In our development as esoteric disciples, we are called to creative meditation, ongoing study, and service as a way of life. The esoteric discipleship training offered by the School for Esoteric Studies assumes that the purpose of all meditation and study is ultimately to be of service. Service in this sense is not synonymous with volunteer work or the performance of good deeds. Rather, service is how we live out our truth that we are all part of the One Life and that we greet each other with respect and compassion. Service “is an evolutionary impetus of the Soul … It is the outstanding characteristic of the Soul, just as desire is the outstanding characteristic of the lower nature.…It is simply the first real effect, evidenced upon the physical plane, of the fact that the Soul is beginning to express itself in outer manifestation.” (EP2:124-125)

The Tibetan has provided the following commentary on service:

True service is the spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and an intelligent mind; it is the result of being in the right place and staying there; it is produced by the inevitable inflow of spiritual force and not by strenuous physical plane activity; it is the effect of individuals being what they truly are, a divine Soul, and not by the studied effect of their words or deeds. True servers gather around them those whom it is their duty to serve and aid by the force of their life and their spiritualized personality, and not by their claims or loud speaking. In self-forgetfulness they serve; in self-abnegation they walk the Earth, and they give no thought to the magnitude or the reverse of their accomplishments and have no pre-conceived ideas as to their own value or usefulness. They live, serve, work and influence, asking nothing for the separated self. (TWM:188-189)

The Tibetan goes further to provide us with the following guidance:

When individuals are working under the impulse of the Law of Service,…their major characteristics will then be three in number:

1. 1. They will be distinguished, as might be expected, by the quality of harmlessness, and by an active refraining from those acts and that speech which might hurt or cause any misunderstanding.
   2. The second characteristic is a willingness to let others serve as seems best to them, knowing that the life flowing through the individual server must find its own channels and outlets, and that direction of these currents can be dangerous and prevent the rendering of the intended service. Servers’ efforts will be turned in two directions:
      a. To the task of helping others to “stand in spiritual being,” as they themselves are learning to stand.
      b. To aiding individuals to express their service in their chosen field as they desire to express it, and not as the onlooking helper deems that they should do it.
   3. The third characteristic of the new server is joyfulness. This takes the place of criticism (that dire creator of misery) and is the silence that sounds. (EP2:131-133)