Rays 1, 2, 3 correspond with the Will/Power, Love/Compassion, and Intelligence/Wisdom of the Spiritual Triad.
Thus, Ray 1 is
involved with leadership and political power.
Ray 2 is involved
with any activity or work involving love and care and healing.
Ray
3 is involved with education and developing intelligence, from
primary to esoteric.
Rays 7, 6, 5 correspond with physical work,
emotional relations, and mental calculations.
Thus, Ray 7 is
involved with finance, business, construction and repair; also
creating definite procedures.
Ray 6 is involved with social
communication, and also with religion and discussions of morality.
Ray 5 is involved with science, discovery, and technology.
In
the middle between all these is Ray 4, which corresponds to creative
artistic fusion between the various other Rays, and this involves an
inspiration to creatively innovate or to be a creative artist in any
medium.
There seven basic fields of service in the world and any kind of activity will include at least one of these. The first three have to do with the mind, relations and body of human beings. The first is concerned with the physical body, its health and healing. This includes how we eat, sleep, exercise and survive. We all need to take more responsibility to care for the body; yet some people are drawn to helping others with their body health as a vocation or service. The second field is with relationships. It involves our love affairs, friendships, neighbors and co-workers, or anyone we have some interacting involvement with. This field determines most of our emotional life, our attachments and commitments to others. It involves all of us; yet some people are more directly involved with social relations in business, management, counseling, or in helping groups cooperate together. There is a great need to help people come together with love, cooperation and understanding, and learn how to develop more harmonious relations with eachother for mutual growth.
There is also a great need within this field in the healing of the emotions, since so many people are emotionally hurt or confused due to cruelty in childhood or unresolved past conflicts in close relationships. Pains of the heart are many in this world and we need people with strong empathy and caring qualities who can serve in this field.
The third field involves the mind, and is where education and study come into service. Education of the mind needs some balance between concrete and abstract thinking. It involves study of science, the arts, history and philosophy, which gives the mind an understanding of the world, the possibilities there in and the world of ideas as recorded by great thinkers throughout history.
Education is not just the accumulation of facts or of what other people think, but needs to develop the analytical and intuitive capabilities of each person, allowing them to “think for themselves” and understand the world in new ways different from the social conditioning. Education of the mind also must include the development of higher values and goals of living, which are found in the deeper intuition and conscience of mind. Anyone who is involved with helping others develop the mind, or teaching how to use it properly to learn and function successfully in the world, is in this field of service.
The fourth is the middle field between the first and last three, so we will discuss this latter. The seventh field is working with physical materials and energies of the earth to produce or construct things. It involves the production of consumer goods, technology, tools and buildings, as well as the services involved in distribution and maintenance of these. It is one of the greater fields of activity at this time, and presents the greatest danger to humanity due to its power in effecting the future.
But it is still a field of service that provides things needed for our human survival and evolution. The problem with production and construction industries is in wastefulness, lack of consideration for the resources that should be reserved for future generations and in making things that actually harm us or could potentially, like weapons. Many greedy people have really gone overboard morally and have made great evil of the powers of production. We need to take back the power of production and construction from those who harm us with it. The service in this field is to work at what is truly needed for people and all life, and work at perfecting both the efficiency and quality in what is accomplished.
The sixth field involves any kind of social collective or gathering. This ray field is fundamentally about social relations, ways of being cohesive in a group, and also social structure. Any grouping of people will have some kind of social structure, which might be very loose or might be very fixed and strict. The focus on social structure, and its spiritual evolution, can involve whole cultures which have a great conditioning effect on individuals living in that society. The social structure gives people a common reality, and enables us to work with some degree of cohesion. It is a kind of mutual agreement between us, although we are somewhat forced into the agreement at birth. It involves the particular kind of government and laws of one’s nation, and the social and moral presumptions we hold together. Each nation or culture develops, evolves and sometimes revolutionizes its laws and beliefs about human rights and ethical justice. The social structure also involves the economic structure, the ways in which people give and receive and the ways in which resources, goods and opportunity to prosperity is distributed. It defines what is fair and just, the goals of that society, and subtly implies the goals of individuals. The social structure defines much of our lives and the possibilities inherent in it. Service in this field includes any work that involves governing economic policy or international politics, the making of or interpretation of laws, and the establishment of religious and moral philosophy.
The fifth field is involved with science and technology. It includes new discoveries and also new applications. As well, the fifth ray interest and work involves the living eco-system, the plant and animal kingdoms. It involves work with the land through gardening, landscaping and farming, including all kinds of ecological maintenance and healing of the living earth. This field of service has been recently left to only a few in the over-industrialized countries, but it remains as a constant need and can be psychologically rewarding to all of us. The land and the plant and animal kingdoms need our responsiveness and interaction, as much as we need them. Work with the earth and the natural kingdoms is an important service to the evolution of the planet as a whole, and is not just important for our human welfare.
The fourth field in the middle of this seven-fold model is the harmonizing and synthesizing factor. It is the field of the creative arts and design. All of the seven fields of service are creative, yet this field involves the work of creative artists and designers, who in a sense invent the future by bringing the possible into this world. Included here are inventors and people who bring new knowledge or ideas into the world. It is a field of infinite possibility for exploration, as one studies the more hidden subtleties of this world, finding new ways of expressing or communicating the harder to define truths of reality and possibilities of beauty. It is also the field for harmonizing and synthesizing the other fields by helping to evolve each field in harmony with the others. This field is at the core of our human evolution, though it is not anymore important than any other field of service, and in fact all fields have the possibilty of incorporating this forth way.
Whatever one decides to do in life can be a field of service. It depends upon the desire and willingness to be of service, and the determination to find out what is good for the greater whole of life and to perfect the work as we go along. It requires a growing ability to cooperate with others, while having the determined strength to carry forth what we know is good and right even in the face of difficulties and criticism from others.
The particular work that we feel drawn to or feel as the most important is probably the right one for us, yet opportunity is not always equal in society and we may have to compromise our high ideals and do the best we can in the moment in whatever we are given to do. The most important issue is in how we do things, in how we can consciously do better to unfold the Divine possibilities of life on earth.
Being of service is not just being receptive to the Divine or the inherent possibilities of life, but is responding to the possibilities and the needs of life. It is responding to the opportunities and challenges presented to us. And our abilities inherent within will unfold as we take on these challenges and respond to the needs in front of us. We each have potentials even beyond our imagination, and these human potentials can only be brought forth and perfected from use and necessity. When we challenge ourselves with new and difficult goals, or we see the necessity to help the world in some way, and stay evermore determined in our responding action, abilities which seem like miracles at the time will come forth from us to serve the need at hand.
Abilities exist within us in order to be of service, and they can only come forth when we have put ourselves in the river of service, producing the necessary tension for creativity to find a way to help. Our sense of necessity and the need to serve creates intention, which becomes the cause of action and change in the world.
When one is willing and committed to service, one will attract those people and situations in need who we can help. We create a magnetic centre within us which will attract opportunities for service and bring forth new abilities to meet the challenge at hand. Yet, one must continue to work on oneself to purify the motive of service and develop strength of being. We need to have an inner challenge and develop ourselves through inward practices, as well as doing work in the world. We need to develop an inner spiritual power, to come into the Spiritual Power, in order to have the presence and strength of love to serve as the need arises.
Spiritual power gives us the ability to receive and give what is necessary to serve and to be patient along the way. Through this, one can know when to act and when to wait. What we have developed and purified inside becomes the catalyst for what we can give. As we transform ourselves, develop power within and learn how to work cooperatively with others, we will find our place of service in the world. And as we place ourselves in service in the world, our inner powers are developed and we become more purified in motive and mind. Just continue on, even in the face of disappointment, suffering and hardship, and you can’t help but learn and grow as a spiritual and worldly person. We learn from effort and experience. As we challenge life, taking on greater goals and responsibilities, transformation is inevitable and our life becomes evermore meaningful.
We need to balance work in the world with work on ourselves. We can’t expect the world around us to transform, however great our efforts to help, without some work at transforming ourselves. This involves both a strengthening of our will-to-serve, our will-to-good or goodwill, and a strengthening of our tolerance to the many unpleasant manifestations of others and the world as a whole. We must learn to be loving beings on earth and in radiance to those we encounter, and this requires an ability to lead others to truth, goodness and beauty, while being patiently tolerant and accepting of whatever others can understand and do at this time.
We also need to balance the sense of work with the sense of play. Any work of service can also be fun and playful. Service does not need to be always a “heavy thing”, though we need to be willing to go through the inevitable struggle. But even struggle can be fun, if we have an ‘enjoyable attitude’ to challenges. Our purpose here on earth is not to suffer or become slaves to work. It is not just work, work, work and sacrifice enjoyment. The work I speak of is enjoyable to those who know how to work, but I cannot deny that sometimes the work is a difficult struggle. Temporary pain is inevitable in an evolving life, but it is certainly not the goal nor the necessity.
A very real purpose of life is love, and this involves enjoyment. If you do not enjoy life and what you are doing, then something is wrong, something needs to be changed, either outwardly or inwardly, or both. Even if outward circumstances need to be changed for the better, one can always change the inward perspective to enjoy life as it is now for us.
Much of what has been discussed in previous chapters is the universality of the soul and the essential sameness of souls, and avoiding confusing the soul with ordinary personality differences. First realize the sameness, our sameness; which is the sameness of our essence. But now let us reflect on some possible differences in souls. In essence all souls are much more the same than they are different, but individual souls do have certain kinds of differences.
Souls can have different types of creative inspiration, creative interests, and creative dispositions. Remember that one major aspect of a soul is creative power (or creative energy), which also refers to its power of will and its guiding purpose. Each soul has a particular color mixture of creative energy (which is what we are calling interest). These are also types of expressive service. Of course, these are quite general categories. There are no perfect exact terms for these types, but the following terms seem appropriate.
There are leaders and also devotee types. There are educators and also scientist types. There are healers, or we could name these more generally as care-givers which would also include motherly care. Also, this would include all souls who are genuinely motivated to help heal others, whether it be physically, emotionally, or mentally. Then also there are artist or creative types, which is not limited to any particular artistic field, but rather includes all those who are naturally motivated to blend together new mixtures of creativity, not merely copying the standard norm. Included in this also would be anyone genuinely motivated to create beauty by some new arrangement or new change in things, or even to help the world appreciate a new way of harmony. And seventh, there are builders, or anyone who is mostly motivated to construct or make things, which is fundamentally a will to manifest, and this also includes those who's main interest is to fix things.
All of these types of motivating energy might be in a particular individual soul, but some energies will be stronger than others which is the reason why souls are of one type over another. So keep in mind that all souls have some of all these, but not in equal degrees, which results in these types - each having a more dominant coloration. Also understand that these seven types, or seven types of expression, will often overlap whereby two or even three might blend into one kind of service in the world.
In conjunction with these seven types of creative interest are three possible areas of interest for soul-expression and experience in the world. These are: intellectual, emotional and physical creative interests. Each soul will tend to focus more of its creative energy on one of these three fields. In other words, a soul is essentially interested in experiencing and expressing through all three spheres, but souls will usually have a more predominate interest in one sphere more than the others.
This results in some people being more physical, thus more expressive with the physical body and in the physical world. This would include those who mostly use their body to be expressive or use their physical skills to manifest. Next, others might be more heart oriented, thus more expressive with heart and emotion, and also more social and interactive and into building relationships. Next are the mental types, such as those who use and express mostly with the intellect or mind, and these will tend to be more successful in intellectual fields or in work especially requiring mind.
All souls will have at least some of all these three; but just not exactly the same mixture as everyone else. For this is a general principle, as each soul generally has a will to learn and use the mind, to love and communicate, and also to express in the physical world. So we are really speaking of predominance.
Also understand that these different types will probably not be recognized until the soul develops more in the person, or emerges in the person. And since most people are simply expressing what has been conditioned into them from social and cultural influences, it should not be presumed that the real soul type is knowable from merely knowing how the personality tends to be. Remember that the soul has to emerge into and through the personality - which means through the personality layers of social influences.
So it is sometimes difficult to distinguish soul (which is independent of the current social environment) from personality dispositions. For example, one's motivation to be a doctor might not actually come from one's own inner soul, but instead come from parents or else from one's ego desire to make lots of money or to gain social esteem. This kind of social or ego motivational cause, rather than soul-cause, might be true in many cases of chosen profession and perhaps in other choices as well.
True soul type differences are more recognizable in more advanced souls and in more spiritually mature people. From the perspective of ordinary thought and ordinary ego, the soul within is a vast universal potential with vast possibility. And really, this is the best view to take anyway, regarding one’s soul; rather than believe in some kind of limiting label about oneself, such ‘my soul is... (this way or that),’ as based on a certain system of 'who I am'; the two most popular systems of 'I know who am' or 'I know who you are' are astrology and numerology, though we also have "psychics" or "readers" who will also tell us who we are. All of this should be taken in with some degree of cautionary respect for oneself; in other words, at least think twice about accepting these proclamations as the real truth.
Especially do not make the usual mistake of personal astrology, which is to naively label oneself, or someone else, as being this or that. Any simple labels, typology, or preconceptions that we hold about our self, or another, is like a prison or a chain that we wrapped around our self or another. This is bad enough, but what makes it even worse is that this chain of preconceived labeling is based on quite dubious foundations, mostly invented a long time ago. There are real celestial influences and certain aspects of astrology are useful; but the main problem is in how so many people pretend to know with certainty about things, or about people, while not really knowing much at all.
The very Best practice is to always see oneself and others how it really is -- that is, by using one’s observational intelligence in direct encounter; in other words, learn what is true about oneself or another, by way of really getting to know oneself or another, instead of simply assuming things or believing in some sort of simple method to calculate what is true in order to avoid the longer and more difficult process of learning by direct encounter. There is nothing more real than to understand about oneself from true personal insight, rather than from someone else or some system of "knowledge" telling you who you are, or telling you who others are.
Very often, an experienced predominance of sphere-interest or predominance of service-type is an effect of socially influenced personality development, rather than true soul disposition. What people ordinarily recognize, regarding individual uniqueness, is of the personality and is mostly caused by circumstances of which the soul is not responsible. Generally, each soul has all the universal dispositions and creative urges, so personal differences in interests and expressions are mostly the result of various influences independent of the soul. No always, but often this is the case.
For example, it is usually not the case that a soul chooses to express as a doctor, lawyer, politician, school-teacher, architect, or whatever. Rather, the soul brings into the personality a very general creative and expressional urge or inspiration, such as seeking to learn, experience, be of service, and express its general spiritual qualities, as much as possible and in whatever way is made available by the unique abilities and circumstances of the personality life.
To repeat again, the uniqueness of personal interests and expression is usually and mostly influenced by factors other than the soul. We call these the lower influences, which are most determining in the early stages of personal development, in the development of the mental, emotional and physical bodies. Soul influences, called higher influences, can be determining to some extent, but this extent is dependent on how much the body-conditions are capable of being pervaded by soul-consciousness, purpose and expressive power.
The ideal case for a developing person would be spiritual and healthy influences by the surrounding social sphere, along with a certain degree of soul influence, and then with time the personal bodies are more and more influenced by the soul and less by circumstances and social factors. The usual case is that the personal bodies are too influenced by world forces and too unconnected with the soul, for the soul to effect much influence. If the person is influenced by a higher quality of social factors, such as a spiritual education, the personal ego may open up to the soul influence, opening the channel so to speak.
In general though, the soul-influence is quite small relative to the influences of the social sphere and the developing ego-power or personal-will. The person must evoke a good degree of effort in reversing the predominating influence from lower to higher. This personal effort, primarily of self-observation and higher aspiration, is supported and given strength by the soul, but the soul’s higher influence is always limited by the body-conditions and decisions by the personal ego-will.
No spiritual progress can be absolutely forced, because of the pervading power of freedom. The three bodies, if just left to their own working, would mostly succumb to influences of the world, either patterning in line with them or reacting to them. These patterns and reactions are usually much more mechanical, automatic and conditioned, than one would ordinarily think. People generally believe that their emotional and mental life is unified in one self-consciousness. But usually there isn’t much unity in the person, and neither is there much consciousness. Neither is there much freedom, because these bodies are usually so conditioned by lower influences.
Each soul is already in a soul focus-group. This group will create a certain kind of affinity, based on its level of consciousness and the kind of purposeful interest or work that it has. So IF one is soul-conscious, one will realize a kind of direction or purpose, or this could be known as a deeply felt interest or motivation. The soul can sometimes lead one in this direction, even if the person is not soul-conscious, but very often the person is lead along different roads by society or friends unless they are sufficiently soul-conscious. This itself might not be a negative thing, since every soul can learn from its incarnational explorations. But it is better to gain soul consciousness, and then be lead into one's soul direction, which can be realized in the deeper heart of that person.
This all involves a very significant question that most people have at times, which is to do with one's own special life direction, or with the choices one has about one's field of vocation, or about where to put one's effort, or most simply, what to do with this life.
Now as already said, our soul is already in a soul-group, (as all souls are in a particular group), and this group is on some level of the soul hierarchy, with a unique kind of affinity based on soul qualities, interests and realized purposes. Yet, while being this kind of soul and in this soul-group, we can also choose the Group to be involved with at the next higher level. This choice is given to us by the principle of freedom. Each soul can choose their next step forward, their next level of direction. So there is much importance in the power of choice, even in the Hierarchy of souls.
Yet this is not just a far off truth, for it is practical right now. We each can, right now, choose an Ashram that we wish to learn from or participate in. But in making this choice in our practical life, let us not be fooled by personality interests that have been been conditioned into us by family, society or media. Instead, make this choice by a deeper soul interest, known in the deepest depths of our heart, not in the surface level of our personality mind. And take time to do this, for there should be no hurry in choosing important directions. Explore possible directions and make deep considerations. So then at some point, make a choice of direction, a choice of interest, a field of focus or work in the world, to do with some kind of service in the world, or with some sense of meaningful purpose. Or perhaps the choice is already fairly clear, if one feels deeply interested in a particular field of service, or if one already feels highly motivated towards a particular direction. Once there is some clarity in this and also some effort made in that way, it is then possible to receive higher help and guidance from the Ashram of Wisdom already focusing on this field.