Selfish?

(from exchange on - I AM email list)

LeTeegee: And the answer is clear... when we give to another, we but only give to ourselves.

B: If we truly give -- that is, without expectation -- this is abundantly, ironically true.

tg: Agreed (in a way)...

B: Explain please (assuming you see any value in that in the current context).

tg: You are right in the sense of giving without expectation of anything in return (from another).

B: That's the only sense I was referring to, and it includes any and all attachment to outcome.

tg: I am talking about when we give, with the knowledge that we are merely giving to ourselves, then we can expect more 'un-doing' (for ourselves). Motivational, yes? Selfish? It could sound that way to some, but it is more of a selflessness as ACIM calls it.... "being generous out of Self interest". (not the little self of the world) To give away only those things that we can keep forever. It is not giving in order to keep what only I could keep, because if you lose, I lose.

B: OK, we are running into some not-unanticipated terminology snafus. In my lexicon, knowledge is information, data stored for retrieval. What you're referring to is not knowledge in that sense, but rather an abiding and ongoing in-the-moment revelation. The revelation and the manifestation of love are choiceless and unitary.

tg: I was thinking you may have misinterpreted what I said... I didn't say ''in order to get'', but ''in order to keep it for yourself forever'.

B: That's getting if it's motivational, no?

tg: Giving to get is motivational, yes. Giving in order to keep for ourselves, what is already ours, I don't see as 'getting'... and yes, it is motivational. BUT we already got, so there is no getting involved. We just have to uncover, unwrap, unglue, (all those un-things). This truly motivates me.

B: Again to clarify what seems to be divergences in terminology, from here one cannot be the agent of "all those un-things," it's a matter of spontaneous abdication of not only agency, but of the conditional and conditioned intent to act. In this surrender is the great falling away of distortion and occlusion that is the discovery of actual love (as contrasted to the dilute and polluted subset commonly referred to as love). This love is effortlessly active and does not require motivation or any other psychological prodding.

tg: I am not speaking of giving temporary material things. I am speaking of things eternal -- truth, love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge... (I suppose I thought you could read my mind and know what I was talking about when I said the word 'forever')

B: Clear enough -- that which abides as contrasted to that which comes and goes, the eternal rather than the transient.

B: Perhaps we can turn this inside out -- learn to love your neighbor, and realize (s)he's yourself. Voila', self-love sans shame!

tg: Yes! You go Wildthang... This is a Kodak moment!

B: Thanks for the pointing, bodhisattva has surely spoken!

tg: Going back undercover now to see what I can dig up.

B: I can dig it!

tg: Let's hear it for the buoys

B: They float in a vast ocean, sometimes emit clear light and make noise to obtain attention whenever that's urgent. Works for me!