Altruism Vs Egoism

The recent calamity has caused much impacts on the lives of people in the world. A lot of lessons can be drawn from these impacts.

Appeals have been flying all over, much more in the cyber world. Some critics even mentioned that Buddhist organisations are selfish, for they only take care of Sri Lanka (a buddhist country), which is apparent in the various appeal emails and websites of the buddhist organisations.

One of my friends is also badly affected, and I supposed many friends will be so eager to offer help. I did my own reflections and reminded myself that the 'willingness to help' comes from different intentions. I may not be a psychology student, but from wat i remember, ppl may help because:

1) It makes them feel happy
2) It makes them appear to be nice
3) For rewards/selfish reasons
4) Out of hypocrisy

Altruism is hard to come by, often plagued by egoism. There are even ppl who claimed that Mother Theresa helped because she wants to go to the heaven - I have no idea on it, but at least her actions benefitted many people.

There are ppl who loves to show concern and care openly to others, because they hope others will do the same to them when they are in troubled times. Similarly, there are also ppl who prefer to be left alone, and thus feel that the best way to help their troubled friends is to leave them alone too. No matter what, we shld not impose our views or apply our principles on others, and disturb their peace or deprive them of care & concerns from other friends.

Its almost a week since I have my left eye lasik. I am still not used to the feeling, and would have the urge to grab my specs whenever i wake up from the bed or recover from meditation. Sometimes when I looked into the mirror before i bathed, i would thought of 'removing' my contact lenses, only to recollect the fact that I am NOT wearing any.

I give the Singapore govt 2 thumbs up for appealing to the mass to keep a low key new yr celebration, in light of the Tsuanmi disaster. I also sadhu to Teddy for telling me something similar abt his birthday, that there is no need to over emphasize on it. Now i really appreciate the practice of 1 min 哀悼. Sometimes, its just not the right time to have celebrative mood.