Questioner: At what stage does a planet achieve social memory?
Ra: I am Ra. A mind/body/spirit social complex becomes a social memory complex when its entire group of entities are of one orientation or seeking. The group memory lost to the individuals in the roots of the tree of mind then becomes known to the social complex, thus creating a social memory complex. The advantages of this complex are the relative lack of distortion in understanding the social beingness and the relative lack of distortion in pursuing the direction of seeking, for all understanding/distortions are available to the entities of the society.

Is there then, from the point of view of an individual who wishes to follow the service-to-others path, anything of importance other than disciplines of personality, knowledge of self, and strengthening of will?

RA: I am Ra. This is technique. This is not the heart. Let us examine the heart of evolution.

Let us remember that we are all one. This is the great learning/teaching. In this unity lies love. This is a great learn/teaching. In this unity lies light. This is the fundamental teaching of all planes of existence in materialization. Unity, love, light, and joy; this is the heart of evolution of the spirit.

The second-ranking lessons are learn/taught in meditation and in service. At some point the mind/body/spirit complex is so smoothly activated and balanced by these central thoughts or distortions that the techniques you have mentioned become quite significant. However, the universe, its mystery unbroken, is one. Always begin and end in the Creator, not in technique.

QUESTIONER: Am I correct, then, in assuming that discipline of the personality, knowledge of self, and control in strengthening of the will would be what any fifth-density entity would see as those things of importance?

RA: I am Ra. In actuality these things are of importance in third through early seventh densities. The only correction in nuance that we would make is your use of the word, control. It is paramount that it be understood that it is not desirable or helpful to the growth of the understanding, may we say, of an entity by itself to control thought processes or impulses except where they may result in actions not consonant with the Law of One. Control may seem to be a short-cut to discipline, peace, and illumination. However, this very control potentiates and necessitates the further incarnative experience in order to balance this control or repression of that self which is perfect.

Instead, we appreciate and recommend the use of your second verb in regard to the use of the will. Acceptance of self, forgiveness of self, and the direction of the will; this is the path towards the disciplined personality. Your faculty of will is that which is powerful within you as co-Creator. You cannot ascribe to this faculty too much importance. Thus it must be carefully used and directed in service-to-others for those upon the positively oriented path.

There is great danger in the use of the will as the personality becomes stronger, for it may be used even subconsciously in ways reducing the polarity of the entity.

I am Q’uo, and am with this instrument. You may well ask, if it is true that the greatest service one may perform is of a radiance that is inward in nature, why one needs to incarnate at all to perform this service. And this is not an insignificant question. For it is true that the world in which you find your engagements, the world in which you find those who call upon you expecting to have your service in return, is an important mirroring element, shall we say. For service seeks those it may serve. And it can seem somewhat hollow and self-enclosed to feel that the bonds that unite those who seek in a sacred humanity are not breathed full of life.

One feels isolated and alone when one does not hear back a response to the service one has offered. This, we would suggest, is an occasion for reflecting on the true character of the service which you have had to offer. For service that seeks results in a form in which those results are expected is, in reality, a service which does not leave the closed sphere of the intention of the one who seeks to serve. One cannot predict how one’s service will be taken. One cannot know when it has really been of use to another. And so again and again, my friends, you must make a full effort, and again and again you must reckon with the possibility of hearing no echo at all.

We do not deny the loneliness that befalls a seeker in such a situation. We do not deny the difficulty in maintaining the energy of seeking under such a circumstance. We do not deny the difficulty in holding to the desire to be of service when it seems as if none of your fellow human beings really do want what you have to offer.

Nevertheless, we would say that it is frequently the case that the most eloquent efforts made in the area of service are those which are almost unnoticeable, in many cases, even to the self. We would say that the daily effort to inquire of the self about its own deepest intentions is itself a very great service and one upon which all true service depends.

It may be that there will be a day, there will be a week, there will be a month, or there will be a year in which one cannot honestly say to oneself that one’s whole heart is in one’s service. Upon these occasions, it is well to be consoled. It is well to realize that in order to serve, the self must be gathered to itself. And this very often requires moments of rest. It requires pulling back, and without judgment allowing the self to follow that which it finds diverting; allowing the self to seek solace where solace may be found. The very act of making this allowance is itself a spiritual act of very great significance, for in that gesture, one acknowledges also that one still abides, that one still is upon the path, that one still has set the intention to be of service to others in precisely that way it is given one to be.