Finding Deeper Purpose Through Service



Video Clip - "The Possibility of finding Joy through Service"

We can encourage freedom for ourselves and others by holding suffering and joy together. There is a way to find joy through service, and not in spite of it.

Audio Clip: "Honoring our Unique Dharma Through Social Action"

How can service be used as a vehicle for our unique expression in the world (our Dharma)? Once we tune into our internal harmony through quieting our mind and opening our heart, we come to God through engaging with the human condition, not in spite of it.

Audio Clip: "How do we know when to help, and when to step back?"

How do we know if we’re helping someone’s suffering or perpetuating it, perhaps even despite our best intentions? If we’re looking through a certain lens, suffering can be seen as fierce grace, as a tool for awakening.

From another angle, it’s very easy to get trapped in our own projections and motives of what we think someone else needs, rather than listening deeply to what will truly alleviate suffering in the situation. Freedom only comes through embracing the world as it is, not as we wish for it to be.

Audio Clip: "Working to Approach Suffering with Fearless Compassion"

Ram Dass explains that everyone has impurities, and it’s very important to recognize that as you serve others so that you are not making the situation more painful with your own attachments and neuroses. We can work towards becoming more pure instruments of service by attending to the parts of ourselves that are stuck in polarity and righteousness.

Audio Clip: "The Importance of Cultivating the Witness on the Path of Karma Yoga"

The Witness is the layer of our being that simply observes our thought patterns, intentions, emotions and actions without getting caught in them. When we lack the awareness to recognize our Witness consciousness, it’s easy to fall into the pattern of acting and serving from a place of constriction and fear - which is not optimal for anyone in the situation.