“Perhaps I should spend my time trying to help those less fortunate than me in this lifetime and hopefully be pleasantly surprised when I leave” – Amazon Review
I saw this in an Amazon Review for one of those books about enlightenment and I thought it was a great philosophy because it covers two areas.
The first is that many people help others less fortunate than themselves because they receive praise for it. So in fact they do it for their own self interest. The praise feeds their ego and they feel good.
If you recognise this De Mello calls it “enlightened self interest”.
The second is that many people help others less fortunate than themselves because they think it will benefit them in the next life. Again then this is self interest at work.
They are helping others because they believe it will benefit them in some way at some point.
Very few people, when it comes down to it, help others just to be “nice”. Most want something in return.
This Amazon reviewer says just get on with helping others less fortunate than yourself when you can without expecting anything in return. If there is a next life and there is some sort of pay off for what you do in that next life … well that’s just a bit of icing on the cake!