Understand Universal Principles And The Origin And Structure Of Integrity
Begin Course Two: Logos
EartHearts are the pilgrims that follow the Heartwood Path and use it as a guide in their efforts to save the Earth one person at a time (beginning with themselves). They see the instructions that follow as the basis of their work.
Background information needed to best understand the information presented in subsequent Heartwood Path books is presented here. This background information is not superfluous. It is your ticket to a forgotten beatitude (a state of supreme blessedness).
Background information is not superfluous. It is your ticket to a forgotten beatitude (a state of supreme blessedness).
Expressing gratitude leads to happiness because it promotes savoring life experiences; bolsters self-esteem; helps people cope with stress; helps people move on and begin again; fosters moral behavior; builds social bonds; inhibits detestable comparisons with others; diminishes anger, bitterness and greed; and helps people adjust to new circumstances.
As before, I will present activities to accompany this text. I will continue with activities that foster happiness, a rich form of contentment evident in those who devote a great amount of time with their family, give to others, have ample energy, are cooperative, are comfortable expressing gratitude, are liked by others, practice optimism, savor life’s pleasures, exercise regularly, are deeply committed to the attainment of goals, and cope well in the face of challenge.
Below you will find more about the overarching strategy for achieving happiness. This over-arching strategy has to do with expressing gratitude by which I mean experiencing wonder, appreciating aspects of life, looking on the bright side of setbacks, fathoming abundance, thanking others in your in your life including the Absolute, counting blessings, savoring, not taking things for granted, coping, and living in the present. Expressing gratitude leads to happiness because it promotes savoring life experiences; bolsters self-esteem; helps people cope with stress; helps people move on and begin again; fosters moral behavior; builds social bonds; inhibits detestable comparisons with others; diminishes anger, bitterness and greed; and helps us “adjust rapidly to any new circumstance or event” (Lyubomrisky, 2007, p. 92-95). With all of these benefits, expect a considerable payback from doing the next activity. It is one more return to the topic of gratitude, presented to help get you in the habit of making its expression perpetual.
The field is Eco-psychology, which is a big part of the basis of the Heartwood Path, exists because...
the mind exteriorizes itself.
One’s mind recognizes itself in the patterns of nature. One’s mind reflects back to itself those patterns that best reflect its being. One’s mind pauses, and in that opening, chooses what is best by the attractions it forms between itself and natural beings. This exteriorization is of utmost importance.
One creates the world by perceiving it.
One sees the world according to one’s attractions to it. One gravitates towards preferred configurations. One ignores what one finds unappealing. One forms one’s worldview by the parameters of one’s attractions. These attractions and one’s inner world experience of freedom and lightness open up possibilities and ground one to one’s bodily experiences. It takes a delicate balance of inner and outer world influences to properly generate and limit new potentialities. How this is done will be revealed in the Nocturnal Pilgrimage Sections that follow. As you progress through this series of books you will learn a fantastic way to help you unfold a magnificent future. This way comes from a certain set of magnetic allies, as revealed in the next important point.
One makes the world according to one’s attractions.
For this reason, I will ask you now to consider what you are drawn to, what pulls on you like a magnet. What patterns and images are foremost in you mind. Do they all come from work, from television, or from Modern Culture? Have you yet found enough of them from the two great sources of intelligence—Nature and Dreams? I suspect not; and I will, therefore, continue to send you forth in search of Attractive Natural Beings and their reflective partners (or versions)—Attractive Natural Dream Characters.
As we will see, we need both of these types of allies in our efforts to bring forth happiness in a sustainable world. We need the outer world Natural Beings to help our minds, body, and spirit to function optimally and to ground to us in reality. This grounding is good because it is wise, appealing, and true. But it is sometimes hard to fathom. And our perceptions of it often become stagnant, which leaves us stultified unless we also turn to Natural Dream Characters who, at once, add clarity to the lessons from outer world Natural Beings and show us our memories, expectations, desires, progressions, answers to our queries, and Imagination.
You will know that you have unveiled your wholeness when the two-way door of inner world and outer world inputs is swinging in both directions equally. Getting to this point is a hero’s journey, one that causes each world to be illuminated.
Along this journey, and along the Heartwood Path, one will be taught how to awaken as a visionary secular saint. This revered status is achieved by visiting all the waypoints of the Heartwood Path, which collectively will teach you, among other things, how to 1) perceive patterns in your attractions, 2) replace bad habits with better habits, 3) perceive and eliminate blocks in your imagination, 4) interacting with dreams in your waking state, 5) adjust the two-way door of inputs to achieve a balance of inner world and outer world benefits, 6) get back to your senses, and 7) awaken to Oneness.
Have a good night’s sleep and record your dreams in your journal before you move to the next waypoint: “The Sojourn Continues.” Congratulations! You have only a few more prerequisites—all rewarding, and presented in the next four waypoints of this book. With your continued involvement and the recruitment of additional participants, happiness and a sustainable environment lie aheadBe
Sure You Are Oriented Properly
The Overture to the Heartwood Path is where you the reader had a chance to determine if the suggested route was suitable before leaving the comforts of home. Having read this far you likely have decided to begin making the Heartwood Path pilgrimage. Imagine now that you have left the old ways of home and that you are at a fork along the trail. The route to the left is uncharted. You do. It know where it leads. On the sign before you is an explanation for how the Heartwood Path proceeds to the right and how it leads you to the integrity needed for you to create a magnificent future for yourself and others.
Above this sign is a cloud with a silver lining, a symbol in nature that reminds sojourners on the Heartwood Path that noticing what is positive, feeling good about the world and your future, and trusting that you will make it through, leads to happiness and, by extension, environmental sustainability. Happiness and environmental sustainability are related, in part, because people who are happy have less of a need to overcome their misery by placating themselves in environmentally taxing ways.
We will all, on occasion, need to own up to situations, see clearly, remain on-guard to self deception, and pick the proper road ahead. While it is important to face the facts, it is also important to decide to be optimistic. Optimists are more, not less, vigilant of risks and threats. For these reasons, doing the following activity offers ample rewards.
