) by remaining as ‘I’ am. I find it fascinating how this segues into actual freedom, that in the end to ensure actual (and irrevocable) happiness and harmlessness (and thus to benefit all) ‘I’ have to give up ‘myself’ altogether.