Selfless Service as Spiritual Practice

[Guest guest]

excerpted from : http://www.amritapuri.org/6762/selfless-serivce/

 

" The beauty and charm of selfless love and service should not die away from the

face of this earth. The world should know that a life of dedication is possible,

that a life inspired by love and service to humanity is possible. " ~ Amma,

 

Selfless Service is a form of Sadhana( spiritual practice )

 

" Service is also a form of sadhana. If you claim that you have attained

perfection after doing sadhana sitting in a certain place, Amma will not accept

that. Getting out into the world and doing service is very much a part of

sadhana. If we want to eliminate the enemies that lurk in the innermost depths

of the heart, we have to serve the world. Only then will we be able to tell how

effective our meditation has been. Only when someone gets angry with us, will we

know whether we still have anger in us. "

 

" Service should be seen as sadhana, and should be an offering to God. Then, if

someone opposes us, we may feel some slight hostility, but we can get rid of it

through contemplation. " Who in him was the object of my anger? Didn't I get

angry at him because I took myself to be the body? What have I learned from the

scriptures? Which world (spiritual or material) am I travelling to? How could I

feel any ill-will towards that person after declaring that I am not the body or

the mind, but the Atman (Self)?' We should do this type of self-examination

repeatedly. Eventually, we will stop feeling anger towards anyone. We will feel

remorse, and that will lead us on the right path. " ~ Amma

 

" Upon conclusion of the ceremony, Amma delivered a message, saying, " Selfless

love, self-sacrifice and selfless service to humanity and the entire creation

are the real worship of the Guru. Only when Amma's children practice this will

Amma be happy. " ~ Amma

 

Also, here's an interesting Forum on " Spiritual Awakening "

SpiritualAwakening/message/2500

 

especially the most current audio on " The Sound of Silence in Buddhism " part 3

http://view.liveindexer.com/ASXGenerator.aspx?mediaSKU=J2CUFKwGzNE4bP1nsNIYlQ%3d\

%3d

 

which contains interesting comments on the Divine Mother listening for sounds of

suffering to administer compassion ~ sounds like Amma ~