Born to Serve: The Evolution of the Soul Through Service(Book I)

By Susan S. Trout

Book Overview

Inspiring, insightful, and refreshingly original in approach, Born to Serve provides a road map to guide individuals and organizations in deepening their consciousness of the relationship between... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0962538620
• ISBN13: 9780962538629
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Three Roses Pr
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

An inspiring take on what it means to be "of service."

"Born to Serve" will really speak to anyone who feels that there must be something more to life than just showing up every day. I've always had a nagging feeling, however happy or sad I am, that there must be a bigger purpose for my life. Well, Susan Trout's book inspired me to trust that there is something really awesome to show up and work for. The author is the Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Service in Alexandria, Virginia, which was founded in 1980 as a non-profit educational and spiritual organization engaged in training, teaching and research. Susan Trout's book book draws on her 25 years as a teacher and Director of IAS, and the author's own experience of walking her path towards wholeness in this life. The book is deeply spiritual, echoing the best in many spiritual traditions, At the same time, it is very practical about how you can develop your own plan of action for "soul evolution" and how you can carry it through. I want to emphasize this because the author has pulled off a great feat by dealing with deep spiritual issues in a readable, easy manner and by offering a systematic guide (not just tips and tricks) to anyone who feels the soul's call to learn and grow. Susan Trout's fundamental idea is that we are here in this life to have the opportunity to learn from our experiences and grow into whole human beings. She says that we can become whole through service. "Yes, but...", you might say, "I try to do good now and that hasn't made life easier." Well, I've news for you. "Being of service," according to Susan Trout, doesn't mean neglecting yourself; in fact, she says, if you can't look after yourself, you can't serve others. So,the first thing to do is to get really serious about loving and caring for yourself. Then you'll really be able to get serious about serving others with compassion and love. Commonsense, really; but it was just the right message for me because, as I learned from the author, I was at the "wounded healer " stage of my evolution; I had never managed to get the balance right between serving others and taking good care of myself. But "Born to Serve" didn't stop there; it went on to show me how to get over this and move on to the next stage of my growth which is "Healing the Healer." The book sets out 7 stages of the evolution of the soul. In the first 4 stages, we relate very much to the outside world and gain much life-experience from them. In the later stages, we relate more to our inner world and we work on getting rid of all the obstacles that prevent us from "being of service" purely from being who we are as whole human beings. Susan Trout shows how our personalities often put up all sorts of resistances and obstacles, consciously and unconsciously, to allowing ourselves to grow and align our personalities with our True Selves. I found the part of the book where she talks about the tools we can use to do inner work on ourselves very helpful. She also makes it clear that we all hav

Absolutely powerful

This book is one of the most profound healing tools that I have encountered on my spiritual journey. For the first time in my life, situations, attitudes, and experiences make sense. Further, I have begun to understand,appreciate and honor the DIVINITY in the evolution of my soul and its' role in being of service. The meaning of service shifted into a "being state" from a "doing state." This book is a MUST read for any on a "conscious" spiritual path.