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Self-interest and self-concern are the focal points of the false. Your daily life vibrates between desire and fear. Watch it intently and you will see how the mind assumes innumerable names and shapes, like a river foaming between the boulders. Trace every action to its selfish motive and look at the motive intently till it dissolves. Discard every self-seeking motive as soon as it is seen and you need not look for truth; truth will find you.- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I'm sure there is a good enough reason for putting the oxygen mask on oneself first before helping others. Whenever I hear this message, I think of a blind man guiding another blind man. Is this being selfish?

Anyway, I think Nisargadatta is saying something different here. We're not being natural. I don't think it's about either being a crooked river or an vast ocean. This is something I've been thinking about for a while now. A Korean monk called Jinul said below in his book called 勸修定慧結社文. My clumsy translation here:

A person who fell onto the ground gets back up by pushing himself off the ground. It is not possible to stand up by being separate from the ground. Beings are those that raise endless worldly concerns from One Mind in confusion. Marvellous Function that is boundless springs from Buddha's realised One Mind. Although ignorance and enlightenment are different, in short, they all arise from One Mind. Therefore, it's not possible to request Buddha by having left Mind.