Which is more important? Yourself or other things?

[The Transcended Omniverse]

I think the person is the most important thing in life and everything else being secondary. I would not, for example, abandon my mother if she were ill or sick and leave her to suffer just because I thought that something else in this life was more precious than her such as nature or this universe. Therefore, since the person is the most important thing, then what is important needs to be preserved. A person needs to live forever and be happy since that is preserving the individual and is respect towards their importance.

It would be disrespect and the worst thing for that said person to be nothing more than some biological organism that is just here to live and forever die and decay in the end. That is not preserving the individual. That is the worst horrible thing and a complete insult and demeaning of the person's value. I am just as important as anyone else and I as well as other innocent people deserve to be happy and preserved (to be immortal souls that live in an eternal blissful afterlife).

Some say this is selfish and arrogance. But here again, the person is what is more important than other things in life. The preservation of the person is what is important. It is a person's happiness, well-being, and preservation (living forever) that is important. No person's happiness, well-being, and preservation should be left out. That includes my own since I am just as important as anyone else.

The legacy and other things we leave for others are "other things." They are those less important secondary things compared to the individual. In other words, it is not the legacy and memories we leave behind for others that is the most important thing. The person his/herself is what is most important and it is his/her happiness, well-being, and preservation that is the most important thing in life.

In regards to sacrifice, that is good. If you put yourself through pain to save someone else's life, that is good. However, if you had to completely sacrifice yourself in the sense of forever no longer existing, then that makes you utterly inferior. You have demeaned your own self importance and you are just as important as anyone else. Not only have you made yourself inferior, but you have also made yourself nobody. When you forever no longer exist anymore, you are nevermore. You become nobody.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I think the person is the most important thing in life and everything else being secondary. I would not, for example, abandon my mother if she were ill or sick and leave her to suffer just because I thought that something else in this life was more precious than her such as nature or this universe. Therefore, since the person is the most important thing, then what is important needs to be preserved. A person needs to live forever and be happy since that is preserving the individual and is respect towards their importance.

It would be disrespect and the worst thing for that said person to be nothing more than some biological organism that is just here to live and forever die and decay in the end. That is not preserving the individual. That is the worst horrible thing and a complete insult and demeaning of the person's value. I am just as important as anyone else and I as well as other innocent people deserve to be happy and preserved (to be immortal souls that live in an eternal blissful afterlife).

Some say this is selfish and arrogance. But here again, the person is what is more important than other things in life. The preservation of the person is what is important. It is a person's happiness, well-being, and preservation (living forever) that is important. No person's happiness, well-being, and preservation should be left out. That includes my own since I am just as important as anyone else.

The legacy and other things we leave for others are "other things." They are those less important secondary things compared to the individual. In other words, it is not the legacy and memories we leave behind for others that is the most important thing. The person his/herself is what is most important and it is his/her happiness, well-being, and preservation that is the most important thing in life.

In regards to sacrifice, that is good. If you put yourself through pain to save someone else's life, that is good. However, if you had to completely sacrifice yourself in the sense of forever no longer existing, then that makes you utterly inferior. You have demeaned your own self importance and you are just as important as anyone else. Not only have you made yourself inferior, but you have also made yourself nobody. When you forever no longer exist anymore, you are nevermore. You become nobody.

As much as I love myself, I have to sit back and think of why I love myself-because of the things, people, and what I do to express gratitude is what matters and makes me me. While my body and mind will decay; so, I can't egotistically hold on to them, my spirit will live in the things I own and in the people I love and still remember me. My creativeness from writing to ritual are all part of me and never die. While we can focus on our self, I think of what The Buddha says, and I am paraphrasing, that even though he lives today and will die, he actually does not die. He was alive in the past, alive now, and will be alive tomorrow in his many manifestations from wisdom to knowledge. All in the Dharma. I likened to that because The Buddha is the mind and if I were to think of a "thing" that I value more than my self would be my mind.

That is why I see things more important than myself. They leave legacy, teaching, creativity, and expression. They are people (not just things) that are external to me technically but all of which are internal. In pantheism, everything is interconnected. So there is really no such thing as "things" but just quote on quote god (severe lack of a better word) or spirit, I could say.

Nam.

 

[psychoslice]

To truly love your Self is to love all, the realization of knowing your Self, is also to know that you are One with all, so to love your Self, is to love all.

 

[Milton Platt]

I think the person is the most important thing in life and everything else being secondary. I would not, for example, abandon my mother if she were ill or sick and leave her to suffer just because I thought that something else in this life was more precious than her such as nature or this universe. Therefore, since the person is the most important thing, then what is important needs to be preserved. A person needs to live forever and be happy since that is preserving the individual and is respect towards their importance.

It would be disrespect and the worst thing for that said person to be nothing more than some biological organism that is just here to live and forever die and decay in the end. That is not preserving the individual. That is the worst horrible thing and a complete insult and demeaning of the person's value. I am just as important as anyone else and I as well as other innocent people deserve to be happy and preserved (to be immortal souls that live in an eternal blissful afterlife).

Some say this is selfish and arrogance. But here again, the person is what is more important than other things in life. The preservation of the person is what is important. It is a person's happiness, well-being, and preservation (living forever) that is important. No person's happiness, well-being, and preservation should be left out. That includes my own since I am just as important as anyone else.

The legacy and other things we leave for others are "other things." They are those less important secondary things compared to the individual. In other words, it is not the legacy and memories we leave behind for others that is the most important thing. The person his/herself is what is most important and it is his/her happiness, well-being, and preservation that is the most important thing in life.

In regards to sacrifice, that is good. If you put yourself through pain to save someone else's life, that is good. However, if you had to completely sacrifice yourself in the sense of forever no longer existing, then that makes you utterly inferior. You have demeaned your own self importance and you are just as important as anyone else. Not only have you made yourself inferior, but you have also made yourself nobody. When you forever no longer exist anymore, you are nevermore. You become nobody.

I don't bother much with philosophy, but you question is an interesting one. Wouldn't the answer be situational in nature?

 

[Ingledsva]

I think the person is the most important thing in life and everything else being secondary. I would not, for example, abandon my mother if she were ill or sick and leave her to suffer just because I thought that something else in this life was more precious than her such as nature or this universe. Therefore, since the person is the most important thing, then what is important needs to be preserved. A person needs to live forever and be happy since that is preserving the individual and is respect towards their importance.

It would be disrespect and the worst thing for that said person to be nothing more than some biological organism that is just here to live and forever die and decay in the end. That is not preserving the individual. That is the worst horrible thing and a complete insult and demeaning of the person's value. I am just as important as anyone else and I as well as other innocent people deserve to be happy and preserved (to be immortal souls that live in an eternal blissful afterlife).

Some say this is selfish and arrogance. But here again, the person is what is more important than other things in life. The preservation of the person is what is important. It is a person's happiness, well-being, and preservation (living forever) that is important. No person's happiness, well-being, and preservation should be left out. That includes my own since I am just as important as anyone else.

The legacy and other things we leave for others are "other things." They are those less important secondary things compared to the individual. In other words, it is not the legacy and memories we leave behind for others that is the most important thing. The person his/herself is what is most important and it is his/her happiness, well-being, and preservation that is the most important thing in life.

In regards to sacrifice, that is good. If you put yourself through pain to save someone else's life, that is good. However, if you had to completely sacrifice yourself in the sense of forever no longer existing, then that makes you utterly inferior. You have demeaned your own self importance and you are just as important as anyone else. Not only have you made yourself inferior, but you have also made yourself nobody. When you forever no longer exist anymore, you are nevermore. You become nobody.

I chose self, but for a different reason. If you don't love and take care of yourself, - you won't be loving and taking care of other people for long.

 

[VioletVortex]

Myself. I actually care very little about many things. I am very self centered, everything I do is ultimately about myself.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Too many sacrifices and there will be hardly anyone enabled left to do anything!

Too little and it becomes a virtual sea of wolves and sheep to where eventually, there will be nothing but wolves to eat each other.

 

[Unfathomable Tao]

I think the line between oneself and other things is more ambiguous than we often like to believe. Phenomenology puts forth, especially that of Merleau Ponty, that when engaged with bodies in an impression forming relationship- the mind or self sense is seemingly indistinguishable from the action and impression being formed. Our bodies are engaged totally in the activity, so that these kinds of seeming divisions become blurred. Am I somehow seperable from replying to you right now, for example? This is insight both Buddhism and Taoism have touched on for centuries.

 

[Demonslayer]

I'm way more important than all of you.