Best Of

On a related note, my mother just declared “everything online is AI”. Which may soon be coming true… if you can no longer trust video footage as a facsimile of the real world, or text as having been typed by a human… maybe it’s time to find an entirely-analogue hermitage somewhere?

All my impediments are mined. Fortunately all The Buddhas (and others) are also Mind. We have to inflate and burst until our Bodies and Bodhi shine and our buddhas just a shoo step away...

“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.”
~ Kahlil Gibran, quote from The Prophet

@ Jeroen:
It appears we are talking about the same gem through different facets.
That said, I offer an additional observation.
A beneficial act is a chosen act. It is not an accidental act, but an act deliberately made. The level benefit derived to the individual who performs the act is ultimately dependent upon said individual's intent. There is benefit from and act performed from a selfish intent, but that benefit is reduced and can even be nullified by the coutervalence of the degree of selfish motivation of personal gain.
To preform beneficial acts without regard to expectation of personal gain generated a different kind of personal benefit or gain. Said may appear as inconspicuous or conspicuous benefit or gain, but is more profound, more meaningful and more lasting.
This is the difference between a predatory act of word or deed dressed up as an act of kindness, of selflessness and an act of word or deed arising from the heart freely given free of the chains of expectancy of reward.
Such differences may be invisible to other parties, but the mind, the heart of the person knows, catalogs, remembers.
This is not to say that having an expectation of benefit or gain is exclusive of the selflessness of the specific words or actions. But that the primary reason for the words or actions is not "Where is my gain ? Where is my benefit?" but that gain or benefit will derive from the selfless actions organically. The benefit is already there. The benefit may not manifest immediately or appear in a manner expected. But it is there. It arises through the quality derived from the actions of the heart, not strategy.

Peace to all

@Lionduck said:
Beneficial acts when done with "intent" indicates a self-other mindset.The act, though prima facia beneficial, is often more ego, "I am doing a beneficial act because I want the reward from the act." It is a act of selfishness in the guise of a beneficial act.
A Beneficial act performed without expectation of reward, the selfless act, is the act generating true reward, the reward neither sought nor expected.

It is interesting that learning what is a beneficial act allows the ego to enter in. You can see, I am benefitting from the act, and because I benefit I will do this act and other beneficial acts more. You learn to be selfish over time, and the ego, hidden under the guise of doing beneficial acts, becomes more prominent.

On the other hand, if you choose to forget what is beneficial, and you just do what you choose to do, then you may do some beneficial things just by accident. And as long as you know what is unbeneficial, or even anti-beneficial, and avoid doing those things, you can, all things considered, lead a good life without knowing about the benefits of goodness.

Another route one could take is to learn what is beneficial, without taking note of the rewards. In this way, you can know what is good for you, without starting to focus on the benefits and thus allowing ego and covetousness a foothold.