I enjoyed this session very much with offerings of how one grasps at different kinds of service and then fails to see that true service is even the smallest things. I particularly enjoyed the examples which Aaron gave about Barbara and her will to get a meditation in before channeling. And how the smallest things and other service opportunities are ignored and discriminated against because of the ego.
Quote:She is almost never short-tempered with them in actuality, but she sometimes feels impatience although she does not manifest that impatience. She feels a sense of wanting to hurry them through their dinner, wanting them to get their dishes washed, and so on. If she goes in to meditate and her youngest son comes in and shares his homework with her, she looks at her watch and is aware that “A houseful of people are going to appear here in half an hour and I need to meditate. Get out of here with your homework!”By Aaron
Now, she does not say that. She sits him down on her lap and she looks at it, but she is feeling that impatience. And then she feels anger at herself and says, “Who am I serving here? Am I ignoring my family to serve others?”
She has learned that when she can let go of her fear; when she can feel compassion for this human who is feeling fear so as to allow that fear not to solidify, then it does not matter whether she is sitting in meditation or washing dishes or holding her son on her lap and admiring his homework. It is all meditation because at that point, as she washes the dishes or holds her son, she is service; she is love. What could be better preparation for channeling than holding a child on your lap and giving him love? But the voice of fear distorts that and says, “I must have silence to prepare,” and then self-criticism arises because she knows that to follow up on that impulse would be to hurt the child.
It would be well worth your while to look at the ways you manifest this in yourselves. No being of third density is immune to this. No matter how aware you are, it catches you sometimes.
What does it mean to serve? A friend shared a story in which he was leading a large workshop, and a woman who had kept talking about her family of eight or nine children all weekend and the demands they placed on her spoke up toward the end of the weekend and said, “Oh, I want to serve! How can I serve?”
Many in that group had been talking about working with the homeless or those with AIDS or another disease, and so on. And this man, S, turned to the woman and said, “You want to serve? Get up in the morning and serve your family bacon and eggs.”
What is service? It is not a doing, but a being, an attitude, a way of approaching the world and yourself with love.
Quote:Aaron: This is Aaron. For those of you who are interested in pursuing this, I offer a bit of homework. In the coming evening and morning, watch yourself very carefully. Service is not just the big things, but the little: smiling to another, washing a plate or glass, petting a cat who is seeking affection, being love.
Watch yourselves very carefully. Watch for any arising of “I should.” Begin to distinguish the movement of “I should” through the third chakra of will and determination and the “I Am” of love expressed through the open heart.[4] The more deeply you can move into awareness of these patterns in yourselves, the less control habitual pattern has over you.