I hate the word ‘service’. Hardly an enlightened stand, but I have never been able to understand it. It seemed forced on me, as if somehow to qualify as spiritually advanced I needed to be living a life of service. Ugh! Why ? What was it I was supposed to be learning from being in service ? To subjugate my ego ? Perhaps! I get that argument, but it still seemed to be missing something. Instead of easy acceptance, the rebel in me came out and I just flat out refused to play the game just because everyone else was.
Why be in service ? What was the point ? Because so far on my journey everything has had a point and in most cases, it only made sense when I was ready to learn it. That is perhaps the problem these days with the spiritual journey – it is so accessible thanks to the media that we forget that it is a learning journey and what that means.
You can only learn what you are ready to learn but because we have so much access we are expised to steps on the journey that are way ahead of where were are now. To become an expert acrobatic pilot you first have to learn how to fly, so become an advanced soul there are essential building blocks you have to first acquire, experiences you have to live. Instead of relaxing into our path we instead buy into the ever popular belief that you can mimic some-one else’s journey. But here is the thing, there is no-one like you. Your journey is unique simply because where you are starting from and what you are starting with is unique. Yes, there are common markers on the way, common lessons that I suspect need to be learnt in sequence but mimicking an advanced lesson will not teach you that lesson. You have to get there the hard way. The further I get on this road the more I think that practice without understanding, practice for practice sake can actually be harmful, trapping you in a place you are not ready for and preventing you from learning what you need to learn to get there.
But back to that word, service. I strongly suspect that this is a rather advanced stop on the journey and that for it to really make sense, for the act of being in service to have the value it was intended, then you need to be ready to learn the lesson. What is the lesson ? What is the point of being in service ? Well, what if there comes a time where the experiences you are living are no longer for you ? What if not every experience or lesson is your lesson ? What if there comes a time where the other person’s lesson is the point of the experience ? To get that, there has to no longer be so much for you to learn, in fact, to get that, the only way left to learn and grow is to assist the other in their lesson. Without even trying the ego is subjugated simply because, it has not survived the experiences that got you to here, where the only way forward is to be in service.
Just the thoughts…of a soul on her journey… learning to let go and just flow