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AriesIntrovert,
That is exactly right. I like your stage analogy.
I think there's a lot of subtleties when it comes to intentions behind our actions. Like you said, everyone has ego. What I disagree most with many spiritualists is that if God wanted us to do good in this world, why did he imbue us with a selfish ego? Why are we programmed to be selfish? Why not just design humans so we feel the pain of others like we feel our own pain? Why only allow us to feel our pain and then expect us to "figure out" that we need to do good? It seems like a very longwinded and inefficient way of getting something done.
I've asked members on this forum to demonstrate that they believe in "selfless actions" by giving all users say $10 on this forum. This is not much, but it is a selfless act - the giver gets absolutely nothing and everyone else benefits $10. No one does it. No one even wants to. So I think many people talk about how they want to do good but when push comes to shove they aren't actually willing to do it. Hence, everyone is inherently selfish. Very few people can do what they preach, and I think it's unfortunate b/c I just don't know who to listen to anymore when it comes to this topic. Even people who sell books on soul evolution/karma etc... charge money for their books, speeches, etc.... No one is selfless.
Moreover, I don't see how it is wrong to try to figure out the rules of karma and try to use these rules to your benefit. Just like gravity - once we figure it out we can design planes that fly despite gravity. Why can't we try to game the karma system by purposely doing good things this life to try to get a great treatment in future lives? Is there anything wrong with this? As long as you are making people happy in this life, I would argue you have 100% right to expect people to make you happy in a subsequent life. How is this any different from monks who try to do no wrong in this life for eternal liberation? Sounds like the same. Like you said, as long as you are stretching your hands and giving someone else help, why are you not allowed to expect something in return?
Again, I don't think intentions should matter much at all in karma. In even the worst actions, everyone will claim to have good intentions. A serial killer has "good intentions" b/c he honestly believes he is carrying out the will of god by killing people. Everyone, from their own POV, has good intentions. If intentions mattered, then there would be very little "negative" karma at all. Even 90% of murderers have their own legitimate reasons for why they carried something out. If someone kills you wife/husband, it can be argued that you could be justified in killing the murderer to "even the score". From your POV this is not an ill-intentioned act.
It's mind boggling to think about these things all the time but I think we are missing some critical element in the karma/reincarnation theory, b/c if we understand karma completely we should be able to explain Hitler and the "tough cases". We currently have the Newtonian version of karma but it fails at the extremes. We need the General relativity version of karma.
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