Understand The Efficacy And Plausibility Of The Heartwood Path By Mastering Its Prerequisites
What It Takes To Begin The Great Work
Here we provide the theoretical background needed to explain both the efficacy and the plausibility of the material covered in all the waypoints that follow. By completing this waypoint you will be prepared to begin the “Great Work!”—a phrase I borrow and apply to the work to be done along the Heartwood Path; which is…
Working towards saving the Earth by encouraging enough people to secure significant and lasting personal and planetary change through working towards spiritual maturity.
Welcome To The Prerequisites For The Training For The Great Work!
In this Overture to the Heartwood Path I encourage you to read the text and participate in the numerous activities related to universal principles, including those that use Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants—intentions, behaviors, ethics and physical systems—and Hermes’ Seven Universal Principles—everything is mental, as above, so below, all is in vibration, rhythm compensates, everything is dual, every cause has its effect and every effect has its cause, everything has masculine and feminine characteristic. To further one’s examination of universal principles, use Cohen’s Methods, summarized as follows: go to a natural place and gain consent to do the activity and, once consent is granted (as marked by one’s continued attraction), ask what the natural attraction can share about universal principles. In doing so, you are encouraged to remain still, come into awareness of any of their fifty-three natural attraction senses (such as the sense of visibility or invisibility or the sense of proximity and space), psychologically assume the perspective of the natural area or a natural being in the scene, and glean from the scene information about universal principles. Noticing how the decaying of leaf matter becomes soil, for example, might lead the participant to the important principle “what goes around comes around.” Noticing maple seeds landing in the middle of a pond might remind the participant of the principle “as you sew, so shall you reap.” The principle “Whatever you do onto others, you also do onto your self” is demonstrated when a participant sees a man kill predators to stop them from eating his favorite trophy animal but then discovers that not having predators weakens the prey, making them unsuitable to the hunter.
Before moving on to the topic of universal life principles, take a moment to ask yourself whatever questions are pertinent to you at this moment. Additionally…
Spend some time now doing twenty squats while you answer the following “what’s:”
What am I passionate about and what models of passion can I find in my environment right now?
What gives me joy inside of my home and outside of my home?
What in my inner world and what in my outer world gives me joy?
What is my relationship to the Absolute and how, if any, does that differ from my relationship with nature?
What qualities do I have right now?
What qualities does my environment have right now
What qualities would I like to have right now?
What qualities would I like my environment to have right now?
What have I been putting off?
What seems about to happen in my environment?
What do I need to forgive about myself?, about people?, and about my environment?
What do I want to do with the rest of my life?
What do I want to do with my environment over the course of the remainder of my life?
What about myself is really important to me right now?
What about my environment is important to me right now?
What goals do I have for myself?
What goals do I have for my environment?
What are my personal blessings?
What are the blessings of my environment? And
What skills am I applying to enable me to use my environment appropriately?
If an answer to any of these questions does not emerge immediately do another squat or two. At least the exercise will do you some good. If you are not satisfied with your answers while multi-tasking as I suggest (tung-in-cheek), turn these questions into your own HumaNatureConnect Activity. Doing so will allow you to spend some time communing with nature and to see what develops. Note any improvement in your answering after this communing helps you to function optimally. As always, write down the answers to these questions in your journal and refer back to them periodically. Label this extra activity: “Twenty-Plus What’s”
Make an affirmation about each of your answers to these questions, stating it, as always, in the present tense--such as: “I am using my environment in a nondestructive way.” Affirm that answering each of these questions and the others of your own choosing is making you happier and improving environmental sustainability.
You have a choice: Engage in the Great Work! or be a part of the Great Ending—a miserable time in the not-to-distant future that would be marked by life system disruption, the catastrophic loss of species on earth, the resulting precipitous reduction in the numbers of human and non-human beings, and a big reduction in the levels of human happiness.
When you add your own “What” Questions, be sure to include some that encourage you to make inner world assessments. Suggestions include: 1) what makes me happy?, 2) what do I feel when I become aware of an environmental problem in my community?, what do I feel when I am always being busy?
While such inner world assessments are important, some of your happiness is affected by outer conditions, such as the way you organize your home or outer world physical environment.
Now that you have made some important assessments of your inner world life, it is time to make similar assessments of your outer world life parameters by engaging in the following activity.
To A Look The Aspects Of Your Exteriority…
