How Can I Help?: Stories and Reflections on Service

by Ram Dass

It’s not always our efforts that burn us out; it’s where the mind is standing in relation to them. The problem is not the work itself but the degree of our identification with it. It’s doers who burn out. But we needn’t always be doers. For as the process of witnessing becomes stronger—as we stay with it despite our reactions to what is being revealed—a subtle shift begins to take place in the direction of perspective and freedom. If we persevere, our identification with the Witness grows while our attachment to being the doer seems to fall away. Quite remarkably, moreover, we also notice that while our identification as the doer is falling away, much is still being accomplished. We’re still setting about our work, perhaps even more productively. It’s just that we’re not so personally identified with it any more. We see that in this state we’re less likely to be frustrated, to feel rejected, to doubt ourselves, to burn out.