Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Gubb  Well, this is how the two viewpoints of service to others vs. service to self come together into harmony of self with others to the benefit of all. I think the two ideas you've expressed above are basically the same. |
And that's my point: they are basically the same. Light and dark energies exist on a spectrum. What comprises that spectrum? In order for there to be two sides, they have to exist on the same coin.
Where you place the emphasis makes a huge difference in how you walk your path. Placing emphasis on "I" does not intrinsically mean placing emphasis on the small I; after all, both sides can benefit from having a strong ego. You need a strong ego while you're on earth, there's no two ways about it. But there's a big difference between being ego driven and being "I" driven.
You can see that this life is transitory and reach one of two conclusions: 1. It doesn't really matter that much in grander scheme of things so making sacrifices for lasting ideals is the only meaningful way to spend your time. 2. You'd best get working on everything you want to do because time is short and, though this life is transitory, there must be something you've come to do and you've got your reasons for doing it. Those two don't necessarily contradict each other, but again placing the emphasis on a different part gets drastically different results. It's like squeezing a bubble on a piece of bubble wrap and causing another one to inflate.
I don't think it's accurate to say lightworking is spiritual and darkworking is ego based, the reason being that you can have egotistical lightworkers. If you can have egotistical lightworkers and egotistical darkworkers but you can't have spiritual lightworkers and spiritual darkworkers, something is amiss as one lacks a true corollary. Again I would note most teachers say they both lead to the same place (to paraphrase that book, "you run into the divine at the bottom and the top"). That doesn't make any sense if the darkworker's means of attaining enlightenment is to become a lightworker. To play on something you said, it seems quite possible to recreate one's identity to align with the larger part of oneself without placing the primary focus on the body of humanity.