Why if the choice is Love does Ra say the choice is service?

[ANGEL]

Hello All,
I have known the Ra material now for well over a decade. It quite literally helped save my life as I was so overflowing with empathy that I could not function well in a world so full of horrors, and cruelty. I am one of those who praised God for allowing me to find it, as it has opened my eyes and healed my heart and indeed brought me spiritual wisdom and depth.

However, lately I have begun to question key points that are deeply concerning to me. The first and foremost is that Ra insists that the choice of paths by which to take and indeed must be made to "graduate" from this 3rd dimension, is the choice to serve others or serve the self. To serve is a negative concept in most cases. To subjugate or to be under the rule of another self. I do not believe that this word was chosen without thought, because without a doubt all of this material and each word is chosen for its precise essence, in order to lessen any chance we might misunderstand the concepts provided.

I will say that to serve others by being available to fill a need, aid in anyway or give an ear or lend a shoulder are always natural for those who love, but this choice of service is not accurate and thereby something is amiss.

The more accurate choice is more accurately stated as to accept Love or deny it. The choice is not in service it is in whether we accept the power of the creators love or destroy it as a weakness. Its a choice of dominance and power over others or a choice to love all, including the self.
The negative polarity do not love, not even the self.

I think about the ancient flood myths of the Bible and the older Summerian, and how they are so very similar accept in the smallest but most significant parts. Control or love?
Remember, the counterfeit is sometimes so good, so close to perfect that it requires an expert to see its small but significant imperfection and renders it worthless.

This material has absolutely been a blessing this is truth but I must consider if perhaps I have also been led astray in order to cause me to actually choose service and subjugation in my next life.

We do not have to be energy or kinetic. Energy is literally wrapped in the fields of potentials that surround us everywhere. They are flowing up into us from earth and down into us from our creator and all of creation in every moment.

To be fully integrated in mind, body and soul means to integrate all three data sets of information, into our the whole of ourselves. The body and its emotions, which all come from love, must be accepted and felt in the body, along with the mind and spirit if we are to be whole. We can not know self without love. We must learn to become love, to accept all its forms and only then are we able to make wiser choices. We cannot make sound decisions if we are not utilizing all of the data available to us. To deny Gods creative love is to deny the self, ungodly and dare I say not the smartest of choices. However, its not for me to judge, only to balance the 3 inputs flowing in and around me. Perhaps the best I can do for my negative selves is point out the fear and send love and prayers to them. Also forgive myself for the times that I taught them that love hurts and cannot be trusted. Love did not let them down, we did...I did. Then again their perception is of love is way off the mark too. GOD...Remind them one last time what love feels like before they have to choose in their next life. This I insist is granted.

I ask you all to consider my thoughts and perhaps I have missed something vital in my concepts here that you might help me see more clearly

[Sacred Fool]

Perhaps the best I can do for my negative selves is point out the fear and send love and prayers to them. Also forgive myself for the times that I taught them that love hurts and cannot be trusted. Love did not let them down,  we did...I did. Then again their perception is of love is way off the mark too.  GOD...Remind them one last time what love feels like before they have to choose in their next life. This I insist is granted.  

I ask you all to consider my thoughts and perhaps I have missed something vital in my concepts here that you might help me see more clearly

 
Hi there. Angel.  Yes, i do think you have overlooked something of key importance.  I would say that this key is that you are simply doing more difficult work in spirit than you were doing previously, and more the more difficult is simply harder than easy work.  Therefore, you're being too hard upon self for the fact that's it's taking time to learn to operate at an higher level.  You're not being fair or patient.
 
What I'm speaking of is this.  It's easy to be only empathetic and caring.  It's also easy to discover the more painful sides of self.  But it is just not so easy to hold both of these together in one being and remain reasonably poised.  You're, evidently, doing the work of learning to hold both your light and dark elements and love self as a whole.  This is a journey, and not a simple, easy one, so prepare yourself to forgive yourself often for not finding your way through this in a month or a year or a decade or a lifetime.
 
On the other hand, it seems that this might be what you chose to do here, and if that was your pre-incarnative choice, then the spiritual resources available to you are powerful.  Of course, for them to become actively available to you is part of the work you are doing.  What is that?  For your helpers to be able to help you more effectively, you must purify your seeking of truth, your seeking of Divine beauty or however you would frame it.  To a purified heart are given gifts of Spirit.
 
So, don't just pack a lunch and expect to get home before nightfall.  Prepare yourself properly for a quest worthy of a lifetime.

   

[Dtris]

I would say you have a distorted view of what service is and what it means to serve. You are also confusing the dynamics of love and control.

However, lately I have begun to question key points that are deeply concerning to me. The first and foremost is that Ra insists that the choice of paths by which to take and indeed must be made to "graduate" from this 3rd dimension, is the choice to serve others or serve the self. To serve is a negative concept in most cases. To subjugate or to be under the rule of another self.  I do not believe that this word was chosen without thought, because without a doubt all of this material and each word is chosen for its precise essence, in order to lessen any chance we might misunderstand the concepts provided.

Underlines added by myself. Definition of Serve If you read the multitude of definitions given you will see there are neutral, positive, and negative connotations according to the view common on this forum.

When my ex broke her back, a lifted her to use the bathroom, carried her to bed, often adjusted her when she awoke screaming in pain when she inadvertently moved in the wrong way while sleeping, built her a wheelchair ramp, and many other things. When my grandfather was dying a few years ago, I helped him to the bathroom, helped him walk when he was no longer strong enough, I picked him up when he fell, I drove him to the store, I made calls and appointments for him. When my mother died recently, I was with her every day I could in the hospital, brought her clothes and food, checked her vitals when needed, and adjusted her oxygen, and made sure wherever she went the doctors understood her history and what was going on. Which one of those was not a service?

When a child is born and the parents, feed, and clothe, and shelter, and teach the child, what of those is not a service?

When you admire someone and voluntarily do their will, that is also a service.

I will say that to serve others by being available to fill a need, aid in anyway or give an ear or lend a shoulder are always natural for those who love, but this choice of service is not accurate and thereby something is amiss.

What is amiss in your examples are they are shallow. While being a sympathetic ear is important, it is a low investment type of service. It reminds me of the saying, A friend is who you call when you are in jail, a best friend is in the cell with you.

The more accurate choice is more accurately stated as to accept Love or deny it. The choice is not in service it is in whether we accept the power of the creators love or destroy it as a weakness. Its a choice of dominance and power over others or a choice to love all, including the self.
The negative polarity do not love, not even the self.

The 4th density is the density of love. It is where the STO and STS graduate to. Love cannot be denied. If a person denies love altogether they will never graduate either way. The creator loves all of the creation, whether you accept or deny the love of the creator toward you is irrelevant. The density of love is about exploring the manifestations of love in relation to the self and other self. This can be done by directing love outward, or inward. If the negative does not love at all, they would not graduate.

Love is not what we think it is. We have a very skewed concept of love in our world. It is most closely tied to romantic love, then secondly to familial love. However none of these represent the force of love in an accurate way and these are facets of the entire concept. I am still exploring the concept myself and do not want to say anything wrong, but I know that what most people mean when they say love only encompasses a small fraction of the concept as explored in the major densities.

I think about the ancient flood myths of the Bible and the older Summerian, and how they are so very similar accept in the smallest but most significant parts. Control or love?
Remember, the counterfeit is sometimes so good, so close to perfect that it requires an expert to see its small but significant imperfection and renders it worthless.

This material has absolutely been a blessing this is truth but I must consider if perhaps I have also been led astray in order to cause me to actually choose service and subjugation in my next life.

We do not have to be energy or kinetic. Energy is literally wrapped in the fields of potentials that surround us everywhere. They are flowing up into us from earth and down into us from our creator and all of creation in every moment.

To be fully integrated in mind, body and soul means to integrate all three data sets of information, into our the whole of ourselves. The body and its emotions, which all come from love, must be accepted and felt in the body, along with the mind and spirit if we are to be whole. We can not know self without love. We must learn to become love, to accept all its forms and only then are we able to make wiser choices. We cannot make sound decisions if we are not utilizing all of the data available to us. To deny Gods creative love is to deny the self, ungodly and dare I say not the smartest of choices. However, its not for me to judge, only to balance the 3 inputs flowing in and around me. Perhaps the best I can do for my negative selves is point out the fear and send love and prayers to them. Also forgive myself for the times that I taught them that love hurts and cannot be trusted. Love did not let them down,  we did...I did. Then again their perception is of love is way off the mark too.  GOD...Remind them one last time what love feels like before they have to choose in their next life. This I insist is granted.  

I ask you all to consider my thoughts and perhaps I have missed something vital in my concepts here that you might help me see more clearly

Believe it or not, there are known counterfeits that have sold for a fortune, simply because the artistic skill involved in making an accurate counterfeit can be breathtaking itself.

You can serve by force, or you can serve by choice. That is the fundamental difference in STO and STS. STS forces others to serve them, meanwhile the one being forced forces those below and so on, while plotting and waiting for an opportunity to usurp the higher position. STO serves out of a genuine desire to provide for others in a manner that is congruent with their own talents and inclinations.

Your ideas on integration and choices and how to progress are your own and they seem well thought out and coherent.

Now to return to the top so to speak. Love is a force of nature. It is one of the primal distortions of the creator. Love/Light, Light/Love; these are more real in our physical world than matter itself. How we interact with the experience we gain is where control comes in. Control is not the inverse of love, that is light. Acceptance is the inverse of control. Control/Accept, Accept/Control; these concepts are intertwined just as learn/teach and teach/learn are intertwined. The most controlling parents can also be the most loving, but fear causes them to control their child's life. The parents who afford their children the most freedom can also be unloving.

As stated by Ra, the fundamental difference between STO and STS is that the former accepts when confronted with catalyst, while STS controls. STO accepts the self, STS controls the self. STO accepts other selves, STS controls other selves. STO loves the self and other selves, STS only loves the self. Service being only true service when it is freely given, STS can never freely give service to an other self, as all are insignificant compared to self. The only true service can be to the self in that case. Whereas STO can freely give service in any manner which is congruent with their own desire to serve others.

[Minyatur]

The material does say the concept of service actually is meaningful because of our tendency as mind/body/spirit complexes to view things in a certain way.

I am Ra. It is unlikely that there is a more pithy or eloquent description of the polarities of third density than “service to others” and “service to self” due to the nature of the mind/body/spirit complex’s distortions towards perceiving concepts relating to philosophy in terms of ethics or activity. However, we might consider the polarities using slightly variant terms. In this way a possible enrichment of insight might be achieved for some.

One might consider the polarities with the literal nature enjoyed by the physical polarity of the magnet. The negative and positive, with their electrical characteristics, may be seen to be just as in the physical sense.
It is to be noted in this context that it is quite impossible to judge the polarity of an act or an entity, just as it is impossible to judge the relative goodness of the negative and positive poles of the magnet.

Another method of viewing polarities might involve the concept of radiation/absorption. That which is positive is radiant; that which is negative is absorbent.

To me polarity is much more of a state of being. But I believe within the paradox of manyness there is a concept where we have to work with others to polarize and advance within the Octave.  This is where the notion of service comes from. For example, if everyone is learn/teacher and teach/learner, then learning and teaching are basic services in the self realizing the Creator.

What we call unconditional love, which is like the total acceptance of something, is in fact a portion of the spectrum of love. Love itself is actually expressed throughout all the densities and this portion of love relates to 4D. Positive entities experience total acceptance of all things without boundaries, while negative entities experience total acceptance of themselves as mind/body/spirit complexes with a boundary. Service is somewhat always for the self and for others at the same time, as there is only One. This duality being a paradox in which the same love is expressed and which is eventually reconciled. Like the material says, there is no polarity, there is only unity. We chose in our free will to experience an alternative to understanding the completef unity of thought which binds all things.

[Anders]

J. Krishnamurti said that only a confused mind chooses. Choice is confusion, he said. Interestingly, Ra calls choice a part of the Law of Confusion. My guess is that choice is a necessary illusion. Without the feeling of free will, we would feel like automatic robots in third density. So it's extremely important to preserve the sense of free will in third density and Ra is very careful about doing that. However, I suspect that in higher densities, the illusion of free will is recognized and that there is no actual individual free will and only the One Will of the Creator.

[Sacred Fool]

 
An additional way of viewing service is this.  If you can see other as self, then there is no question of servitude.  If one does not see other as self, then there is much room for confusion.  How to clear up the confusion?  By deeply knowing--and balancing--and loving self.
  

[Sena]

It's easy to be only empathetic and caring.  It's also easy to discover the more painful sides of self.  But it is just not so easy to hold both of these together in one being and remain reasonably poised.  You're, evidently, doing the work of learning to hold both your light and dark elements and love self as a whole.  This is a journey, and not a simple, easy one, so prepare yourself to forgive yourself often for not finding your way through this in a month or a year or a decade or a lifetime.
 
On the other hand, it seems that this might be what you chose to do here, and if that was your pre-incarnative choice, then the spiritual resources available to you are powerful.  Of course, for them to become actively available to you is part of the work you are doing.  What is that?  For your helpers to be able to help you more effectively, you must purify your seeking of truth, your seeking of Divine beauty or however you would frame it.  To a purified heart are given gifts of Spirit.
 
So, don't just pack a lunch and expect to get home before nightfall.  Prepare yourself properly for a quest worthy of a lifetime.

   

Sacred Fool, thanks for your insightful comments.

[ANGEL]

Wow, I've been surprised by all of your answers. Some more than others. Perhaps more accurately I should say your nonanswers to my question.

I admit perhaps I should have been more thorough while I gave examples for service perhaps, but my point was merely that when we love it is a natural honor/duty to take care of those we love. Loving is indeed an action as well as a receiving and both are difficult lessons to learn.

I am going to just think this was my lack of wording coherently my question. However, let's make this clear point first, this question I can assure you has nothing to do with my concept or perceived lack thereof regarding service or my need of choice. It in fact is not anyone of you who in any way know or should judge these concepts in me. I have reread my words and am at loss to understand what is so blazingly obvious to you to see and why it has to do with me instead of answering the question.

My question is simply this.... because Ra is so deliberate in the preciseness of his words, because he doesn't want any of the concepts spoken to be misunderstood in any way...when HE says those in this dimension MUST make a choice, that choice being one of SERVICE to self or others, instead of stating the real choice, which is to Accept Love or not. That is the choice one must make after all. Or is this not as obvious to you as is to myself?? Why state the choice in a service context at all. When the choice to love and love indicates precisely how service pans out. Those without that green Chakra activated as Ra has indicated, you know the one that is the seat of love, they only would serve themselves...naturally.

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

[Anders]

Ra is very precise I believe but also uses the Law of Confusion. Some information needs to be veiled to prevent revealing it prematurely to humanity. Take this answer for example, which I find puzzling:

"Questioner: Then at this point, would the Choice exist at this point, the creation of the first service-to-self polarity? Is there a choice at that point or is it a non-choice?

Ra: I am Ra. Implicit in the veiling or separation of two archetypes is the concept of choice. The refinements to this concept took many experiences." - Law of One 79.31

[ANGEL]

It's easy to be only empathetic and caring.  It's also easy to discover the more painful sides of self.  But it is just not so easy to hold both of these together in one being and remain reasonably poised.  You're, evidently, doing the work of learning to hold both your light and dark elements and love self as a whole.  This is a journey, and not a simple, easy one, so prepare yourself to forgive yourself often for not finding your way through this in a month or a year or a decade or a lifetime.

I am not now  and have never been only empathic and caring and it has at least for me, never been easy to discover these painful sides in myself but when I spoke of these I meant unknowingly acting in these ways but able to admit I have made mistakes that may be responsible  and certainly others, whom are me too have done so, in the past. . This is insight and acceptance for my part in why people would choose to not love.

 

On the other hand, it seems that this might be what you chose to do here, and if that was your pre-incarnative choice, then the spiritual resources available to you are powerful.  Of course, for them to become actively available to you is part of the work you are doing.  What is that? 

This gave me more hope, and is actually perceptive of you. Indeed, my life journey truly must have been a preincarnative choice and that was to learn and understand the negative self path, how their minds and thoughts are different, how they see us or those like myself,  what they value and don't basically like Ra has said, how to love them without being  placed under their heel. More than that but clearly it has been one hell of a journey and though I have now obtained a pretty full perception of at least cluster b personality disorders etc., the journey has taken its toll on me, though I am beginning to see hope for them, and intend to help bring that hope to those who are already positioned to spread the message most affectively to those afflicted and ready for healing.

And yes if it had not been for the continuous and faithful support of many friends in the universe and God himself someday,  I would not have made it through with my life still intact. I can still smell the stench of hatred and the hopelessness of the pain in the pit I fought in daily to save my life. My resources walk and fight along side me, every moment of the day. I gave up twice and each time I realized this was not my choice to make and someone lent me a hand and pulled me out of that gravity well and grip. I have been that warrior goddess and I'm tired and gave up the sword permanently. This does not mean darkness has won. In fact it means love wins as always. Being able to love the self is clearly the final lesson for us all. I'm still working on that one but I'll get there. I'm proud of this lifetimes work and its successfull integration. It is by far the most difficult journey I can imagine. I have a respect for both paths and my heart bleeds for so many of the otherselves victims and abuser.

For your helpers to be able to help you more effectively, you must purify your seeking of truth, your seeking of Divine beauty or however you would frame it.  To a purified heart are given gifts of Spirit.

First of all wow.!  The help I have needed, despite those who ignorantly, work to censor and obstruct, has been given to me tens of thousands fold. I am blessed and loved and graciously so. Supernaturally directed in many cases. I truly want to know what it is you see in me that indicates I need to purify my seeking of truth. I have a right to know and I mean don't hold back anything. From where I am sitting it is obvious to me that something you think k you see or know is very incorrect or at the least very judgemental. I have often said and truly believe so much of life could easily be transcended if those in Authoritative positions etc, judging and censoring obstructing simply utilized communication skills and spoke to those they work hard to harm and restrict. Perhsps one could then grow together In Love light and truth. You do realize you actually told me I need to purify my seeking of truth right?? So how is that you believe that my heart is unpure and secondly that my seeking  of truth needs purified? I demand a straight answer here.

So, don't just pack a lunch and expect to get home before nightfall.  Prepare yo
urself properly for a quest worthy of a lifetime.

I didn't pack a lunch, there has been no time. When you get up close and very personal with those on the negative path, let's just say nice things like a lunch are the farthest thing from thought and the very least of your worries. Trust me its been a life time and I have an accute memory of each and every day. Its been painful and hard and lonely and scary and full of magic too. I have been blessed and protected while I did it but only from total obliteration and perhaps given the time to take this journey too. Hard road. I made it though the toll is easy to see.  Every time I try to move to the next step forward , we'll it seems someone tries to thwart this effort. Every time. Strange huh??

[Patrick]

...My question is simply this.... because Ra is so deliberate in the preciseness of his words, because he doesn't want any of the concepts spoken to be misunderstood in any way...when HE says those in this dimension MUST make a choice, that choice being one of SERVICE to self or others, instead of stating the real choice, which is to Accept Love or not. That is the choice one must make after all. Or is this not as obvious to you as is to myself?? Why state the choice in a service context at all. When the choice to love and love indicates precisely how service pans out. Those without that green Chakra activated as Ra has indicated,  you know the one that is the seat of love, they only would serve themselves...naturally.

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

I do not see any difference whatsoever in between these two statements "Making The Choice of being of SERVICE to Self or Others" and "Making The Choice to Accept Love or Not".

If the word "service" is a stumbling block for you, then disregard it. Your understanding of making The Choice of polarity as wanting (or not) to seek the Love in each moment is really fine and on point as far as my own understanding goes. You can very effectively work with your preferred semantic.

Now, that being said, regarding the word "service". It is important to note that the way Ra means it is that your very being is a service to the One Creator. Everything we are and everything we do is a service.

[Sacred Fool]

Perhaps more accurately I should say your nonanswers to my question.

...

Why state the choice in a service context at all. When the choice to love and love indicates precisely how service pans out.

...

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

 
 
Oops!!!  Sorry for missing the main thing that interested you.

Many times Ra implies an equivalency between the will to serve and the the will to seek.  For most of my path I've identified much more with seeking than serving, but did understand somewhat that the will to move self in the positive direction--towards Truth or Love or whatever one most deeply feels is self--is the common element between these two.
 
More recently things have shifted a bit.  You described much effort while sojourning in the Vale of Earthly Tears, shall we say, and feeling much spiritual support along the way.  In my own wanderings of that type, I would describe the energies within me and around me as being unpredictable, undirected and not well paced. 
 
So, now imagine that you find your guides and helpers and your internal selves beginning to all flow together in the same coherent current of energy.  No longer are things coming from all directions, but the work becomes more deliberate and directed until you feel as if you are being swept away in a current of....of what, exactly?

If you think back to what your guides and helpers were doing for you, would it be fair to say that they were offering you spiritual aid or service?  If you were to join them in their work, what do you suppose you would be doing together, possibly offering spiritual aid and service?

One thing that changed for me is that I would now describe that current of joined forces with the word "service," and I honestly find that surprising.  But that's how it feels to me.  Perhaps Ra got it right?

  

[Diana]

Service to others includes self. Otherwise there is separation—between self and others. There is a lot of implication in this idea.

[Dtris]

Wow, I've been surprised by all of your answers. Some more than others. Perhaps more accurately I should say your nonanswers to my question.

I admit perhaps I should have been more thorough while I gave examples for service perhaps, but my point was merely that when we love it is a natural honor/duty to take care of those we love. Loving is indeed an action as well as a receiving and both are difficult lessons to learn.

I am going to just think this was my lack of wording coherently my question. However, let's make this clear point first, this question I can assure you has nothing to do with my concept or perceived lack thereof regarding service or my need of choice. It in fact is not anyone of you who in any way know or should judge these concepts in me. I have reread my words and am at loss to understand what is so blazingly obvious to you to see and why it has to do with me instead of answering the question.

My question is simply this.... because Ra is so deliberate in the preciseness of his words, because he doesn't want any of the concepts spoken to be misunderstood in any way...when HE says those in this dimension MUST make a choice, that choice being one of SERVICE to self or others, instead of stating the real choice, which is to Accept Love or not. That is the choice one must make after all. Or is this not as obvious to you as is to myself?? Why state the choice in a service context at all. When the choice to love and love indicates precisely how service pans out. Those without that green Chakra activated as Ra has indicated,  you know the one that is the seat of love, they only would serve themselves...naturally.

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

You asked for anything you may be missing in your conception of the idea as discussed by Ra. I answered what you asked, feel free to disregard if it doesn't work for you.

I will only add that you are making an assumption, that the "real choice, which is to Accept Love or not" is what Ra was REALLY discussing. You are free to believe whatever you want about the Ra material, but IMO that is not a position supported by the Law of One books. If Ra meant that, they would have said that.

[Minyatur]

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

The material defines the second distortion as free will finding focus, this being known to us as Logos, the Creative Principle or Love. So the choice is of focus, which is love, but this dictates how our creative energy as co-Creator is invested within our reality. Both polarities have to work with others in order to progress within 4D, hence the notion of service.

So whatever you choose is love, it is just a different polarity of love within the perception of the paradox of self and other-selves. Beyond the paradox of perception, there is no differentiation between the two and they are reconcilied.

[flofrog]

Of course since we are individual we have to take care fo the self first. However, I think that when you live through a turmoil, or chaotic time, wishing to polarize towards the positive, there is often the desire to take care of the self first, in effect be of service to the self very first, akin to the survival response. Then when you have both realized the other self is you after all, the acceptance reappears and the feeling of separation dissolves. There is an ongoing flux but the more you go, the more you naturally bend towards acceptance and the feeling of fundamental love for others appears so evident.

[Patrick]

Yes and taking care of ourselves is still very much positively polarizing.

...In this regard we would suggest that the skillful choice is always to work on the self without regard for working with other entities. Service to others, working upon what you perceive needs to be done in the world, begins and ends within yourself. Until the point at which you are asked specific questions that you may answer in what you hope is a spiritually helpful manner, the work you do on yourself is sufficient and more than adequate in terms of how you may affect the consciousness of planet Earth. Change yourself and you change the world. That is how powerful you really are...

...The focus upon the self in the means of balancing distortions and looking for ways to understand more of what is occurring within the self is an activity that may seem to some to be full of pride and ego, yet we would suggest that such a concentration of an entity’s attention upon its own self in that manner is a means by which a seeker grows, for it needs to be aware of the activity of intellect, of emotion, and of the spirit that moves within one’s own being. Yet that information is used only to temper the steel, shall we say, the character of the entity, and not to impose this character upon another...

...Many times, it seems to each, that there is no way that one person can be of service, that one person’s light can make a difference. However, this instrument is fond of saying that in a dark place the light of one candle can be seen for quite a distance. Metaphysically, this is far more true even than the physical truth of candles and sight. Each of you makes a significant difference to the lightening of the planet as well as to the lightening of your soul. For when each of you does one, each of you is doing the other. To work on the self is to work on the world. Indeed, to work on the self is the most direct and effective way to work on the outer world in a metaphysical sense...

...You need only to work upon yourself, so that you are a clear channel, unmoved by the ridiculousness of many situations, and in great humor when others find a situation quite grim. For you see, you dwell in the midst of a great cosmic joke and a great cosmic tragedy. And the ability to see both polarities of this truth equally is a very helpful one in dealing with yourself. And when you have dealt with this polarity within yourself, laughing at your grief and solemn in your joy, you may be of balanced help to others, for you may not then be touched by their difficulties to the point where you will be unable to respond in the way the Creator within you would respond...

...in that same general run of seekers there is often a prejudice against working on the self, for it seems selfish to be absorbed in the processes of the self. It is our opinion that it is in healing yourself that you heal the world. It is in learning to love yourself that you learn to love others. It is in finding compassion at last for yourself that you are finally able to have compassion on others. It is in blessing your own suffering by respecting it, honoring it, and forgiving it in yourself that you become able to behold the suffering of the world in its massive and almost infinite depth...

[Sena]

My question is simply this.... because Ra is so deliberate in the preciseness of his words, because he doesn't want any of the concepts spoken to be misunderstood in any way...when HE says those in this dimension MUST make a choice, that choice being one of SERVICE to self or others, instead of stating the real choice, which is to Accept Love or not. That is the choice one must make after all. Or is this not as obvious to you as is to myself?? Why state the choice in a service context at all. y.

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

Hi Angel, thanks for your question. How I see it is that emphasis on service to others is because deeds are important. Love can be simply an emotion or feeling, but if love is restricted to that, that is not service. It can be something as simple as helping a partner do the dishes and then it becomes service.

[meadow-foreigner]

Hello ANGEL. Your input is appreciated.

One of the severe limiting constraints that our language system has is a 'semantic variability'; the difference in understandings and intents between emission and receiving of a message. With this caveat being said:

However, lately I have begun to question key points that are deeply concerning to me. The first and foremost is that Ra insists that the choice of paths by which to take and indeed must be made to "graduate" from this 3rd dimension, is the choice to serve others or serve the self. To serve is a negative concept in most cases. To subjugate or to be under the rule of another self.  I do not believe that this word was chosen without thought, because without a doubt all of this material and each word is chosen for its precise essence, in order to lessen any chance we might misunderstand the concepts provided.

There are, undoubtedly, kinds of servitudes that have a Self-centered agenda behind it. Examples of this are the monetary system-based contracts, in which time and competence are exchanged for money. People usually call this process a service.

There are also the historical servile relations, often based on slavery and domination, often by force. There are lots of modern-based relations that are, in a sense, enslaving individuals.

Note that this isn't a pre-requisite and healthy relationships in the monetary system can and do occur, though maybe less frequently than unbalanced ones.


However, Ra's concept may be much broader than this human-based semantic concept.

Consider the term work, if you will. Physically, it is a matter of transforming energy from one type to another. 3D bodies do work on a regular basis just for the sake of existing, such as to balance their homeostasis.

Mind/Body/Spirit complexes also do work constantly, even if in the form of mental work, through thoughts (creations) and thinking (mental labor). This work serves a purpose, in such that the end state after the work is done is different from the initial state.

The purpose is, as put by Ra, so that "The Creator can know Itself". In perhaps more palatable terms, it is so that the full extent of finity, or manyness, can be properly acknowledged, known, understood, registered, and worked with. To be so, the Self lives in both spacetime and timespace of The Creation in a progressive manner, activating the so-called energy bodies and their energy centers, from red to violet. 3D bodies have red, orange, and yellow energy bodies.

To graduate to 4D positive (which I'm assuming it's your intent), it is necessary to lay the foundation for the green energy body. This involves understanding, empathy, love, compassion. It involves precisely the knowledge that both Self and other-Selves are, in essence, just The Creator expressing itself differently throughout the Universe.



Consider the proposition that "everything that there is, comes from The Creator, the cause of all causes".
There are basically two routes of work to progress towards such the aforementioned purpose: the path that is (The Creator); and the path that is not (The Creator).

The path that is encompasses the wholeness of The Creation: the whole package. It does so in a manner of acknowledging and interacting from Self in conjuncture with other-Selves, who are just as The Creator as your Self is. It is called by Ra the Service To Others path.

The path that is not, encompasses only part of The Creation, leaving aside undesired or unwanted parts of it. In 3D this occurs as the psychoanalytical repression mechanism of the ego, for instance. Non-acceptance of other-Selves (such as by attributing bad values to individuals that are simply different) may lead to this path. It is called by Ra the Service To Self path.

The path that is not is an illusion, and regardless of how powerful it is, it's an illusion.

I will say that to serve others by being available to fill a need, aid in anyway or give an ear or lend a shoulder are always natural for those who love, but this choice of service is not accurate and thereby something is amiss.

There's a difference between a service/work attitude and a servile/dependant one. The former exists primarily as a consequence of the full expression of The Creator within, while the latter only exists as a function of an outside source, in a disregard of the Self (which is The Creator). Therefore, by denying The Creator within, the individual seeks an outside illusion of wish.

The more accurate choice is more accurately stated as to accept Love or deny it. The choice is not in service it is in whether we accept the power of the creators love or destroy it as a weakness. Its a choice of dominance and power over others or a choice to love all, including the self.
The negative polarity do not love, not even the self.

Acceptance/integration is an important part of existence, though not all of it. Once accepted/integrated, it is equally important to live/interact/work in The Creation, and the means of doing so were termed as "service" by Ra.

I think about the ancient flood myths of the Bible and the older Summerian, and how they are so very similar accept in the smallest but most significant parts. Control or love?
Remember, the counterfeit is sometimes so good, so close to perfect that it requires an expert to see its small but significant imperfection and renders it worthless.

Consider that the ancient myths are blatantly based on domination and slavery, without the proper understanding (which is the gateway to 4D consciousness) that both Self and other-Self are different ways/forms of The Creator expressing itself in the Universe.

This material has absolutely been a blessing this is truth but I must consider if perhaps I have also been led astray in order to cause me to actually choose service and subjugation in my next life.

We do not have to be energy or kinetic. Energy is literally wrapped in the fields of potentials that surround us everywhere. They are flowing up into us from earth and down into us from our creator and all of creation in every moment.

To define oneself — an action most used by the rational mind — is to limit oneself. The Creator (therefore you and every other living force and creature in the Universe) is limitless by definition.

To be fully integrated in mind, body and soul means to integrate all three data sets of information, into our the whole of ourselves. The body and its emotions, which all come from love, must be accepted and felt in the body, along with the mind and spirit if we are to be whole. We can not know self without love. We must learn to become love, to accept all its forms and only then are we able to make wiser choices. We cannot make sound decisions if we are not utilizing all of the data available to us. To deny Gods creative love is to deny the self, ungodly and dare I say not the smartest of choices. However, its not for me to judge, only to balance the 3 inputs flowing in and around me.

You have worked a good model to define and qualify the interface through which you experience your life. That is an individual task for each and every one of us, and it is a most difficult one.

Perhaps the best I can do for my negative selves is point out the fear and send love and prayers to them. Also forgive myself for the times that I taught them that love hurts and cannot be trusted. Love did not let them down,  we did...I did. Then again their perception is of love is way off the mark too.  GOD...Remind them one last time what love feels like before they have to choose in their next life. This I insist is granted.  

I ask you all to consider my thoughts and perhaps I have missed something vital in my concepts here that you might help me see more clearly

From my understanding, there are no missing parts in your reasoning, just an over-concern with incarnations, which is rooted in fear, and therefore is emotional in essence (orange ray). This fear, in turn, correlates to both the red ray of survival and the yellow ray of identity of Self.

Orange ray work is probably the most difficult work to do in 3D Earth because fear is commonplace here.

As you said, emotional integration is paramount to balance the Self. This includes both the rational and the emotional knowing that insecurities and the whole myriad of ways they manifest in one's life are part of forging the statue of the Self in the fire. It's intense, it's complicated, it's gruesome at times.

It may be fruitful to understand the language of your emotional Self, and to tame it. It is part of life, and instead of casting aside fears by actions and even other thoughts, I suggest that you take your time to fully accept them as being part of your Self and part of your divine plan to work and evolve in life.

As for other-Selves, it is good to keep in mind that they themselves have their own evolutionary routes and plans, so regardless of the best of intentions, to forcibly impose anything on them isn't a wise choice. After all, only you can know the most intricate parts of you: the same applies to other-Selves. Thus, respect and kindness is advisable in dealing with other-Selves, for each one fights a fight that only they know fully about.

[Ohr Ein Sof]

Wow, I've been surprised by all of your answers. Some more than others. Perhaps more accurately I should say your nonanswers to my question.

I admit perhaps I should have been more thorough while I gave examples for service perhaps, but my point was merely that when we love it is a natural honor/duty to take care of those we love. Loving is indeed an action as well as a receiving and both are difficult lessons to learn.

I am going to just think this was my lack of wording coherently my question. However, let's make this clear point first, this question I can assure you has nothing to do with my concept or perceived lack thereof regarding service or my need of choice. It in fact is not anyone of you who in any way know or should judge these concepts in me. I have reread my words and am at loss to understand what is so blazingly obvious to you to see and why it has to do with me instead of answering the question.

My question is simply this.... because Ra is so deliberate in the preciseness of his words, because he doesn't want any of the concepts spoken to be misunderstood in any way...when HE says those in this dimension MUST make a choice, that choice being one of SERVICE to self or others, instead of stating the real choice, which is to Accept Love or not. That is the choice one must make after all. Or is this not as obvious to you as is to myself?? Why state the choice in a service context at all. When the choice to love and love indicates precisely how service pans out. Those without that green Chakra activated as Ra has indicated,  you know the one that is the seat of love, they only would serve themselves...naturally.

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

Service includes love
The choice is whether to serve the self or others
We are here to make the choice

Is service not love? One chooses nearly all the time to serve their own agenda or not. Is that not love whether you honor yourself over others or vice versa? You will love when you consciously make the choice; you or the other? Not to make the choice would be to ignore the catalyst in front of you and go on about your day as if nothing truly touches you one way or the other way. As in; meh.

[Ohr Ein Sof]

Service to others includes self. Otherwise there is separation—between self and others. There is a lot of implication in this idea.

then what is "the choice"?

[Minyatur]

Service to others includes self. Otherwise there is separation—between self and others. There is a lot of implication in this idea.

then what is "the choice"?

I'd say the opening of the heart ray and what it entails.

[Diana]

Service to others includes self. Otherwise there is separation—between self and others. There is a lot of implication in this idea.

then what is "the choice"?

If you love and serve all, this must include the self. It can exclude self, which creates a division, and this imbalance leads to martyrdom—which I'm not judging but pointing out inclusion of the all must include self. I don't think it's as simple as serve others or serve self. There is within this choice an implicate feature.

I'd say the opening of the heart ray and what it entails.

I agree. And can one leave one's self out of this equation? Can one love and serve everyone(thing) else but not oneself? Yes. But in my mind that would mean that the heart is at least somewhat closed off—to self. 

[Sacred Fool]

If you love and serve all, this must include the self. It can exclude self, which creates a division, and this imbalance leads to martyrdom—which I'm not judging but pointing out inclusion of the all must include self. I don't think it's as simple as serve others or serve self. There is within this choice an implicate feature.

 
If this is what this thread is turning into then I would add this: to serve self is not so simple a thing either.  Often those on the sts path feel they actually are serving others by making the rules more clear and enforcing them rigourously.  They actually do use green ray energy to an extent, but they use it according to their own design.  Many sto folks, I imagine use any colour ray energy to their own design as well to one degree or another.  Love of self is Love.  Serving self is serving the Creatrix.  It's easy to see it in black and white and it is convenient, but such is not inclusive the full spectrum of the energies of consciousness.  In that sense one could quip that such simplistic thinking is another path of that which is not.
  

[Ohr Ein Sof]

Service to others includes self. Otherwise there is separation—between self and others. There is a lot of implication in this idea.

then what is "the choice"?

If you love and serve all, this must include the self. It can exclude self, which creates a division, and this imbalance leads to martyrdom—which I'm not judging but pointing out inclusion of the all must include self. I don't think it's as simple as serve others or serve self. There is within this choice an implicate feature.

I'd say the opening of the heart ray and what it entails.

I agree. And can one leave one's self out of this equation? Can one love and serve everyone(thing) else but not oneself? Yes. But in my mind that would mean that the heart is at least somewhat closed off—to self. 

In the context on the question of the OP, the poster wants to know the difference or perhaps a type of comparison so that they can weigh the options, the ideas to gain clarity.
It is difficult for seekers asking these sort of questions to weigh the great paradox.
When we speak of the paradox in these sort of questions it has the postential to create more confusion in the seeker. He or she is asking a question about Love and The Choice. We could answer with a simple answer and not go into abstraction. We do not always have to take things to the enth degree.
I feel if we speak about The Choice or Love, we should be clear about what this means and not go into the paradox of creation which eventually finds itself in Unity where all is reconciled at one point but NOT NOW during this question. Only some of us are beginning to reconcile the paradox and many seek to do so but first they must choose one side or the other side. There are sides so to speak (or there is no paradox). Just as there is Love and there is Hate. Sure, yes, Love and Hate are one of the same... the difference being the degrees by which one contains.
So, back to the question from the poster;

[b]So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???
/b]

[Diana]

In the context on the question of the OP, the poster wants to know the difference or perhaps a type of comparison so that they can weigh the options, the ideas to gain clarity.
It is difficult for seekers asking these sort of questions to weigh the great paradox.
When we speak of the paradox in these sort of questions it has the postential to create more confusion in the seeker. He or she is asking a question about Love and The Choice. We could answer with a simple answer and not go into abstraction. We do not always have to take things to the enth degree.
I feel if we speak about The Choice or Love, we should be clear about what this means and not go into the paradox of creation which eventually finds itself in Unity where all is reconciled at one point but NOT NOW during this question. Only some of us are beginning to reconcile the paradox and many seek to do so but first they must choose one side or the other side. There are sides so to speak (or there is no paradox). Just as there is Love and there is Hate. Sure, yes, Love and Hate are one of the same... the difference being the degrees by which one contains.
So, back to the question from the poster;

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

At risk of more rambling speculation which may or may not be answering anything   . . .

it may be helpful to understand the choice as acceptance vs. control. Love is a word that can be confusing, as humanity has its very ingrained and limited meanings of it, and it really has little to do (in my opinion) with the second distortion:

15.21 ▶ Questioner: Well, in yesterday’s material you stated “we offer the Law of One, the solving of paradoxes.” You also mentioned earlier that the first paradox, or the first distortion I meant, was the distortion of free will. Could you tell me if there’s a sequence? Is there a first, second, third, fourth distortion of the Law of One?

Ra: I am Ra. Only up to a very short point. After this point, the many-ness of distortions are equal one to another. The first distortion, free will, finds focus. This is the second distortion known to you as Logos, the Creative Principle or Love. This intelligent energy thus creates a distortion known as Light. From these three distortions come many, many hierarchies of distortions, each having its own paradoxes to be synthesized, no one being more important than another.

I think service has more to do with how one becomes aware of and interacts with, the second distortion, the Creative Principle (love). The word, service, is also a human word with connotations which are ingrained in human culture. If one has chosen the left-hand path, the way one would utilize the Creative Principle is by controlling it; if one has chosen the right-hand path, one seeks more of a partnership with the Creative Principle which honors its presence yet courts it, becomes one with it, rather than seeing the Creative Principle as something to use for particular purposes. And intrinsic to the second distortion is the first distortion: Free Will, which allows for either path to exist and be explored.

In the following quote, Ra is referring to Archetype 6, The Transformation of the Mind:

99.8 ▶  ...

Ra: I am Ra. We shall speak upon several aspects seriatim. Firstly, let us examine the crossed arms of the male who is to be transformed. What, O student, do you make of the crossing? What see you in this tangle? There is a creative point to be found in this element which was not discussed overmuch by the questioner.

Let us now observe the evaluation of the two females. The observation that to the left-hand path moves the roughly physical and to the right-hand path the mental has a shallow correctness. There are deeper observations to be made concerning the relationship of the great sea of the unconscious mind to the conscious mind which may fruitfully be pursued. Remember, O student, that these images are not literal. They haunt rather than explicate.

Many use the trunk and roots of mind as if that portion of mind were a badly used, prostituted entity. Then this entity gains from this great storehouse that which is rough, prostituted, and without great virtue. Those who turn to the deep mind, seeing it in the guise of the maiden, go forth to court it. The courtship has nothing of plunder in its semblance and may be protracted, yet the treasure gained by such careful courtship is great. The right-hand and left-hand transformations of the mind may be seen to differ by the attitude of the conscious mind towards its own resources as well as the resources of other-selves.

[Ohr Ein Sof]

In the context on the question of the OP, the poster wants to know the difference or perhaps a type of comparison so that they can weigh the options, the ideas to gain clarity.
It is difficult for seekers asking these sort of questions to weigh the great paradox.
When we speak of the paradox in these sort of questions it has the postential to create more confusion in the seeker. He or she is asking a question about Love and The Choice. We could answer with a simple answer and not go into abstraction. We do not always have to take things to the enth degree.
I feel if we speak about The Choice or Love, we should be clear about what this means and not go into the paradox of creation which eventually finds itself in Unity where all is reconciled at one point but NOT NOW during this question. Only some of us are beginning to reconcile the paradox and many seek to do so but first they must choose one side or the other side. There are sides so to speak (or there is no paradox). Just as there is Love and there is Hate. Sure, yes, Love and Hate are one of the same... the difference being the degrees by which one contains.
So, back to the question from the poster;

So I ask you again why service if the choice is love???

At risk of more rambling speculation which may or may not be answering anything   . . .

it may be helpful to understand the choice as acceptance vs. control. Love is a word that can be confusing, as humanity has its very ingrained and limited meanings of it, and it really has little to do (in my opinion) with the second distortion:

15.21 ▶ Questioner: Well, in yesterday’s material you stated “we offer the Law of One, the solving of paradoxes.” You also mentioned earlier that the first paradox, or the first distortion I meant, was the distortion of free will. Could you tell me if there’s a sequence? Is there a first, second, third, fourth distortion of the Law of One?

Ra: I am Ra. Only up to a very short point. After this point, the many-ness of distortions are equal one to another. The first distortion, free will, finds focus. This is the second distortion known to you as Logos, the Creative Principle or Love. This intelligent energy thus creates a distortion known as Light. From these three distortions come many, many hierarchies of distortions, each having its own paradoxes to be synthesized, no one being more important than another.

I think service has more to do with how one becomes aware of and interacts with, the second distortion, the Creative Principle (love). The word, service, is also a human word with connotations which are ingrained in human culture. If one has chosen the left-hand path, the way one would utilize the Creative Principle is by controlling it; if one has chosen the right-hand path, one seeks more of a partnership with the Creative Principle which honors its presence yet courts it, becomes one with it, rather than seeing the Creative Principle as something to use for particular purposes. And intrinsic to the second distortion is the first distortion: Free Will, which allows for either path to exist and be explored.

In the following quote, Ra is referring to Archetype 6, The Transformation of the Mind:

99.8 ▶  ...

Ra: I am Ra. We shall speak upon several aspects seriatim. Firstly, let us examine the crossed arms of the male who is to be transformed. What, O student, do you make of the crossing? What see you in this tangle? There is a creative point to be found in this element which was not discussed overmuch by the questioner.

Let us now observe the evaluation of the two females. The observation that to the left-hand path moves the roughly physical and to the right-hand path the mental has a shallow correctness. There are deeper observations to be made concerning the relationship of the great sea of the unconscious mind to the conscious mind which may fruitfully be pursued. Remember, O student, that these images are not literal. They haunt rather than explicate.

Many use the trunk and roots of mind as if that portion of mind were a badly used, prostituted entity. Then this entity gains from this great storehouse that which is rough, prostituted, and without great virtue. Those who turn to the deep mind, seeing it in the guise of the maiden, go forth to court it. The courtship has nothing of plunder in its semblance and may be protracted, yet the treasure gained by such careful courtship is great. The right-hand and left-hand transformations of the mind may be seen to differ by the attitude of the conscious mind towards its own resources as well as the resources of other-selves.

Well ok then. Let us consider the burden and clumsiness of the human language and just plunge in with both feet.
If we observe love within the limits of our language; and we see a small child crying, instead of walking past the child, we stop and ask, "are you alright, what is wrong and can I help?" That is service and that is love. This scenario is the simple and relatable version of love and by giving care to the young child it offers a service to it that hadn't existed before your arrival without going into the archetypal understandings of what powers and empowers creation once concentration and focus have been achieved. I guess what I am saying it explains service and love and how they both walk hand in hand no matter what polarity you are choosing and no matter what Key 6 illustrates regarding the feminine creative/negative power or the masculine active/positive power; love/light, light/love.

[Anders]

One idea I now got is that both the word service and the word choice can be interpreted in a certain way. What is free will? There is clearly a distinct difference between doing something by conscious volition and something that just happens to us. And the feeling of doing something by personal volition is free will.

Is there actual free will as in us being separate agents being able to alter the universe? I doubt that, but I now see a necessary purpose of free will which is that it's related to consciousness as a feedback of information for reality. Without consciousness there wouldn't even be any experience. And also, there is a huge difference between for example a zombie without consciousness, like a robot, and a human in the waking state. Otherwise a surgeon could simply inject people with a muscle-paralyzing drug and start cutting into the patient's body while he or she was paralyzed yet fully conscious. Talk about nightmarish situation.

Free will, then, is the necessary feeling of participation and control needed for intelligent feedback of information within reality. Ra talked about Love and love as two different things. I don't think one can directly choose love. Instead love is as I see it wholeness in harmony. That wholeness has to emerge in practice and is not something that can be mustered up instantly by an individual making a choice. Service on the other hand is something that one can choose. Service to self is to be narrowly focused without considering the wholeness, which makes love difficult to manifest. Service to others includes both oneself and others so that a wholeness is aimed for which promotes the manifestation of love.

[Sacred Fool]

 
Angel, if you are still following your hijacked thread, here's another take on why there's a repeated focus upon service instead of love in general.  What I extrapolate from this excerpt is that by focusing on service one attains a much higher tuning of self than one might otherwise get because the scope one becomes dialed in to is fully and freely encompassing instead of narrowly focused.  It's maybe a bit of free association to connect these, but you can see if it works for you.

https://llresearch.org/transcripts/issue...draft.aspx

Thus, instead of asking, “How can I get rid of my fear? I must become a more loving person, which means getting rid of my fear, getting rid of my anger” … Instead of that dialogue with fear, when your focus becomes, “How can I express this energy that I have in service to all beings and for the greatest good of all beings?”—that focus allows the experience of fear or anger or jealousy if that is what is present. There is no need to get rid of anything then. If your learning to express your energy more purely involves, at this moment in time, the experience of discomforting physical or emotional stimuli, so be it. You do not have to like that stimulus. Can you simply allow the presence of it and send love to the being that is experiencing it?

 
In a later paragraph love and service are connected.
 

I feel some confusion in all of you. I am going to give one very concrete example.

A being perhaps wants to learn to give its energy with generosity to others, and yet is aware that often when it is asked to give in a material or energy form, there is a contraction, a sense, “What if I need this time or energy or resource?” It may then state an affirmation, “I can be generous,” and try to remind itself, even convince itself to be generous. It may even skillfully note the arising of fear and still say, “I will be generous.” But at some level there is grasping to the generous and aversion to the fear. Instead of making the affirmation, “I will be generous,” which strengthens this grasping and aversion, if the being’s focus becomes, “I will work as lovingly as I can with whatever emotions are present in my experience,” then the intention is very different: not to “fix” but to relate to with kindness.

[schubert]

you might find this thread and the videos linked interesting https://www.bring4th.org/forums/showthre...?tid=17806 "i heard that the timeline split being based on STO/STS was "loving misinformation"