Focusing on the self

[Sacred Fool]

 
From another of your posts.

There is much more desert in the spiritual life than there is oasis. It is simply a matter of how much you, as a spirit, wish to work in consciousness. The more that you work in consciousness, the more you will change, the more you will be transformed and the more you will be uncomfortable.

Why then, do seekers so stubbornly follow their star? Nothing, my friends, rests in the creation. All things move. And in this activity, in this manifestation, in this movement there is that which, as it is said in your holy works, passeth all understanding. The name for that which passeth all understanding within the holy work of which we speak, is peace. But it is not a peace that is understood among your peoples for it is a peace that is joyful, a peace that is vital, a peace that is merry, that may make light of the serious and may tease and play and feel one’s way as a child within the great caverns and grottoes through which one must pass in the spiritual quest, having only one faint light: that of hope. And so you move in darkness, attempting to see. And much of the energy of the incarnation is involved with the simple ability to perceive without distortion.

Now, perception without distortion is a sure yielding of joy.

It might help to think of your work as seeking the manner of perception--manner of being--which is less distorted.  That takes it somewhat out of the apparent dichotomy of self-serving versus other-serving.  It offers you simply as a seeker of Truth.