Reading Archive (Service)
Serving Is Different From Helping And Fixing
Rachel Naomi Remen
In recent years the question how can I help? has become meaningful to many people. But perhaps there is a deeper question we might consider. Perhaps the real question is not how can I help? but how ca...
Lessons From An Accident
Grace Dammann
For the last forty years, I have been a somewhat compulsive caregiver. However, I found an appropriate niche in medical school, and have happily practiced medicine for the last twenty-five years. For ...
Everything Human Is Natural
Alan Watts
Man is as much attached to nature as a tree, and though he walks freely on two legs and is not rooted in the soil, he is by no means a self-sufficient, self-moving, and self-directing entity. For his ...
Only Service Heals
Rachel Naomi Remen
If helping is an experience of strength, fixing is an experience of mastery and expertise. Service, on the other hand, is an experience of mystery, surrender and awe. A fixer has the illusion of being...
Full Effort is Full Victory
Eknath Easwaran
Gandhi wanted so deeply to help the world that he dedicated his life to siphoning every trace of self-interest out of his heart and mind, leaving them pure, radiantly healthy, and free to love. It too...
The Boss And The Attendants
TKV Desikachar
The great masters, in ancient times, not only had visions of the Higher Force, they were also very practical. Their teachings are simple: They encourage the development of a great mind, but warn us th...
With Fullness in Life, Everything is Possible
Facundo Cabral
You are not depressed; you are distracted. You believe that you have lost something, which is impossible, because everything that you have was given to you. You did not make a single hair of your head...
Seven People Cutting Stones
Roger Walsh
For several weeks strange sounds had drifted over the mountains from the neighboring valley. There was much talk in the village about what these noises could be, but no one could make sense of them. E...
The Power of Here
Bill Plotkin
Wisdom traditions worldwide say there's no greater blessing than to live the life of your soul, the source of your deepest personal fulfillment and of your greatest service to others. It's what you we...
The False Duality Between "Job" And "Service"
Zilong Wang
Around the time when I set off for Asia in July, two of my dearest friends/teachers both went from full-time volunteer work to taking full-time jobs. Their decision to return to the "system"...
Privacy Is Not Possible
Vimala Thakar
Traditionally, the investigating of psychological weaknesses in relation to social action has been taboo, not acceptable. As long as a social activist provided service to others, it was considered irr...
The Danger of Service Without Spirituality
Meher Baba
Service, even when it is utterly selfless, ought to be guided by spiritual understanding; for selfless service, when unintelligently handled, often creates chaos and complications. It could even be th...
One Legitimate Use of Power
Keshavan Nair
Gandhi never held any official position in government, he had no wealth, the commanded no armies -- but he could mobilize millions. People were willing to serve with him and for him because his ...
The Soul of Money
Lynne Twist
There comes a point where having more than we need becomes a burden. We are overcompensated, overstuffed, swimming in the excess, looking for satisfaction in more or different. We live in a world wher...
We Start Where We Are
Marianna Cacciatore
When we learn to be of service to one another without imposing our ideas and advice, eventually the truth of our wholeness begins to reveal itself. This is how it unfolds. In the beginning, w...
The Four Relinquishments
Peace Pilgrim
Once you've made the first relinquishment, you have found inner peace because it's the relinquishment of self-will. You can work on this by refraining from doing any not-good thing you may be motivate...
Service of Humanity
Albert Schweitzer
From my childhood up, I was troubled about my right to happiness as a matter of course and about the pain which prevails in the world around me. As long ago as my student days, it struck me as inc...
Magic of Service
Bo Lozoff
When we live in harmony with the dharma, or the great natural law, everything we do is an act of service. Wherever we are, whatever we do with our time, were lightening the load of the whole planet ju...
Share Pain Not Suffering
Shinzen Young
Just as insight has many facets, so also with service. I would like to talk about just one aspect -- compassion. Compassion is practiced in two ways: subtly and overtly. You can subtly serve any per...
Attitude on Donation
Author Unknown
Donation is a part of many lives, but our selfish motives often complicate the subject. In its rudimentary form, donation is a simple act of selfless service, whether we sacrifice our tim...