On Peace

Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is.
A Course in Miracles

Why would anyone sign up to travel the Tao? You are going against everything you seemed to have learned and everything the fellow next door thinks is sane: being compassionate, while ignoring your own agenda. The first step is the hardest and that's why I advise you to start with little experiments. But eventually big ones will come your way and you will be scared that your environment will take advantage of you. Unfortunately, no one can help you with this problem. You see the abyss, you take a step and only then will you know whether the invisible bridge really opens up. Fact of the matter is that nothing really changes when you travel a spiritual path. The movie is still rolling, but what changes is your perception and interpretations of what these scenes  are for. Before, you externalized all tensions. It is the others who were responsible for the situation you are in, some were the heroes and friends while others were the jerks and the villains. In your new movie everything is about you and the fears that prevent you from becoming the one you aspire to be. But with the fears that you are facing there will also be  a magical world that opens up to you. And time is on your side since with every step you are taking along your path, peace will penetrate every fiber of your being. God says in Neale Walsch's 'Conversations with God' that it does get easier. I found this to be true, but I would be lying if I didn't tell you that there were a few scary steps along the way.

Eventually you will merge with the Tao and the peace will be complete. Everything that happens to you, good or bad, will have spiritual meaning to you and thus, in its own way, will be perfect. I came across a description of a spiritual path traveler in a collection William James put together in 'The Varieties of Spiritual Experiences' more than 100 years ago, and I immediately felt that he must have been a Tao traveler as well.

"The compensation for the loss of that sense of personal independence which man so unwillingly gives up, is the disappearance of all fear from one's life, the quite indescribable and inexplicable feeling of an inner security, which one can only experience, but which, once it has been experienced, one can never forget."

Yup, that's the peace of mind one experiences once you travel the Tao. I hope you will feel it too.

Feeling Your Way

An interesting psychological experiment was conducted, in which people where hypnotized to get up in the middle of a business meeting and water the plants in the conference room. Afterwards, these people were asked why they did whatever they did, and they came up with all kind of explanations such as, "the plants really looked thirsty", but nobody admitted that they had no clue why. It almost seems as if life happens, and we tailor our analytical mind accordingly, explaining why we do whatever we do.

I am convinced - for the very reason that I feel I am going this way - that the advanced spiritual path traveler doesn't have to make any conscious decisions any more. Life just happens and somehow along the Way, the next step follows naturally from the prior one. You somehow just feel your Way, and don't even bother explaining why you do whatever you do. Perhaps you only use your intellect to explain to the next spiritual generation what the laws of the Tao appear to be.

I came across this description of a spiritual path traveler in a collection William James put together in 'The Varieties of Spiritual Experiences' more than 100 years ago, and I immediately felt that he must have been a Tao traveler as well.

"The compensation for the loss of that sense of personal independence which man so unwillingly gives up, is the disappearance of all fear from one's life, the quite indescribable and inexplicable feeling of an inner security, which one can only experience, but which, once it has been experienced, one can never forget."

Yup, that's the peace of mind one experiences once you travel the Tao. I hope you feel it too.