The Service of Being

The Service of Being
“As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors of whole life.”
-The Upanishads

As a wanna-be teenage monk (yes, such a thing does exist) I would come up with many, many work projects to do in hopes of realizing my higher consciousness; cleaning the house, garage and everything in sight, volunteering where I could, picking up trash around my town, helping old ladies across the street, anything and everything. My attention always seemed to be on trying to get enlightened through thinking about everything on the outside and I really ran myself quite ragged. I would often think, “Does this do any good?” I wanted to find some kind of manual for what actions are “good” and what actions are “bad” so that I could just treat life like some formula and just fill in the blanks. This kind of equation does not seem to exist. What is positive from one point of view can be quite detrimental from another. It is impossible from the waking state level of our minds to know all the outcomes of our actions. The wonderful thing is that there is so much more to life than what we are usually taught and that “more to life” rests inside us. There is a way to transform our actions so that they have only beneficial effects. This transformative power comes from tapping into the level of our Pure Consciousness, the level of Being.

There is a wonderful old Chinese story about a farmer and a horse. There are many variations, but it goes something like this. A horse comes to the farmer and his neighbors say, “Oh what good fortune”. The farmer answers, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” Later the horse runs away and his neighbors say, “Oh, what bad fortune.” He replies, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” The horse returns with a whole herd and the neighbors proclaim, “What wonderful fortune!” He replies, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” Next, the farmer’s son attempts to break in one of the wild horses and ends up falling and breaking his leg. The neighbors exclaim the bad fortune and again the farmer says, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” War breaks out and all able bodied young men are being conscripted. The farmer’s son cannot go because of his broken leg. The townspeople proclaim, “What good fortune!” The farmer says, “Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say?” This can go on forever. . . . . In the end you can’t really know the outcomes of your actions from the surface mind. What is most important with any action is your awareness while doing it. The wisdom to know what serves in any given moment is found by experiencing a state of consciousness that is deeper than waking, sleeping, and dreaming. As our awareness of that higher consciousness expands it becomes more and more clear which actions, feelings, thoughts are helpful to us and which are not. When we know who we really are, then we know the True identity of all the other actors on this world stage. Underneath me, mother, father, sister, brother, lover, friend, enemy, acquaintance, homeless man is the same underlying Consciousness. This Consciousness is the unified field of creation. When we experience this place of consciousness our mind becomes clear and coherently functioning. Actions performed at this level work for the Good of all life. A problem cannot be solved at the level that it’s created. By going to the source of all thought we connect to a level of consciousness that is deeper than all problems; we connect to the level of solutions.

By being of service we become channels for the river of life. As humans we have a choice to either resist our life or to flow with life. Service is a gateway that allows our individual will to be transformed into the cosmic will. We can bind ourselves to our perceptions, beliefs, ideas, programming, likes, dislikes, opinions, conceptions, words and deeds, or we can bind ourselves to something much more subtle than all of those mentioned before. We can live a life in complete awareness and cooperation with the Essential element of life itself, the Unbounded Infinite Field. In binding ourselves to the Unbounded we become infinitely flexible to any and all situations that arise in life. Attaining this state is a true service and service leads to the attainment of this state of Truth. When this state is attained we become as conduits for the prime energy of the Universe, Love. In this way we are never left empty or lacking. In fact, living in this way leads to a never ending supply of Love, Joy, and Intelligence. It is much easier than the alternative-the alternative being to live a life solely or primarily in the very limited domain of the ego. Service leads to a life lived beyond these boundaries and living life beyond these boundaries is a life of service. If you wish to turn your life into a life of service an easy means is becoming intimately familiar with this Consciousness. There are millions of ways to do this (the exclamation point symbolizes ample experience)! A fast and efficient way is to be dedicated to a practice, discipline, or technique that moves the mind inward. Through the practice the mind gains regular experience of the deeper , more expanded levels of awareness that are only waiting for us to tap into them. Infinite awareness is not far away nor is experiencing it. It is strange that we must traverse a path to it at all for it has always been present, Here and Now. It has only been the habit of our mind to wander ceaselessly into the realms of the past, the future and the distant which has obscured our connection to the Infinite Inner Light. Once we re-cognize this Light, the path of true service will be illuminated. However you wish to proceed there is always more power in focusing our energy. There is more benefit in digging one hole ten feet deep than there is in digging 10 holes one foot deep. Pick a direction and go there with all your heart, mind, and soul and the recognition of Pure Consciousness will happen swiftly.