Everything Mind by Chris Grosso

Author:Chris Grosso
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sounds True

Serve (Everyone)

This one can also be tough when taken at face value, but when we remember Maharajji’s words, “Sub ek—it’s all one,” this seemingly impossible task becomes much more feasible. We can start small with something as simple as a guided meditation on mindful awareness or coming home to our breath, because each moment we spend calming our minds helps connect us back to the place where everything is One. (The wonderful author and teacher Tara Brach has an extensive library of guided meditations at her website.) It’s in a simple act such as this—dedicating some time out of our day to consciously come back to the place of interconnectivity with all beings—that we’re serving all beings by serving our true Self.

Being of service to others in the world is just as important as “loving everyone.” And I’d recommend each of us makes it a regular part of our lives. Being of service to others is also known as karma yoga, which is an important part of the spiritual path because, as we give of ourselves to others, we’re simultaneously cultivating the experience of “no us” and “no them,” which turns into an experience in which it’s all just God serving God. I can’t stress enough how powerful karma yoga can be in helping us dismantle our ego nature. Being of service to others, with an attitude of love and gratitude for nothing more than the simple fact that we’re able to be of service in the first place, is a tremendously inspired and loving experience.

No matter what spiritual tradition you’re a part of, being of service is a universally applicable form of spiritual practice. Hell, even if you don’t give a shit about traditional spirituality in the first place, being of service simply for the benefit of humanity as a whole is huge. This is a quality inherent in most human beings, but one often dormant until called upon. For example, just look at the times when there’s a natural disaster or a terrorist attack or any other number of horrors that happen on a daily basis throughout the world. What’s the way most people respond? By helping. By doing whatever they can in the moment, whether it’s digging people out of rubble, tending wounds, or giving away food and water. It’s as if something just naturally guided them to be of service in that moment, to help others, strangers or not. I’d call that something Everything Mind.

The person we’re working diligently to pull out of the rubble after a tornado, a tsunami, or a bombing may have been someone who, only moments earlier, we would have given the stink eye to, based on nothing more than social, political, or religious differences. In the face of disasters, tragedies, and life and death, trivial differences fly right out the window, and our instinct is to help, regardless of whether we consider ourselves spiritual or not.

In his book The Hope, the brilliant mystic Andrew Harvey writes:

I respect—even revere—anyone who wants to help others, whatever his or her faith or lack of it.

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