by Raymond David Salas
What is your true path?
More importantly, how do you find it?
I know that I have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to answer these questions for myself. At different times in my life, I have had a variety of answers that started out as declarations like “I was born to be…,” “My mission in life is...,” “The Universe wants me to...,” and similar pronouncements. Can you relate? Now, I feel that finding my true path in life is more like gently waking up from a dream that I didn’t realize I was in. The truth is that I was already on my true path, as we all are (believe it or not), but I was simply unaware of it. I had created many erroneous ideas, beliefs, and images of who and what I was based on the voice of my ego and other illusions. All of this acted as obstacles and energy blockages in my consciousness which temporarily clouded my perception and prevented me from seeing the truth of who I really was and my real path that I was already on. As a result, I needed to activate a metaphorical “cosmic street sweeper” to clear this mental debris from the path of my life and see clearly once again.
Here are some guidelines that I have found helpful with this:
Accept the present moment fully.
The power of now is that it is the only reality there will ever be. The past is gone. The future is only a projection (at best). Regardless, as Ken Carey in The Third Millennium says: "The best way to prepare for any future event is to be fully present now." So, embrace the moment. Do whatever is in front of you, whatever is next. So often, I have convinced myself that there is something else that I should be doing other than whatever is in front of me right now. In reality, this is only my ego that is trying to convince me that there is something better than the present moment. Only the ego compares. The spirit accepts. Also, I must remember that the ego’s method is to seek but never find (always a losing proposition).
I feel that the key to accepting the present moment fully is learning to say “yes” to whatever the moment brings. Stress is only my resistance to what is now. Therefore, if someone asks me to do something that I wouldn’t necessarily choose for myself, it is more powerful to just do it. By resisting or refusing, I am actually giving it more power than it needs or deserves. By accepting it, I am actually diffusing its power and releasing my resistance to what is now.
I know that this can be easier said than done. We all have our preferences. I definitely have mine. However, the important internal question is “Do I want to be right or happy?” I want to be happy, but my ego wants to be right. In fact, my ego is willing to die to be right. To be truly happy, I must be vigilant and resist this temptation.
As Eckhart Tolle points out in The Power of Now: “You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now. Problems are mind-made and need time to survive. They cannot survive in the actuality of the Now.”
I am as God created me.
By reminding myself that I am as God created me to be, I am aligning myself up with God’s vision and seeing myself (and my world) as God sees me. As A Course In Miracles reminds us: “As God created you, you have all power. The image you made of yourself has none.” So, which one would you choose: reality or illusion? I choose reality.
Happiness is just being.
In my spiritual journal Yoga In A Book, I wrote: “Happiness is just being.” For me, this is the key to all of this: to just "be" is to be truly happy. There is nothing more that I need to do other than this because that would imply that the Universe has given me anything other than a “full glass” in any area of my life. As Abraham-Hicks reminds us: “There is only a Source of Well-being--which you are allowing or not.” Therefore, the only thing that can ever be lacking in any area of my life is whatever I am not giving (or allowing). The Universe and the All-That-Is are always perfect, whole, and complete.
Some concluding thoughts…
I believe that only way to find our true path is to realize that we are each already on our true path right now. We need to look no further. We need do nothing more. We have everything we need right here and now in the present moment. As Abraham-Hicks concludes: “All the resources you will ever want or need are at your fingertips. There is nothing holding you back, other than your own contradictory thought.”
The key is to allow it all in and be as God created us to be.
What is your true path?
More importantly, how do you find it?
I know that I have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to answer these questions for myself. At different times in my life, I have had a variety of answers that started out as declarations like “I was born to be…,” “My mission in life is...,” “The Universe wants me to...,” and similar pronouncements. Can you relate? Now, I feel that finding my true path in life is more like gently waking up from a dream that I didn’t realize I was in. The truth is that I was already on my true path, as we all are (believe it or not), but I was simply unaware of it. I had created many erroneous ideas, beliefs, and images of who and what I was based on the voice of my ego and other illusions. All of this acted as obstacles and energy blockages in my consciousness which temporarily clouded my perception and prevented me from seeing the truth of who I really was and my real path that I was already on. As a result, I needed to activate a metaphorical “cosmic street sweeper” to clear this mental debris from the path of my life and see clearly once again.
Here are some guidelines that I have found helpful with this:
Accept the present moment fully.
The power of now is that it is the only reality there will ever be. The past is gone. The future is only a projection (at best). Regardless, as Ken Carey in The Third Millennium says: "The best way to prepare for any future event is to be fully present now." So, embrace the moment. Do whatever is in front of you, whatever is next. So often, I have convinced myself that there is something else that I should be doing other than whatever is in front of me right now. In reality, this is only my ego that is trying to convince me that there is something better than the present moment. Only the ego compares. The spirit accepts. Also, I must remember that the ego’s method is to seek but never find (always a losing proposition).
I feel that the key to accepting the present moment fully is learning to say “yes” to whatever the moment brings. Stress is only my resistance to what is now. Therefore, if someone asks me to do something that I wouldn’t necessarily choose for myself, it is more powerful to just do it. By resisting or refusing, I am actually giving it more power than it needs or deserves. By accepting it, I am actually diffusing its power and releasing my resistance to what is now.
I know that this can be easier said than done. We all have our preferences. I definitely have mine. However, the important internal question is “Do I want to be right or happy?” I want to be happy, but my ego wants to be right. In fact, my ego is willing to die to be right. To be truly happy, I must be vigilant and resist this temptation.
As Eckhart Tolle points out in The Power of Now: “You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now. Problems are mind-made and need time to survive. They cannot survive in the actuality of the Now.”
I am as God created me.
By reminding myself that I am as God created me to be, I am aligning myself up with God’s vision and seeing myself (and my world) as God sees me. As A Course In Miracles reminds us: “As God created you, you have all power. The image you made of yourself has none.” So, which one would you choose: reality or illusion? I choose reality.
Happiness is just being.
In my spiritual journal Yoga In A Book, I wrote: “Happiness is just being.” For me, this is the key to all of this: to just "be" is to be truly happy. There is nothing more that I need to do other than this because that would imply that the Universe has given me anything other than a “full glass” in any area of my life. As Abraham-Hicks reminds us: “There is only a Source of Well-being--which you are allowing or not.” Therefore, the only thing that can ever be lacking in any area of my life is whatever I am not giving (or allowing). The Universe and the All-That-Is are always perfect, whole, and complete.
Some concluding thoughts…
I believe that only way to find our true path is to realize that we are each already on our true path right now. We need to look no further. We need do nothing more. We have everything we need right here and now in the present moment. As Abraham-Hicks concludes: “All the resources you will ever want or need are at your fingertips. There is nothing holding you back, other than your own contradictory thought.”
The key is to allow it all in and be as God created us to be.
