Theos-Talk Archives (September 1999 Message tl00105)

Katinka:

[responding to JRC]

 > > 2. What was the most interesting service you rendered?

 > I tutor (math and chemistry), but since they pay me for it,
 > I am not sure it is *theosophical* work.

I'd say that it's "theosophical" or not based upon *how*
you do it, on how you experience it, on what you make happen
under the circumstances.

If you care about the people you're tutoring, and you care
about what you're doing, and you bring a clear mind, open
heart, and attentive spirit to the tutoring work, the fact
that you make money for it is irrelevant.

An experience of the higher qualities of life, and a brightening
of the world through our actions, is not limited to our free
time, when we're not at work or tied up in our routine duties
if life. In fact, it's in living out the daily routines with
*sparkle* that we can achieve our highest spiritual practice.

The higher schools of Buddhism also teach this: than our
practice and our service can be in the little everyday things
that we do -- whether it's "at work" or "at home" -- and we
don't need to limit spiritual practices to monastic, seclusive,
meditative practices, useful as they may be.

When there's mention of "not charging money for the spiritual,"
it refers to not using the pretense to spiritual activities
in order to con people out of their money, fooling people into
parting with their money for false promises of spiritual
attainment, or perhaps in the selling of "occult secrets".

The sharing of one's higher nature is free of expectations,
without wanting anything in return, out of the pure love of
living it out. It's a matter of awareness, of consciousness,
of motivation, of approach to an experience. The involvement
of money -- one way or the other -- is not a deciding factor,
although the best interest of others is paramount, and something
cannot be truly good when others are being exploited or taken
advantage of.

-- Eldon