What Does Service To Self Or Others Mean?

Some spiritual circles talk about the Law of One that describes service to self vs. service to others orientation, which are often misunderstood. What does service to self really mean? How does service differ from codependence, self-sacrifice and other states?

What does service to self or others mean?

The Law of One teachings describe two distinct paths, which can be summarized as follows:

Service to self (STS) path sees the self as separate from others; body and mind worship for material evolution, based on control, repression, hierarchy, power and competition.
Service to others (STO) is the path of accepting and serving other selves; heart and spirit worship for spiritual evolution, based on freedom, networking, cooperation and synergy.

Both paths are expressions of our dualistic physical universe. Some call the STS orientation the negative path, and the STO the positive path. But Guy Needler pointed out that there is a third one called Service to God/Source, which comes first (see below).

Needler said Service to God/Source creates a triangulation effect, which is iterative and moves around the three points. He said it needs to be Service to God to understand it:

Service to self and service to others is ALL service to God, our Source, because we are part of God. We are individuated units of our Source, so we are God.
To serve that which we are, we need to serve ourselves.
The way we can service ourselves is by serving others, by being of service. In doing that, we serve ourselves and we serve our God.

He explained that in being selfish in serving our God, we also serve ourselves. In being selfish in serving others, we serve ourselves and we serve our God. We can see the iterations.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, because it is being done unto you! That is the Golden Rule. And now you understand it completely.” – Neale Donald Walsch

How do we do that in real life?

We can get some guidance from the I Ching (Book of Changes), although some have said it’s too vague, like a daily horoscope reading. That’s why my go-to guide is Richard Rudd’s book “Gene Keys.” His genius was to interpret each gate as a spectrum of consciousness arranged into three frequency bands: Shadow, Gift and Divine Gift (siddhi) levels.

“Embrace the Shadow, Release the Gift, Embody the Siddhi.” – Richard Rudd

There are 64 different gates or gene keys. Each gate represents a ladder of frequencies found in individuals and collective humanity. The theme of Service involves many gates, including those described in the Table below (click to enlarge). According to Rudd (“Gene Keys”):

Most people operate from their shadow level, which includes ego-based behaviors that arise from low frequency fear (underexpression) or anger (overexpression) states.
But the shadow is just a stage in our evolution, something to be transcended, so that we can express the next level, the gift, genius or talents we are here to bring to the world.
The divine gift level is not commonly seen, because it’s not really designed for the current version of humans. It’s found in higher frequency masters and in our future selves.

Gate 27 (“Nourishment”) is a great example that goes from the lower frequency self-sacrifice and selfishness to altruism and selflessness. Rudd explained the levels in this way:

The fearful person gives away their power to others, often to the wrong people, who take advantage of them. They sacrifice themselves or do things out of obligation until they become resentful and depleted of their resources, energies or health. Then they crash.
The other shadow expression is giving to others, but expecting to get something back and getting angry if that doesn’t happen. Selfishness is a frequency we can move through.
At the gift level, the person gives from the heart without expectation. To give is to receive. This allows energy to circulate, to be given and received by many, not blocked by anybody.
The divine gift level represents the dormant parts of our genome that are waiting to be expressed at full capacity. For Gate 27, that means the path of service (bhakti yoga) or path of compassion or the doctrine of harmlessness, as taught to us by many masters.

Rudd said that humanity as a whole has already ascended far beyond individual and tribal selfishness for survival. But we still have some work to do. Selfish acts cut us off from the collective, our purpose and from love. He said in the next 100 years, Selflessness will become widespread across our planet, and Love will be our new superfood! What a concept! 🙂

Final Thoughts

We can be of service in many ways. But we need to do it from a sincere desire to help. We don’t really serve anybody when we do something out of obligation or our need to be needed. We are bringing the wrong frequency to the situation that will limit others as well.

Rudd said the question we need ask ourselves is: What is my highest service? What is the deepest service I can offer to the whole? Then find creative ways to do that.

As Neale Walsch has told us: “Your life has nothing to do with you. It is about everyone whose life you touch, and the way in which you touch it. Love is all there is.”

If you’ve been reading the posts about our life review after death, you’ll know that we’ll be reviewing not just this life, but all our parallel lives in every event space from every angle as a team effort with our guides and helpers on the Other Side. We’re ALL in this together!

“When we take what we learn…out into the world in service, it’s love with legs.” – Susan Kaiser Greenland