04-14-2021, 11:48 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-14-2021, 11:49 AM by rva_jeremy.)
The way I interpret "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" is that it seems to refer to actions one takes that are intended positively but, because of the confusing nature of third density, end up leading one further and further from an end result that reflects service to others. What leads one on the "road to hell" isn't merely meaning well, but instead continuing to act in a way that does not reflect on the effectiveness or appropriate of the actions. Therefore, one keeps chasing more and more intervention to achieve an outcome one originally intended as positive, but the more one tries to manipulate the situation, the further the outcome slips from the ideal originally intended.
It is a fantastic distillation of the Confederation's concept of service -- that service must be desired by the recipient to be a positive service, and that our intentions and desire are often not well understood by us. We often become more attached to a specific means of serving an other self than to whether or not the service is actually serving the other's desires, perhaps because our chosen means is convenient or promotes our desire at some level. We sometimes lack an appropriate, humble curiosity about how the other is actually doing and what help is actually possible or desired by them. When our means of service fail, as they often will, instead of having compassion for our own confusion and clumsiness, asking forgiveness for any injury to the other, and reflecting anew on the appropriateness of our service, we scramble to "do" something to fix it, to flush or repress our tension and anxiety around the tentative nature of all service, and that, I believe, leads us down the road.
The Confederation is adamant that unrequested service is not positive service; part of the discipline of personality involves refraining from acting out of our personal anxiety or ambition to accomplish things. We must remember our true service is that of essence, of our being, and service of action flows primarily from our connection with that being, not from our intellectual analysis of the outward situation or the emotional imperatives of our personal desire. In other words, to sum all this up, the road to hell is paved with good intentions because we are impatient with, and dishonest about, our true intentions, which are often not merely to serve another but to serve ourselves in some subtle way that we may not recognize. That is why reflecting in meditation on unexpected outcomes from our service is so crucial -- by learning more about ourselves, we become more able to help when needed and refrain when not needed.
I highly recommend this Hatonn/Latwii session as a partial study of this dynamic.
It is a fantastic distillation of the Confederation's concept of service -- that service must be desired by the recipient to be a positive service, and that our intentions and desire are often not well understood by us. We often become more attached to a specific means of serving an other self than to whether or not the service is actually serving the other's desires, perhaps because our chosen means is convenient or promotes our desire at some level. We sometimes lack an appropriate, humble curiosity about how the other is actually doing and what help is actually possible or desired by them. When our means of service fail, as they often will, instead of having compassion for our own confusion and clumsiness, asking forgiveness for any injury to the other, and reflecting anew on the appropriateness of our service, we scramble to "do" something to fix it, to flush or repress our tension and anxiety around the tentative nature of all service, and that, I believe, leads us down the road.
The Confederation is adamant that unrequested service is not positive service; part of the discipline of personality involves refraining from acting out of our personal anxiety or ambition to accomplish things. We must remember our true service is that of essence, of our being, and service of action flows primarily from our connection with that being, not from our intellectual analysis of the outward situation or the emotional imperatives of our personal desire. In other words, to sum all this up, the road to hell is paved with good intentions because we are impatient with, and dishonest about, our true intentions, which are often not merely to serve another but to serve ourselves in some subtle way that we may not recognize. That is why reflecting in meditation on unexpected outcomes from our service is so crucial -- by learning more about ourselves, we become more able to help when needed and refrain when not needed.
I highly recommend this Hatonn/Latwii session as a partial study of this dynamic.