A STORY ABOUT SERVICE AND HOW IT HELPS US SEEK FOR HIGHER THINGS – excerpt from Jay Shetty’s “THINK LIKE A MONK”
I am a novice at the ashram, and we’ve been dropped off in a village with no money and no food, with the mission to find our own way for thirty days.
The weather is decent, and we’ve been given a warehouse for shelter. We leave our mats there and venture into the village. There are simple huts from which people sell food, spices, and sundries. Laundry is strung between the huts. Most people travel by bike or on foot – some of the children are barefoot.
Untethered, without a plan, the first thing we feel is fear, which provokes us to do whatever it takes to survive. We ask for handouts – people in India are generous and often give bread, fruit, or coins to people in spiritual dress. We visit the temple where pilgrims are given free food called prasad – this is sanctified food that is offered to God, then handed out. Anxious about our survival, we resort to selfishness and hoarding.
By the second week, we’re in better shape. We’ve figured out that we can earn our provisions by offering help to people in the village. We start assisting people with heavy loads or peddlers who could use a hand with their carts. We soon learn that opening our hearts and souls encourages others to do the same. The donations we receive aren’t dramatically different from the ones we got when we first arrived, but the exchange gives us a warm sense of communal compassion and generosity, and I feel like I’ve absorbed the lesson of our journey. We thought we had nothing, and indeed we had barely any material possessions. But we were still able to give people our effort.
However, by the final week, we’re well-fed and secure enough to notice something deeper. Though we had come with nothing, we still had a certain kind of wealth: we are stringer and more capable than a lot of the people in the village. There are seniors, children and disabled people on the street, all of them in greater need than we are.
“I think we’re missing something,” I add. “We can do more in this village than survive.” We recall Helen Keller’s refrain: “I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” This is, unfortunately, no exaggeration. In India, you often see people with missing limbs.’
I realize that now that we have found our way, we can share the food and money we have received with those who aren’t as able as we are. Just when I think I’ve learned the lesson of our journey, I come upon a revelation that affects me profoundly: Everyone, even those of us who have already dedicated our lives to service, can always give more.
These three stages of transformation felt like a microcosm of the entire monk experience: First, we let go of the external and the ego; second, we recognize our value and learn that we don’t need to own anything in order to serve; third, we continually seek a higher level of service.
On that trip I recognized that there is always room to rise, there is always more to give. Sister Christine Vladimiroff, a Benedictine nun, quoted in The Monastic Way, wrote, “Monastic spirituality teaches us that we are on a journey. The journey is inward to seek God in prayer and silence. Taken alone, we can romanticize this aspect of our life…. But to be monastic there is a parallel journey – the journey outward. We live in community to grow in sensitivity to the needs of others…. The monastery is then a center to come out of to invite others into. The key is always to maintain both journey – INWARD and OUTWARD.
So, I am reading this book – THINK LIKE A MONK authored by the famous Jay Shetty, on reading this story I was sure you all needed to read it too. I have dedicated most of my life to service, and this is a new lesson motivation for me. I hope you found motivation reading this too.
What else does service do for you? I’d love hear them. Share your thoughts in the comment box below. Thank you!
