Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.
After the last couple episodes about the challenges of staying on our chosen spiritual path and the importance of having the support of those around us when we are tempted to abandon our practice, I want to wrap up the discussion with insight gleaned from three different group discussions we've had about the topic. When we think of a path, Stephen Batchelor proposes the image of a path through the forest, a trail between the trees from which all obstacles have been removed.
The only problem with a path in the forest is that although cleared of obstacles by those before us, taking that path can only lead us where they had gone. It was their path, and is not necessarily our own. In fact, coming upon obstacles does not mean we are off the path or on the wrong one; our journey often includes the important lesson of overcoming challenges when encountered. The question is how far must we go off the path before we realize we are off of it?
And the answer depends on how frequently we check-in with ourselves to crossreference where we are with where we intend to be. The more often we check our compass to make sure we're still heading north, the sooner we'll notice the moment we veer off the path. There is a hiking application and website called AllTrails that shows all hiking trails near you wherever you are in the world, and you can sort them by type, length, and difficulty.
Once you get to the trailhead, you can click Navigate on your phone, and it will show your progress along the path with each step you take. Sometimes the trail is very clearly marked so you don't need to check the app too frequently, but every once in a while, the path intersects with other trails or splits in 2 or 3 different directions, so you need to constantly consult the app to make sure you are still on
your intended hike. If you don't, you may end up walking on the wrong trail for miles, getting farther and farther away from the trailhead where you parked your car. So, how far must you go off the path before you realize you are off of it depends on
how clear you are about your chosen path, and how often you check to make sure you're still on it. I personally recommend checking with each breath, each decision, each interaction, and each moment. But when I looked more closely as to why I check my location so often, I realized it was because I was terrified of losing my way. And a friend recently pointed out to me that fear of going off the trail is not the best
motivator because fear is very restrictive. We need to be motivated to do good for the sake of doing good, not because we are afraid of what would happen if we don't. Living in fear is no way to live at all. When I remain focused on how rewarding life on the path has been, I'm neither tempted nor a little bit scared to go off of it. Like the saying about a bird sitting on a branch is not afraid of the branch breaking because her trust isn't in the branch, it's in her own wings.
My trust needs to be in my own ability to get back on the path should I ever veer off of it instead of living in fear of taking a step in the wrong direction. Heck, sometimes a step off the path is what we need in order to get things into perspective. Regardless of how you label your chosen path, it's safe to make a general assumption that you want to be on the path of love. There's a quote by Rumi that Your task is not to seek love necessarily, but merely to seek
and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. I think that's because love is inherent. We don't need to learn it, only unlearn what stands in its way. I've been sitting with that quote for a few weeks now... Don't seek love, seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. When I think of barriers against love, fear immediately comes to mind.
Fear of ridicule, fear of missing out, fear of intimacy, and fear of getting hurt, are all like walls we build to keep love away because we've been burnt before. And everyone keeps saying that "Love hurts," but love does not hurt; somebody who doesn't know how to love may have hurt you, whether it was the people who raised you or romantic partners who misused the word, but love is not to blame. Love liberates. Love heals.
The first rule of staying on the path is defining it so you're clear with your intentions The more vague, the more challenging it becomes to see the fine line that separates the path from everything else. So, when it comes to your chosen path, it's important to take inventory of who is walking beside you, so to speak, not just the people in your social circle, but the voices in your head as well.
There is a gentle voice that is not deterred by people's opinion of you, it doesn't need external validation, and it points you toward true north at all times. But there is also the voice of the ego within, which is reactionary and anything but stable. To answer the question from earlier: how far must you go off the path before you realize you are off of it? Well, that depends on which voice is louder, and that depends on you, because your hands are on the volume knobs; you decide.
We are born with love programmed as our true north. We don't need to learn how to love, we just need to double-check and make sure every decision we make is rooted in love. And if it's not, then we need to figure out what obstacles are in our path to love and what we can do to remove them. Love is always an option, so why don't we choose it more often? We are afraid; I get it. The key is to be scared, but to do it anyway. After a while, you won't be as scared of fear as you once were.
You'd be liberating yourself instead of waiting for someone else to save you. If you find value in these podcast episodes and want to join these monthly discussions about the topics, get notified whenever a new episode is released, and show your support to keep the podcast sponsor-free without commercials or ads, please sign up through Patreon.com/BuddhistBootCamp Your support is what makes this podcast possible and truly ours, not mine.
We are on this path together. Thank you for walking beside me. Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp. For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions.
Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼