A spiritual path is evanescent. At first it seems concrete and predictable, but it soon becomes the ineffable, indescribable notion of an inner guidance that is always present but mostly intangible. A spiritual path unfolds before you. It does not follow a plan, because there is no plan or a pre-existing map. You simply have the sense that a next step will reveal itself in the present moment.

With a deeper look, you realize that a path that unfolds before you moment-to-moment cannot be designed to get you what you want or help you avoid what you do not want. A true spiritual path is simply an ever-extant acknowledgment of your state of presence or awareness. Your spiritual path is where all your encounters with reality take place and where you put all your theoretical learning to the test by applying it to your experience. We might say that a spiritual path is your arena for developing practical wisdom. It also compels you to be who you are beyond all your stories and definitions of who you are.

You began much of this lifetime attempting to create an identity for yourself and a reality that could enhance who you believe you are. Then, at some point, you decided to be on a spiritual path. You might not have understood what that really meant, but your inner guidance showed you the relevance of discovering aspects of yourself that were not known or developed. At the beginning of being on your spiritual path, you likely felt great excitement at the possibilities for big changes to occur in your life. You were likely driven to leap on to a spiritual path with ideas of becoming freer, happier, achieving enlightenment, healing pain and wounds, and even becoming rich. In other words, you considered being on a spiritual path as the antidote to suffering.