Being Kind
How does being kind feel to you? It feels calm and authentic and satisfying to me. For me, kindness just doesn’t happen in a hurry. I know we sometimes perform random acts of kindness that seem spontaneous, but kindness can’t be rushed. When i feel kind I feel true to my inner being. I feel as if the act or thought comes from a peaceful place. So often my behaviors are in response to the actions or communications from others. Kindness seems to be genrated from a different place, a place not dominated by my ego. Kindness seems so satisfying, like cooling water on a humid summer day. If this is how kindness feels, what keeps me from being kind all the time? Could it be an inflexible ego, making fearful demands on my attention?
nine principles for joy 
I may have to disagree with you on this one. Personally speaking, I’m not sure there’s really such a thing as altruism. Sometimes I can be hostile and other times, people see me as a very self-less individual. I’m quick to point out that it’s not the case. The reason is because when we are kind, we feel good about ourselves; especially if we have enhanced the lives of another. That ‘feeling’ we receive is … okay, I can’t think of the proper word… maybe ” “rewarding” “nice” “addictive” etc…? Anyway, I do believe that we *do* get something out of doing something that we may define as “self-less” but in reality, if we get some feeling in return, we do receive something. After the first deed, even if not consciously done for the ‘return’ (good feeling) I do believe this serves as partly – if not all the motive. I would agree though that if we leave another enlightened or feeling better than before our encounter, then it’s all good! 🙂
Does it feel better to be unkind? Is it true that what we do for others we do for ourselves?
I do wonder if it isn’t still a sense of ego because it does feed into a good sense of self. I think as long as if we do not ‘parade’ our good deeds to others (in order to receive praise or imagine raising from a peer), it’s all good… but still, if it uplifts ourselves in a sense of feeling good, is this still not some form of ego?
I believe that the “ego” is a persistent veil that covers our true nature. It’s like a quark; we know of it’s existence only as an afterthought or a flash of color. If we lift the veil, we see clearly that all is well, and that the fears spawned by the “ego” are just one fear – the fear of dying.