– Heartwood Path Waypoint 1.77 –

Consider The Ego

Distinguish Between The Ego And It’s Spoils
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While Ego drives one to excel, the spoils of the Ego such as the motivation to achieve or the motivation to make one youthfully attractive ought not be regarded as highly as the timeless rewards that are available as one develops spiritually. The spoils of the Ego are tools that can be used for immediate but temporary personal development, but they are not timeless. They will, in time, disappear. 

​Due to his Ego and his desire to hold onto its spoils, too many of us are taking life too seriously. As author Alan Watts says: “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun”  (Goodreads Website).

To Your Own Mixed Bag…​
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​HumaNatureConnect Activity
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If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:
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Start-up Protocol
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• Read The Text — Use your literary sense, your mind sense, and your reason sense  to read your way towards happiness and sustainability but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.
• Attractive Natural Being — With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.
• Appreciation and Gratefulness — While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.
• Consent — Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.
• The Natural Senses — After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception, and add variety to your experience.
• HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.

Considering Your Own Shame, Good Deeds, And The Ego
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For this activity, look for evidence of any lack of shame in your chosen natural being or its place. Then write down how your Ego makes you ashamed of things you do not know, ashamed for not being able, and ashamed for not being pure. After listing what you are ashamed of, think of the wisdom you would like to achieve, think of the vows you need to make or remake, and consider what you can do to be more compassionate towards all sentient beings. Are there apparent good deeds associated with your chosen natural being or its place? Find a giver and a receiver at your natural location. Do you see any psychological attachments to givers and receivers in Nature? Write down your answer. Make a list of ten planned good deeds. Write down how reacting to your shame by seeking wisdom, making vows, and planning good deeds allows you to counter the negativities of shame that come from your Ego. If you are attracted to take an extra step, write down how nature handles the act of giving and receiving in terms shame; diligence; accommodation; the impermanence of the giver, receiver, and thing given; and non-attachment to results.

​​​​Follow-up Protocol
Natural Systems Reflection Process
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     For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.
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Journal Components
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• General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.
• Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.
• Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.
• Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.
• Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.
• Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.
• Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.
• I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who__________.”
• Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.
• Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.​

The Heartwood Path Exchange:
Swap Your Ideas, Impressions, Photos, And News With Others
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• Post your impressions and photos in the Comments at the bottom of the page
• Engage with others in your Heartwood Path course or salon
• Create your own salon that meets regularly online, by phone, or in person
• Discuss your impressions with trusted family members and friends
• Post your impressions and photos in our EartHeart Networking Forum
• Post your impressions on this specific waypoint on our Facebook Page
• Join the broader conversations on our Facebook Page
• To see what conversations you can inspire, share your photos and impressions about anything pertaining to your journey down the Heartwood Path on your Facebook page, on Instagram, and on other social media accounts. If you like, include “#heartwoodpath” and “#waypoint(insert waypoint number here)” wherever pertinent

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Your input is vital. Enjoy sharing!

Heartwood Path Axioms:
Key Assertions From Waypoint 1.77

1.77.1.
Distinguish between the Ego and its spoils.

1.77.2.
The motivation to achieve or the motivation to make one youthfully attractive ought not be regarded as highly as the timeless rewards that are available as one develops spiritually.

1.77.3.
Since pain forces us to learn, a common impetus for most spiritual journeys is some form of suffering; and, ironically, the more pain one is willing to take on the greater the joy. 

1.77.4.
Confronting the dark side of life is important as an early step in spiritual growth because there is a big psycho-spiritual payoff when life’s problems are overcome.

1.77.5
While the Ego drives one to excel, the spoils of the Ego such as the motivation to achieve or the motivation to make one youthfully attractive ought not be regarded as highly as the timeless rewards that are available as one develops spiritually.

Nocturnal Pilgrimage 1.77:
Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint

Dream while sleeping before continuing. Tend to your dreams, as instructed. Then, continue your pilgrimage down the Heartwood Path by moving to the next waypoint: “The Deepest Self.”

Click here to go to 
the next Waypoint:
"The Deepest Self"

You have now completed 77 out of 117 waypoints in Kosmos.