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In this article, Assagioli emphasizes the importance of using our discernment when helping other people, choosing the area of work and determining what help the recipient needs.
By Roberto Assagioli MD, Translation Torben Steffensen
Original title: Discrimination in service. This is a multifaceted subject, and these comments can only provide a general overview, briefly touching on certain points of practical interest. The subject can be divided into three parts: Discrimination in the service; Discrimination in the service itself; Discrimination in relation to those we serve. Of course, these categories overlap in practice, but considering them separately can help to clarify the issues involved, and thus lead to more deliberate action in service.
I. The Discernment of the One Who Serves
This is largely a question of motive. It is almost superfluous to emphasize the importance of motive and the need for a careful examination of and constant vigilance over the motives that lead us to do the work. We can often discover behind motives that are pure and right—and mixed with them in varying degrees—others that are defective or wrong because they are the expression of some form of glamour or illusion. The most common of these are:
a. Ambition . When the seed of ambition lies hidden in the servant, it can find fertile ground in which to thrive within this activity. Work can become a means of attaining a position of control or authority, and in this way satisfy a desire for power and fame and the urge for self-affirmation.
b. Feeling . The detection of this kind of glamour often requires subtle discernment. We must distinguish between true spiritual compassion and the personal concern aroused in us by contact with the suffering of others and the consequent eagerness to relieve it and thereby be freed from our own discomfort. There is a sure yardstick by which to distinguish between these two motives. When our efforts are motivated by feeling, we rush to relieve the pain and comfort the suffering people, without realizing that we are thus dealing only with consequences and may not be rendering any real and lasting help.
Often, in fact, we can even delay the progress of those we “help” by giving free rein to their inclinations and preventing them from becoming aware of the lesson their soul is trying to impart to them. True spiritual compassion, on the other hand, while not excluding a certain measure of immediate relief when the suffering is acute, is primarily concerned with ascertaining, clarifying, and helping to eliminate the causes of the suffering. This is done by interpreting the lesson with the help of the wisdom we possess and helping the person to understand it. Another wrong motive, based on emotion, is the desire to be loved and appreciated, and to receive praise and gratitude from those we so “generously” help. Fortunately, people are often ungrateful and thus help us to get rid of that tendency! We should actually be grateful to them for their ingratitude!
c. Evasion . This is a form of sleight of hand which often appears in the field of service, and which manifests itself in subtle ways under the best and noblest disguises. Too often we shirk our responsibilities, either consciously or unconsciously, either through physical or moral laziness (it is far more pleasant to follow the path of least resistance!), or through fear, or simply because the task at hand is unpleasant to our personality. In such cases, some useful activity or piece of work which we are accustomed to do, and which is easy and pleasant, may give us a plausible excuse for avoiding the tedious or discouraging undertaking which, being our true duty, is a greater spiritual opportunity which could prepare us for higher forms of service.
d. Attachment . This kind of illusion can fool us in two ways:
1. By maintaining a preferred habitual form of service.
2. By being attached to the fruits of our labor. In its crudest form, this consists of expecting some kind of personal reward for the work we have done, such as praise, recognition, or gratitude. A more refined form of attachment is the seemingly justified desire to know that our work has been useful and that it has produced the right results. Of course, there is nothing wrong with noticing that something good has come of our unselfish efforts; it is highly encouraging.
But there are certain kinds of long-term or subjective work, the fruits of which we cannot see, but can only imagine. In such cases we must work with the utmost objectivity, forsaking the proof of results and placing our trust only in an unshakable confidence in the great law of cause and effect. We may be sure that if good seeds are sown in the right soil, good fruit will appear at the right time.
II. The distinction concerning the service itself
There are many forms of service, and there are times when the choice between the demands of the various fields is by no means easy. The following general rules may be helpful in finding our proper place therein: a. Do not cling to a lower or more limited and less effective service if your abilities qualify you to work in ways that are more far-reaching and with greater power.
b. Do not attempt to work in a higher and more difficult sphere until you have trained and tested your ability to meet the demands with wisdom and harmlessness.
c. At the same time, we should be prepared, regardless of our abilities or qualifications, to perform any kind of work, however humble or unpleasant, when we experience an urgent need. We must also remember two important trends of increasing importance, and which therefore increasingly affect our areas of service. These are:
1. The rapidly growing trend toward groups and group activity. Work done by one individual for another will increasingly give way to work done by one group for another group or groups. This will necessitate training in the new and difficult technique of harmonious cooperation and the creation of a “group identity.”
2. The new, or rather renewed, realization of the reality of the invisible Universe which surrounds us and permeates us, and of the colossal power contained in its subtle energies.
This realization helps us to discover more and more the immense scope and value of subjective work. Spiritually aspiring people should make the most strenuous efforts to make themselves suitable as soon as possible to work on both the subjective (inner) and the objective (outer) planes, and this for three important reasons, which have so far generally not been given sufficient emphasis.
First, subjective action is incomparably more effective and therefore of greater value than objective action, because it deals with causes and not with effects; because it makes use of forces which are more subtle, more potent and far-reaching, much less limited by space, time and other barriers on the physical plane; because it employs the true method of all creative processes, “God’s method.”
This unfolds along the path that goes from the subtle to the dense, from the Center to the periphery, from Spirit to matter, from Life and Consciousness to form, or technically speaking from the idea (the mental) to the ideal (the emotional) and from this to the idol or material form, the visible expression (physical).
Secondly, there are comparatively few truly spiritually oriented people who are competent to perform a safe and effective piece of subjective work, because of the difficult and rigorous requirements even with regard to the more elementary aspects.
Third, we see a rapid—and almost alarming—increase in the number of people developing psychic abilities, either spontaneously (due to the general spiritual stimulation) or deliberately (and often prematurely and unwisely). The result has been a corresponding increase in the “diseases of the mystics.” But the problem facing spiritually oriented people at this time is complicated and made more difficult by the fact that we are in a transitional period of unique importance and opportunity, in which there is an urgent need for both kinds of work, the objective and the subjective.
This complex situation, these different and sometimes seemingly contradictory demands, require careful and subtle discernment. We are constantly confronted with problems of choice, and these can only be solved by the individual. Each case and situation represents a unique combination of elements, personal and spiritual, which has no precedent, and every choice and every solution is therefore “original.” Nevertheless, there are some hints and considerations of a general nature that may be helpful.
First, we must distinguish between the essential and the unessential. It is much easier to see the truth and importance of this than to apply it consistently in practice. Many unessential things cling stubbornly to us like clams to the side of a ship, born and nourished by habit, by conscious and unconscious attachment on our part, and by the loud demands or the insidious and subtle influence of people attached to us. We need untiring vigilance and a sharp sense of discrimination.
Second, we should be prepared to delegate our external ministry to others whenever we find them ready and willing to undertake it. But here we must also use our discernment to ensure that those who offer themselves have the necessary abilities to undertake the task.
A third point – an extension of the second – is that we often have a responsibility to train others and to help the seeker find deeper and more subjective forms of service. This also requires discernment; it is easy to both overestimate and, on the other hand, undervalue a person’s true potential.
III Discernment towards those we serve
Harmful and sometimes even serious consequences can result from efforts made with the best intentions but misdirected; these are usually due to a lack of discernment regarding the true needs of those we are helping. The following five rules can be helpful here:
1. Let us not be hasty in giving to everyone the kind of help which we ourselves have happened to find useful. This enthusiastic assumption is a common fallacy—everyone knows the well-meaning person who has been helped by a patent medicine (or rather, as is often the case, by belief in it) and unreservedly recommends it to anyone for all kinds of ailments.
Some people are particularly susceptible to this kind of mistake because they tend to be self-centered and therefore poor psychologists. They fail to recognize the application of the simple adage, “What’s good for one is bad for another,” to the service they are performing. We can avoid this mistake by being mindful of the following second rule:
2. Before we help another person, let us observe them carefully .
The greater our understanding of our fellow men, the more clearly we see how different they are. Modern scientific psychology, with its discovery and description of the different types such as extroverts, introverts, etc., has done useful work in this field, but it is as yet only in the pioneer stages and very incomplete. Fortunately, valuable contributions in esoteric psychology enable us to begin to consider and study the individual man in terms of the following:
a. The achieved evolutionary stage , and consequently the prevailing polarization (physical, emotional and mental).
b. The energies that condition its soul, its personality, and its mental, emotional, and physical bodies.
c. The zodiacal signs that condition the individual.
d. The splits or lack of integration that exist at different levels of its personality.
e. Methods for coordination and synthesis (integration and fusion) adapted to the individual situation.
f. Its life tasks (vocation, occupation, service).
This is a fascinating and fruitful approach, not just for spiritually oriented people, but for any doctor, teacher, parent – in fact, anyone who recognizes the responsibility and opportunity that lies in the influence we have on our fellow human beings.
Let us not always give what is asked of us, or what is expected of us, but what meets the real need. We should realize and always remember that the help which people think they need and cry out for is often quite different from, and sometimes the exact opposite of, what they really need for their well-being and spiritual growth. Again, we must discern carefully in this regard, often having to reject what they ask for, and seek to point out what is the true need instead and offer our help in accordance with that need. We should be on guard against allowing emotion, weakness, desire to please, or undeveloped compassion to lead us to meet the demands of personality rather than that which is in accordance with the will and purpose of the souls we seek to help.
4. Let us avoid personal attachment on both sides. He who seeks to act harmlessly should avoid attachment not only to particular forms of service (as mentioned earlier) but also to the people involved. This can be achieved by clearly distinguishing between true spiritual, and thus impersonal, love and emotional attachment.
Often the untapped emotional tendencies of a person who offers his service seek and find an outlet or purpose in helping others. This may be legitimate within certain limits, such as in purely philanthropic forms of enterprise, but it becomes an obstacle and a danger in strictly spiritual work. To qualify for this kind of work, this person must deeply purify and transform the emotional forces of his emotional nature so that they are sublimated into impersonal, objective, and luminous spiritual love.
But even when the person doing the work is free from such tendencies, it is all too easy for those being helped to become attached to their helper, sometimes in a passionate way. There are two kinds of such attachments which should be sharply distinguished, for they must be handled and weighed differently:
a. Emotional attachments of a possessive, demanding, often jealous nature, with a tendency to “absorb,” sometimes bordering on actual emotional vampirism.
Such attachments are due to an overdeveloped and unsatisfied emotional nature. In some cases, unresolved and unrequited feelings stored in the unconscious are “projected” onto the person helping, through a process psychologists call “affective transference.” This tendency manifests itself in varying degrees, from an over-emotional, self-centered, and dramatic temperament to severe physical and psychological symptoms in a hysterical type.
b. Attachments that arise from weakness, fear, indecision, and the inability or unwillingness to accept our responsibilities .
Such people cling to us and beg for help, often displaying infantile traits. They want to be reassured, guided, or even commanded. Typical and extreme examples of such behavior are seen in people affected by psychoneuroses or by certain forms of melancholic depression. They are remarkably introverted, hampered by complexes, and suffer from marked internal splits. It is worth remembering that some people exhibit both kinds of tendencies to varying degrees.
The first type of attachment can be handled and redirected by directing the overflowing energies towards other purposes and constructive outlets, by strengthening their transformation and sublimation, and by transferring them to higher levels. The second, or adhesive, type can be remedied by helping individuals to become emotionally mature and develop self-confidence, to train their will, to address and be responsive to their souls, to be extroverted in the right way, to establish an active and fruitful interaction with the outside world and with their fellow human beings – in other words, to achieve their own psychosynthesis.
From this brief overview of the three kinds of problems that face people who serve others, it is clear how essential it is to exercise constant, vigilant, and ever more subtle discernment. Only through this will our work be complete, fruitful—and harmless.
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Also read the article Psychosynthesis an Integral Psychology and the biography of Roberto Assagioli
