Introduction – How to Find Your Path
Dear Seeker,
You have found yourself here because there is a question inside you, and you don’t know how to answer it. That question can take many forms, but often it sounds something like this:
What is the nature of my existence?
Why am I here?
Where did the Universe come from?
What is the purpose of life?
Why is there something, rather than nothing?
How do I learn what I believe in?
The place you have found yourself at will not answer any of these questions, but will help you arrive at your own answer. For as long as the capacity for self-reflection has existed, life has sought to understand itself. Humanity has come up with many paths in pursuit of answers to questions like these. This page serves as a map to help one find which path they might enjoy walking down.
Who Is This Resource For?
This resource has been crafted specifically for a person who does not know where to begin when examining these big questions. It also offers value for those who are questioning their current path and wish to examine reality from a different angle.
I addressed you, dear reader, as “Seeker” earlier. That is a label often applied to those in search of something. If you have found this page, then you are, by definition, a Seeker.
What This Resource Is
This resource is designed to lead you to the answers you seek, without infringing upon your free will. Given the brevity of this resource I encourage you to view it like speed dating. A brief flirt, and introduction, and a single question: do you want to spend more time with that path?
Three broad sections will be explored:
- Self-Inventory – What beliefs already exist within you?
- Paths to Explore – A brief survey of traditions that provide answers.
- How to Choose a Path – A guide to identifying the path that is best for you in this present moment.
Helpful and Unhelpful Attitudes
As you approach the experience below, I humbly offer some guidelines for how it may be most effective. I encourage you to open your mind, read without judgment, and focus on how you feel, rather than what you think.
Throughout this experience, seek what resonates with you. This is experienced in many ways. There may be a knowingness that you cannot explain. You may feel a sense of peace, alignment, or like you have found a place to call home. You may even think “someone finally put what I know into words!” These are the types of experiences to look for. Your goal here is to find what you are attracted to.
Also seek what does not resonate with you. Conversely, you will read certain things in this article that cause unpleasant feelings to arise. You may notice discomfort, tension, or a desire to skip over something. These feelings are also valuable. Those feelings are, in varying magnitudes, a symbol of repulsion. Ask yourself why these things repulse you. There is much to be learned when one does not flee from discomfort, and instead stays present with things they do not wish to be around.
By learning what resonates, and what repulses, you learn to identify the path that is most aligned with you.
Self-Inventory
Living within the world, we hold all sorts of ideas, beliefs, habits, and views within us. That is natural, and there is nothing wrong with it. Ignorance of these beliefs must be removed in order to find the path that works for you, so here we offer methods to examine what is already present within your mind.
How to Identify Your Current Beliefs
We all come to the present moment with many ideas already firmly rooted in our mind. Many of these ideas are not our own, but things we have learned from others. Even the language in which we think is something that we learned from someone else, likely as a young child. This is explored extensively in sociology and psychology.
As you feel resonance or repulsion throughout your reading, stop and write down these feelings, what triggered them, and where you learned this idea. When you examine your feelings, you can find the conditioning of your past. Knowing this, ask yourself: does this feeling still serve me?
If the answer is no, you have encountered an unhelpful thought pattern. You can safely let it go. If the idea still serves you, hold it gently with the awareness of where it came from. Awareness of the ideas we hold within us is an essential part of finding a path that aligns with those beliefs.
How To Identify Ignorance
We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld
Perhaps even more helpful that knowing your current beliefs is knowing what you do not know, or do not have a firm belief in. Some of these we know, but there are also plenty of questions we have never thought to ask.
Ignorance is a powerful tool when seeking answers, but it must be harnessed properly. When you notice confusion, uncertainty, or apprehension arise within you, that is a sign of ignorance. These feelings are there to guide you. Stay present with them, and they will lead you to a question. That question will lead to answers. The answers will lead to greater inner peace.
As you continue reading, I encourage you to research any topic that you could not explain off the top of your head, especially if it resonates with you. Ignorance is where we all start, but it need not be where we remain.
What Did Your Parents/Caregivers Teach You?
Most of us are fortunate enough to be raised by at least one of our parents. While other arrangements exist, this section focuses on the majority of people, for whom their parents or primary caregivers were in their life during their formative years. For these people, our primary caregivers as children have a strong influence on what we believe and what kind of person we become.
When you encounter a currently held belief, you will often find its source in something your parents taught you, or some experience in your earlier years that involved your parents. Some of these beliefs will be helpful. Your parents likely taught you how to dress yourself, clean yourself, and feed yourself. Some may be unhelpful projections like “you must grow up to be a doctor or you are dead to me.” If a child has these ideas repeatedly reinforced, eventually the child will forget that these ideas are not an inherent part of themselves, but were learned from these ever-present people. The following two quotes illustrate the differing effects that a parent can have on their children.
The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of its parents.
Carl Jung
It is the sunlight of parental love and encouragement that enables a child to grow in competence and slowly gain mastery over his environment.
Felicity Bauer
With all of this in your mind, I encourage you to pause and reflect on what you have learned from your parents or caregivers. Given the scope of this guide, there will plenty here left unexplored, but I encourage reflections on these topics in particular.
- What practices or traditions did your parents participate in?
- Were you involved in these traditions, or were you excluded?
- Do these inherited traditions bring you joy?
- What practices or traditions did your parents prohibit you from engaging in? Have you returned to these as an adult?
Subtopics:
- What Did Your Culture Teach You?
- Body, Mind, and Spirit
Paths to Explore
Humanity has created many traditions that offer helpful paths, and modern thinkers have presented us with rich new ideas as well.
Let us explore the beginning teachings of several of these paths. Through exposure, you will learn which traditions resonate with you and which do not. You may find that many resonate with you, and that is ok!
Subtopics:
- What is a Path?
- Religious Paths and Secular Paths
Traditions Covered:
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Hinduism
- Islam
- Judaism
- Magick
- Paganism
- Psychology
- Science
- Shaolin
- Taoism
- Yoga
Choosing a Path
You have explored both yourself and many paths. It is time to make a choice. Don’t worry! If you decide later to change your mind, that is perfectly ok.
Subtopics:
- The Importance of Commitment
- How to Notice Resonance
- Questions to Ask Yourself
- Choose a Path!
- All Paths Lead to the Same Place