My Thoughts On STS

[Tenet Nosce]

Tenet you will have to explain how Aarons quote above suggests that he is implaying that ST is a good thing compared to STO.

I have read it and it seems to me that you are mistaking his 'being in service' as meaning STS.

Is that what you derive from this quote?

No, I take the quote as literally meaning what it says. Perhaps this next section will help to clear it up for you:

Aaron: I am Aaron. There is another area of duality and misunderstanding of which I would like to speak. You identify those who bring love to others as those who serve others. The attributes of those who “are service” are gentleness, patience and generosity. And you identify those who cause others pain in some way; those who affront others and are greedy or arrogant, as those who do not serve others. I would like to explore this a bit further.

Most of you have heard me say that we are all beings of light, even those who manifest very little of that light; even those who are very negatively polarized and in the conscious levels of self would affirm their desire to serve negativity. Even those who feed off the fear and pain of others, at some level, are servants of the light. It is well to move past the duality of seeing them in such sharp contrast as good and evil; servants of love or ones against love.

Some of you have heard me tell a brief story about the spiritual teacher Gurdjieff, that in his community there was a man who was very unpleasant to others. He did not do his share of the work. He spoke in a harsh way to others. He was arrogant and prideful. He even smelled foul and did not take care of his physical body. Nobody wanted his presence. The others in the community were in great accord with each other and everything ran smoothly except for this one unpleasant being.

He got tired of the way people were treating him and one day he packed up and left. Gurdjieff went after him and asked him to come back. The man, of course, refused. Gurdjieff then offered to pay him to come back. Those of the community were aghast at this: “How could you pay him to come back? We were well rid of him.”

Gurdjieff said, “He is the yeast for the bread. How would you learn compassion without a catalyst for that compassion? How would you learn non-judgment without a catalyst for that non-judgment?”

Granted, there are negatively-polarized entities. There are those who thrive on the fear and pain of others. There are beings that are mired in deep misunderstanding, and yet, even their negative polarity and misunderstanding is a service. How would you learn without such catalysts?

When you can begin to view such misunderstanding and negativity as another way of service to the light, you begin to view such individuals differently. For most of them, it is not their intention to serve the light, although for some that may be true. No being whose intention is to serve the light will willingly do so through causing harm and pain to others. So it is not their intention; but nevertheless, they do serve the light by offering you the catalyst that you need for your own learning.

When you can begin to find welcome for such beings, to move beyond your judgment of them and open your heart to them, to the very real pain that their misunderstanding causes for them, and to thank them for the ways in which they offer you the catalyst that you need, then you can begin to do the same for yourself in those moments when fear and other negative emotions arise in you. I have spoken often of the reverse of this, of coming to a place of non-judgment of yourself as a way of learning non-judgment of others. I am just offering the opposite side of the coin.

STO and STS are two sides of the same coin. Heads is only better than tails if one is emotionally invested in the outcome. Ultimately, there is no coin, and the outcome is already assured.