Selflessness

The greatest liberation is liberation from one's self. Being selfless comes to few of us. Selflessness is not the practice of doing what is nice, or what is good for someone else. Selflessness is being entirely without self consciousness in any given moment. You might think, "Well, then extroverts must be selfless." To the contrary, actors and extroverts are perhaps most conscious of themselves and their actions in order to elicit an approving response from their audiences. I believe I have had a selfless moment or two. In one of these moments, experienced during a cold night on a deserted beach, I was no longer aware of my own being and was simply experiencing flight through the stars. I was the flight, the process of passage through space. Then I came crashing back to myself. I have no idea how long it lasted, but I experienced a unity with The Universe which I will never forget. I have come close to that experience in meditation, nursing the dying, chanting and even making love over the years. In my practice now, I try to get in touch with my yearning for that liberation in the hope that I may embrace it when death comes to me.