Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together...

-Marcus Aurelius Meditations

Perhaps, if Marcus Aurelius tunic were orange and he was not a military leader, he might have made an excellent Buddhist!  See the article on War and Buddhism. His reputation is further besmirched by his fierce cruelty in the persecution of Christians.  His troops brought the plague home from Mesopotamia which killed him and the Pax Romana died with him.

But is this an accurate assessment of society?  The Dalai Lama reiterates,

“Our mind is full of anger, jealousy, and other negative feelings, and we do not realize that such feelings are incompatible with inner peace and joy.  Our intelligence, which is the glory of human beings, is used only to deceive others and to gain more for ourselves at others expense.  At the end of the day we find only suffering and, as the ultimate absurdity, we lay the blame for this on other people.“

The cart is before the horse, so to speak.  Enlightened self-interest from a Buddhist perspective involves thoughts and acts of kindness toward others.  His Holiness explains,

“We cannot be useful to ourselves unless we are also useful to others.  Whether we like it or not we are all connected, and it is unthinkable to be happy all by oneself.  Anyone who is only concerned with his own well-being will suffer eventually.  Anyone who is concerned with the well-being of others takes care of himself without even thinking about it… Let us be intelligently selfish- let us help others!“

-Dalai Lama Advice From the Heart