Meditation: "How Can I Serve?"

Over the course of the centuries, many spiritual sages have suggested that, when we are feeling sad about the way our lives seem to be going, we can ask this simple question: “How can I serve?” To me, there is powerful wisdom in that advice, for it reminds me of a crucial truth I can use to dispel even the worst kinds of sadness: I am not alone. Since all sadness arises, ultimately, from a feeling of aloneness, overturning that sense of aloneness deprives sadness of its source. When I realize, or remember, that nothing is alone in this unified, harmonious universe (uni = one), it’s impossible to feel anything but security, comfort, and contentment, which are the opposite of sadness. Not surprisingly, the easiest and quickest way to remind myself that I am never alone in this universe is to serve other people. By immersing myself in aiding other people, I see again that we are all intimately and irreversibly connected. In helping others, I realize once more that separation from others is merely an illusion, and that I am as closely connected to everything in this universe as my thoughts are connected to me. After that, of course, it’s impossible to stay sad. How can I be sad when I realize that I’m part of a friendly, caring, and ever creative family called the universe? How can anything called depression unsettle me when I see that I am surrounded by an infinite number of “brothers and sisters” – all the persons and things in the universe? If I focus on helping these members of my endless family, sadness has no chance of surviving.