Below are all of the known references to the Law of Service in the writings of Alice A. Bailey (AAB) and Djwhal Khul (DK). Links on these pages of the Laws of Alice A. Bailey are to the online books at the Lucis Trust website.
For a discussion of what AAB means by a “law” please see Alice A. Bailey – What is a Law?
3. Law of Service.
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire , DIVISION C. SEVEN ESOTERIC STANZAS. – Part 8
Next, condensation, or the amalgamation of the unit with a newer or higher group, this we call condensation for the devas of the waters, and initiation in man; finally, the sacrifice of the group of human or deva atoms to the good of the whole. So does the law of service and sacrifice govern all the second aspect divine in all its departments great or small. Such is the law.
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire , 4. THE FIRE ELEMENTALS, THE LESSER BUILDERS. – Part 1
Law 3. The Law of Service. This law, for want of a better name, concerns the identification of an atom with the group interest, and the steady negation of the atom’s own material interests; it really deals with the process or method whereby an atom (positive in its own centralised life) gradually becomes responsive and receptive to the positive life of the group.
This law concerns itself with the ability of an atom to throw off, or refuse to contact, any energy deemed inimical to group activity. It is literally a law of service, but only comes consciously into play when the atom has established certain basic discriminations, and guides its activities through a knowledge of the laws of its own being. This law is not the same as the Law of Repulsion which is used in connection with the Law of Attraction between forms which have relation to the material.
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire , III. GROUP RELATIONS
The idea of freedom can itself constitute a prison. There are no free souls anywhere, except those who of free choice imprison themselves and find themselves within and by the law of service. You can leave this particular group, but if you are to grow at all, you will find yourself inevitably within some other group for service.
Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. I , SECTION TWO – PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS TO DISCIPLES – Part 9
I would remind you at this point also that, under the laws of the New Age, such assistance is given only to those who have transcended selfish aspiration and have lost sight of their own progress in the desire to serve. The Law of Service, as you know, is the governing law of the future and embodies the new technique. In past ages, it was the service of one’s own soul (with the emphasis upon one’s own individual salvation) which engrossed the attention of the aspirant.
Second: The results of this: Within the Ashram of the Master, as far as the disciple is concerned. In the mode whereby the liberated disciple can now create a body for physical plane contact and for service in the three worlds—this time not under the Law of Necessity but under the Law of Service, as understood by the initiate. You will by now have realised that we have discussed the fact of death as it has affected the physical body (a most familiar happening) and also the astral or mental sheaths—those aggregations of conditioned energy with which we are not so objectively familiar but which even psychology admits exist and which we believe must disintegrate or disappear with the death of the physical body.
Esoteric Healing , CHAPTER VII – The Processes of Integration
They are however open to the magnetic attractive power of those who are alive on the physical plane, and it is these souls who can be brought prematurely into incarnation. The process is under law, but the unevolved progress under group law as do the animals, whilst the more evolved are susceptible to the pull of human units, and the evolved come into incarnation under the Law of Service, and through the deliberate choice of their conscious souls. I shall divide what I have to say into four parts, for the sake of clarity and rapid reference: 1.
Esoteric Psychology – Volume I , 3. The Animal Kingdom – Part 1
His motive, however, being purely selfish and material in objective, can only carry him a certain distance along the path of the higher integration. The unselfish, spiritually oriented man also integrates the various aspects of himself into one functioning whole, but the focus of his activity is contribution, not acquisition, and, by the working of the higher law, the Law of Service, he becomes integrated, not only as a human being within the radius of the prevalent civilisation, but also into that wider and more inclusive world of conscious activity which we call the Kingdom of God. The progress of humanity is from one realised integration to another; man’s basic integrity is, however, in the realm of consciousness.
Esoteric Psychology – Volume II , 2. The Coordination of the Personality – Part 1
3. The Law of Service
Exoteric Name Esoteric Name Symbol Ray Energy 3. Law of Service. Law of water and the fishes.
Vivifying Life We come now to the consideration of the third Law of the Soul, which is intended to govern all soul activity. It is the Law of Service. However, before we elaborate this theme, there are three things which I seek to say and which merit our careful attention.
We shall now consider the broad outlines of this science, for it is the major releasing factor in the disciple’s life. Secondly, this Law of Service is something which may not be escaped. Evasion brings its penalties, if that evasion is conscious.
In its highest expression, we have the service rendered upon the planet in all the kingdoms of nature by the Hierarchy of Masters. Between these two extreme expressions, there is a vast distinction, but both are equally brought about by response (the one consciously rendered and the other unconsciously directed) to the Law of Service. Thirdly this Law of Service was expressed for the first time fully by the Christ two thousand years ago.
Between these two extreme expressions, there is a vast distinction, but both are equally brought about by response (the one consciously rendered and the other unconsciously directed) to the Law of Service. Thirdly this Law of Service was expressed for the first time fully by the Christ two thousand years ago. He was the forerunner of the Aquarian Age, and hence His constant emphasis upon the fact that He was the “water of life”, the “living water” which men needed.
The sign for the Aquarian Age is that of a man, carrying on his shoulders a jar of water so full that it pours over to all and sundry, and yet it diminishes not. The sign for this Law of Service is very similar, but the difference lies in this; that the man stands, perfectly balanced in the form of a cross, with arms stretched out and with the water pot upon his head. In this difference there lies much of real significance.
The idea of service is, at this time, the major idea to be grasped for (in grasping it) we open ourselves wide to the new incoming influences. The Law of Service is the expression of the energy of a great Life, who, in cooperation with Him “in Whom we live and move and have our being”, is subjecting the human family to certain influences and streams of energy which will eventually do three things:— 1. Awaken the heart centre in all aspirants and disciples.
Simply because the life, words and deeds of the worlds first Great Server, of the One Who came to make clear to us what service essentially is, has necessarily had an effect, and men today are earnestly attempting to imitate His example, little realising that imitation does not net them the true results, but only indicates to them a growing possibility. All these laws of the Soul (and the Law of Service is no exception) manifest inevitably in two ways. First, there is their effect upon the individual.
When the rhythm of this law has been imposed and the natural impetus of the man in incarnation is to be an expression of the soul, and when this rhythm can be established as a natural daily expression, the man begins to “stand in spiritual being” and the life which pours through him, gently and naturally, will then have an effect upon his environment and his associates. This effect can then be called a “life of service ” Too much emphasis has been laid upon the process whereby the lower nature is to be subjugated to the higher Law of Service, and the idea of sacrifice, in its worst implications, has been developed. This idea emphasises the necessary and inevitable clashing between the lower nature, working under its own laws, and the higher aspects as they work under the spiritual laws.
The mind element is too active. When the personal lower self is subordinated to the higher rhythms and obedient to the new Law of Service, then the life of the soul will begin to flow through the man to others, and the effect in a man’s immediate family and group will be to demonstrate a real understanding and a true helpfulness. As the flow of life becomes stronger through use, the effect will spread out from the small surrounding family group to the neighborhood.
As the flow of life becomes stronger through use, the effect will spread out from the small surrounding family group to the neighborhood. A wider range of contacts becomes possible, until eventually (if several lives have been thus spent under the influence of the Law of Service) the effect of the outpouring life may become nationwide and worldwide. But it will not be planned, nor will it be fought for, as an end in itself.
They are the platitudes of the spiritual life, and constitute the battleground, or the Kurukshetra of most aspirants. We are here concerned with those qualities which will emerge when a man is working under the impulse of the Law of Service. They will appear when he is a real channel for the life of the soul.
You will note that I do not say “will not hurt any individual. ” Those working under the Law of Service need no reminder not to hurt any individual. They often need, under the exuberance of spiritual stimulation and the intensity of their aspiration, to be reminded to demonstrate group harmlessness.
One point might here be made clear. The task of those who are working under the Law of Service is not exerted primarily with that group in the world today which is working under the effect of that general response to which we earlier referred. These effects are easily shepherded into those activities which, en masse, work out as philanthropic endeavor, as educational experiments, or social efforts in the life of the community.
Esoteric Psychology – Volume II , II. The Seven Laws of Soul or Group Life – Part 2
In this work many can have a part. The Law of Service has been thus outlined in an endeavor to make one of the most esoteric influences in the solar system somewhat clearer in our minds. I call you to service, but would remind you that the service discussed here will only be possible when we have a clearer vision of the goal of meditation, and learn to preserve, during the day, the attitude of inner spiritual orientation.
3. The Law of Service The Petals of Knowledge. This fourth Law of Repulse works through the first Law of Sacrifice and carries to the aspirant the quality, influence and tendency of the Spiritual Triad, the threefold expression of the Monad.
Sixth Law. It comes via the knowledge petals and the subsidiary Law of Service. These higher spiritual laws reflect themselves in the three lower spiritual laws, finding their way into the lower consciousness via the egoic lotus and the antaskarana.
Esoteric Psychology – Volume II , II. The Seven Laws of Soul or Group Life – Part 3
Posture. A poised attitude to the world Sixth ray force The Law of Service. Right relations and right ideals.
Esoteric Psychology – Volume II , II. The Seven Laws of Soul or Group Life – Part 4
‘ “With still small voice in every self thus speaketh the Buddha, by its inspiration to inner character, its aspiration to outer personality, perpetually transmuting this self into not-self, each reality dependent on the other, an everlasting way of life to tread to perfection of each, of all. ” [cclxvi]16 Christ emphasises the same lesson, and always His disciples have sought, in their place and time, to teach the law of service. Sometimes it seems as if the two extremes lived on in the consciousness of man—the notorious and ambitious, and the great world servers.
There is freedom from the control of personalities. But there is never any freedom from the Law of Service, and from the constant interplay between man and man, and soul and soul. To stand really free is to stand in the clear unimpeded light of the soul, which is basically and intrinsically group consciousness.
Glamour: A World Problem , SECTION ONE – THE NATURE OF GLAMOUR – Part 1
The Masters know, however, that a higher, deeper and more intensive manifestation of divinity is potentially possible, but it causes Them no concern or strain, no anxiety or fiery aspiration; They know, as no disciple can know, the workings of the Law of Inevitability. This Law releases the Masters (under the accompanying Law of Service), at the sixth initiation, into a wider field of experience, with all the divine assets and qualities so developed within Them that They know that Their equipment is adequate to the undertaking and that They can, without hesitancy and concern, take the next required steps. It is hard for the disciple—struggling with glamour and illusion—to realise that the higher initiations are free from all concern and from any emotional or self-centred reactions to the work which lies ahead or to the form side of manifestation; it is well-nigh impossible for the neophyte to vision a time when he will be free from all reactions engendered by life on the dense cosmic physical planes and from all the limitations of life in the three worlds.
Rays and The Initiations , SECTION ONE – THE ASPIRANT AND THE MYSTERIES OF INITIATION – Part 4
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