What I have learned

[EVERETT813 at aol.com]

elwinandjoan wrote:

“Be” The Principles
How simple and how difficult. They conflict with our environmental
conditioning and it takes intuitive faith to live them, not just
perform them. Although a long road lies ahead for me in this case, at
least I’m on the right road, and it takes me to wondrous people and
places on this planet.   (emphasis added by paul)

This statement prompted me to want to share a teaching from Don Juan that has 
been important in my personal choice-making.   As much as I am able, and it 
is not always true, I try to select from any path opening to me by deciding if 
it has "heart" for me and for others.   Since that is one of the key 
environmental 'conditions' of OS, the two seem connected, at least to me.   The words 
aren't found all in one place in Carlos' writings, but in several places.   
They have been brought together as a whole teaching.   May you take from them 
what speaks to you.

Namaste',

Paul Everett

Path With Heart

"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...

I have told you that to choose a path you must be free from fear and 
ambition. The desire to learn is not ambition. It is our lot as men to want to know.

The path without a heart will turn against men and destroy them. It does not 
take much to die, and to seek death is to seek nothing.

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on any 
path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for 
me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel--looking, looking, 
breathlessly."

Don Juan  (Carlos Castenada)

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