Reconciling Selfless Service … (09/08/09)
“The purest service is to help others and seek their welfare without the expectation of personal reward. On the contrary, the way of selfishness brings only disharmony and failure. In the Bhagavad Gita, and paralleled by passages in the Tao Te Ching, the way of selfless service is described as the fundamental principle by which God creates and sustains the universe; whenever a person acts selflessly in the service of others, that act is born of God. While conventional rulers abuse their powers by seeking to be served by their charges, the true leader is a servant to his people; as exemplified by Jesus, who came “not to be served, but to serve.” ~ unknown
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
~ Paul in Galatians 6:2 (Christianity)
“Rendering assistance to another is the function of all human beings.”
~ Tattvarthasutra 5.21 (Jainism)
“All are responsible for one another.”
~ Talmud, Sanhedrin 27b (Judaism)
“The best of men are those who are useful to others.”
~ Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)
“Let no one seek his own good, but rather the good of his neighbor.”
~ Paul in 1 Corinthians 10.24 (Christianity)
“Without selfless service are no objectives fulfilled; In service lies the purest action.”
~ Adi Granth, Maru, M.1 (Sikhism)
“The man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks first to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks first to enlarge others.”
~ Analects 6.28.2 (Confucianism)
“When you are in the service of your fellow beings you are actually in the service of your God.”
~ Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2.17 (Mormonism/CLD)
“One who serves and seeks no recompense finds union with the Lord. Such a servant alone takes the Master’s guidance … as on him is divine grace.”
~ Adi Granth, Sukhmani 18, M.5 (Sikhism)
“Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to his own interests, but to the interests of others.”
~ Paul in Philippians 2.3-4 (Christianity)
“God’s definition of goodness is total giving, total service, and absolute unselfishness. We are to live for others. This is goodness. And here unity, harmony, and prosperity abound.”
~ Sun Myung Moon, 10-20-73 (Unification Church)
“Heaven is eternal and Earth everlasting.
They can be eternal and everlasting because they do not exist for them- selves,
And for this reason can exist forever.
Therefore the sage places himself in the background,
but finds himself in the foreground.
He puts himself away, and yet he always remains.”
Lao Tsu in Tao Te Ching 7 (Taoism)
“Every selfless act … is born from the eternal, infinite Godhead. God is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law. Whoever violates it, indulging his senses for his own pleasure and ignoring the needs of others, has wasted his life. But those who realize the God within are always satisfied … Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to self-less work one attains the supreme goal in life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind … The ignorant work for their own profit, the wise work for the welfare of the world, without thought to themselves.”
~ Bhagavad Gita 3.10-26 (Hinduism)
“Guardianship is not to give an order but to give one’s self.”
~ Nyika Proverb (Traditional Religions of Kenya & Tanzania)
“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve …”
~ Matthew 20.25-28 (Christianity)
The sage does not accumulate for himself.
The more he uses for others, the more he has himself.
The more he gives to others, the more he possesses of his own.”
~ Lao Tsu in Tao Te Ching 81 (Taoism)
If, for my own sake, I cause harm to others,
I shall be tormented in hellish realms;
But if for the sake of others I cause harm to myself,
I shall acquire all that is magnificent.
By holding myself in high esteem
I shall find myself in unpleasant realms, ugly and stupid;
But should this [attitude] be shifted to others
I shall acquire honors.
If I employ others for my own purposes
I myself shall experience servitude,
But if I use myself for the sake of others
I shall experience only lordliness.”
~ Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8.126-128 (Buddhism)
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