Today is November 1st, 1985. It’s around 2:30 in the afternoon.

I’d like to talk with you today about selfless giving.

People ask sometimes, what is the meaning of life? Why do we exist? Is there a purpose, or a reason or, did it just happen? Are we just an accident in the cosmos? Or is there a plan or an idea?

Is there a God? If there is a God, how could a being we refer to as “higher” create a world with so much pain, frustration, selfishness, and beauty?

Most people lead lives of frustration and disappointment. They enjoy temporary pleasures … and long-lasting suffering.

We live in a world where people fight wars; they kill each other. They rape the Earth. One nationality suppresses another, one religion claims to be the exclusive way to truth or God.

We see very few people who are satisfied. They say that the only ones who are really happy are the enlightened or the fools.

You live in this world for a short time. Ten years, twenty years, eighty years. Eighty years is not very long in cosmic time, is it?

We don’t really remember where we came from and we’re not too sure about where we go to. If we go, if we “are,” after this thing that we call life.

There doesn’t necessarily seem to be a whole lot we can do about it. You don’t really have a choice. You are alive, you will die.

And yet, there are those who tell us that we can be uncommonly happy, even in a world of disease, a world of frustration and more than occasional disappointment. You can be uncommonly happy.

There are those who preach the gospel of life after death. In other words, if you do certain things now, then in an immortal land after you die you’ll enjoy some kind of perpetual happiness.

And they posit that against hell and suffering, some kind of eternal damnation. If you don’t do those things, or if you do their opposite, then you will experience eternal suffering.

There are different views—different cosmologies, ways of seeing life.

I personally don’t subscribe to any particular cosmology or belief system … I’m a seer.

My name is Rama, and I’d like to talk to you a little bit about my own personal experiences, because those are all I really have to go with or from. Now, I’m fortunate in the sense that I have pretty good vision. Sort of 20/20 in the inner world.

So, of course, I can recall my past lives, and other peoples’ lives. I can see other times, other dimensions. Because I’ve spent many years and many lifetimes studying the science of being, the science of attention and awareness.

Now, what all of that boils down to—for me, and of course for others who have had similar experiences—is a kind of a “seeing.” And that seeing is a seeing of life.

That is to say, I see life not in just one way, but in a lot of different ways, because life is not one thing. If I put on a pair of rose-colored glasses, the world will be rosy. If I put on yellow-tinted glasses, the world will be yellow.

There are thousands and millions of dimensions. Other worlds. There are of course, other physical worlds, but there are realities that are mind. States of mind. Everything is a state of mind. Everything depends upon your level of attention or awareness.

So there are many views, many ways to view life. Is there one way that is infinitely more correct than another? I think so. In that I think that the way that is most correct is not to have a single way.

But one thing that I have seen, again and again, regardless of the method of apprehension of the dimensional plane that one is in—one thing that I’ve seen again and again is selfless giving and how effective it is.

Selfless giving presupposes something.

It presupposes that there is a luminous reality which is beyond sight, sound and mind. It is beyond the senses. It’s within us and around us.

Some people call it God, some call it nirvana, truth, there are many different names, the tao. Lots of names. The names don’t really matter. I could call you Susan or Bob or Harold. That name doesn’t ultimately change who or what you are, it’s a description. It’s something we affix in time and space.

The luminous reality is for real. Because I see it and feel it and experience it. Constantly.

One who sees and feels and experiences the luminous reality constantly, we say is enlightened. Simply meaning that they live in a state of light. They’re always aware of that luminous energy that is life.

They’re not simply confined to the experience of their senses—feeling, tasting, smelling, hearing and touching. They use a sixth sense to look where their eyes cannot see; to hear where their ears can’t listen; to taste that which cannot be tasted with the tongue; to feel that which can never be felt, even in the most delicate caress.

To hear something more beautiful than all the symphonies that have ever been, and the most celestial voices.

Perfection—it’s everywhere.

But yet again, looking at most of the people in this world, you’d say, “Well, where is that? If all this so-called perfection is around, people sure seem to be missing the boat! Why don’t people see and feel it more?”

It’s because they’re stuck in their senses, they’re stuck in their thoughts. They’re stuck in a real limited way of seeing life. Which is based upon all kinds of things—karma, attention fields, descriptions of the world—but ultimately, everything that causes one’s limited view of the world is not important.

What’s important is getting out of it. And not simply adapting another cosmology. That’s just as limited.

For example, there are many people who are pretty primitive in a limited way of looking at life. Our life is to be lived just for the enjoyment of the senses, meaning [that] eating, having sex, feeling comfortable, is a short path to annihilation in my estimation.

These things might be fun, but if that’s what you base your life around, if your life is around just being comfortable, then you’re never very comfortable, are you? You suffer quite a bit. Because in the realm of the senses there is not only pleasure, but there is pain. The senses, and their experiences by themselves, create emotional storms; passions surge through us, and those passions that are not fulfilled: we’re unhappy, the desires, that is.

And yet, they say that the luminous reality is all around us, it’s right in front of us, it’s inside of us. There are those who are enlightened, who live in a perpetual state of bliss.

Now the truly enlightened are not necessarily very religious. Religion is a way of looking at life. It’s a convenient description to take care of our fears, to pacify us.

Enlightenment doesn’t have much to do with religion. You can be religious and be enlightened. You could not be religious at all and be enlightened. Enlightenment doesn’t simply mean being happy. Nor does it mean being able to meditate well and having a pretty fluid level of attention.

It means something else. It’s quite difficult to define. It means going beyond the human spectrum—as we know it—and merging your awareness with everything.

Enlightenment doesn’t mean that you know everything; it doesn’t mean you can fix the car. It doesn’t mean you can speak in all languages. It doesn’t mean that you know what’s going to happen when you go out walking today. It’s not a prescient knowledge of the future and all pasts, those are psychic abilities.

One can be enlightened and not see those things because you are so immersed in light that there’s no one there to know.

In other words, we like to think of enlightenment as something that we experience. You will experience enlightenment, meaning you will stay basically the same and enlightenment is like some wonderful food that you will eat, and the eating of this food will make you feel great.

But it’ll still be you that’s eating the food. Enlightenment is the food that eats you.

It means growing up psychically, and seeing that there’s a big universe around us, with countless planes of attention. That life is composed of lines of light, fibers of energy, pulsing, surging, still. Pure being.

Self-discovery is the entrance into all of that. It means leaving this world, not necessarily physically. It’s a journey, it’s a trip.

The trip changes you. Your life is the journey. You’re on the trip now.

How’s it going?

There are different pathways—to immortality—to this experience of enlightenment.

And remember, enlightenment is not just a final ending. That is to say, it’s not something that happens to you just one day. You get a letter in the mail and they tell you you’ve been enlightened. And everything was horrible up to that day, and everything will be perfect after that.

That’s not the case. Enlightenment is something that happens gradually over many years, over many incarnations.

And, you still suffer, after enlightenment. In the sense that the body still feels pain.

Thoughts still pass through the mind, emotions. But there’s not really a sense of participation.

Anyway, let’s not talk too much about enlightenment right now because we’re talking today about selfless giving.

You and I are having a conversation. You’re listening, and I’m talking. But I’m listening to you as I talk. I can feel you out there. You’re a part of me. I’m a part of you, and we’re all a part of this great nothingness.

So the question—the only one that’s really worthwhile—is, “What do you want? Are you content with your life as it is?” If you are, enjoy it. Enjoy the transitory pains and pleasures of what we call the samsara, the world appearance, the way things are, life.

But, if there’s something in you that wants enlightenment—that wants the experience of power, luminosity, attention, energy—that wants to go beyond the veil of suffering and seeing yourself simply as a person; if there’s something in you that wants to go beyond all of that, and each day grow into something that’s more beautiful, that resonates more with life, then you’re looking for enlightenment.

It comes in different forms and different packages. There’s no one way to go about it.

Oh! There I go, talking about enlightenment again. I don’t really want to talk about enlightenment.

I’d like to talk about—having fun. Now, different people have fun in different ways. Admittedly. And no one way is better than another. I guess.

But I have observed—you may have had this experience—that most people who are out there having fun do not seem to be having a great deal of fun. [Rama laughs.]

People go to beaches, they go to carnivals, parties. They participate in sports, they do all kinds of things. They drink, they smoke. They sniff. They do a lot of things. They follow religions. They meditate. They do japa, they repeat mantrams.

[Rama imitates an Indian guru.]

• “Oh, the Guru! He tells them the truth in the divine waaaay, but he is not necessarily so happy a great deal of the time, because his disciples, they drive him up the wall!” [Rama laughs.]

[Normal voice]

Yeah, I don’t see that most people are exactly real happy.

Even the ones who profess to be this, or that or the other thing.

But I know a way to happiness. Why do I know this way? Because I’ve been interested in finding a way for a long, long time. I know a lot of ways to happiness. I also know some pretty fast shortcuts to misery.

There’s one way, though, that I know of, that leads to happiness which never fails. It’s the one thing that at any stage in your evolution can raise your level of attention. Can make you feel better. Can add significantly to your life.

And that is selfless giving.

Selfless giving is friendliness. It’s an attitude towards life, a reverence for life. And it is one of the highest of all ways.

As a matter of fact, just about every tradition that talks about enlightenment—the expansion of consciousness, all that stuff—they all talk about one thing in common, and no matter what their method is or their methodlessness or whatever the heck they’ve got going on, I noticed that one thing is constant. And that’s that all of them, I’m sure with a notable exception or two somewhere, talk about selfless giving as a means, a way of raising attention, purifying the being, getting through the day, paying off karmic bills.

They talk about selfless giving.

Again, I see a lot of talk about selfless giving, I don’t see too much selfless giving, even among the people who talk about it—but … technical matters, right?

I should point out here—it’s important—that I’m really not setting myself up as a paragon of virtue. I have done a lot of different things in this life and other lives.

I’ve experienced most of what the universe has to offer on my journey to enlightenment.

But I still see what I see. That is to say, when I talk about people who talk about selfless giving, and I say they don’t practice it too much, that’s the truth.

I practice it, not because I’m remarkable, but just because I find it’s terrifically fun, and I find that these people who don’t practice it don’t seem to have much of a good time.

So I don’t in any way—in any of my conversations or dialogues with you—ever wish to elevate myself. In other words, I’m not saying, “Gee, I’m a great guy, and other people aren’t as great.” Not even by subtle inference. I have no need to put anybody down. But I still see what I see.

It’s sort of like the emperor’s new clothes. I see no reason to say that emperor is dressed well if he hasn’t got a stitch of clothing on. So in the same sense, I see no reason to say that a waffle is a carrot. Unless, of course, it turns out to be one. But anyway, let’s not get into all that stuff.

Selfless giving. What’s the point? Well, the point is having fun.

“Having fun,” you say, “isn’t that a little transitory? Really Rama, I’m just into liberation, I’m just so devotional, I aspire so much to—I’m so good, I’m so pure, I’m so ssssselflessss.”

That’s sort of the Beverly Hills spiritual seeker. There are a lot of them everywhere. People who are “So-o selfless, Rama, oh, but I want to take as much time and attention and show everyone how important and how selfless I am.” Right.

Again, I have no issue with that, they just don’t seem to be having much fun. I mean, who’s having fun out there?

“Mmm, the purpose of life,” the intellectual says, “is not to have fun, Rama.”

Says who? Why not? Why not have fun, why not have a good time. What, just because everybody else is having a lousy time, you shouldn’t have fun? This does not make sense. You know, common sense goes a long way in self-discovery, as in anything else.

Selfless giving is a lot of fun.

And I think if you view it in that way—in other words, don’t think of selfless giving as a unpleasant prescription medicine that YOU have to take so YOU can reach higher levels of attention and feel all that power and ecstasy surging through every cell in your body.

No. Not at all. Selfless giving is just plain fun. Meaning you’re going to do something that’s going to make you feel better than you feel at the moment.

Not necessarily because it’s going to help anybody else.

[Rama playfully imitates an Irish priest.]

• “Oh, Willy, now. This is Father Flanagan now. Today you’re gonna go out and we’re gonna do some work for the parish and you’re gonna go out and you’re gonna sell those little Christmas seals. You’ll raise a lot of money, and Willy, it’s good. Aye, the Holy Mother, she used to sell them too.”

[Normal voice, Rama laughs.]

Well, Willy might go out and sell those Christmas seals and feel lousy. And even if he sold a lot and he walked back into Father Flanagan, and he expected the Father to really pat him on the head and say, “Oh Willy, aye, you sold more than anybody, you’re a great kid. You ever think of joining the priesthood, Willy? We have nice cars, you know. You like cars, Willy?”

You see, Willy isn’t really practicing selfless giving. Because he probably had a drag of a time going from door to door selling those little seals. And then even once they were sold, his ego got involved in the whole action.

What a drag being Willy. Willy was probably happier before he did any selfless giving. Now he’s miserable because Father Flanagan ignored him, or the Father will say, “Oh Willy, you’re such a good lad, Oh Willy! I had a dream about you this marnin’, Willy. In the dream God spoke to me, and he said ‘Willy, that Willy, he’s OK.’ You hear that now Willy?”

You see, so then, Willy will feel, “I’m wonderful, I’m better than others, I am superior.” And his ego will inflate. Willy was better off before he did anything. He was happier.

Did you ever have that experience? You’re happier before you started meditating and practicing self-discovery? I know a lot of people like that.

Oh, they’ve learned a lot, and they’re more powerful now. But they’re still not happy; actually, they may be not as happy.

Well, is that because there’s something wrong with meditation and self-discovery and selfless giving?

No way. What’s wrong is their approach. Meaning, they did not have fun. In other words, if you are performing: selfless giving, meditation, gazing, mysticism, occultism and all those exciting arts, and you don’t enjoy them while you practice them, if you’re like gonna go through the, “Oh, I’m gonna suffer, and it’s gonna be hard, but boy, one day I’ll have a swimming pool, and a big house and a camel of my own!”

If that’s your attitude, nothing’s going to happen, really. Nothing in particular, that is. Because while you may be able to lift weights all day long and get strong muscles, you can’t necessarily practice self-discovery all day long and become enlightened.

It has to be done in a certain spirit. Because unlike other arts, it’s not simply a physical practice that causes anything to happen.

[Rama playfully imitates an evangelical preacher.]

• “You can chant those mantras all day long, and do those beads, brothers and sisters. And you can send in them cards and them letters and them pledges and them dollars. But if you doin’ it for the selfish motives, you not goin’ anyplace. Matter of fact, you may go down. So I’m tellin’ you right now, you better get down with selfless giving. That’s right.”

[Normal voice, Rama laughs heartily.]

Hi, this is Rama, it’s November the 1st, 1985, and we’re talking about selfless giving.

Selfless giving is a great time. It simply means you forget about yourself and you go do something for someone else or something else. It’s living life for the hell of it in a really nice way.

Got the blues? Life got you down? Things aren’t working out the way you want them to—well, they never do, do they? Unless you learn not to want. In which case everything is OK, or it just doesn’t matter. That’s the condition of the enlightened.

But that doesn’t do you a lot of good, does it? Well, then, what do you do? Have fun. How do you have fun? Most people have fun by doing things to please themselves.

[Rama imitates an Indian guru.]

• “To gratify the senses. That’s what they do. They study the holy books. And in the holy books, it says, we do not gratify the senses.”

[Normal voice]

Well, some holy books say that; you know, how do these books get to be “holy” anyway? Who are these guys who wrote these books? Well, that’s another matter for another time.

Anyway, selfless giving is having fun.

That’s what it’s predicated upon. It’s not supposed to get you someplace and burn off bad karma. It’s just a way to have fun right away, right here and now. Pounding good.³

That’s selfless giving. A great time. And you can do it in any situation. You don’t have to be Mother Theresa over in Bengal working with the street people.

You can do it at your job, in your home, “in the privacy of your own bedroom.” [Rama laughs.] You’d be surprised where you can practice selfless giving. And I notice some people think they’re doing a lot of selfless giving all the time. Particularly in that realm. That’s not necessarily selfless giving. If you know what I mean. Wink, wink, poke, poke, nudge, nudge.

Well, what is selfless giving then?

[Rama affects a cartoonish voice for “Willy,” keeping his normal voice to reply.]

• “Gosh Rama, what is selfless giving? Tell us Uncle Ram’, please, please, tell us, tell us!”

• Well, Willy, selfless giving is when you do something because it fits. That is to say, there’s no special reason to do it. But yet it’s special to do it. That is to say, it’s fun. It’s fun to do something for someone else.

• “Is it like Christmas, Uncle Ram, is it like Christmas? Oh, I like Christmas, I get a lot of things and I’m happy for about a minute and then I feel rotten because I didn’t get the things I wanted.”

• No, Willy, it’s not like Christmas at all. Christmas is supposed to be about selfless giving. But it’s really not. It’s about merchandising, Willy. And you can make big bucks when you grow up.

• “Oh, Uncle Ram, I’d like to make big bucks.”

• You can make big bucks, Willy, when you grow up, being a merchant. Particularly at Christmas. You do over half your volume business.

• “Oh boy, Uncle Ram, where can I study that?”

• Probably at the UCLA business school or any other large management-oriented educational university. But, Willy, you’ll be miserable.

• “Oh, Uncle Ram, what do I do, what do I do, oh, oh.”

• Well, Willy, you’ve got to practice selfless giving. Now selfless giving means …

[Rama returns to normal voice]

… forgetting about yourself.

Selfless giving means forgetting about yourself. It means letting go and doing something crazy.

What’s crazy?

Well, the craziest thing you can do is do something that has no benefit in it for yourself. Crazy according to the world view. Because it seems to me that everybody out there is just doing things for themselves. So if you don’t do that, you’ve got to be crazy.

Crazy about selfless giving.

[Rama affects a pompous voice.]

• “But Rama, Rama, isn’t selfless giving, isn’t it ultimately just doing something for yourself so you can feel good? How could that be selfless, Rama?”

[Normal voice]

How could it be selfless?

Because feeling good and being happy is the by-product. And who said it’s selfish to feel good? I personally think it’s a natural condition of the universe, and it’s an extremely unnatural condition to not feel good.

So in my opinion, when you practice selfless giving, you’re in balance and harmony with everything. Nature gives constantly to us—the Earth, the air we breathe, our bodies, our attention fields.

We as independent egos think we’re important. Life doesn’t necessarily think we’re so important.

Ah! Selfless giving has to do with overcoming the ego. The ego makes us unhappy. When we are ego-free—sort of like lead-free gas—we feel great. Less pollution in the air. In the psyche.

Selfless giving does not imply superiority. Again, we’re sort of doing the “do nots” today. Is nots. Shall nots. Will nots.

Selfless giving is about love.

If, when you give to someone, you think you’re better than they are because you’re giving to them, then you’re not really loving, you’re not really practicing selfless giving. You can tell, in other words, “The key, the secret to selfless giving revealed.”

The key to selfless giving is that you feel good when you do it and you feel good afterwards. And if you don’t, it wasn’t selfless. Now, granted, in order to give selflessly, one often starts giving selfishly.

As Tiresias once said to Odysseus, “Honey, you don’t get through hell in a hurry.”

So in the same sense, you don’t become selfless in a day, a week or a month. Even a lifetime. But you can become more selfless, meaning you’re having more fun.

Selflessness implies fun. It is fun. It’s fun to be free.

No one likes to be chained. Well, you’re chained by the body and the mind and the senses, your conditioning and your thought forms.

Freedom is inner stillness. It’s not being haunted by your desires and your fears and your aggressive tendencies. It’s being cool, “Hey, mellow—being a mellow fellow.”

In the universal oneness, refulgent light, complete absorption in nirvana. Gone without a trace.

Selfless giving means being nice.

And there are times we don’t want to be. And there are time we’re pissed off and angry and “grrrr, snarl.” And so maybe you can’t be too selfless then.

Then when you settle down and cool yourself out, go back to it. Be kind. You’re only here for a while.

No sense of superiority. Just do things for others. It’s really fun, it’s the most fun.

Naturally, in selfless giving, needless to say, one does not allow oneself to be taken advantage of. Selfless giving doesn’t mean that you let people walk all over you. You get a lot of footprints on your face that way.

[Rama affects a tough guy voice.]

• “You know what I mean, kid? You don’t wanna’ let nobody walks on you, no matter whats. Ya gotta retain that integrity and respects. If you don’t respects yourself, then you don’t respects nobody else, and you can’t let nobody waste you, know what I mean kid?

• “So waste them.”

[Normal voice]

No, no. Wait a minute, now wait. That’s a waste of time.

Selfless giving does not imply giving everything up. It’s simply having a good time.

Now, let’s face it. It’s no fun to let somebody abuse you. This is not part of our happiness journey. So, if you’re doing selfless giving and you feel abused and used, then you’re not really doing selfless giving.

What you’re doing is being unhappy. And if you’re unhappy, you’re not going to practice any selfless giving.

Remember, the happiness factor is the key to the effectiveness—the “high-grade, Columbian” selfless giving, as opposed to the low-grade selfless giving—is measured by how good you feel.

Self giving should be obvious.

[Rama imitates a sneaky person.]

• “Where do you start? I want to sign up, I want to join, I want to do this, I want to have more fun, boy oh boy!”

[Normal voice]

Well, you start in your heart. To be honest with you.

[Rama imitates a mean person.]

• “Well I’m a selfish, mean sucker and I don’t care about anybody, where do I start?”

[Normal voice]

Well, you start in finding a heart. You’re kind of like the old Tin Man, you know, in The Wizard of Oz, he didn’t have a heart. You need to find one.

[Rama imitates a mean person.]

• “Well I think that’s a lot of nonsense. I just want power and energy, and sure, I’d like to feel good, I might try this selfless giving stuff, it’ll give me a rush.”

[Normal voice]

Well, it might. I’m not sure you’re a candidate, but you could be, you could be, who can say? That’s what’s fun about life.

Do something nice for somebody. Do something nice for God. Do something nice for the Earth. And don’t expect anything in return. Because if you do, you’ll suffer, suffer, suffer.

What a drag, can’t do a good thing and leave it alone. Always have to take credit.

[Rama imitates the little Willy voice.]

• “Me, me, see me, I did a good thing, oh boy, appreciate me! Oh, Uncle Ram, I did a good thing, oh boy, I’m hot!”

[Normal voice]

And then you’ll just suffer. Still, it’s better to do something. Even if you’re still attached to the results, granted. Because that’ll get you going. Then you can work on the selflessness.

But then again, just to do that over and over won’t necessarily make you selfless, it’ll make you miserable.

Selfless giving. If you meditate each day and still your thoughts, it’ll come to you. Not only is the spirit important, it’s what you do. There’s a dharma to selfless giving.

Dharma simply means the right thing in the right place, in the right space.

And to see that you need to have a clear mind. Meditation will clear your mind.

Meditation is the ultimate selfless act. Because when you meditate you’re sacrificing your puny personality for the universal reality. You’re dancing with life. Life’s a celebration. Don’t miss the party.

Selfless giving has a lot to do with what happens to you in the future, of course. There is karma, both good and bad.

Now, good and bad are ways of looking at something. Something terrible could happen to one person, and they might think it’s pretty great. And somebody else won’t feel the same way.

Good and bad karma are just ways of evaluating causal experience. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

Real karma has to do with an attention field that we’re in. That is to say, what you do affects your awareness field.

So you can tell when you’re on the money because when you do something selfless your attention field is more clear, more lucid, there’s more light in it, more energy. A stillness, a beauty in your being.

When you do something—in quotes—“selfish,” you’ll feel constricted and restricted. You won’t be happy.

You havin’ a tough time, things aren’t workin’ out no matter what you try and do?

That’s because you’re spending your whole life just doing things for yourself. It’s a very limited view of your being.

Everyone is part of you when you do something else for someone else—it’s for you. When you do something for yourself—it’s for someone else.

Attitude is the clear definer here.

Selfless giving. It’s kind of like putting on makeup. We’re covering something up.

What are we covering up? We’re covering up a part of ourselves that’s not very aware.

Is it just a cover-up? Well, the thing is when we take the makeup off, that part of us goes away. The selfish part leaves us. We’re freer, we’re clearer.

Selfless giving. Selfless giving involves time. It takes a bit of time to care and share yourself with the universe.

It also requires a great deal of spiritual sophistication to see that the end result of all things is nothing. But yet some types of nothing are more fun than other types of nothing.

Selfless giving reminds us that there is an eternally present spirit in all of us, that when revealed, frees us and liberates us from both the transitory and the eternal.

Both of which ultimately can be attachments.

The yoga of selfless giving is easy for anyone to practice. But the key—remember—is detachment.

To do something for your chosen cause, your favorite friend, for God, for flowers, for the environment—but it’s the spirit, remember—not the action.

The spirit is unattachment to results. You’re just doing it for the heck of it, just for the pure fun of doing it. And as long as you feel that fun, you’re right on the money.

The final result of all life is your awareness.

Your awareness is existence.

The short way to happiness is through kindness and sensitivity.

The true hallmark of self-discovery—of how advanced a person is, or a being—is how they treat those around them. Not simply what they say or what they preach.

But the results they generate. How kind they are.

As you pass through this life, have you done all that you really wish to for others?

If you’re not having a really good time with your life, it’s because you haven’t. You may have done many things, but you haven’t done much for those around you.

That’s the secret to enlightenment—is kindness and selfless giving. Without that it’s just words, isn’t it?

So be kind, be loving, be generous. Give of yourself, give of your time, and you’ll be happy, you’ll be free. It’s the oldest secret. The one that is most often forgotten. And that’s to have fun through giving. Not simply because it’s noble, but because it’s fun.

“From wonder into wonder existence opens.” ⁴

So have the courage to be selfless in a world where such qualities are not necessarily admired. Dare to be different—be crazy. Each day, try and go through the day with an attitude of being a servant of the world.

You’ll benefit the most. It’s true. And the way will be joyous.

Selfless giving. The best discovery in the whole incarnation. Enjoy it.