why helping others?

zhi lin, modified 13 Years ago at 9/19/10 11:48 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 9/19/10 11:39 PM

why helping others?

Posts: 8 Join Date: 8/12/10 Recent Posts
this may be silly, but a friend of mine just did something small but nice for me and it got me thinking a bit...
I wanted to put that thought down somewhere so i could reflect on it later (perhaps it is silly and unworthy of further reflection? i don't know...)
anyhow if anyone have some insights or thoughts about this i would be very interested to read what you will be ever so generous to share with me.


Why do people care about others?
Why do something for someone else? friends, family...
It's not because we get anything in return, giving a tip to a friend will only result in him getting positive results.
Only thing we get in return is joyful feeling.
why do we get a joyful feeling?
is it our intrinsic nature?
if it make us happy, why no just do this constantly, helping others.
If people found out that giving makes us happy for so long, much more than getting and greediness, for years people have know that, it is not complicated and everyone has experienced this, why didn't people just begin to give and give and give.
is it because that the "take" conditioning/instinct is stronger than the "give" conditioning/instinct regardless of the result?

if it fits this kind of formula, do x action and get x feeling in return; isn't this a conditioning?
aren't all conditioning a form of slavery?



thats all, thank you for reading!
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Andy Coke, modified 13 Years ago at 10/21/10 3:55 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 10/21/10 3:55 PM

RE: why helping others?

Posts: 93 Join Date: 10/5/09 Recent Posts
there is probably not a straight answer.

I guess there are many ways of thinking about it. If you think of it in terms of cold logic, there would probably be no reasons whatsoever apart from self interest. But then, nobody says we need to be logic all the time.

You could also think in terms of evolution. In that case love might be seen as a mechanism to make you protect your close relatives.

And you could go on and on about all the teories. There is still research going on in philosophy departments about this kind of thing, and I don't think we will have a definite solution.


Whatever the reasons are, you still have the feelings, and you can cultivate them (through metta practices, nlp or whatever) or 'reduce' them.

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This Good Self, modified 13 Years ago at 10/23/10 12:43 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 10/23/10 12:43 AM

RE: why helping others?

Posts: 946 Join Date: 3/9/10 Recent Posts
It seems like you understand it already zhi, and your post is a good reminder for me. Nicely written.
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