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Today's
Meditation:
It
came as a bit of a shock to me when I was old enough to
realize that doing good is a conscious choice. I
hadn't been doing bad things all my life, of course, but I
had never really thought about it before--why do people do
good things? Why did I do good things sometimes, and
not-so-good things other times? Usually it came down
to a couple of criteria--which choice would give me the
most benefit, or which choice would help me to avoid pain
or unpleasantness.
My
motivation was purely self-centered, though I didn't
really see it that way. I saw it as emotional and
physical survival, and I didn't think about things like
trusting life to take care of us or trying to spread good
in the world. As an adult child of an alcoholic, one
of my primary motivations always was to avoid loss and to
make sure that I was set for the future--I couldn't give
away something that I might need next week or next month.
But
when we start doing good acts--spreading goodness, if you
will--we tune into something very important in life,
something that's very universal. We tune into the
positive energy that so many people contribute to, the
energy of compassion and charity. Our good acts
energize us and they energize the recipients of the acts,
and selfishness is not just put aside, but defeated
entirely.
Marcus
Aurelius here is talking about a way of life, a manner of
being that is focused on others, and on giving to others,
even if the giving is in the form of intangibles such as
encouragement or a simple smile. And even though the
recipients of our good acts benefit from them, we benefit
even more, for we're practicing a lifestyle that leads to
great levels of fulfillment, personally, emotionally,
psychologically, and even physically, as our health
improves dramatically as our mental state improves.
Doing
good should be simple and natural. One of my
personal goals is to make goodness a way of life, and I
don't mean that in a sentimental, insincere way. I
mean that I want my acts to contribute to the good of the
world--to the peace, fulfillment, appreciation, gratitude,
and all the other positive energies that are in our world.
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