6 ways to walk the path

Whatever you aspire in life, there is a road leading you there.

Many people in the world try to make a difference or find meaning to their existence. And to do so, they follow a path to get up the ladder in a career, extend their influence or try to solve, part of, the mysteries of life itself. And maybe for you one path is enough, perhaps you need to follow several. Most important is that you understand that each path is valid. Each path has its own benefits and it’s own distractions, illusions and pitfalls. Each path, when the traps are avoided, helps humans to develop themselves and others further.

By understanding the different paths we can understand our offer to the world better. It also helps to see the importance of the others better and understand how to communicate across the divides. Or apply the wisdom of one to the other. You may even follow different paths in different situations. You can be a believer in Church, a (re)searcher at work and be a voluntary change maker in your town politics.

Welcome to the Six paths of growth and learning.

1. The path of Self Development

Within this path there are three main streams. There’s the road of the learner, who keeps on enlarging knowledge. The road of ambition to get somewhere, mostly higher up ‘the ladder’. And the road of the ‘hippies’, meaning self development aiming for more spiritual and physical awareness. Yet all have the progress of the I in the center. If I change, everything will change.

The pitfalls of this road are not knowing when the I needs to start being meaningful to the community to grow further. Whether you’re an advanced tantric lover or a billionaire banker, if it is actually all about you getting your gratification, you’re kind of lost. Also you may not see how the other streams of development may help you overcome any obstacles you can’t overcome within the confined space of my, myself and I.

2. The path of Searching

Here the journey is not about developing the self, but finding something out for all of us. The searcher may be a scientist looking for a cure, or an artist exploring everything that can be done with new media, or a monk searching for God. Here pioneers feel at home too. The searcher feels a gap within, embraced insecurity and seeks to fill the void, within or outside. The searcher is often a treasure for many others, when he or she shares the results of his or her journey.

The searchers often seek too independent, read alone. They may miss the importance of others within their own field, hardly know how it relates to others or they share too little of their path. And when they’ve become experts often have a hard time accepting counter arguments. A pitfall often is, like the self developers, they too may never get fulfilled, always seeking forward, never excepting what just is. It’s their gift and their bane.

3. The Path of Believing

While the searchers seek, the believers have found. They have embraced a conviction and deepen their understanding of the lore of their ‘religion’. They seek to be always better at living according to their ways. Often leading others to their path of salvation is part of the concept. They may identify themselves as Christian, Islamic or Jewish; others see socialism, feminism or even white supremacy as their foundation of truth. Believing often gives strength and fulfillment, even when the premise of the belief is flawed or, in the last example, plainly wrong. Based on a belief great or terrible things can be done.

Anyone following the news, will know that any conviction, that does not allow any other conviction or lacks compassion, can become aggressive and violent to non believers or the ‘enemies’ of their belief. Another danger is the power transferred to their ‘leaders’. Or as some Sufis of Islam warn, direct contact with the divine is more essential than obedience to the Imams. Some searcher suspicion towards human authority claiming to speak for the divine is therefore very healthy. Better to just start caring for those that suffer.

4. The path of Change Making

Their path is about making a difference, having a purpose on meaning in life for betterment of a situation. While searchers may focus on the search, change makers focus on impact. While believers may have conviction, change makers have values, yet are way more pragmatic. They truly take up cases and get into action, from rebels against ‘what is wrong’ to healers caring for the wounded of where our system fails. Strangely this path is hardly taught at school. Perhaps no authority likes rebels, while healthy protest keeps governments conscious about it’s true tasks.

Acting meaningful doesn’t mean you actually are helping. Many change makers made matters worse. The solution can become a new problem too. It’s also a mistake to see non change makers as part of the problem. Change makers focus on what doesn’t work. Inclusion of wisdom of the other paths, like self reflection, science, questions and community, is an important part of the solution. Here many change makers should learn to facilitate rather than fight. Healers might also focus more on the cause and less on healing the wounds that come because of it.

5. The path of Community

There are those who become leaders of their community, because that’s what they focus on. There’s those most people won’t value enough, or acknowledge, yet who bind communities together by mothering, listening, caring, cleaning and repairing. For them being part of it seems to be what matters. Many of these people may be without high goals, or shiny ambitions. They keep the peace within.

Millions of volunteers, workers, mothers, cleaners around the world keep their communities in the air, for whatever reason. Many perhaps need way more recognition, yet at the same time often prefer to play a part at the side lines. Perhaps here the weakness lies not so much in them, as in our lack of seeing their importance enough. Don’t push them to strive, thank them for what they are and do. They are the hidden leaders of global Ubuntu. I am because we are.

6. The path of Crazy Wisdom

Here is perhaps the least understood path. Here’s the fool, the beginners mind, the child at play. All the other paths have discipline and methods at hand. This one seems chaos in action. It is playing in fact. Trying out, wondering, challenging, just doing what feels right in any given moment. It’s just following clearer and clearer what feels right in any given moment. It’s about being true to self, without knowing where it will lead. The journey as the way.

Other paths mostly disqualify this one. Since the rise of the focus on measurability all worth needs to be proven by evidence. But who can measure everything happening at the same time, playfully flowing into new territory and rules moment to moment. Playing is how nature invented learning. Feeling inner truth is what keeps people attuned to their ethics. When acknowledged by the others paths this one can liberate them from their pitfalls. Assuming the ones on this path avoid their own traps, like confusing imaginations of the head with the voice of the heart. Or just using this path as an escape from all responsibility.

Between the paths

People in the same field may have very different intentions for being there. People in other fields may have an approach you don’t recognize as valid. At the same time you’ll often see that the terrain may differ, yet the intention and approach might be more closely related than expected. You’ll find that sometimes being a scientist or artist can be the same. Both might explore possibilities and seek to frame, each in their own way, how to express their outcomes to the world. The artist totally not understand what moves another artist walking the path of faith or community. Yet why should they disagree about each others choices?

We wander all different roads. What many of us miss is that the combination of different paths is important. They all bring an angle that the others often lack. Conflicts happen when we don’t acknowledge the weakness of our own path, yet bash others for their choices. Others who are mostly people who, just like you, are trying to help. Each path is valid. Each path is connected to the others, if we open our eyes to it. Each path needs the help of the others to see what is the same, what is different and what can be overcome.

Purity of intention and openness to its fallacies are essential to get ahead on all of them. Thus regarding education, all these path’s should be trained a little, to find out which fits you best. Yet whatever path you prefer the essence stays the same: the ascension of human kind on a healthy planet. How to grow ourselves, our community, our society and the whole, so that the whole living system of us all can flourish? Because, well, in the end, we win when everybody wins.