Selfishness1

Theme: Egoism
Source: the Gospel according to Spiritism, XI: 11 & 12.

SELFISHNESS
11. Selfishness, the plague of all humanity, is hindering moral progress and must disappear from
the Earth. It has been reserved for Spiritism to make this planet ascend in the hierarchy of the worlds. So
selfishness is the target at which all believers should point their arms, towards which all strength and
courage should be directed. I say 'courage' because this will be greatly needed by each individual if they
are to triumph over themselves, rather than triumph over others.
Therefore let each one use all their strength to combat their own selfishness, certain that this
monstrous devourer of all intellects, this off-spring of pride, is the cause of all the miseries found in this
world. It is a denial of charity and consequently the greatest obstacle to human happiness.
Jesus gave us an example of charity and Pontius Pilate an example of selfishness. While the first,
the Just One, was about to traverse the holy stations of His martyrdom the second was washing his hands
and saying: "What does it matter to me!" He even asked the Jews: "This is a just man, so why do you want
to crucify Him?" Nevertheless, he allowed them to continue to conduct Jesus to His execution.
Due to the antagonism between charity and selfishness, that leprous invasion of the human heart,
Christianity has still not completely discharged all of its mission. It is to you, who are the new apostles of the
faith, that the superior Spirits are giving orientation; on whom rests the responsibility and the duty of
eradicating this evil, so as to give Christianity its full force which will allow it to clear the way of all obstacles
that impede its progress. Expel selfishness from the Earth so it may ascend the scale of the worlds, seeing
that the time has arrived for humanity to vest its virile raiments; but for this to be able to happen, it is first
necessary that selfishness be expelled
from all hearts. - EMMANUEL (Paris, 1861).

12. If mankind loved one another mutually then charity would be better practiced. However, for this
to happen it is necessary to shed the armored plate that covers your hearts, in order that they may become
sensitive to the sufferings of others. Severity and rigidity kill all good sentiments.
Christ never avoided anyone, nor did He repel those who came in search of Him, whoever they
might be. He helped the adulterous woman and the criminal, never fearing that His reputation might suffer
as a consequence. When will you take Him as your model for all your actions? If charity reigned on Earth
then evil could not prevail; it would fade away in shame; it would hide itself seeing that wherever it went it
would feel out of place. Then evil would simply disappear; be quite sure of this!
Begin by giving examples yourselves: be charitable to all, without distinction, and make an effort not
to heed those who look on you with disdain. Leave the task of doing justice to God, to the One who every
day in His kingdom separates the wheat from the chaff. Selfishness is a total denial of charity. Moreover,
without charity there would be no rest for human society. I go even further and say there would be no
safety. With selfishness and pride, both of which go hand in hand, life would always be a race in which the
most cunning would be the winners. It would be a fight of interests in which the most saintly affections
would be trodden underfoot, and where not even sacred family ties would be deserving of respect. PASCAL
(Sens, 1862).

CONSIDERATIONS:
Some points of Emmanuel and Pascal that will advance us in the understanding of the study:
Selfishness is the Humanity's wound.
Selfishness has to disappear from the Earth.
Selfishness is an obstacle to progress.
Selfishness is a devouring monster.
Selfishness is a son of pride.
Selfishness is the denial of charity.
Selfishness is the cause of all of the poverty of the terrestrial world.
Selfishness is the largest obstacle to the men's happiness.
Selfishness, for the Earth to ascend in the scale of the worlds, has to be expelled.
Selfishness is an armor which hides the hearts,
And it does not allow sensibility to other peoples’ sufferings.
Selfishness and the pride walk of hand in hand.
1
Estudo dado no Centro Espírita Joana d’Arc a 05/ 05 /2009.

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 As much as light destroys darkness charity destroys selfishness and pride, it is that battle that is
requested from us to face, in other words, for us to conquer the evils of the world, whose basically are
caused by pride and selfishness.
With the secret weapons of the Christian, which are the moral charity and the wise charity of the
coexistence, some with the others, using their maximum virtues which are the tools of the spirit!
Those tools are gained through efforts and exercised faith, and once facing pride and selfishness
with faith and effort to conquer them, it will happen that little by little we are going to free ourselves from that
evil, at the same time in the which we liberate the Earth, to ascend herself a degree in the superior scale of
the worlds.
When we suffer the Earth suffers with us, when we free ourselves the Earth is freed with us.
The Earth can only be a world regenerator, 2 when we are regenerate transformed in goodness, in
morals, in charity, and in love one to another.
Now, as we already know, that our badly is selfishness and pride, we will try to combat them each
one to himself, through his own effort and through each effort, little by little the world will not have pride and
selfishness to harm it, since it depends on us its liberation, its evolution, in the same way that the spirit
influences the evolution of the body, as its demands molds the body to its very needs, once that the body is
subject to the spirit and not the spirit subject to the flesh. 3
Emmanuel tries to show us the contrast between charity and selfishness saying that Jesus gave the
example of charity, however Pontius Pilatos the one of selfishness.
As we already know this occurrence, we can understand better what selfishness is. Selfishness is
the absence of charity and also of love.
As this world is a world of Tests and atonements, 4 charity is an urgent need of this world, in virtue
of everyone being emerged in the influence of causes of this world; charity and solidarity are summoned up
by all of us.
And he who has already grown in this understanding, feels happy in contributing a little of himself in
this universal enterprise, in response to the laws of God imbued in his instinct and conscience of his human
soul, pre-destined to struggle consociously in the creation of God.
Due to the diversity of aptitudes among all of the spirits incarnated or disincarnated, there are some
with more condition than others; thence it sums out being some richer, others with much more moral
development, others with a great intellectual progress and as we are interconnected in the same
circumstances the mutual help is requested to us, be it in co- fraternization, be it in solidarity, be it in the
religious person, be it in the one of charity.
Nobody is forced to share of what is his own, however his own excessive use produces selfishness,
which comes to corrode the person and it will not bring him advantage for his future, once he will lose
desert instead of gaining it, for reason of giving a turn to selfishness, 5 since selfishness neither produces
friends nor deserts.
Although there is the person's free will, 6 which gives him many choices in the life as and he may
very much want, the spirituality comes in aid of us saying:
Life continues, 7 our life in the matter reflects in the future spiritual life, to what suggests us: do think
about the spiritual future, the most appropriate to that life as possible, in view of the fact that the virtues of
the spirit are the true wealth, acceptable in the beyond by all, taking into account, that as life does continue,
the spiritual societies join themselves by sympathy and likeness, such as here does happen.
And the unadjusted will suffer their dis-equalibrations for not having fitted themselves to the spiritual
life.
However they will receive help in the beyond, if they are humble by nature, and in that case they
will suffer less, nevertheless the laws of causes and effects, 8 which subsequently is the same of here in the
matter, it will demand from its debtor the debts before the law.
In that case it is said: Oh! Then when I arrive there I adjust myself, it is not well like this, they will
have to suffer the consequences, for not having taken advantage of the opportunities, which God may have
offered them during their recently incarnation provided by God..
Oh! But actually I did not have occasion of understanding the spiritual life, well then; that will be
taken in consideration, and considered the convenient help to the case of each one of those who are
lacking, to each one according to their works; good or bad, conscious or unconscious.
2
The Gospel according to Spiritism, 3: 19.
3
Allan Kardec, ‘Genesis’, 8: 7. - 11: 11.
4
The Gospel according to Spiritism, 3: 13-15.
5
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 913-917.
6
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 843.
7
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 76-83 + 153 + 191.
8
The Gospel according to Spiritism, 5: 4-10.

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 Here in this world, it is spoken in protection of the human rights, of that, it is given us an
understanding idea, that in the spiritual rights, they ought for a just reason be more effective, zealous and
appropriate.
In the beyond nobody invents lies, to deviate of responsibilities, once everything is transparent, the
heart or the mind is exposed as a book that one can read, as in the thought language, 9 and it can not be
hidden in foreign languages nor in secret codes, nothing of that, the truth is always exposed in spiritual
transparency.
The material selfishness, for its very nature to be subordinated to the Earth, it is for that same
reason an impediment to the spirit in the beyond life, beginning should one believe or not in the passage
called death, in which the spirit finds a slow delayed fight, to free itself from the matter to that fact it can
prolong its afflictions, moral pains, spiritual anxiety or even remorses, if he had made bad use of his
permanence in the present incarnation.
Though undoubtedly on time, his perispírit will separate away although slowly and his spirit will be
freed and it will start to use his perispírit, 10 as his spiritual body, which obviously will be his body in the
beyond, rude or refined accordingly to his reached up spiritual graduation.
Not always in the hour of death there are sufferings, because many pass to the beyond in the best
peace, however the ones who suffer in the hour of death, they seem not, but it is sometimes necessary to
the spirit, that mental-spiritual adjustment, for the preparation of the farewell and of allying to the spiritual
world which awaits him.
For those who are already spiritually prepared, there is no indelicate surprise, however for others
who may not be, it is a surprising despair, in that he may have to pass.
The prayer of the ones who attend his departure can appease, though it can not remove from him
that natural experience imposed to him by the laws.
Yes, selfishness is harmful to the spirit be him incarnated or disincarnated, because it always brings
wound or scars to those who form an alliance with selfishness, as it was already been said: it does not
make friends, because it corrupts the person.
*****
Let us look for consideration support the Book 'Heaven and Hell' - 2nd part,
chapter one: items, 3,4,5 & 6:
The passage
3. - That inert matter is insensible is a fact, of which we are certain ; it is only the soul that
perceives the sensations of pleasure and of pain. During life, the desegregation of any portion of its physical
envelope is perceived by the soul, which experiences there from an impression more or less painful. It is the
soul that suffers, and not the body, the latter is only the instrument of suffering; the soul is the patient. After
death, the body, being separated from the soul, may be mutilated with impunity, for it has no feeling; the
soul, being isolated from the body, receives no impression from the disorganization of the latter; it has its
own perceptions, the source of which is entirely distinct from tangible matter.
The perispírit is the fluidic envelope of the soul, from which it is never separated, either before or
after death, and with which it forms, so to say, but a single being, for neither of them can be conceived of
without the other. During the earthly life, the perispiritual fluid penetrates every part of the body and
constitutes the vehicle by which physical sensations are transmitted to the soul; it is also by means of this
intermediary that the soul acts upon the body and directs its movements.
4. - The extinction of the organic life causes the separation of the soul from the body by determining
the rupture of the fluidic link that unites them together; but this separation never takes place abruptly: the
perispiritual fluid is gradually disengaged from all the organs of the body, so that the separation is only
absolute and complete when not a single particle of the perispírit remains united to a single molecule of the
body. The pain, the number of points of contact existing between the body and the perispírit, and the
greater or less amount of difficulty and slowness with which the separation takes place. We must, therefore,
not disguise from ourselves the fact that death may be more or less painful, according to the circumstances
that we have now to examine.
5. - Let us begin by examining, as our starting point, the four following cases, which may be
regarded as summing up the main varieties of the process of dissolution, between which, however, there
are a multitude of gradations.
1. - The disengagement of the perispírit may be completely effected when the organic life ceases;
in 98 that case, the soul feels absolutely nothing.

9
Allan Kardec, book ‘Genesis’, 14: 14,15.
10
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 43 + 93-95.

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 2. - the cohesion between the perispírit and the body may be in full force at the moment of death;
in that case, a sort of wrenching asunder of the two takes place, producing a painful reaction in the
perceptions of the soul.
3.- The cohesion between the body and the perispírit may be week; in which case, their separation
is effected easily and without shocks.
4.- Numerous points of contact between the body and the perispírit may exist after the cessation
of the organic life; in which case the soul will feel the effects of the decomposition of the body until the links
between the two are entirely broken.
From these facts it follows that the suffering, which is so often attendant on death, depends on the
strength of the adherence between the body and the perispírit; that whatever tends to diminish this
adherence, and to hasten the disengagement of the perispírit from the body, renders its passage less
painful; and lastly that if the disengagement is effected without difficulty, the, soul experiences no
disagreeable sensation whatever,
6. - In examining the passage from the earthly life to the spirit-life, another point, and one of the
greatest importance, has to be noted, viz., the mental confusion which accompanies the separation of the
soul from the body. At the moment when this separation is taking place, the soul is seized with a sort of
torpor that paralyzes its faculties, and at least to a certain extent, neutralizes its sensations; it is in a state
resembling catalepsy, so that it is rarely conscious of the termination of the process of dying. We say very
rarely, because there is a case in which the soul may preserve its self-consciousness to the very last , as
we will presently see. The state of conclusion may therefore be considered as the normal condition of the
soul at the moment of death; its duration differs in different cases and may vary from a few hours to many
years. When this confusion passes off, the soul finds itself in a position of one who is waking out of a deep
sleep; its ideas are muddled, vague, and clouded; it sees, so to say, through a fog; but, little by little, its
sight becomes clearer, the memory comes back, and it regains the consciousness of itself. But this
awakening is very different, according to the character of the individual; with some, it is calm and
accompanied with delightful sensations; with others, it is full of terror and anxiety, and is like a hideous
nightmare.”
*****
As one sees, in reason of us being immortal spirits, and of there being a continuous go-comes
sequence of erraticity/reincarnation, until the spirit does not need anymore to reincarnate, the purification of
the spirit is necessary for the spiritual ascension, and selfishness is a way of saying:
There are people, who hold on to things and the material life, in such an inseparable way, that they
end up being arrested (imprisoned) into the matter, 11 and that influences so much on living socially, as
even in one’s own passage for the beyond, and in the beyond who knows for how much suffering, he will
support until the spirit is disaggregated from the matter.
It is not for less that Spirits, already free from the difficulties of the matter give us the alert:
Be careful with selfishness, they speak that with all of the letters. Would It be that we are making
the possible for us to free ourselves of that evil; may God so want our successfulness, once our happiness
depends on our effort, because sooner or later, we will have to overcome that evil, that astonishes us and
troubles our Spirit, which was created by the will of God' simple and ignorant', 12 but with the inheritance of
been able to develop and to progress, 13 with limits above and beyond our understanding, because Spirits
say, that the Angels went by apprenticeships, in worlds similar to ours, and they add that spiritual
graduation is infinite, and that in each spiritual graduation, there is relative happiness, more and more
essential.
In this concept we receive faith/hope, or better, a certainty, which pulls us off the domain of matter,
and places us under a new fold of explanatory light.
Well then, praise be to God, for having created us not only with a wonderful body, 14 but with an
eternal soul, 15 whose future will be more and more wonderful, with the aid of laws proportionate by God, to
help us in our ascencial walk, intended for His Kindly Arms.

May God be with us, as formerly, today and always!

11
The Gospel according to Spiritism, 15: 15.
12
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 115-121.
13
Allan Kardec, book, ‘Genesis’
14
Revelation, 15: 3.
15
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 134.

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 The material selfishness,16
For its very nature to be subordinated to the
Earth,
It is for that same reason an impediment
To the spirit in the beyond life,
Beginning should one believe or not
In the passage called death,17
In which the spirit finds a slow delayed fight,
To free itself from the matter,
To that fact it can prolong its afflictions,
Moral pains, spiritual anxiety or even remorses,
If he had made bad use of his permanence,
In the present incarnation.
Though undoubtedly on time,
His perispírit will separate away although slowly,
And his spirit will be freed
And it will start to use his perispírit, 18
As his spiritual body,
This obviously will be his body in the beyond,
Rude or refined accordingly
To his reached up spiritual graduation.

16
Extract from the study ‘Egoismo’, given at Joana d’Arc. On 05/ 05/ 2009.
17
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 68-70.
18
The Spirits’ Book, Q. 43 + 93-95.