Coming of age in 1970’s California, a quote of Carlos Casteneda’s found me and has helped guide my life. His advice to follow a path with heart really resonated for me as I discovered myself as an empathetic person and artistic soul.
Choosing such a path requires that we know ourselves. One way to develop introspection is to make time to reflect every day. A reconnecting with oneself.
The loss of life we suffer by taking a wrong path gives rise to resentment over time. We’ll feel the loss of our natural radiance. Resentment is a bitter energy that festers.
We always seem to know it, I think, when we’re not connected to our truest, soulful self. Moods or feelings can take root over time and become character traits. Thankfully, if we practice reflection and self-care, negativity can be processed out of the body and we become more resonant with the love vibration at our source.
On a path without heart we feel we’re being robbed of our joy but don’t understand what’s happening. A path without heart is struggle. A path with heart is easy and light.
The more sensitive we are the worse it is to choose badly.
When I consider paths we choose that are with or without heart, I observe how people’s lives end. Some people’s lives just seem to end badly. Sadness, regret, shame, illness or lonliness become the primary vibration. It’s tremendously sad to me. Sad because this kind of separation within the self can happen to us over time without any conscious participation.
It’s sad to me because I know that we can choose differently. We can pick up a new path anytime we realize the one we’re currently on has no heart.
I knew early on that this kind of suffering wasn’t for me; that I wanted to know my heart and trust its path. If “all paths lead nowhere”, I wanted joy in the journey.
We can find happiness instead of suffering in the journey. Developing mindfulness is the key.
One of the life experiences that created a powerful connection to a path of heart for me was learning reiki natural healing in 1993. The mindfulness and meditative qualities of reiki have given me insight about creation and my part in it.
The practice of reiki brings me pure, clear energy and helps process out old, used energy. I call it the Juice. This system of natural healing clears and nourishes chakras and the energetic body. Reiki opens an energetic connection to the raw power of the Universe and to our Collective Consciousness.
Please take a moment and read this quote by Carlos Casteneda. It will give you something to think about as you move along your own path. It might just offer a little meaningful insight, as it did for me.
Jane
“Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.
This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge