STO or STS

[caycegal]

Was prompted to start this thread by the following in Edgar Cayce's quote for the day from ARE:

Think on This...
For, while selflessness is the law, to belittle self is a form of selfishness and not selfless.
~Edgar Cayce

EC, of course, urged everyone to follow path of STO, which I believe is true of Ra also.

It's not always clear when making decisions which way one is going. Also, I think one's ability to understand and make wise decisions is a learning process. I remember in my 20's making some big STS decisions, and fortunately I was able to learn a lot from the rapid karmic blowback that came my way. Fortunately my spiritual helpers were on duty helping me to see the connection between my decisions and the karma, and fortunately it was fast - might have been harder to see the connection if it had taken decades rather than months or years.

I will say that I'm still learning this lesson.

Getting back to the Cayce quote, I can't say that I completely understand it. I remember Jesus said "Love your neighbor as yourself," not "love your neighbor but hate yourself." Also, I do remember the idea that on an airplane it's always been important to put your own oxygen mask on before you help your neighbor put hers on.

[Lycen]

Yeah give love equally including you're self, if the self is left out you are selfishly only giving love to others.
If you only give it to the self you are selfish (STS). If you give to everything you are selfless (STO). Well that is the way I choose to see it.
If both sentences are taken at their core meaning then STO = service to others and STS = service to self.
Both create an unbalance, one serves everyone other than it self bluntly said and the other serves only itself.

*removed text for less distortion*

Well these are my thoughts right now.

[Horuseus]

These excerpts from Bashar should help clarify that statement for you;

And the below from 2:54;

Integration of this Catalyst will come about with the conscious Awareness of who you truly are, i.e. An Infinite Creator in your own right and are inherently worthy of all by default. Saying otherwise can be seen as Selfishness because it is seen as you, and you alone are rejecting an attribute of the Creator itself whereas everyone else has accepted, and that the Creation has made a mistake in forming your existence. Furthermore, another message behind such a statement could be interpreted as such that you can only truly be of Service to Others when you are true/of Service to yourself (leveraging your gifts gained through Self work and using them for others being one example).

Being of Service isn't a chore. If it does seem this way it likely due to an imbalance. One of the prerequisites for Graduation in the higher Densities is balancing polarities, which in itself is an indicator of the equal need and validity for both.

• "This study is as difficult as the one which we have described to you, but there are those with the perseverance to pursue the study just as you desire to pursue the difficult path of seeking to know in order to serve. The distortion lies in the fact that those who seek to serve the self are seen by the Law of One as precisely the same as those who seek to serve others, for are all not one? To serve yourself and to serve other is a dual method of saying the same thing, if you can understand the essence of the Law of One." (7:17)

[Lycen]

The distortion lies in the fact that those who seek to serve the self are seen by the Law of One as precisely the same as those who seek to serve others, for are all not one? To serve yourself and to serve other is a dual method of saying the same thing, if you can understand the essence of the Law of One." (7:17)

I got too hung up on word play and included/implied that the Law of One is extreme in the service to others. I meant to say that STO is as such, the meaning of those words when taken to the core, without the LOO.

The Law of One how I understand it would conclude as the quote there did. In service to others we serve ourselves and those who serve them selves serve us as well.
Because all is one.

[Oceania]

the self is included in everyone. so to serve everyone does not mean leave someone out just because they are you.

[anagogy]

Was prompted to start this thread by the following in Edgar Cayce's quote for the day from ARE:

Think on This...
For, while selflessness is the law, to belittle self is a form of selfishness and not selfless.
~Edgar Cayce

From my perspective, the explanation behind this quote is that selfishness is a matter of making the self out to be different in value than other peoples selves. Service to others is about equality, balance, fairness, unity. When you exalt the self, or belittle the self, you are making it different in value than other selves. All selves are of equal value because they all are the creator. Therefore, value is everywhere, and when it is greater in some selves and less in other selves, whether that self be you or another, it constitutes a form of selfishness.

[BrownEye]

I remember Jesus said "Love your neighbor as yourself," not "love your neighbor but hate yourself."

What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? ~1 Corinthians 6:19

For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. ~1 Corinthians 6:20

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ~Romans 12:1
Note the use of living rather than simply "sacrifice".

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? ~1 Corinthians 3:16

[Ankh]

Was prompted to start this thread by the following in Edgar Cayce's quote for the day from ARE:

Think on This...
For, while selflessness is the law, to belittle self is a form of selfishness and not selfless.
~Edgar Cayce

EC, of course, urged everyone to follow path of STO, which I believe is true of Ra also.

It's not always clear when making decisions which way one is going. Also, I think one's ability to understand and make wise decisions is a learning process. I remember in my 20's making some big STS decisions, and fortunately I was able to learn a lot from the rapid karmic blowback that came my way. Fortunately my spiritual helpers were on duty helping me to see the connection between my decisions and the karma, and fortunately it was fast - might have been harder to see the connection if it had taken decades rather than months or years.

I will say that I'm still learning this lesson.

Getting back to the Cayce quote, I can't say that I completely understand it. I remember Jesus said "Love your neighbor as yourself," not "love your neighbor but hate yourself." Also, I do remember the idea that on an airplane it's always been important to put your own oxygen mask on before you help your neighbor put hers on.

I agree with anagogy about this quote, that when one belittles itself, one is making a difference between the self and other self. Q'uo said that serving another is not necessarily pleasing them, but an awareness of oneness between the self and another self.

Ra didn't necessarily urge everyone to follow STO path to my knowledge. They refrained from judging polarities and said that serving the self is to serve all, that it is a dual method of saying the same thing, and that the Law of One sees the one who seeks to serve the self in a precisely the same way as the one who seeks to serve others. And they were teachers/messengers of that Law. But they did say that to a watchful eye one path is more efficient I believe.

The concept of STO and STS alone has been more or less confusing to me. In recent discussions on this forum and further contemplation of this topic, I think that I got wider understanding of polarization. If you are interested in the concept of polarization/Choice you can read the Choice thread, just skip all the Archetypes talk if you are not interested in that. And there is also this thread which Tenet Nosce created, which has been helpful to me when trying to understand this concept. In that thread he focuses on the polarization using polarization of the magnet instead of using STO and STS terms.

But to go back to your topic of EC's quote, I believe that what EC is saying, using other words is: "To be selfless is consonant with the Law of One, but when you belittle yourself you are not selfless, but selfish." Or something like that. :p

[caycegal]

It does seem there is a difference here between Cayce and Ra in that Cayce explicitly urges his listeners to be of service to others while Ra seems to make a huge effort to avoid explicitly saying this, although at the same time Ra gives all kinds of hints that service to others is a much more efficient method of moving forward in consciousness. It's as if Ra will go so far in encouraging STO, but Ra's strict dedication to Free Choice prohibits going all the way in encouraging this. I get the impression that this is because Ra is trying to make up for a previous too naive intervention in human affairs (described in the LOO material.) Cayce doesn't seem to have any such compunction.

[Oceania]

Cayce isn't a social memory complex from outside the planet. he is here and thus doesn't need permission to meddle from the council of saturn.

[Axel]

the self is included in everyone. so to serve everyone does not mean leave someone out just because they are you.

I agree. I struggled a lot with the concept of STO since even the attempt to service others is usually of an egotistical nature and thus indeed STS. At least I could not find ANY situation where this would not be true. Any and all action (if you think it through) can and will always trace back to an impulse to serve ones Self. And this can't be otherwise because the impulse or wish to serve another arises in us. Thus, following it, satisfying it, would be STS.

In my opinion the concepts of STS and STO are deeply rooted in dualistic thinking. They have served us to a point but they might now perhaps be a bit outdated. Some of us begin to understand now that the Self cannot be seen apart from the Other (if you don't feel this directly, you may want to listen to philosopher Alan Watts, who explains this pretty well so that you can grasp it intellectually). "It is all One" - we all know this phrase. And thus, service to Self is service to other and vice versa. The problem is only that most of us don't really understand what service to Self means. It is not about greed or about outperforming anyone to get faster up the ladder than anyone else. This is NOT service to Self. True service to self is about love. And love serves all. This includes self and all else.

I believe Ankh mentioned the same:

Ra didn't necessarily urge everyone to follow STO path to my knowledge. They refrained from judging polarities and said that serving the self is to serve all, that it is a dual method of saying the same thing, and that the Law of One sees the one who seeks to serve the self in a precisely the same way as the one who seeks to serve others.

[Ankh]

Just wanted to offer what Carla said about the polarity:

I see seekers struggle still, and as usual, with the concept of good and evil, positive and negative. If all is one, why are we concerned with polarities? Isn’t someone who does terrible things contributing to the Law of One, according to Ra, since there is truly no right and wrong? It is a struggle, but only if you try to live by sixth-density ways here in third density. Here, it is all about polarity.

It's from her blog, dated with a funny date of "2013-02020" (if you take away the last "0", the date will make more sense. :p).

That week, it seems like she was discussing this topic in her radio show with Monica.

But I agree that the polarity concept can sometimes be confusing, because in one place, Ra says:

The Law of One, though beyond the limitations of name, as you call vibratory sound complexes, may be approximated by stating that all things are one, that there is no polarity, no right or wrong, no disharmony, but only identity. All is one, and that one is love/light, light/love, the Infinite Creator.

And in another place, Ra says:

Questioner: Desire and will are the factors in this process. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. We would add one quality. In the magical personality desire, will, and polarity are the keys.

One reason, in my thinking, as to why this polarity concept can be confusing, is because:

...service to others results in service to self...

But then again, that service is defined in the material, each defined shortly as:

Service to others: ...service to others as other-selves would most benefit. (Ra, 18:6)

Service to self: ...the entity perceives other-selves as other-selves and consciously determines to manipulate other-selves for the benefit of the self. (Ra, 19:5)

[Plenum]

It's not always clear when making decisions which way one is going. Also, I think one's ability to understand and make wise decisions is a learning process. I remember in my 20's making some big STS decisions, and fortunately I was able to learn a lot from the rapid karmic blowback that came my way. Fortunately my spiritual helpers were on duty helping me to see the connection between my decisions and the karma, and fortunately it was fast - might have been harder to see the connection if it had taken decades rather than months or years.

polarity is still an issue of some confusion.

the best way that I can understand it is that the positive path leads to an opening of the heart, and the negative path to a closing of the heart. Energetically, that is how the 'choices' that we make are expressed.

through the opening of the heart, the positive path opens itself to All of creation, and works to accept and integrate all that comes its way (experiences, thoughts, etc etc).

the negative path closes the heart and leads to progressively higher levels of separation from the rest of the universe. This, of course, is only tenable to a certain degree, to the point where one is a small speck of highly crystallised and controlled light in 6th density, and then the floodgates are opened to the rest of creation, and that small speck of the highly developed Creator rejoins the rest of creation.

there seems to be some simple identification that is made that STO = good, and STS = evil, but that moral paradigm is not immediately transplantable. There is a greater degree of subtlety when free will is brought into the analysis, and the methods of effective polarization are considered.

I think you've made an important identification in the "karmic blowback", as, in my opinion, all karma is a consequence of thoughtforms of separation; which is useful feedback for those on the positive path (I did something taking me the wrong or unintended direction) and also feedback for those on the negative path (I am doing the thing that is supporting my path).

instant karma is available for those who are sensitive enough to it ... it occurs in the mind, and can be alleviated before it becomes a physical happenstance; the consequences of which are much less easily undone.