Gnosis in a Hundred PagesPage 82 of 100 · Part VI

Part VI · Giving

Service without a self

A good deed done to be seen feeds a self. The same deed done quietly, for the other’s sake, feeds the Being.

Read to me

0:00 / –:––
A cup of tea left on a desk for someone who has not yet arrived, a note beside it, early morning.

This is the first practice of this part.

Almost every good deed has a self hidden in it. The self that wants to be thanked. The self that wants to be seen as kind. The self that keeps a quiet account of all it has given. Even the self that wants to feel spiritual.

None of this means you should stop helping. It means you can help and watch at the same time. That is the practice: to serve, and to catch the self that wants payment.

The simplest form is the deed nobody sees. Help, and leave before you are thanked. Give, and do not mention it. Then watch. The self that wanted credit will show itself, often sharply. That is good. You have caught it.

Over time something changes. The giving gets lighter. It stops being a performance, and it stops tiring you. The books say that service done this way is one of the surest ways the selves lose their hold.

Serving is not only great acts. Most service is small: listening fully, doing the dull job no one wants, being patient with someone slow. The size does not matter. The self behind it does.

Serving · practice sixteen

  1. Choose one small way to help someone today, and do it fully.
  2. If you can, do it so that no one knows it was you.
  3. If they thank you, receive it simply, and let it go.
  4. Afterward, watch for the self that wants credit: a story told, a little pride, an account kept.
  5. Tonight, in the review, look at that self kindly, and ask for it to be taken.

Words on this page

Service
Help given for the other’s good. In the tradition, it is how the third factor is lived each day.

In the old words

“Before resurrection, there is birth. Before mastery, humility. Before glory, sacrifice.”

Releasing the Sand MandalaGene Hart
On the next pageThere is one kind of giving that uses no words at all.83. Teaching by being