What is or is meant by egoism, and what is or is meant by altruism?
There is a misconception that egoism is self-love and that altruism involves self-sacrifice.
True self-love does not contain egoism at all, and true altruism is not experienced as self-sacrifice.
I'll start by defining egoism.
Egoism is that which is false substitute, self-deception, delusions, ruthlessness towards both yourself and others,
avoidance of aspects of reality, self-contraction or self-reduction through intensive identifications and at the same time imaginations of being greater and more capable of action than is the case;
manipulation, self-manipulation and sense of lacking as a result of this...and as a result of cultural hypnosis, emotional wounds, and suppression of one's own nature.
So, NOT self-love or natural drives like many believe. Egoism and selfishness is very much built on a feeling of self-contempt.
Altruism, on the other hand, is built on a sense of well-being.
Altruism is love and giving both towards yourself, towards others and towards the world, supported by the right knowledge and self-knowledge.
If altruism, love and giving are experienced as a duty or bothersome sacrifice, then it is not true love or altruism.
True altruism is supported by a sense of being already saturated, a feeling of abundance that wants to share with others.
And this sense of abundance has nothing to do with money or other material assets.
Charity gifts are almost always a form of egoism, a desire to become more appreciated by others or convey a good self-image.
True altruism gives to others without the recipients knowing about it and without expecting anything in return, beyond one's own sense of substance from the actual giving
and the knowledge that you get everything you give back.
Obviously, this can not be about physical gifts, since physical gifts are not necessarily given back.
What a person primarily gives, in true altruism, is everything he/she already is in his/her naturalness.
One's natural talent and specialization, or simply one's presence when needed.
And the fact is that we do not have our nature until we give it away. We do not even have a presence, no substance.
And the feeling of saturation or abundance, which supports altruism, comes from successful self-knowledge.
From the realization that there is nothing to strive for, because we 'are' already. Our lives are more rich than we think.
But it requires the right knowledge, and if this knowledge is not available, then it is the best we can strive for.
The spreading of the right knowledge is also altruism.
Self-acceptance and love of self are the basis of love and altruism, not the other way around.
True altruism also entails the capacity to be able to give by receiving, by letting others support you if it gives them joy and not rejecting their help or feel inferior due to this.
Egoism is heavily dependent on the delusion of free will, while true altruism is supported by insight into the significant or complete limit of free will.
And a "selfless act" does not necessarily mean giving and helping others.
A true selfless act primarily refers to not identifying with your actions, not taking credit for them as they are the result of causal causality.
True altruism is moved by nature, dances with reality and with what is happening.
Egoism tries to move nature, believes it can or should be able to move it, is incapable of dancing with reality, and does not tolerate what is happening.
You begin to hear the voice of your altruism when you question what you really want in life.
Your egoism does not want you to be as when you were a child, even though childhood was nice.
Your egoism desires that you *must* want something, that you have to achieve something to be accepted for and accept yourself for.
And this lack of freedom to simply be yourself in fact increases the confusion regarding what you want in life.
Why want something when you already are? Your body and nature knows better what you need than your egoism.
Since true altruism knows that it gets a sense of well-being from what it does and understands, or has been achieved through a desire to experience well-being in life,
can true altruism also be called "real egoism" or "healthy egoism" - egoism and insight into one's own and others best interest, not delusion or a false substitute.
And that is why this egoism is called "altruism" and NOT egoism. Thus, true altruism can not be experienced as demands or self-sacrifice.
Rather, true altruism is experienced as natural and profoundly satisfying.
That's how you know you're driven by altruism and not egoism.
Egoism makes very few things feel satisfying and constantly demand things from you and from others.
The very essence of altruism is that it does not demand anything.
