Shifts Happen
The “golden path” emerges from the recognition that our lives are meaningful and that what happens is exquisitely designed to help us evolve. Another name for this is “The Medicine Way.” Whatever condition or circumstance is up for us, no matter now minor or how dire, carries within it the seeds for growth and healing — in fact, provokes or provides the necessary motivation for it. The appearances of pain, depression, fear, fatigue and other phenomena are not ultimately roadblocks, but when properly seen, felt and allowed, are gateways to our own evolution. The truth is, we already have everything we need within us to achieve happiness and live a beautiful, loving, wise, meaningful and creative life.
The Path of Least Resistance
To take the golden path is to travel the path of least resistance (POLR) in order to achieve inner peace, balance, and healing. In practice, this may mean changing our attitude towards our inner challenges or symptoms from one of “resist/fight/destroy” to one of allowing, listening, and moving with or towards our difficulties and viewing them as our teachers.
This perspective may seem difficult to attain at first because it runs counter to society’s (and our ego’s) blame/victim or external causation mentality. (Blaming oneself is not it, either!) However, POLR is not merely a mind trick or wishful thinking. Instead, the new perspective develops bit by bit based on the self-knowledge that comes from applying the golden path methods like being present and letting go of our stuff. Gradually we come to experience greater trust in the flow of our lives, greater acceptance for what is, and deeper engagement with others and with life.
Beyond “Curing”
The golden path approach goes beyond the conventional notion of healing as the cessation of symptoms or problems; it is all about taking the inward journey and realizing our true foundation as awareness or consciousnessness.
Who we really are is an expression of infinite/eternal presence (being) united with unfolding action or evolution (becoming/evolving). In the process, we learn to have compassion towards all parts of self, leaving behind untrue self-images and beliefs, and to lead an authentic life that expresses our deepest values and knowings.
Yes, as evolving beings, we will continue to experience life’s ups and downs — relationships will come and go, people will be born and will die, and we may or may not still have “symptoms” or still get sick from time to time. We will not necessarily feel that we have it all figured out. But with increasing clarity and reliance on our true nature, we will also come to experience a core of peace and well-being that conditions cannot break.
As we grow in self-mastery, we also gain access to greater capacities of intuition, creative imagination and states of higher consciousness (such as increasingly persistent non-dual awareness) that help us redefine who we are and what life is all about. In short, we become free.