I learned in psychosynthesis that service is a natural outpouring of the soul, an inevitable consequence of contact with the energies of the Self. I like that idea. It rings true in me. It also counteracts some of the distortions of service that arise from the notion that: "it is more blessed to give than to receive," which tends to get translated as "giving is good, receiving is selfish." Living from such a belief can lead to serving in an effort to be good or to do the right thing, rather than as an authentic outpouring of love in action. We all know how much harm can be done in the name of "service" when it is driven, in fact, by the need for ego-gratification.

The paradox is that through the act of extending ourselves for another, we both use and, at the same time, transcend our limiting personality identifications. That is, we access capacities beyond what we individually possess; and in this experience, as Anne Ziff points out in her article, "and the Pursuit of Happiness" (p. 9), lies our greatest fulfillment.

As I think about service, it seems as though the impulse and capacity to serve is activated through connection-connection with the energies of the Self, either internally or externally. Cervantes offers us an example of the internal connection. Cervantes was a man who had not led a particularly significant life until he wrote Don Quixote:

And then suddenly with Don Quixote it was as if he opened a vein in himself and down, down, down he went with that wonderful stuff that he found down there. It was himself, but it was also you and me or we wouldn't love his masterpiece so much.(1)

When we connect with that vein in ourself, something flows out of us that helps our world. Barbara Goodwin discovered this through her own personal struggle with cancer (see Art as Service, p. 11).

Likewise, when we truly connect with another person, something within us is opened, not out of our own efforts, but simply through being present. From such connections with the Russian people has come the International School for Psychotherapy, Counseling and Group Leadership and the Global Psychology and Transcultural Dialogue conference, which Tom Yeomans writes about in To Russia with Love (see p. 12).

When I connect with a person in pain, compassion arises, I feel with their suffering, and am moved from within to respond. I know naturally in that moment what to do or say. I go beyond myself. As Joanna Macy says, "There is a sense of being acted through and sustained by those very beings on whose behalf one acts...[and] a sense of buoyancy and resilience that comes from letting flow through us strengths and resources that come to us with continuous surprise and a sense of blessing."(2)

In that connection, the separation between me and the other is temporarily bridged, and we experience the reality of our interbeing. That is, something passes between us that opens us to our larger selves. Existential therapist Ludwig Binswanger speaks of this connection as awakening the divine "spark": which only true communication from existence to existence can bring forth and which alone possesses, with its light and warmth... the power to liberate a person from the blind isolation...from a mere vegetating in his body, his dreams, his private wishes, his conceit and his presumptions, and to ready him for a life of koinonia, of genuine community.(3)

Binswanger is describing a disidentification from our separate self, or what Alan Watts called our "skin-encapsulated ego," to a larger sense of participation in "genuine community." Macy sees this as a shift from our little self to a more inclusive sense of identity and self-interest that includes other beings and the life of our planet-a process she calls "the greening of the self."(4)

When I experience other beings and life forms as an interconnected part of my very self, caring for and protecting them becomes not something I "should" do, but rather something which I can't not do. Sometimes, however, we must first awaken from the trance of our cultural conditioning that would have us deny the knowing we carry in our own bodies about these interconnections. Molly Brown shares her personal experience of such an awakening in her article about growing up in Los Alamos (see p. 20).

The point that speaks most deeply to me in all of this is the fact that this extension of our identity is a natural process that comes about simply through waking up to ourselves, each other, and our world. That is, by going deeply into our own lives, our relationships, our passions and our pain, trusting them, and doing what we are authentically moved to do from that place-we naturally serve. It is who we are.

At the same time, however, if we do not follow through with action on our impulses and deep knowing, they cannot make a difference in our world. If Marilyn Feldberg had stopped at the thought of "but I already have enough to do," the World Youth Service Enterprise (WYSE) program might not have happened. Likewise, John Cullen had to follow through on his sense that documenting the effectiveness of psychosynthesis is an important part of making it available to more people. Cynthia Russell acted on her awareness that professionalism is a critical part of how we carry psychosynthesis into the world, and shares herein her translation of the I/Thou and N'amaste orientation to self and other into professional guidelines for its practice. If Jean Guenther had not persisted in her sense of the need for a psychosynthesis Association, AAP might not be the living organization it is today, supported by the volunteer efforts of the Steering Committee.

This Easter morning on my bike ride, I came across a large brown and yellow snake in the middle of the road. It was the first I'd seen this spring. I felt gratitude for the holy-day gift. Then an image flashed through my mind of riding by later and finding it run over by a car. I turned my bike around, circled back and lifted the snake to a grassy field nearby. "I am the one who is here now," I thought, "this is mine to do."

We all know that, like the snake in the road, our world is in danger in these critical times. And caring for it, wherever and in whatever way each of us is uniquely moved to-is ours to do. The challenge I find is to keep a balance between being and doing, giving and receiving. I like what Alice Walker says: "I work on what I am able to work on, more or less joyously I give to the extent that I can, and then I sit back and eat tomatoes. And I enjoy them!"(5)

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and will be inspired to share with us your own stories and experiences of service.

Warm regards, Cher

References
1. From The Dialogues of Archibald MacLeish and Mark Van Doren, ed. by Warren Bush, E.P. Dutton, 1964.
2. Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self, Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991, p. 192.
3. John Firman and Ann Gila, Healing the Human Spirit, Psychosynthesis Palo Alto, 1994, pp. 234-5.
4. Macy, p.183.
5. Alice Walker, in Shambhala Sun Magazine, January 1997, p. 24.