Selflessness - Tumblr Posts

Paul hit it on the head with this one.

You know he's taking to those people who go on rants about their own obsessions constantly and never ask about yours, or don't seem to even listen to your response when they do. It's so easy to do... but we should all strive to highlight others more than we do ourselves.

So here's your friendly reminder to do at least one thing for someone else, that you don't necessarily want to, every day. And to always ask about your friends. They may need that caring attention far more than you know.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:3-4

“Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.”

—Bhagavad Gita

“We must act in a selfless spirit, Krishna says, without ego-involvement and without getting entangled in whether things work out the way we want; only then will we not fall into the terrible net of karma. We cannot hope to escape karma by refraining from our duties: even to survive in the world, we must act.”

—Bhagavad Gita

“Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find the fulfillment of your desires.”

—Bhagavad Gita

“We ourselves are responsible for what happens to us, whether or not we can understand how. It follows that we can change what happens to us by changing ourselves; we can take our destiny into our own hands.”

—Bhagavad Gita

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

—Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

[Jedi Knights] do not grow attachments, because attachment is a path to the dark side. You can love people, but you can’t want to possess them. They’re not yours. Accept that they have a fate. Even those you love most are going to die. You can’t do anything about that. Protect them with your lightsaber, but if they die they were going to die, there’s nothing you can do. All you can do is accept that fact.

In mythology, if you go to Hades to get them back you’re not doing it for them, you’re doing it for yourself. You’re doing it because you don’t want to give them up. You’re afraid to be without them. The key to the dark side is fear. You must be clean of fear, and fear of loss is the greatest fear. If you’re set up for fear of loss, you will do anything to keep that loss from happening, and you’re going to end up in the dark side. That’s the basic premise of Star Wars and the Jedi, and how it works.

That’s why they’re taken at a young age to be trained. They cannot get themselves killed trying to save their best buddy when it’s a hopeless exercise.

— George Lucas