Mike,
quoting:
"Humans can act altruistically by choice - not just out of fear or reward."
Just noting... it seems that the altruistic "acting" is sometimes even without
choice, and without consciousness of a choice, but is spontaneous; almost, we
might say, as an act of ..."instinct".
No self or self-concern gets in the way of the acting.
In the awakened person, we know that true compassion arises spontaneously, as
wisdom does, and no time is taken to deliberate, nor to choose in
circumstances, but one acts appropriately and seamlessly taking, it seems, no
time about it.
Joe Campbell noted in one of his talks with Bill Moyers in "The Power of Myth"
series some events in which people saved others from falling off a cliff,
risking their own life, of course to do so, a hill he knew of where people used
to drive up to look over the edge and "let their hair fly around". He launched
into an extended consideration of altruism, and how altruism is thoughtless and
spontaneous. It's a good segment. Maybe YouTube has a snippet ...but I don't
know now in which titled or numbered Episode. YouTube's filing system is
different. It is a segment with a title on the DVD of "Sacrificial Altruism".
I think the Fourth Episode, maybe the third segment in the Fourth episode.
--Joe
> uerusuboyo@... wrote:
>
When a person sacrifices themselves for another, even if no one else is aware
of them doing so, they're not acting like the dog in Pavlov's experiment. A
tiger can be *trained* not to eat the human, but usually by punitive methods
against his will. This is what I mean by "transcend". Humans can act
altruistically by choice - not just out of fear or reward.
------------------------------------
Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are
reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
