Service: To Awaken Someone Else

Service: To Awaken Someone Else

Last week in the post about acceptance, I mentioned the need to be of service to others. Before I address this topic, I cannot help but point out again the continuation of uncanny synchronicity. Joan already wrote about the perfect timing of the topic of service and the fact that this topic (selected many weeks ago) randomly coincided with Mother’s Day. There could be no better example of service than that of a mother. Regardless of being male or female, we all have – and can celebrate – that same feminine energy inside of us!

Through the experience of these coincidences, I also cannot help but feel that the connectivity and organization of the universe is crying out for me to pay attention to its lessons coming from higher mind. These lessons elude me because I am just not consistently aware enough to connect the dots. Albert Einstein commented that “Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.” Consciousness reveals anonymity; it makes the invisible, visible.

In the profound quiet, the immaculate comes into view; God disrobes. — Hafiz

When synchronicity or coincidence starts to occur often, I see it as a way of verifying that something larger than me is paying attention and serving humanity. Higher Influence – C Influence, as the Fourth Way refers to it – is no longer anonymous when we are able to be in a higher state of consciousness. When service to others overflows from the recognition of Higher Influence, gratitude becomes the driving force behind sharing moments of higher states with others. Service is a natural outgrowth of gratitude, offering to others what I have been given, not simply an actualization of the Golden Rule.

To be of service to others I must lose myself. The ego – the lower self – needs to be out of the picture. But how? The most surprising aspect of service as practiced in the Fourth Way, is that external consideration means giving someone what they ask for – no more, no less. To give others what I think they need is self-will and is mixed with what I imagine they need, a form of lying to myself. If I am honest, without presence much of my advice and guidance issues from irritation or a reaction to someone’s mechanical manifestation which I would like them to cease.

On the other hand, by helping and giving what is requested, I avoid the error of giving something for which they are unprepared. Service – an attribute of Higher Centers – means drawing another person into a higher state to serve a higher purpose, with a glimmer of insight into their hidden potential.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. — Mahatma Gandhi

The lower self also prefers to make a performance of generosity in contrast to Higher Centers, which are content with anonymity. Random acts of kindness which are not driven by a need for acknowledgement are the hallmark of the conscious act of external consideration – invisibly serving others.

We cannot truly serve each other unless that gesture comes from a higher state of consciousness. In its highest form, my Teacher says that external consideration will become so strong “that we will be able to awaken someone else.” The thought of that possibility is inspiring and there is no more valuable gift than that of awakening. When the world of matter fades away, our moments of service – shared consciousness – will remain.

I love the You by placing myself, my entire will, in the service of the You. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Procession of Syrians, Apadana at Persepolis (Iran, circa 559 BCE)