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I feel that we all are selfish to an extent as everything we do has some benefit to us as is the meaning of selfish.

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I don't think that the fact that this almost always means taking actions that somehow benefit the individual, too, means that ahimsa is even slightly selfish. When you start with the idea of a profound connectedness of all life and move forward on the basis of benefiting all life, even if it doesn't mean maximizing personal pleasure and avoiding personal pain at all costs, you're going to take steps that are beneficial to you both indirectly (making the people in your life happier makes living with them more pleasant) and directly (taking the converse of this, by making sure that you are in a good emotional place you are in a better situation to spread positivity and not negativity).

The consequence of individual benefits seems, to me, to be irrelevant to the intent of an action. Simple logic dictates that selfless actions should often yield a positive benefit to the actor, but that doesn't render them selfish.

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In so far as the word "knowledge" has any meaning, the world is knowable;
but it is interpretable otherwise,
it has no meaning behind it, but countless meanings.
-Nietzsche

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yes but if the action is a selfish one then the reasons are subconsciously unselfish and if the action is unselfish then the reason is subconsciously selfish.

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We can not help being selfish as our actions automatically are both selfish and unselfish.

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Again my primary disagreement comes down to one of definitions; it seems silly to me to say that anything which could be construed as having a benefit to the actor is necessarily selfish. If a man gives up the pursuit of material comforts and self-indulgence to dedicate his  life to charity and the service of others, that doesn't strike me as a selfish act even if he knows that devoting his life to other people will make him feel good from time to time.

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In so far as the word "knowledge" has any meaning, the world is knowable;
but it is interpretable otherwise,
it has no meaning behind it, but countless meanings.
-Nietzsche

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This is an Unselfish act but subconsciously it is selfish as you are doing it to make yourself feel better.

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it also puts us in a good light and could get us more people. It all has selfish reasons even if we dont mean it to. it is not a declaration but a statement of truth.

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But if people piss me off and take things away from me my warm heart turns cold and I'm a brutal mutherf****er.

Lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.
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Considering absolutism - Being considerate for anyone aside from yourself in any means makes one "un-selfish <--- lolersk8s /selfless/blah"

Considering relativism - Varies by culture/social blah/blah - No true or absolute definition of selfish or anything else.

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Quote: from Spekki at 6:13 am on Nov. 22, 2011

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it also puts us in a good light and could get us more people. It all has selfish reasons even if we dont mean it to. it is not a declaration but a statement of truth.

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This goes back to my previous point: self-benefit as a consequence of an action is not the same as and does not necessarily imply self-benefit as a motivation for an action (selfishness).

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Self benefit solely as a consequence of an action is a logical impossibility.

What was the drive for committing the action in the first place?

To help someone other than yourself?

What was the drive to help that someone?

It's all really semantics and word definitions though. A consequence of the inescapable fact that even the most selfless act is done with personal motive which will maximize the state of being of the actor.

That maximization can come in a billion forms, including the joy one feels for feeling truly selfless.

My view on selfishness vs. selflessness is the degree to which one's desires/actions correlate with what brings utility to others.