Life Serves Life

May 18

Life flows into us from a higher level. 

Perhaps we don’t sense this; and even if we do, we often forget it, because that which is familiar begins to seem ordinary and not worth paying attention to. Even diamonds begin to look like mere sand if one sees enough of them for a time.

 Yet the energy of this life inwardly forms me and all my Being. Every instant of its manifestation is an instant of the manifestation of God’s Being; and although I forever make the mistake of believing and thinking and feeling and sensing that this Being is mine, actually, I am only the servant.

 I'm the servant of this life, who has mistaken himself as the master. I serve life; it does not serve me. 

Yet I forget this.

Yesterday a young man who is a close friend, confidant, and protégé noticed that a task needed to be done to clean out a piece of equipment.  He announced it to the room at large, but did nothing himself. 

I said to him, “if you see a need, meet it yourself, don’t leave it for others.”

“ But,” he said, “I don’t use this piece of equipment. Why should I clean it? The ones who use it should do the cleaning.”

“ You should clean it because you can,” I said to him. “Our task is to serve others and to serve our lives. Not to serve ourselves.” 

Then I gave him an example. I noted to him how I buy food for others and give it to them, even though I don’t eat it myself. I do this to help them, to give them something to support their lives and their needs. I don’t even necessarily get satisfaction from this. The selfish part of me argues with me that I shouldn’t spend my money to help make other people’s lives easier. But this is a wrong thing. I go against it. I provide for others not because it makes me look good, or makes me feel good, or wins me points in the competition for friendship. 

I try to understand that I must provide for others because it is my duty.

This example is drawn from outward service. Yet outward service begins with an effort to understand how my inward service ought to function. 

This force of inward service is drawn from a relationship with a higher energy, the energy of life itself which flows into me. 

If I'm aligned with this energy, my duty becomes clear. I don’t need to think about what my duty should be, because it arises organically within my three parts — thinking, sensing, feeling — and I simply follow that duty for no reason other than it is.

A duty that I craft myself—for example, where I convince myself that I have a duty to go off and kill other people on behalf of my nation—isn't a real duty to God. There are moments when such duties can even be good duties within the limited arrangements that life prescribes, but there's a higher duty every human soul is called to which is quite different, and it's important not to get confused between the two.

Thus is my counsel to myself on this morning.

Wishing the best for you on this day,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.