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Veering off the Path15 Aug 2001 -I've also heard that once you're 'on the path' in the sense of
consciously cooperating, you don't get off of it again. You may take
long breaks, go tumbling through lots of brambles, and do other
interesting and perhaps uncomfortable things, but the pull has been
awakened and will not, in truth, go away. __________________________ I can say from my own experience that just because an aspirant has stopped the lessons and is no longer actively participating in B.O.T.A. is not to be taken as an indication that they have "left the Path." In my own life I had a "reaction" after the first four years of lessons: I went through a "long break" and wandered into the brambles. I even found that for a time I needed to learn certain lessons that I had not assimilated. That meant going back to the environment of "exoteric" church experience and seeing and learning certain lessons the "hard way." In a "little ego" sense I envy those who start out and never seem to have any bumps or grinds ! :) Like the undulating path in Key 18, I see that what I thought were "lows" were actually "higher" than my previous mountain-peak experience. Joe S. __________________________ From my 60 plus years on the path, Joe , these are wise words. Being on the path comes from finding a special desire in ourselves that persists and actually places us in an evolutionary regimen of paying attention, involving information (lessons) practices (meditation, always, and ritual sometimes) and alternating circumstances we have to adjust to. All experiences are grist for the "on the path" mill. I had talks with Ann about this and she laughed when I once suggested a certain person may no longer be on the path. "He is as fully involved in the path as you are, only in a different phase of his learning." Jail! Our schoolrooms change, depending on the individual course envisioned for us by the One. Once on, though--never off! It's not our choice and the One does not fail. Early in my inner journey, I had quite few phenomenal experiences--none of which I intended. These experiences tend to nail one to that particular path but, at age 30, I was sure I was finished with the Path through disgust with the hypocrisy I observe in leadership. But I was reawakened 13 years later with a 1 minute interaction by a friend for whom I had little respect. She did not know anything happened but I sure did. "She" just asked me a simple question and changed my life. Humanity are all on the path but the unconscious path is a slow meander, the conscious Path more direct but does no always seem so. You can't turn in your suit on this one. Joseph __________________________ [The "Path of Return" cannot be followed by the lazy.] John. __________________________ John, are you then suggesting the path is trod only by the diligent, the productive, ambitious, non-butterfly members of the human family. That there is no way these unworthies, in eyes of That which made them that way, can enter into that natural evolutionary state of growth we call the "path?" I got that in Baptist Sunday School as a child. Scared hell out of me. I certainly don't think treading the path and remaining on it depends on "our" performance. "Who" is doing the performing, anyway? I wonder who would honestly feel themselves worthy of being on the path if the lazy were omitted. I thoroughly enjoy my lazy periods--contemplating what i wish without guilt. My nose has grown long--being away from the grindstone. No should's--no must's. Just lazy sinning. Joseph
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