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Winter Evening on the Damariscotta
Damariscotta River, Maine, USA
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Anam Thubten, Into the Haunted Ground -
Padampa Sangye [Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha, ca. 11 Century] journeyed extensively through Tibet, India, China, and Nepal. Because he traveled unadorned with a carefree simple demeanor and lived without fame, power, or prestige, people often dismissed him and did not recognize him as a spiritual teacher. One time a famous Tibetan translator was staying at the same guesthouse in Nepal as Padamapa. The translator thought he was a servant and asked him, "Who is your master?" Padampa, instead of being insulted, wittily replied, "I'm a servant to all beings."
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Though Padampa was endowed with siddhis, or miraculous powers, he considered the greatest of them to be service to others. The Christian missionary Paul (1st Century) viewed himself similarly. He began his letters calling himself a "slave" (Greek, doulos) of Christ - often mistranslated as "servant."
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Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark 10.42-45 (NRSVUE) -
So Jesus called them and said to them, "You know that among the gentiles [non-Jews] those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man [Human One, archetypal human; Jesus] came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom means of liberation] for many."
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Amid those who see a meaningful life in wealth, power, and prestige, the Way offers a contrast, exposing that misery-making fantasy as a lie. Walking the Way deconstructs self-centeredness but not the self. The self was always a self with all selves or not a self at all.
The self no longer sees itself as having rights separate from others' rights. The self is no longer viewed as a private entity. The self is not interested in seeing itself as a consumer. The interest is being a sharer - giving and receiving as grace. Now, the self sees itself as being itself for being the Self - this includes nonhumans and selves not in the tangible realms.
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Service, however, to others is not a negation of self, as though we must disown ourselves or walk about with low self-esteem. The more we-centered we become, the more a true sense of self arises.
Service is the affirmation of self in serving others as self-with-others rather than the predominant view of self-as-separate-from-others. Yet, the self does not affirm the self; rather, serving itself affirms the self. The self being itself, a servant, affirms the self. The act affirms even as loving shows one is a lover, as treeing shows the tree to be a tree.
Self-as-separate (i.e., individuality) is a denial of self. Service takes that illusory self as an isolated - even if amid others - self and shows self to be a collective I, or I-being-communion.
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We are free in the silent posture and act of blessing, for act has become blessing. In being the blessing, we find ourselves ransomed. The ransoming is one spontaneous creation. The blessing reflects back on the self. This is true, for love frees, and serving, even in ways that seem negligible, even in silent, still action, love expresses as the embodied gesture of creating Spirit.
When you serve one, you serve all. If you touch a flower kindly, you touch all - you touch God. A prayer for one being is a prayer for all beings. We cannot find even a slight seam anywhere.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2023. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
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