Excellent post.
Maybe one of the reasons I also see that OUTWARD flow and INWARD flow can be mixed is because I see them achieving the same thing. Meaning, I already know that me and everyone "out there" are really the same thing, so helping myself or helping "everyone out there" is the same thing.
Think of it like a lucid dream. Inside your dream, would it be better to bake a cookie and give it to someone in your dream to eat, or would it be better to try to get a cookie to eat in your dream? The answer is both and neither. There is no cookie, there is no YOU or THEM in the dream. Whether YOU eat the cookie or THEY eat the cookie, it's actually just the REAL YOU eating the cookie in either case because you inside your dream and the other person are figments of your imagination.
The only difference is the experience. In one experience you will taste what the cookie tastes like, in the other experience you will experience the pleasure of watching someone eat and enjoy your cookie. In both cases you experience something of value to you.
The only thing I don't get from Steve's example is why you would only want to have dreams where you're always GIVING away cookies, or dreams where you're always GETTING cookies? Why not have dreams of all kinds? Giving dreams where you give/help people and Getting dreams where you get stuff?
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