Looking Out for Number One

[SalixIncendium]

What does your religion/belief structure teach about who or what to put before all else? God? Fellow man? Nature/Earth? Self?

Why do you believe your religion teaches this?

Bonus question: If you answer anything other than self, where is your own and/or your religion's line between a minor self-sacrifice to put someone's/something's needs before your own and total self-annihilation?

 

[Windwalker]

What does your religion/belief structure teach about who or what to put before all else? God? Fellow man? Nature/Earth? Self?

To use the term God to describe the Ultimate condition of all being/existence itself, I would say to put God as the first priority is the means to first understand, know, and love yourself in and with that Light, and then as a result of that self transformation into Self, then you are actually capable of loving others, as well as the whole of creation.

In order to help others on a plane in distress, you need to first put on your own oxygen mask which is tapped into the source of the oxygen. Then when you are renewed and made healthy, then you are able to help others - not before. So the order is oxygen first (God/Love), your oxygen mask second (self renewal), others third (the result of one having health to help).

Why do you believe your religion teaches this?

I don't really identify with any religion per se, but my background is Christianity, and the reason it should teach this, is because it's what Jesus himself taught, "Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the law". In other words fulfilling love requires tapping into the Source of Love. Drop the first part and go straight for the second, and its your small self, the egoic needy self, trying to find the source of its strength in others. Finding God within is awakening that inner Light which is not dependent on any external sources which can be depleted. That Love is timeless and inexhaustible.

Bonus question: If you answer anything other than self, where is your own and/or your religion's line between a minor self-sacrifice to put someone's/something's needs before your own and total self-annihilation?

The line is the source of that love. Is it your ego self, or the Self which it eternal? When it is the Self, the ego self is merely a conduit, not the source. If the ego self is the source, you will not be able to truly put others' needs before your own. Often times, those that appear very "giving" are actually only seeking for their own ego self, to find acceptance for themselves in the eyes of others, hoping that others will love them for their goodness.

This is not truly "loving your neighbor as yourself", because you don't first have that love of self, which is pure and unconditional. How can one truly forgive another when they can't forgive themselves? How can one truly love another when they don't know what it is to love themselves first?

 

[joe1776]

My personal philosophy includes what I call the Selfishness Paradox. We serve ourselves best when we act with the welfare of others foremost in our minds.

I don't always do it, but I always try.

 

[Jumi]

If you put yourself last, you will find yourself first... the Bible says the meek shall inherit the Earth, Tao te Ching says the sage puts himself in the background and finds himself at the foreground.

 

[Aupmanyav]

What does your religion/belief structure teach about who or what to put before all else? God? Fellow man? Nature/Earth? Self?
Why do you believe your religion teaches this?
Bonus question: If you answer anything other than self, where is your own and/or your religion's line between a minor self-sacrifice to put someone's/something's needs before your own and total self-annihilation?

Fellow men - 'dharma', your duties towards others. This, because religion is a construct of society. If one can help others in some way, nothing better than that. I will not be annihilated, whatever happens. What constitutes me is eternal.

 

[Quintessence]

My religious tradition draws extensively upon the sciences for inspiration in life's living and life's meaningfulness. Ecology in particular is a discipline I am inspired by because it's my background education-wise. One religious lesson that comes out of ecology is that everything is interconnected and interdependent. As such, the idea of putting anything single component of the system before all else is nonsensical.

In terms of practice, what ends up happening in my tradition is a seasonal/cyclical rotation of attention to various aspects. Every aspect has more auspicious times to focus on it, though that doesn't mean you don't or can't pay attention to a given aspect outside of its auspicious time. This seasonal rotation never becomes a "this season focus on self" or "this season focus on non-human persons" though.

 

[LuisDantas]

What does your religion/belief structure teach about who or what to put before all else? God? Fellow man? Nature/Earth? Self?

Seeking wisdom.

Why do you believe your religion teaches this?

There is no other way to deal with the difficult decisions of existence.

Bonus question: If you answer anything other than self, where is your own and/or your religion's line between a minor self-sacrifice to put someone's/something's needs before your own and total self-annihilation?

I don't think there is a simple answer for that. Mainly, it is a matter of gauging the likely effects of each option on the flux of causes and consequences.


Mortality simplifies the task somewhat, of course.

That decision must be made and reevalued often, since the circunstances that must inform it are so many and varying.

 

[crossfire]

What does your religion/belief structure teach about who or what to put before all else? God? Fellow man? Nature/Earth? Self?

Why do you believe your religion teaches this?

Bonus question: If you answer anything other than self, where is your own and/or your religion's line between a minor self-sacrifice to put someone's/something's needs before your own and total self-annihilation?

Chapter XII of the Dhammapada:
Attavagga: The Self
last two lines:

165. By oneself is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself is one made pure. Purity and impurity depend on oneself; no one can purify another.

166. Let one not neglect one's own welfare for the sake of another, however great. Clearly understanding one's own welfare, let one be intent upon the good.​

 

[Sunstone]

To me, one of the greatest imperfectly resolved issues facing any future human religiosity is what to do about the self. I think the ideal adult human is a socially and environmentally responsible individual. You cannot be an individual without a self. And yet I also think individuals should be informed by mysticism -- and mysticism's experience of oneness is an experience of non-self.

 

[Mock Turtle]

My personal philosophy includes what I call the Selfishness Paradox. We serve ourselves best when we act with the welfare of others foremost in our minds.

I don't always do it, but I always try.

Quite - and doesn't require any religious belief to do so.

 

[Mock Turtle]

My non-religion, as espoused by Secular humanists, would indicate that placing oneself first is a recipe for disaster - for oneself and for the rest of life on Earth.