"May the Grail in your heart serve Humanity." Swamiji of Earth Sanctuary http://www.earthsanctuary.net

Serve humanity? Am I a servant? Do I follow the biddings of society like a limb is directed by the brain? Do humans serve humanity or does humanity serve humans? If I serve humanity then I lose my soul in a great swamp of cultural biases and have no chance to change things. If I serve only myself then I lose sight that I live alongside others in a world that needs care. How then can I serve humanity?

Monasticism. No not the dogmatic world-denying sort because that defeats the object of healing it and changing it. No what I mean is that there are communities that seek to preserve something pure and healing, something that society at large does not recognise or nurture and in the worst cases tries to destroy.

As an example I´ll use Lord of the Rings. I know it´s fictional but we can extract a relevent point. The hobbits had something special, they had found a quiet place for themselves away from human politics, from dwarf industry, from Mordor´s evil and also here is where we find our heroes Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

Now the hobbits were unknowingly preserving something. They had a special way of life that didn´t disturb balrogs like the dwarves, didn´t fall to the Rings corruption and didn´t even seem to pose a threat to Sauron or any other evil. The elves on the other hand, also seeking to preserve something, did so knowingly. They were fully aware of evil in the world and knew they had to keep something sacred and preserved. They came away from the world and sought refuge in sacred places. They, like the hobbits lived a close relationship to their environment.

Hobbits and Elves preserved something that was more than just a culture, place or object. They were preserving themselves because it was they themselves that would be important in saving Middle Earth from evil. This is the "Grail in your Heart" which we can call the Self, an inner truth, purity or goodness maybe. Whatever it is, it is not the ego identity but something deeper. This is what we truly are, something all humans could do because why be something you´re not?

What´s the most destructive thing of all? If we do not live our inner truth then we live like the homeless, though on a spiritual level. We could have all the comforts of the world, money, a job, friends and family, in other words everything that society says we should have but if we don´t live truly from our Self then really we have nothing. This Self is deeper than our thoughts, feeling or sensations it is the thing that binds these together and forms their centre.

How then do we live from the Self and not the ego or societal values? In a way it seems very simple, you don´t have to work for it because it is your inner truth, it the essence of what you are and not something you can gain or lose. It´s not something you do, it is somethng you are. If we could all just have the room to BE and follow our inner truth of the Self then the world would be a greater place than we have now.

The real problem is that humanity at large does not recognise the Self and our recognition of it becomes more and more difficult the more we live depending on any societal or cultural values. It is difficult to break free of these values, they´ve permeated our growing life, taught to us by family, schools and community because noone has consciously questioned them or sought for an alternative. This is because they seem so fundamental to life, like how we are educated, where and when we should start work or retire, how we should behave and percieve the people and things around us.

I´m reminded of the Matrix trilogy. You live in a world that seems quite normal, then your told it´s an illusion, that you´re living a lie. Either you carry on living the illusion which only makes it worse or break free which is painful as we´ve become psychologically dependent on it. Society can be like this, an illusion as many of its values are out-of-date and need reevaluation but it´s so entrenched in many people´s experience it´s almost impossible to uproot from their psychology.

Like I said before we need the space to BE, instead of being distracted by the pressures of society, a place where people accept and nurture you for what you REALLY are and not what you or others think you are. A Sanctuary of the Self where the only real struggle is with your societal psychology and where freedom isn´t about “doing what you want” but Being What You Are.

This is what we need to allow our Self to manifest. We need to step ouside of societies trappings into freedom and the Sanctuary of the Self, not just for a holiday retreat but for life so that permanent changes take place.

Going back to the quote, how do we serve humanity? By BEING human, to manifest our potential that the universe has given to us. This BEING should stand as a beacon, not like a minister standing in the pulpit but by the actions we do and the lives we lead. Not serving your Self, is contrary to your humanity and so contrary to all humanity. To serve humanity is to serve your humanity, the inner truth of the Self, the Grail of the Heart.

I leave you with this;

Don´t be beautiful or ugly,

Rich or poor,

Fertile or sterile,

A success or a failure,

Married or single,

With children or without.

Instead find your sanctuary

Outside society but inside the world

Where you can recognise your Self,

That it´s freedom is safe,

That it´s freedom is secret,

And that it´s freedom is sacred.

So you can just live your inner truth and BE.