The greatest good in your own sphere of influence.

[Dan.Linehan]

When you start thinking about polarity being used in decision making, it can be easy to get stuck doing things with only one of two motivations in mind:

a. The best decisions for your own benefit alone.
b. The best decisions for the greatest good of all people.

Choosing one of these or the other can be very difficult. Personally, I don't have the drive or the ego to want to do only things that are only good for me and me alone. On the other hand, I don't feel like I have the wisdom or capacity to decide what would best for six billion people. There are so many problems to fix, where would I start?

I think the answer to this quandry lies within the idea of subjective reality.

I visualize subjective reality as being my own sort of "sphere of Influence" that I've created for myself. This sphere certainly doesn't contain 6 billion people, instead it's a circle of only twenty to thirty of my friends and acquaintances.

Figuring out what is for the greatest good of these people in my life is much, much easier than trying to prioritize the needs of everyone, including all the people I've never met.

For me, when I ask myself, "What is the greatest good I can do for all the people in my life," my answers become much clearer. I can also attach more emotions to my intentions because I inherently already have an emotional connection to the people I'm thinking about, and doing good for.

The people in my life literally are my world.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments on this, hopefully this thought process can shed a little light on everyones paths.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

When you start thinking about polarity being used in decision making, it can be easy to get stuck doing things with only one of two motivations in mind:

a. The best decisions for your own benefit alone.
b. The best decisions for the greatest good of all people.

Choosing one of these of the other can be very difficult. Personally, I don't have the drive or the ego to want to do only things that are only good for me and me alone. On the other hand, I don't feel like I have the wisdom or capacity to decide what would best for six billion people. There are so many problems to fix, where would I start?

I think the answer to this quandry lies within the idea of subjective reality.

I visualize subjective reality as being my own sort of "sphere of Influence" that I've created for myself. This sphere certainly doesn't contain 6 billion people, instead it's a circle of only twenty to thirty of my friends and acquaintances.

Figuring out what is for the greatest good of these people in my life is much, much easier than trying to prioritize the needs of everyone, including all the people I've never met.

For me, when I ask myself, "What is the greatest good I can do for all the people in my life," my answers become much clearer. I can also attach more emotions to my intentions because I inherently already have an emotional connection to the people I'm thinking about, and doing good for.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this, and I hope that this thought process can shed a little light on everyones paths.

I would describe myself as a SELFWorker (I think), and the way I think is similar to what you think, except that even within my own circle of friends I don't presume to know what's best for them. I simply focus on doing the greatest good for myself and I hope that they follow by example. In other words, if I get healthy and fit, maybe it will rub off on them. If I build wealth, maybe I can inspire them, etc. So my primary thing is to "fix myself" first, and hopefully that translates to "fixing the world" as well.

[Smokefish]

I use that term, when I'm unsure of what my next move will be and my decision will affect my family or friends as well as myself. I'm not really good at meditating, but I'm a good dreamer so, before I go to sleep I will think about the problem and tell myself that I will dream a solution that is for the greatest good of all involved. It has always worked out wonderfully for me and everyone that would be affected by my choice. The other times that I use that term is when a friend or family member is having some kind of difficulty and then I pray that they will make the decision that is for their own greatest good. We can't necessarily know what is the greatest good for another person, but in my experience, sending them that energy helps.