How can one reach the epitome of altruism?

[CutesyLolita]

Umm, hello! :) in short, alturism is the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. I have been nurturing and developing kindness and compassion for years, and Im really happy with my heart's evolution (: Even the longest path starts with one step, so I think I will make me resolve as hard as stone! This is why i want to know how one could possibly reach the epitome of altruism, be completely and utterly selfless, yet still be happy? o: thank you very much!(:

[BearsAnswers]

This will be an odd reply I think, probably not what you are expecting to hear, but for me and my partner, we did not get to experience unconditional love until our relationship became polyamorous. It wasn't until that moment that we could actually explore love and togetherness in a way that was truly selfless.

If you love someone, but say "I will love you, and give myself and my love to you, IF, and ONLY IF, you promise to love only me, and to be with only me, no matter what you may feel for others" then you cannot say it is unconditional (there is a HUGE condition on it, right there), and you cannot say you are selfless. Their happiness is less than yours by fact, because what they want to do is less important than you feeling control over their love. Only by loving someone enough to let them love another can you say you love them selflessly. Any other situation and you are, by definition, bringing your self and your needs into the equation and placing them above the potential of the partner's happiness.

It takes incredible dedication to honesty, to communication, and to trust however, and really can only be done with a lot of emotional maturity. So if you are under 18, it will probably NOT be something you want to start trying out. You will have a very hard time finding guys your age that can handle the trust and emotional care needed to make it work, without seeing it as a way to just 'sleep around'. Which it is not.

But for me, that journey has opened up parts of my heart that I didn't even know existed. It sounds weird but a lot of the journey was spent considering "how can I love a person as much as a dog loves a person." I figured that humans have a better capacity for rational thought than a dog does, yet dogs love unconditionally and humans don't. I didn't want to be upstaged by a dog ;)

[DarkHumorRUs]

Impossible. Try to think of any act, and I'll prove to you that it's not entirely selfless.