Service is an expression of loving in action, with no demand for or expectation of a reward (monetary or otherwise). Service is its own reward. Along with that expression there are often side effects, known as joy and upliftment. The person who does service and tries to get publicity for it limits the benefit of the act to their being known for the act. The person who does it in silence, acting in a loving consciousness just to do it - that person builds up the Light, which neutralizes negative karma.

When we're serving, we let go of the orientation and expectation that has to do with, "What am I getting out of this?" or "What's in it for me?" When that's up, it's important to take a look and find out how you are serving yourself and what's going on. We say it as, "Take care of yourself." We could equally say, "Serve yourself." We need to be fulfilled in our own level of being served and taken care of.

The real key is the joyfulness and the essence behind the giving.

Happiness is a sign of successful service.

The spiritual person does without expectation of reward, yet knows very well a reward is magnificent. The actions of service are completed with no sense of reward. And if a reward comes, it is taken care of with love, because the treasures have been laid up in Heaven.

The openness to be of service may be your getting out of the way and realizing that what is really here as an action of service is for the situation to take its course now. The service may be that you are to let it be and let the person take their own course. You are to step back, to go to a neutral place.

Rumi said it something like this: "Beyond our differences is a field. And I'll meet you there." You have a relationship in the world that has polarity. It's a charged atmosphere, and how do you serve in a charged atmosphere without getting all charged up? You consider, "Who am I? What am I? What is my intention here?" Doing this is using your neutral state as a source for knowing who you are and what you are in the situation. It allows you to be in the world, but not of it. It allows you to be involved in the situation - serving, but not attached to the results.

We refer to service as the highest consciousness on the planet because it describes the nature of what happens to those who have converted themselves to their Spirit: they become a consciousness who serves - without question, without condition, regardless.

If you don't listen to the inner voice, it shuts off. The inner voice is noninflictive. And to awaken it again takes a lot of prayer, a lot of devotion, a lot of spiritual exercises. And I'll tell you a way it opens in a hurry: be of selfless service to the people around you. That opens the heart. The Spirit heart opens, and the communication of the Lord starts to come with you.

I know of two primary approaches that can assist people in transcending limited conditioning; in fact, these approaches can even transform them so the same energy of limitation can then be used for infinite expansion. These approaches are so valuable to me that I consider them my personal "commandments." I am not one of those writers who tell about the joy of spiritual and physical abundance just on a theoretical basis. I and many others share these commandments and, as a result, we experience the joy of abundance as an everyday occurrence. What are these two commandments? 1. Work and serve. 2. Learn and grow.