Ego

Self and not-self are but labels.  The key to transcending one's ego isn't to merely see others' needs as one's own, but to transcend the belief in self and in ownership.  "My" body is not my own.  It is a collection of molecules that is currently bound to the mind which I call "me," but it is not the same collection of molecules which composed me seven years ago, and not the same set as I will carry around with me in another several years.  I don't own this body, I merely rent it.  I don't cry over the molecules of skin I shed, nor the water I exhale and perspire, or over the waste I excrete.  I don't even cry over the tears I shed.  So this is a body, a body I steward, a body I love, a body that provides me with ambulation and sensation, but it is just a body, like many others.

Self and not-self label more than physical flesh.  I think of "my" thoughts as mine, and "my" emotions as mine, and "my" personality as mine.  But thoughts just pass through my head, sometimes seconds apart.  Emotions just pass through my endocrine system and are flushed away minutes or hours later.  And the personality that I call my own is just one I choose to wear more often.  If I choose to act like someone else, we call that acting.  But if I choose to behave like another person indefinitely, we say that I become that person.

Selfish and non-selfish are labels that have no meaning without ego.  Without ego, there are only selfish deeds, for there is no boundary between self and not-self; there is only self, and there is only the greatest good for self.  There is only wisdom and foolishness, as measured by the ability to see what is, and to make the smallest change to create what has-been-imagined-and-as-yet-unseen.  Wisdom is learned through experience, through trials and errors, and in particular, in the shared awareness of the greater self.  Wisdom of the individual only, rooting the mind in what is directly tangible, to the pains and wants of the flesh, leads only to selfish knowledge.  Awareness of the greater world, its pains and wants, its karmic path of unfolding, and its intimate, myriad, and fractal connections leads to the ego-less selfishness I call true wisdom.

Optimism

Reading my book on optimism (Beyond Positive Thinking), I began to see imaginary ships floating through my vision that, in my video game (Pew Pew 2), I would need to track and destroy.  Playing the game necessitates constantly seeing these threats and being aware of them, even in peripheral vision where a clear view cannot be obtained.  Thus, the game trains my mind to associate this pattern of enemy flying ships to whatever it sees, including the text of my book.  In the same way, I can train my mind to see the patterns of happiness, optimism, abundance, and you-have-it, by constant visualization practice and by feeling emotional connection to the desired context/outcome/situation.  In this way, my mind will naturally see the positive patterns in the world and choose to act on those instead of the ones which my environment and society have passively conditioned me.  This is the strategy for "manifesting" a certain reality as suggested by the book on optimism.

Transforming neuroticism into optimism

Awakening from neuroticism into optimism is akin to riding a plane up and through a thick, grey storm and, upon passing through the worst of it, entering the sunny, tranquil air above the storm, enjoying both the sun above and the newfound perspective of the storm below.  Similarly, it is like being on the ground during the storm and shifting the mind away from the cold muck, to the sounds of creatures stirring, to the prospect of new, green growths, to the free street cleaning gifted from above, for the opportunity to splash, to change clothes, to enjoy time indoors.  In short, perspective lets us rise above our problems and see the truth that life only presents challenges and lessons.