How To Serve People Better
Posted on November 7, 2008, under Miscellaneous.
Those people whose work involves serving people need to be strong , stable, and genuinely peaceful.They need an inner balance which is crucial for peace work.They should not try to help others in an effort to escape their own sorrow, despair or inner conflict.If they lose their own mindfulness and are not peaceful and solid within, their contributions will not be useful.
They must first practise mindfulness and grow compassion in themselves, so that peace and harmony are there within them, before they begin in work effectively for social change.Every time they are able restore even a small amount of peace within themselves, they have already made a positive effect on their family and society.
Many people who want to help are challenged by their own pain.Several doctors, social workers, psychotherapists, and teachers are suffering, yet do not know how to recognize and transform their pain.They should learn the art of transform their anger, for example, into something more wholesome, like understanding.They only have to observe it with love and attention.If they take care of their anger in this way, without trying to run away from it, it will transform itself.This is peacemaking.They can deal with depression, anxiety, fear, or any unpleasant feeling in the same way.
Those who are in the service industry have a wonderful opportunity to generate peace, compassion and understanding.One of the best ways of doing this is through speech.How one speaks to others can offer them joy, self-confidence, hope and enlightenment.When there is no communication, sickness spreads to other people too.
For proper communication, they should first learn to look deeply into the nature of their anger, despair and suffering.Many are not capable of releasing the past.Howver, by living deeply in the present, they can understand the past better.
