We’ll explore all three Paths in this course, and you’re likely to find that you are naturally drawn to one of them. But just as important will be the discovery of how the other two Paths can support, enhance, and assist you in better understanding and fully utilizing your primary Path.
The Path of Perfection – awakening to your talents and to the state of wholeness that already exists within you. This pathway affirms that you are always moving toward wholeness – it is your birthright. It says that you have a unique gift or constellation of gifts – your Spiritual Ideal – that you came into the world to share. As you follow this Path, you first recognize these innate gifts and claim them in order to fully develop them and use them with purpose in your daily life. And, by using your gifts, you help bring joy and healing to others and to yourself.
Second is the Path of Renunciation – the challenge to purify your attitudes, emotions, and body. This is the way of transformation that involves dropping the obstacles that stand in the way. The Path of Renunciation involves releasing things that no longer serve you. It is a deep letting go of thoughts, emotions and actions that you may have experienced for many years, and that stand in the way of fully expressing your sacred gifts. This Path challenges you to build the capacity to constructively say “no” to those patterns which cause you to be out-of-balance and unaware. Transformational, positive energy arises from this practice, and it creates space in your mind and heart – allowing you to wake up to new and more fruitful ways to respond to yourself, others, and to challenging situations.
A third Path is the one that is often depicted as the most difficult and yet most direct – the Path of the Poison Pill, also known as the Path of Transformation. This approach teaches you to face the shadow side (i.e., “the poison pill”) of your attitudes, emotions, and physical drives. Working with the shadow side, you can learn to transform it and use that energy to have a greater understanding and compassion for yourself, others, and your journey through life.
To follow this Path means to see the kernel of good in a difficult situation – transforming what initially appears to be something negative into something ultimately helpful and productive. It is a path of inner alchemy. This is the essence of reframing. This Path is seeing the bigger picture of what life is presenting and engaging with it in constructive and positive ways, turbo-charging the process of inner growth and transformation.
Ultimately, you can find help from each of the three Paths. This course will guide you to identify your current primary Path. And it will show you how you can use the approaches from the other two Paths to support your journey — especially in those places where you feel “stuck.”
Using both conceptual and experiential exercises, this course will help you:
- Recognize which of the three Paths is most natural and innate for you.
- See how one or more Paths that at first may seem foreign or uncomfortable can nevertheless have an important role in your life.
- Recognize and learn how to avoid the unique pitfalls of each Path – sidetracks and errors which lead to misunderstanding and confusion.
- Be part of a supportive community of like-minded individuals who are also on the journey of transformation, providing you with encouragement and a sense of belonging.
