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Michael, great post, yet I’d like to add a few comments if I may…
Ah, ‘The Path’ and ‘The Work.’
Seems there’s always much discussion concerning these two. Seems the discussions on these topics always gets bogged down in semantics; ‘Walking The Path or Being the Path,’ ‘What Is the Work and How is it accomplished,’ etc., etc.
What occurred to me many years ago, but was hammered home by Tolle’s work, was this: When one is Present, in the Here and Now without Internal Dialogue, I AM the Path. The Work is also thus engaged, regardless of what The Work entails. It seems it’s the job of the thinking mind to change this scenario from Being the Path to Walking the Path. Similar to The Work. The thinking mind loves to speculate on what The Work is, How the Work is to be accomplished, etc., etc.
At times we are just Present, and post to one another on discussion groups. At other times we borrow the Present Moment of the Past to relate to what we are discussing, Here and Now. That’s fine as well. What seems to occur though, and when we really get our ‘tit in the ringer’ as we say, is when the thinking mind pulls us too much to the past or future and we get tangled in semantics.
On the one hand - it is all here right now all around us and always has been.
On the other hand you have to struggle along a path to arrive at that realisation.
I would agree with this, but in my own personal experience as well as what I’ve viewed from most I converse with, your first point is almost always either left out completely or touched on very briefly. Your second point is always the bone of contention. I’ll even go so far as to say that within your own post, Michael, you’ve done this. A brief mention of the first point, then several lines concerning the Path, etc., etc. If you’ve managed to accomplish sufficiently this first point, yes!
To truly understand the first point you addressed, you have to be Present. Only at that point (AP position, etc., etc.,) can one Know that ‘it’s all here right now all around us and always has been.’ Without this ability to be Present, one’s ‘struggle along a path’ is an intellectual exercise; it’s the thinking path not Being the Path.
For me, this is what Tolle emphasizes in his works. It’s not surprising in that he’s dismissed by many; hey, it’s a shot to the intellect! Some are very intellectual, and heaven forbid one put that aside or move beyond it. This, or its touched on briefly, a bit of a realization, some conceptual thinking of what he mentions, then disregarded. Hey, no-one wants to do this! Being Present is hard work! It’s much more enjoyable to lolly-gag around in our thoughts.
This is the point I’m getting at, especially when I mention that there’s a difference between walking the path and being the path. I suppose I haven’t been clear as to my own thoughts on this (to others). When one is Present, one is ‘Being the Path.’ When one starts to think about it, not correct thinking but the thinking most of us do, the situation changes to ‘Walking the Path.’
Unless this first point you mention is addressed, and practiced to a sufficient level, the rest of what you mention concerning The Path just falls on deaf ears. It becomes an intellectual exercise.
z
