Whom do you serve?

Mysticism really bothers me. Chassidut is deep and mysterious the Tanya in my limited study of it is all about the interconnectedness of all of our actions in this world. The premise being that there are other layers of being that we can’t perceive. Its brilliant stuff but it can be dangerous. Ideas like this can turn people into racist bigoted close minded fanatics. This is where I run into a lot of issues. Because there is one crucial thing about religious observance: it doesn’t work unless you really think it will. Studies have been done (I wish I could cite my sources but this is a work of philosophy not serious research), there is a body of serious scientific research that says people of deep faith and / or religious observance are generally speaking happier. It’s crazy but that’s the thing there is also a stipulation. The stipulation is this: if you are religiously observant and you don’t really believe then you don’t derive the same benefits from it. I guess that’s ultimately where I am with all of this. Ultimately you must believe with great passion and express your love of the name openly and without any reservations and… you should try to keep your feet on the ground just a little bit. I love all of this. I love that I’m the kind of person who thinks about ideas like this. I’m convinced that we all have so many struggles in this life all in different ways, all unique, all a chance to do something. If we allow this idea to fester within us it could destroy our souls. But ultimately we must trust, ultimately we all must serve something. It doesn’t matter who you are and for many people there are many things not just one. Some serve money, family, country, themselves, the possibilities are endless. Based on the working assumption that we all ultimately serve something I say, serve god. Really if we’re all choosing something chose that. This is not to say neglect anything of the others. Just temper it, serve a higher moral cause, i.e. the betterment of humanity. Yes act for yourself but in doing that serve something more. Life is about trust; life is about relationship building, take the time to do these things. I find them to be the only truly worthwhile things in my life. Everything else is just designed to facilitate my ability to build relationships. The truth is there, everywhere we go we reach out to others to get things we want, to get things others want of and for us. We put trust in the people we meet to help us, it’s an act of trust every time. Learn this, knowing it doesn’t do you any better if you haven’t internalized it. Learn to trust others and in trusting others learn to trust god and in trusting god learn to trust yourself.