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Jim and His Karma

2111 Posts

Posted - May 30 2006 : 2:00:53 PM

SEVA

Would you let God have His way with you

Would you proffer your essence to the four winds

Would you relinquish everything you have at stake

If it might help The Problem?

Would you cede control

If you knew in your heart

That your greatest gift

Is unavailable to your self-stewardship?

Would you contribute to the cause your very molecules

As crude fodder?

Would you cast aside aspirations

So inhumanly beautiful use could be made of your meat?

Would you die to yourself

for strangers to steep in beauty and love?

Would you die to yourself

for your enemies to steep in beauty and love?

Would you die to yourself...

...with no knowledge of result?

...without a shred of recognition?

...as a pure expression of loving trust?

Would you serve in heaven?

Would you abandon the reigns of hell?

Jim and His Karma

2111 Posts

Posted - Jul 15 2006 : 02:06:24 AM

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." ---Gandhi

Early on in my samyama practice, I was doing the health samyama, and felt myself bathed inside an immense throbbing cathedral of health energy.

And it suddenly occured to me (the occurence being a distraction, as thinking, however insightful, is not something to encourage while doing spiritual practice) that all around me people are suffering in ill health, while here I sit brimming in health energy. So I let it go. I didn't push it, I didn't "bestow" it, I just allowed it to pass to the four winds for whatever use could be made of it. And I realized that it was I who had been artificially holding on to it, foolishly thinking I "possessed" it, in the first place.

I stopped grasping during samyama (and during other practices...and even during life itself). I let the words go. I let the energy go. And every once in a while I grow aware that immense amounts of energy are moving through me. I'm not soliciting it, or (knowingly) cultivating it, nor am I playing a part in distributing it. I'm totally out of it...not doing a damned thing but allowing my body to serve mindlessly as a transformer for unfathomable purposes. And it feels.....what's the word? It feels, I think, right.

The more I simply let myself be of service, the more I lose the frenzied helplessness re: the pandemic suffering (and, just as bad, numbness) in the world. Service (or "Seva") isn't just about teaching kids or innoculating people. There's a personal service to be unlocked from which all else flows. All it takes is a fervid heartfeltness. And an understanding of the difference between "doing" and "letting"

That's what led to the above poem/prayer

Edited by - Jim and His Karma on Jul 15 2006 11:25:16 AM