The Path - knowing self, finding community

The Path - a philosophical exploration of secular spirituality as experienced by one on a highly individualized journey of self discovery.

Though initially finding himself stumbling along a path steeped in his own and a wider dimness, lingering in a darkness and a fear of the unknown, "seeker" comes to discover real and personal meaning as well as personal purpose in engaging broad, yet intimate concepts echoed across the human experience. Along this journey seeker discovers the aid of enlightenment through his own and others' vital, self-illumination... and self-illumination shared.

Please note: Within this highly conceptual, stylized and existential text, you will encounter the word ia - a Polynesian pronoun referring to an entity which possesses both feminine and masculine energies as perhaps reflected in the pure, balanced force of nature. That is how ia is used in The Path, to describe an entity possessed of a harmonic balance - to the degree that gender is particularly irrelevant and serves only to otherwise detract from the insight shared by this entity which "seeker" comes to think of as simply "teacher" or "friend".

In the original version of The Path, penned in 1998, ia was used exclusively, in place of any gender-specific pronoun. This was a narrowly idealistic and purely artistic choice which made for very difficult reading - a practical fact I eventually realized. After all, what good is the written word if, by its own design, no one else can understand it? So, my reluctant editor-self at the emphatic behest of my publisher-self finally overruled my artist-self, and ia became relegated to only the most vital of enlightened character conveyances. I'm still not over it.

Other characters' genders were determined by the random casting of labeled stones, which seemed less biased than might be my own assignment.

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The Table of Contents:

Conception and Wholeness through faith, innocence and wonder

Doubt and Dependency through default

Fear through action and reaction

Harmfulness, Needfulness and Compassion through transcendence

Resentment and Retaliation through trust, suspicion, assumption, blame and denial

Egocentricity through idolization and demonization

The Perpetual Cycle through interrelatedness, purpose and balance

Obtainment and Achievement through judgment, consequence, comparison, desire and patience

Reverence and Sacrifice through ritual and devotion

Self-Recognition through insecurity, ego, acceptance, affirmation, assessment, aspiration and love

Faith and Belief through virtue and device

Righteous Contenders and Exclusion through war

Conventionality through seeing

Restoration through perception and integration

Art, Self Expression and Self Perception through inspiration, symbolism and manifestation

Commodity, Bondage, Service and Exchange through opportunity, value, trade, greed, yield, risk and ruin

Confrontation and Defense through fear, cowardice, surrender, strategy, compromise, decisiveness and reserve

Responsiveness through giving, receiving and sharing

Assuredness through avenging, assaulting, tolerance and intolerance

Love, Fear, Hate and Faith through emotion, subconsciousness, vulnerability and strength

Oppression and Equality through social law and spiritual law

Dream Sense and Dream Being through reflection

Madness through recognition

Aloneness and Loneliness through contemplation

Mortality through loss and sorrow

Revelation through an originating source

and...

Transformation through resurgence

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An Excerpt from the Chapter: The Perpetual Cycle through interrelatedness, purpose and balance

"but what of our spirit then? what is the nature of our spirt?" seeker inquired.

"do we cease?"

seeker's companion gently rubbed the pebble between ia's thumb and forefinger and thought a long while before replying.

"again, seeker, energy cannot cease.... in any form. it simply transfers."

"just as our physical properties are passed through procreation, just as our nutrients pass in decomposition - do you believe that once i pass this insight on to you, it shall cease there? or shall it manifest it's self in either your actions or inactions.... in your thoughts and desire to pass it on to another? shall it then cease within them?

"the nature of energy is dynamic not finite." ia continued

"physical embodiments simply change in order to facilitate one another's transfer of energy. just because the measurements of psychic, spiritual and other forms of energy known and unknown seem elusive by conventional methods, and simply because such energies seem directly intangible does not mean that they are nonexistent, non-alive nor opposed to natural order"

"energy is infinite - and we, as all of life - are simply forms of energy."

"we then are infinite also - in all our forms."

"consider this, seeker," his companion continued. "survival of species is won by intelligence and strength, resulting in adaptability. it is also won by one's dependence upon others and others' dependence upon one. could the same not be true for the energy which is our essence - our spiritual selves? could this not be won by enlightenment and need?"

"could that not, perhaps, be the purpose of existence - to culminate the lessons afforded us by our entombment of physical forces into an energy without walls? an energy no longer dependent upon nor restricted by such containments?"

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Access The Path

Now is a great time to find additional insight. A deeper, decidedly different perspective.

Download a digital copy at the link below, where you can also preview further excerpts of the work by clicking on the cover image.

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The Path, All Images and Text (C) 1998 and 2018 Lisa Bracken / Cirse Windom

Published by New Flight Books - All rights reserved