Do you believe selflessness to be a choice?

Most assuredly a choice.

But -- naturally? We are the end result of our genetics, our education AND our environment. Those are the influences of the choices we make.

I'm not sure I buy that anyone is selfless.

When, for instance, people commit acts of kindness to family members or strangers, at some level, it's because they themselves care for those people and are in some way invested in the welfare of those people. It seems to me that it's very difficult, if not impossible to be completely selfless. Generous, kind, and self-sacrificing, yes, but selfless... I don't know. And these would, at some level, be learned behaviors and programmed responses, so whether that constitutes choice or nature is a good question.

I believe if you believe you are being selfless you are probably being a swine and calling it charity. Because I am an alcoholic, I need to behave selflessly in order to save my life, and to the degree that my self-need-based selflessness is even a little selfless I get back tenfold. But even my watered down required act selflessness is extremely ego-driven and seldom really kind of anonymous.

I don't think one in a thousand people know how to give anything without massive strings attached.

When you do something nice for someone and they crap on you/sue you/blacken your name over it, then your true colors come out. You go "doesn't he realize what I was doing and how much I sacrificed?" And the beast of self comes out.

Human being must choose what they are destined to do. Almost none actually know what selfless is.

It's a blend, like most things. Kind of like your body weight. If you are 50 lbs overweight today, you can't change that much in this next hour. But you can in a year. And you may have a genetic predisposition toward being fat, or skinny, but even with that - with effort - you can manage your weight. Selflessness requires a basic emotional platform of fulfillment. If you don't have that today, you are not likely to be selfless today. Are you "incapable" of it? No, never, but it becomes highly effortful and unlikely this day. So it depends where you're coming from, but where you're coming from can change. Maybe not in this next hour, but certainly in the coming year.

Do you believe selflessness to be a choice?

~~~ There are no 'choices'.

We have no choice but to moment to moment be and think and speak exactly as our nature demands.

A toaster does nor choose to toast!

That is what it does!

Do you believe people have to decide to be selfless or do you believe it just comes naturally?

~~~ It comes naturally when there is no egoic 'self' to feed!

Such true 'selflessness naturally arises in those Enlightened, which = unconditional Love!

In which statew, there is no egoic, vain, imaginary 'self' to serve!

Love dissolves all 'identity'!

Lover and Beloved are One!

'Your' Happiness is 'my' Happiness!

'Your' sorrow is 'my' sorrow!

Why would I ever do that which harms you?

It is both.

Selflessness is natural and innate. You can see this by looking at infants. Involuntarily and unknowingly, we develop an ego, a sense of self-centeredness. This ego becomes our identity. It is the product of past experiences and manifests itself as a defense mechanism. The ego is the "attachment to a separate sense of self". It is an illusion. It is a self created phantom which forces us to become closed minded and attached to our opinions.

Abandoning the ego once it has developed is a choice. It is also the basis of all religion. Removing the false sense of self allows the natural, loving, and true self to manifest.

I have never met a truly selfless person. I don't think it can be a valid choice. Feeding one's body is a selfish act, isn't it?

It is an erroneous choice, One needs to put themselves first.

Selflessness is very selfish....

Selflessness, like individualism is a facile falsity.

It's easier for some than others. For some it's just impossible!