We are genetically designed for selfish altruism. Our minds, at times, distort this genetic principle, and we begin not only to behave as "one for one" but also to expect "all for one" (in other words, me). Such tampering destroys the matrix of mutuality, the very ground of existence.
The selfish person loses as he gains. Winning, while depleting others, has a natural dead end. Plain selfishness destroys the ground, to the individual's own detriment. All organisms are innately directed to protect their environment for their own survival. Only humans seem to have forfeited that epigenetic principle. Epigenesis is a stepwise process by which genetic information, as modified by environmental influences, is translated into the essence and behavior of an organism. It starts with impregnation and continues throughout life. For example, the fetus is genetically designed to survive in the mother's womb at her expense but not at her peril, because her peril would cause its own death. The fetus strives to gain whatever extra nutrient delivery it can from the mother, while the mother tries equally hard to counter such attempts. When the fetus-mother balance of power is disrupted because of one or the other's self-serving efforts, deliberate or biological, the survival of either or both may be threatened.
Kicking and kissing begin in the womb. The growth of the fetus is a prototype of conflicts between an organism and its environment repeated throughout the lives of all living creatures. And the conflicts are resolved with compromises that reassure the survival of their participants. When it is generalized, this epigenetic principle asserts that whatever grows has a ground plan and, furthermore, that from this total ground plan all the parts arise, each having its own time of special ascendancy, until all the parts have emerged to form a functioning whole. In such an ascendancy, one has to be concerned equally about the well-being of the ground, that is, the base from which one emerges. Anyone who succeeds at the expense of his or her natural and social community betrays that divine balance. It is only by being for all that one can be for oneself.
This principle is exemplified by a story of the great Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi. It was known that once he settled in a village he would immediately begin to serve the needs of its people. When a friend inquired if his reasons for serving the poor were purely humanitarian, Gandhi answered, "Not at al. Rather," he said, "I am here to serve myself only, to find my own self-realization through the service of others." True compassion toward our fellow human beings simultaneously serves ourselves-it is a mutual healing. Such generosity of spirit must be extended to all things, not just other human beings, to be considered ethical and merciful.
T. Byram Karasu, MD is the author of The Art of Serenity
