Self-sacrifice is often considered a great virtue in spirituality. It is. Provided it is the right type. The right type of sacrifice is the one which actually yields great results for everybody. In ancient societies, it was considered the greatest mark of honour. The wrong type of sacrifice is the one which yields bad results for everybody. It is more a mark of weakness than of strength.
Here are some examples of the right type of sacrifice.
Many souls go through a life teeming with challenges so that the generations that follow have it easy.
Many souls usher in great breakthroughs and accomplishments in the world even if it complicates their own lives.
Many souls through soul-level decisions choose to play villains in the story simply so that the heroism of the hero becomes conspicuous and worthy of emulation for us.
Guided by a soul level decision (and not the mind level decision), many souls allow themselves to be naively taken for a ride if that means benefitting somebody else.
Esoterically speaking, many souls take on difficult journeys so they can work through the difficult karma of the family, community or world. Their souls choose to become the underdogs and black sheep in dark environments so as to process it all away.
Many souls take in the negativity of the world without overspilling it to others. When they do so, they hold the negative energy in escrow. They emit only positive energy to others despite absorbing negative energy of others. This creates a small lop-sidedness in the otherwise equal balance of positive and negative in the outer world which influences the trajectory for the entire world to move towards a net positive. With time, this small shift of scales eventually brings in the golden age for all of mankind. These sacrificing souls do the trick for all of humanity.
Then there is the one who dies on the cross and becomes the lamb for God so that redemption becomes possible for all even if in the distant future.
Then there are the light-workers who absorb the various strong light codes from the cosmos and ground it to the Earth for the upliftment of Mother Earth and entire human race at the expense of their own health and happiness.
Then there are the wrong types of sacrifices, most commonly seen in the domain of relationships.
When one puts up with people who don’t know how to love them back in the right way, one is making a wrong kind of sacrifice.
When one keeps bending forward to uplift those who are incapable of rising, one is making a wrong kind of sacrifice.
When one consistently puts one’s happiness on hold so that another is not inconvenienced, one is making the wrong kind of sacrifice.
When one dims one’s own light so as not to become a threat or a matter of envy for near and dear ones, one is making a wrong kind of sacrifice.
When one helps out of compulsion rather than out of one’s own freedom, one is making the wrong kind of sacrifice.
When one keeps putting up with rigid and stupid people incapable of accountability simply to bring them to light some day, one is making the wrong kind of sacrifice.
The right kind of sacrifice is done by heroes and shamans. The wrong kind of sacrifice is done by codependents and martyred healers. The right kind of sacrifice creates good karma, the wrong kind of sacrifices entrenches bad karma. The right kind of sacrifice is worthy of emulation, the wrong kind of sacrifice is worthy of shedding. The right kind of sacrifice makes a lion out of a man, the wrong kind of sacrifice makes a lamb out of a man.
