Finding Your Way, Walking Your Path

In yesterday’s post, I talked about daring to find your own Way, and I can frequently be heard talking about finding you own path (it is in fact in the site tag line). It occurred to me yesterday afternoon that those two ideas are very similar in our modern day usage and that you might appreciate if I took a few minutes to clarify how I understand each of the words.

I’m not big on the idea of “religion” (as in a pre-set system of belief and guidelines for behavior), although much of my time and energy is invested in the spiritual. When I started out on my own Hero’s Journey (an adventure to find and recapture your own soul) some five or so years ago I decided that I needed a new word. Religion just wasn’t going to cut it.

While I’m a little Pagan in my spiritual thinking, Wakizashi (aka my husband) is not; he’s all Asian all the time (though he is the least Asian looking man I know) and leans towards Taoist thinking. (Taoism – say the “T” as a “D” – is an ancient Chinese system of thought which is both religious and not religious at the same time.). Taoism is, in fact, more about a way of life than it is a belief system and the word even literally translates into The Way (or some version of that).

I decided that even though Taoism itself isn’t my way (though I agree with, and assimilate, a lot of its teachings) I do love the concept of its name. Taoism is The Way because it guided the way you believed and the way you lived. It taught you the way to treat others and the way to treat yourself. It isn’t just a religion, but an actual system for living (which I suppose most religions seem to be aiming for, but not really getting for the most part). That was exactly what I wanted my spirituality to become within my life: My Way of Living.

Your Way reflects your spiritual (religious) belief system – it encompasses it actually – it defines how you understand life (why are we here, how are we supposed to behave while here, what’s our purpose), the Universe (who is Divinity, do we have connection to the Divine and if so how, why), and everything (whatever isn’t already covered, or that you might not be sure of). But it is not just a belief system, your Way is also what you do about what you believe, your Way also involves the degree to which you walk your talk. My Way is my Life; if you want to see my Way look at my life.

The best thing about having a Way is that it has no title, no parameters (and therefore no boundaries), a Way can be all encompassing. I can absorbed and live out the teachings of the Tao, of the Earth, of Paul and Christ, of my own spirit and even of my wise friends. Your Way is your own and it doesn’t have to exclude or include anything or anyone you don’t want it to. A Way is not about either/or thinking, or about duality and the only thing that matters to your Way is what matters to you and your life.

What If You Are Wrong

One sidebar I feel that I should address is the issue of right and wrong; the problem with religion today – with all religion – in my less than humble opinion, is this fear of being wrong. Oh, you wouldn’t think, by their behavior that they worried about being wrong, they spend so much time declaring themselves as right – and the only one who is right at that. But the truth is that all of that covers up an innate fear that they might not be right; after all, the louder you yell the less you can hear the doubts.

When I walked away from the only religious and spiritual box I had ever known I came face to face with this fear. It took my breath away (and as I read the stories of others who are walking this path I see the same fear stealing their breath too). I felt like I had been called out of my box by God himself and so I threw myself on that calling with total abandon and forced myself through the fear, though I think many get caught in it’s web and pulled back from their own journey because of it.

This has led me to a very clear conclusion about being Right or Wrong. It doesn’t really matter.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in truth, and even in Truth, but I’m also pretty clear that we aren’t going to really know it until we move beyond the physical world. And so far, there are very few hills of Truth that I’ve been willing to stake my soul on. So my conclusion has been simple, the only thing that matters is how I live my life.

What if I pour my life into the belief that there is a Divine with personality who interacts in our lives and cares about us. That when we leave this world our souls don’t die and so evereything we do here matters and has value. And when I die it turns out I was wrong, that everything is done, or that we are the only divinity out there. The question is, who cares? What really matters is that what I believed made my life better and that it guided me to make your life better (in whatever way I can). If the life I lived here was full of joy and hope and I offered the same to you because of it then that is all that really matters – that is real Truth.

Which is exactly why I think right and wrong only applies if your truth, your way, is hurting you or someone else in the process. If it’s making lives better then, whatever.

Way, Path Aren’t They The Same Thing?

They sound like the same thing, but your Way and your Path aren’t the same thing at all (at least not in my worldview anyway). Your Way is the spiritual path you walk, or what your belief system (and it’s living out) look like when you claim ownership and responsibility for it, while your Path is the purpose or calling you fulfill.

Your Path might describe the service you offer to the world, the work you do, the beauty you offer, or the legacy you leave. Your Path defines the roles you play and the way in which you choose to fulfill them. Walking your own Path is all about living out your life according to your personal blueprint and offering your gifts to the world in a way that brings joy to you, those you share them with, and those you live with.

You might say that your Way describes the Forest or Mountain through which we all journey in our lives and your Path is the way that you take (or sometimes carve out) through that landscape. Your Path is how you express your Self in the world, and I find that you, more often than not, stumble across your Self while you are busy clarifying your Way.

For me, my Way, my Self, and my Path – while being intimately connected – are still all distinctly seperate ideas. And it’s these ideas, or actually, helping you to discover and connect to these ideas for yourself, that Limitless Living and my work is all about! I guess you can say, they define my own Path!