Spiritist Society Towards the Light

Selfishness

January 20, 2017

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Excerpts from the Spirits’ Book by ALLAN KARDEC

 

910. Can a man obtain efficacious help from spirits in overcoming his passions?

 

"If he addresses a sincere prayer for such help to God and to his good Genius, good spirits will certainly come to his aid, for it is their mission to do so." (459.)

 

911. Is not the action of the passions sometimes so violent that the will is powerless to withstand them?

 

"There are many who say 'l will, but whose willing is only on their lips, and who are not sorry that what they declare themselves to will does not take place. When a man is unable to vanquish his passions, it is because, through the backwardness of his spirit he takes pleasure in yielding to them. He who controls his passions comprehends his spiritual nature; he knows that every victory over then is a triumph of his spirit over matter."

 

912. What is the most efficacious means of combating the Predominance of the corporeal nature?

 

"The practice of abnegation."

 

Selfishness.

 

913. Which, among the vices, may be regarded as the root of the others?

 

"Selfishness, as we have repeatedly told you; for it is from selfishness that everything evil proceeds. Study all the vices, and you will see that selfishness is at the bottom of them all. Combat them as you will, you will never succeed in extirpating them until attacking the evil in its root, you have destroyed the selfishness which is their cause. Let all your efforts tend to this end; for selfishness is the veritable social gangrene. Whoever would make, even in his earthly life, some approach towards moral excellence, must root out every selfish feeling from his heart, for selfishness is incompatible with justice, love, and charity; it neutralizes every good quality."

 

914. Selfishness having its root in the sentiment of personal interest, it would seem that, to extirpate pate it entirely from the human heart, must be a very difficult matter. Is it possible to do so?

 

"In proportion as men become enlightened in regard to spiritual things, they attach less value to material things; and as they emancipate themselves from the bondage of matter, they reform the human institutions by which selfishness is fostered and excited. Such should be the aim of education."

 

915. Selfishness being inherent in the human race, will it not always constitute an obstacle to the reign of perfect goodness upon the earth?

 

"lt is certain that selfishness is your greatest evil; but it belongs to the inferiority of the spirits incarnated upon the earth, and not to the human race as such, and consequently, those spirits, in purifying themselves by successive incarnations get rid of their selfishness as they do of their other impurities. Have you, upon the earth none who have divested themselves of selfishness, and who practice charity? There are more of such than you think, but they are little known, for virtue does not seek to display itself in the glare of popularity. If there is one such among you, why should there not be ten? If there are ten, why should there not be a thousand? And so on."

 

916. Selfishness, so far from diminishing, increases with the civilization that seems to strengthen and intensify it; how can the effect be destroyed by the cause?

 

"The greater the development of an evil, the more hideous is it seen to be. It was necessary for selfishness to do a vast amount of harm, in order that you might see the necessity of extirpating it. When men shall have divested themselves of selfishness, they will live like brothers, doing each other no harm, but mutually aiding each other from a sentiment of solidarity. The strong will then be the support, and not the oppressor, of the weak; and none will lack the necessaries of life, because the law of justice will be obeyed by all. It is of this reign of justice that spirits are now charged to prepare the advent."

 

917. By what means can selfishness be destroyed?

 

"Of all human imperfections, the most difficult to root out is selfishness, because it is connected with the influence of matter, from which man, still too near his origin, has not yet been able to enfranchise himself, and which his laws, his social organization, his education, all tend to maintain. Selfishness will be gradually weakened as your moral life obtains predominance ever your material life through the knowledge which Spiritism gives you of the reality of your future state, stripped of allegoric fables. Spiritism, when it comes to be rightly understood, and identified with the beliefs and habits of the human race, will transform all your customs, usages, and social relations. Selfishness is based on the importance you attribute to your own personality; Spiritism, on the contrary, when rightly understood, causes you to look at everything from a point of view so elevated that the sentiment of personality is lost, so to say, in the contemplation of immensity. In destroying the sentiment of self-importance, by showing its real nature, Spiritism necessarily combats selfishness.

 

"Man is often rendered selfish by his experience of the selfishness of others, which makes him feel the need of defending himself against them. Seeing that others think of themselves and not of him, he is led to think of himself rather than of others. But let the principle of charity and fraternity become the basis of social institutions, of the legal relations between nation and nation and between man and man, and each individual will think less of his own personal interests, because he will see that these have been thought of by others; he will experience the moralizing influence of example and of contact. Amidst the present overflow of selfishness, much virtue is needed to enable a man to sacrifice his own interests for the sake of others, who often feel but little gratitude for such abnegation; but it is above all to those who possess this virtue that the Kingdom of Heaven is opened, and the happiness of the elect assured: while, at the day of judgement, whoever has thought only of himself will be set aside, and left to suffer from his loneliness." (785.) (FENELON.)