The masquerade of charity
Charity is really self-interest masquerading under the form of altruism. You say that it is very difficult to accept that there may be times when you are not honest to goodness really trying to be loving or trustful. Let me simplify it - let’s make it as simple as possible - let’s even make it as blunt and extreme as possible.
There are two types of selfishness. The first type is the one where I give myself the pleasure of pleasing myself. That’s what we generally call self-centeredness.
The second is when I give myself the pleasure of pleasing others. That would be a more refined kind of selfishness.
The first one is very obvious, but the second one is very hidden. And for that reason more dangerous. We get to feel that we’re really great, but maybe we’re not all that great after all.
Anthony De Mello
