It was Dick Laird’s turn to write the Board Member’s blogpost. Since he tends to be a man of very few words and a whole lot of valuable and valued engagement, he didn’t mind too much that I wrote it instead.

Something Dick recognized early on was that regular participation in the life of his Center or spiritual community was an important spiritual practice for him. It’s not something one might do if they needed to be recognized, honored or ‘show off’ in the spotlight, but it provides useful and necessary services to the community as a whole and to individual members of the congregation and it, metaphorically, ‘keeps the wheels on the bus’. Plus, there’s the added benefit of supporting and engaging with something valued.

One of the traditional paths of enlightenment in the yogic tradition is the path of service. This is called karma yoga. According to the Yoga Journal Online (citation at the end of this note), ‘being aware that all of our present efforts become a way to consciously create a future that frees us from being bound by negativity and selfishness. Karma is the path of self-transcending action. We practice karma yoga whenever we perform our work and live our lives in a selfless fashion and as a way to serve others. Volunteering to serve meals in a soup kitchen or signing up for a stint with the Peace Corps or Habitat for Humanity are prime examples of selfless service associated with the karma yoga path.’

Of course, this path of sacred service is not limited to participating at your Spiritual Center. Many of our congregants volunteer outside our Center for other non-profit groups and organizations, including public schools, hospitals, food banks, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens and in their own neighborhoods…

The path of sacred service also gives shy or introverted people an avenue to get involved and participate, and meet new people and feel connected to something larger than themselves, or their own human experience. Personally, I know of several individuals on the Hospitality Team, which seems like a hugely gregarious and extroverted bunch, who joined because it gave them a chance to get involved in a way that gave them some relatively simple, straight-forward tasks, once every couple months, and gave them a chance to be around people, feel useful, and not feel trapped or overwhelmed by the level of interaction. It also gave them access to a small group of people that they could work alongside of for a while and see if they might want to engage a little more socially. The same could easily be said about those who have worked behind the scenes, and behind the tables, to bring the Book Tables to Sunday Services, and those who provide assistance to the administrative functions of our Center.

So, look inside yourself and see if you have the appropriate amount of social engagement that suits your temperament and desires, and, if you find you would like a little more involvement in life and the idea of volunteerism works for you, reach out and touch a hand. There’s more than enough (joy, delight and potential connection) to go around.

https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/the-branches-of-yoga

–Rev Janis Farmer