When I open my heart I find the way, a gap through the wall of

mountains. Through me I allow the world to unfold. I have the

magic of earth, wind and flame. Though the future lies
shrouded in veils, if I give my will to what I know not, I shall see
it all come to pass. No sorrow. No sweat. Knowing the world
is as the world should be, I enter the fields of peace.
~Normandi Ellis, Awakening Osiris:The Egyptian Book of
the Dead
You Are Love’s Purpose – Your Journey to Freedom

Introduction – Welcome to your journey.

There Is No Path – How your path will appear.
Love’s Call – The need to embrace the fear and move forward with courage.
Walking in Fearlessness – Creating Your Path to Freedom – The spiritual tools.
Freedom is found in the Present Moment – The power of now.
True Fulfillment – Living from the heart.
Love’s Purpose – In closing.
 The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us .
~ Marianne Williamson

For the longest time I searched for the path, the path to success, the path to fulfillment, the
path to freedom. I never found the way. I thought maybe there was something wrong with me.
Why wasn’t anything working?

The problem was that I was looking for formulas, for people to tell me what I needed to do. But
none of that ever felt right.

It seems that these formulaic ways worked for some. I saw people gain success. It didn’t work
for me. I’m not one to follow someone else’s path. And neither are you. That’s why you’re here.
Though you want success in the world, there is a deeper desire burning within and you have to
use that fire to create your own way. This is where the journey to freedom begins.

Here is what I know so far.

Freedom for me is equal to fulfilling your potential fearlessly. I also agree with Sufi teacher,
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee when he says, “Real freedom means never knowing what is going to
happen, and never resisting change.”

What does it mean to fulfill my potential? It begins with following and doing my bliss. What is
inside of us, what our soul calls us to is a big part of being Love’s purpose.

But there is a deeper purpose. Our true potential lies in our knowing we are Love and releasing
love into this world. It can look like the work we do in the world or our way of being, but the
truth of it is we are Love and are here to express that in a myriad of ways. To do this fearlessly
isn’t always easy.

One of the ways we get blocked is in our fear. Love has no boundaries and Love is a mystery.
We must let go of our need for certainty and for things to stay the same. Freedom is truly
fearlessness.

From this place of true freedom our lives fulfill the greater purpose of Love. We become the
living light, a beacon even in the darkest night.

There is no path, only the one you create as you go. Others can be examples and we can learn
from them, but their path is not ours. We must stand on the edge of creation and let our
hearts, let Love guide us. We must look into the abyss and trust. It is with each step we create
the ground beneath our feet, and it is holy.
 There Is No Path
Are you willing to stand at the edge of creation and stare into the abyss?

The path you are looking for has yet to be made. There are many who have come before us.
Seekers of freedom have been around a long time. Their trail can be helpful, but we can’t walk
it and get to where we want to go.

There is freedom in realizing this. It may also leave you feeling confused. I have felt this way.
Why can’t the answer just appear and be perfectly clear?

The thing is, we want to know weeks, month, even years into the future just how things will
turn out. We want a path and steps to take. But when given them, we feel something is wrong.
We find it only adds to our discontent.

It would be so much easier if we could just do A, B and C to get to D. But we don’t work that
way. We are people of the heart. We know in our gut when things are right or wrong for us. We
have to follow our inner guidance. Those paths that others put forward as the way can help us
get started, but if you’re like me, you can’t follow it to the T.

Trying to follow someone else’s path isn’t really easier is it? We spin our wheels, endlessly.

I’m done with spinning. I’ll bet you are too.

What’s the next step? Where do we even begin when there is no path?

We begin right where we are and within our own hearts.

If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential.
~ Joseph Campbell
 Love’s Call

What is in your heart? What’s beyond the desire for success and things? What desire lives
beyond even your need to contribute and help others?

I’m not saying we don’t or shouldn’t have those desires. Money is very helpful to me and I long
to be of service.

What I’m asking, is Love calling you?

Do you feel the longing in your heart for something that just isn’t provided by the external
world?

Many people gain material success and don’t feel fulfilled. They move on to find ways that
contribute to the good of others. They may even happen at the same time. But even as they
feel needed, there is something in them that longs…for something more.

That longing has lived in me forever. I have always longed to sit in the silence and know the
heart of the Universe. I didn’t always have words for this longing. I just went out into the woods
as a child to be nourished and loved by the rocks and trees. I felt embraced by the woods and
all its inhabitants. These experiences taught me Love was bigger than just the love of my
parents or friends.

Slowly I began to understand that Love was God, but not the God I learned about in church. It
took many years before I understood that I was Love. And now I’m finally beginning to build a
relationship with Love. Love was always there in my heart, but first I had to long for it and then
seek it.

We come back to what we knew intuitively as children. All is Love. All is Divine. All is Holy. But
to know this we must go through the separation process. In the search we learn about
ourselves. We learn to accept ourselves and then we begin to realize who we really are.

When we finally understand and know we are the Love that is all, we are home. We can finally
begin to build a relationship with what Rumi called the Beloved. This relationship deepens into
Oneness. It is from here that we finally live our potential to be love and release it into the world
in everything we do.

I’ve had only glimpses of this. I’ve been touched by Life and I’ve burned. In the burning Love
arose. Life has also been tender in the blessings of wind through my window, a loved one’s
touch and visits from hummingbirds as I meditate.

Love looks back at me through the eyes of my spouse, the neighbor who says hello and the
squirrel who watches through my window and meditates along with me.
Love’s call can begin in pain or wonder. There is beauty and so much love. But it is at the abyss
we stand to make our decision. Will we heed the call? We must understand the journey is not
easy. We must be willing to fully know and accept ourselves. We can’t deny any part. This
means we need to see and accept the parts we’d like to ignore.

Are you ready to step into the darkness, the unknown fully trusting Life, Love? Are you ready to
surrender to Love?

It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. We’re ready when we’re ready. But if you are willing, Life
will be there embracing you through all of it as It always has. When you take that first step
towards Love, you will remember this. And nothing will ever be the same.

Name yourself in your heart and know who you are.

― Normandi Ellis, Awakening Osiris: The Egyptian Book of the Dead
 Walking in Fearlessness – Creating Your Path to Freedom
This is where you do the work. But it takes courage. Courage is a willingness to be present to
what is and to know what is in your heart and bring it forth. We can learn to be comfortable
with uncertainty and embrace change.

Remember there is no existing path. It is created as you go, but you can learn from those who
have gone before you.

The most important thing is to begin. Take that first step. It will illuminate the next.

But what is the first step?

Often it’s just that willingness to begin. I know you’d like some guidance. It will show up. That
willingness to begin is an opening up to Love. It will begin to speak to you in many ways. You
only need to listen.

Here are some things you can do to help you take the next step and the next. This is not a
formula and in no way are they about fixing you. You can do one thing or many or none. You
can come up with other ways that work for you. The important thing is to discover ways to
hear/see/feel the wisdom that draws you ever closer to Love and hence freedom.

We already have everything we need. There is no need for self -improvement. All
these trips that we lay on ourselves—the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and
hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the
jealousy and the addictions of all kinds —never touch our basic wealth. They are
like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and
brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an e ye
away from being fully awake.
~ Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

Open Up/Expansion

Before you can listen you may need to open up enough for the guidance to come through. Most
of us have learned to close up in order to feel safe. It may have served us once, but it doesn’t
anymore. By expanding our consciousness we bring possibility ever closer. We begin to
understand we are the Love we have been searching for and that this Love will fulfill us and set
us free.

Contemplation – This practice is about exploration and expansion via a centered calm. Here is a
definition of it from the center for Contemplative Mind in Society,
 Contemplative practices are practical, radical, and transformative, developing
capacities for deep concentration and quieting the mind in the midst of the action
and distraction that fills everyday life. This sta te of calm centeredness is an aid to
exploration of meaning, purpose and values.

These practices expand your view of life. Some definitions of contemplative practice include
those listed in the next section on listening. In fact, the center for Contemplative Mind in
Society has an expansive list of contemplative practices. The main point is to bring expansion,
to open up to life so you can begin to receive its guidance.

Affirmative Prayer – This is a practice I have been trained in. I see it as a tool of awakening.
Created by Ernest Holmes, the founder of Religious Science, it helps you realize the spiritual
truth. He called it Spiritual Mind Treatment because it is used to treat our minds to know the
spiritual truth and hence expand our sense of what is possible. Basically all is possible with God,
with Love. You can learn more about affirmative prayer via Centers for Spiritual Living. They
even have a tool to help you build your prayer.

Gratitude – The practice of gratitude helps you open up to receive. Below are some ways you
can get in touch with that gratitude feeling.

1. Hold the image of a loved one in your mind. Feel the joy and gratitude of having them in
your life. Where in your body do you feel the emotion? Rest in this feeling for a moment or
two.

Now let the image fade, but hold onto the feeling. Remember it so you can easily tap into
that gratitude feeling when you need it. Loved ones make the best gratitude triggers. A
gratitude trigger is what you use to bring yourself into gratitude fast.

2. Imagine your favorite piece of clothing. Think about all the people involved in its creation.
The person who sewed it, the designer, the weaver of the fabric, the farmer who helped
bring forth the cotton or silk. Imagine all the sunshine and rain that helped those things to
be.

Now think of all the people who brought this article of clothing closer to you. The buyers,
the distributors, the store owners and sales people. There is so much to be grateful for in
one piece of clothing. You can do this with your food or any other object to expand your
sense of gratitude.

3. Think about a time in the past that you thought was challenging. Looking back, can you see
that you learned a lot, became a better person or gained more because of it? Explore your
thoughts and feelings around this. It’s important to find gratitude in everything because
when another challenging time arises you’ll be able to quickly move into gratitude and out
of fear.
4. Take time to commune with the Source of All Life, the Creator, Spirit. Just a few minutes
each day in the silence brings a deep peace and gratitude for life. If you find silence difficult,
bring your focus to Spirit by saying the many names of God to yourself, kind of like a
mantra. At some point let the mantra go and simply be. Find what works for you.

5. Spend time in nature. Feel the breeze, the rain, the cold, the sun. Just be with whatever is
and remember that it is all good. Nature is our home; we are a part of the great circle of life.
Touch a tree and say that you are grateful for it. Nod to the bird singing in the tree and say
you’re grateful for its song and presence. Move to each thing or being you see and say this.
Know it. Feel it.

Meditation – This practice is one of both awareness and listening. As a practice of expansion of
awareness, it has helped me step back far enough to see the bigger picture. It has also helped
me simply be with what is. The particular practice I do is called Shamatha, which means
peaceful abiding. You can get instruction and learn more at the Open Heart Project run by
Susan Piver. This video by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the leader of the Buddhist tradition I
follow called Shambhala, is also very helpful.

Acceptance – This one is big for me. Whether it’s accepting what is or myself, I have a hard
time. I often want things or myself to be different than I am in any given moment. There is
always something to improve or to reject. Quite frankly, it’s exhausting. So I began to learn to
just be with what is and accept where I am and who I am. Meditation has helped, but it took a
long time to apply what I was practicing on the cushion to my life. Tara Brach is a wonderful
teacher of radical acceptance. You can watch a talk by her here.

Non-judgement – Non-judgement is kind of the same thing as acceptance and deeply

connected to mindfulness. We practice judgement when we want things to be other than they
are or feel we need to be different. I give it its own segment in order to capture the deeper
feelings we sometimes have to delve into. Judgement is a deep seeded habit for me. It gets in
the way of loving myself and others. John Kabat-Zinn, PhD talks about non-judgement in this
short video and helps us understand how we even have to not judge the judging.

Listen

Our culture is all about expression. We want to be seen and heard, but we haven’t learned how
to listen very well. Without this ability, we find ourselves directionless. It’s hard to know what
the next step is when we can’t hear that still small voice.

Meditation – This practice is also used for listening as well as opening. Any practice that helps
you get quiet enough to hear your inner wisdom will help you build your path to freedom.

Prayer – With prayer, as mentioned above, we can expand our awareness, but we can also
spend time in prayer as a way to listen to ourselves and to Love. This is the prayer of silence
often used by contemplatives and mystics. For me silence is a presence. When I get quiet, there
are times when I feel the silence. It is the experience of touching Spirit. It is a receptive state of
prayer in which I can receive all the gifts of Spirit including wisdom. Often it’s just being, but
there are sometimes moments when I hear a next step or an answer.

For this practice you can simply sit in a quiet place, undisturbed for a period of time. Let your
mind wander as it will at first. Don’t meet anything with resistance; just let the thoughts and
feelings flow as they will. Slowly bring your attention to your heart space and rest. Come to a
place in your consciousness where you can embrace the silence. Soon it will emerge and you
will realize it was always there.

Visioning – An act of listening, visioning allows you to formally direct your listening experience
with empowering questions. Michael Beckwith is an expert in this spiritual tool. He has a series
of videos that teach you about the process and guide you through it. You can also download
this booklet on the practice.

Here are the questions:

What is Spirit’s Highest Vision for (project, individual)?

What must I/we become to empower the vision?
What must be released?
What must be embraced?
Is there any other information that is needed in this moment?

Know Thyself

The practices mentioned above will help you know yourself in a deeper way. The practices
mentioned below help spell out what may happen within those practices or are things you can
specifically focus on.

Face Your Fears – We begin to learn what we are really made of when we can turn around and
face our fears rather than running away from them. Often what we learn is our fears aren’t
really that scary. We made them into monsters when they were really just obstacles that we
created with our fear. By facing them, our fears often dissolve.

Some fears are important. They teach us about what we need to know about the world and
ourselves. Not all will disappear as soon as we face them. But many of our fears get in the way
of knowing our larger self and stop us from living our potential. By facing all of them we learn
and grow and slowly move towards the fearlessness that leads to freedom.

Feel Your Feelings – Like fear, feelings can help you learn more about yourself. When we simply
feel what we are feeling in any given moment we realize those feelings won’t hurt us and can
move through them quicker. If you repress your feelings, they can hurt you. Stuffing our
feelings can make us sick. Emotion is about movement. We need to move through our feelings.
In that flow is freedom.

Check Your Beliefs – The practice of facing your fears and feeling your emotions can help you
understand what it is you believe. Our beliefs power our thoughts and emotions. You can make
it a practice to ask yourself in any situation what it is that you believe. If you’re scared about
speaking in front of an audience, you can ask yourself why you’re afraid. All sorts of answers
may arise. Perhaps you believe you’ll fail or that people won’t like you. Once you figure out
what it is you believe you can ask yourself if what you believe is true.

Often it’s not true. Come up with some reasons why it’s not true so you can convince yourself.
If it is true, as in it may be true you’re not good at public speaking; you can work with that and
get better.

Dreams – You can learn a lot about yourself by paying attention to your night dreams. They can
also be a beautiful way of receiving guidance. As you record them, you’ll get to know your own
personal symbolism. It’s important to also pay attention to how you feel in your dreams.

To make use of this as a practice you need to build the habit of jotting down your dreams as
soon as you wake from them. Your memory of them has a way of dissolving quickly. What I’ve
found is that as you do this practice the more dreams you remember. Here is an article that
tells you more about this practice.

Journaling – As a writer I’m drawn to this vehicle to know myself better. I haven’t used it
enough. Perhaps I should journal about that. What I do know is that when I use it, I gain clarity.
By writing down my thoughts and feelings about a situation, I get some distance which is
needed to gain perspective. As I continue writing the insights flow. It’s a very powerful tool with
many benefits. You can learn more about those benefits here and more about how to journal at
the Center for Journal Therapy where you’ll find a quick course for beginners.

Support

Find a Teacher – A spiritual teacher will give guidance and support, but their job is mainly to
point you towards the inner teacher who gives you the path that is yours to follow. Anyone
who tells you that you need to follow their path exactly is not a true teacher.

It’s important to note that teachers can appear as books, situations and others who are a part
of your life like family and friends. The teacher isn’t always a formal one, but a formal one will
provide the most insight and guidance.

You’ve probably heard the Zen proverb that is usually translated: When the student is ready the
teacher will appear. I find it’s best to let the teacher appear rather than go looking. The
important thing is to keep doing the inner work. It opens the way for your teachers to come in.
Find a Spiritual Group – It is possible to learn and grow on your own, but ever more helpful to
do it in community. Again, like finding a teacher, finding a spiritual home is best done by doing
the work and letting it come to us. When I found my spiritual home, I wasn’t really looking for
one, but I was doing the work and the perfect place came into my awareness. It was just four
blocks away from where I lived. I’d walked by it dozens of times, but I wasn’t ready. When I
was, I noticed it.

Behind most spiritual practices is the belief that you have to get someplace you're
not- a destination called realization or enlightenment. But realization isn't
someplace else; it's the naturally occurring human state. It doesn't belong to
anybody. It's who we all are. Spiritual practices also set up many pictures of what
this state looks like. For example, w hen I described how much fear was present,
people told me the fear meant that something must be wrong, because fear was
an indication that I wasn't in the proper state. But fear is just what it is, and it's
there too in the vastness of who we are.
~ Suzanne Segal
 Freedom is found in the Present Moment
Most of the practices mentioned above are ultimately about helping you stay present in the
moment. The present is where you connect to the Presence. It’s a place of power and beauty. It
is where our freedom is found. Sometimes the past can feel like a prison and the future a far off
place that incites fear. But in this moment all is well, and if it doesn’t seem so, by remaining
present we connect to our calm, peaceful center and know again it is okay.

There can be love of the past and excitement for the future, too. Neither of these needs to be a
trap. They won’t become traps if we live in the present.

In the present we can look fondly backwards and know love was always there. If fond memories
are hard to come by, we can learn from what happened and even reframe it. But the past can
only be helpful when we look back from the perspective of the present moment and we can
only change how we view it from this place.

From this moment the future can be exciting. It need not be scary because just like our present
doesn’t have to look like the past neither does our future have to look like our present. Time
and our experiences are fluid. The future is possibility lived now because truly there is no past
or future.

If our past was forgotten and the future never thought of, we’d find ourselves in the embrace
of Spirit. In Persian, the language of the Sufi tradition, the word for breath and moment are the
same, dam. Many spiritual practices equate breath with the present moment. We only realize
our inspiritedness, that we are breathed by Spirit, with every breath.

Every breath we take brings us into the moment where all we need is found. There is freedom
when we let go into the now. And that freedom is knowing we are Love. In the present moment
we meet Life and find our freedom in living Life on Its terms, which are ultimately ours because
we are one. We are Love’s purpose. Can you let go and live it?

The present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is
not “this moment".
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
 True Fulfillment
True fulfillment comes from living as Love’s purpose. The deep knowing of this comes in two
ways, and both are necessary. We must both turn away from the world and dive deeply into it.
There are times for both. The practices above help guide you to create your personal path to
freedom. These come from knowing you are Love. The center of the journey is you because you
are that which is at the center of all.

Follow your bliss. Do what makes you come alive. In the world you will find Love, Life or what
many call God. Also, go deeply; go quietly into your heart. Find Love there as you live your
soul’s purpose. The more you wake up to Love the more it will become present in what you are
being or doing in the world. Slowly you’ll discover it is your bliss to be Love’s purpose. To be
fulfilled is to have a heart so full it can no longer stay small and must expand into the world and
into the lives of those around us and beyond.

Just as light brightens darkness, discovering inner fulfillment can eliminate any
disorder or discomfort. This is truly the key to creating balance and harmony in
everything you do.
~ Deepak Chopra
 You Are Love’s Purpose
The supreme purpose and goal for human life…is to cultivate love.
~ Ramakrishna

You are here so Love can move through you into the world. You are here so the Divine can
experience life in form. You are Love’s purpose. It pours into the world through you and returns
to itself through you. It is the breath of all being.

I have a long way to go to fully realize what it is to be Love’s purpose, but my glimpses of it have
given me the courage to write these words. They have helped me create my path. Less and less
I feel the need to know 10 steps ahead. More and more I feel blessed by each and every insight
and answer that allows me to take just one more step. The path beneath my feet is being
created before my eyes. Though I don’t see the ground before I let my foot falls upon it, I know
it is will be there, created by my trust in Life. With my trust and my courage I create holy
ground.

May you find your way and know the ground upon which you step is being created in every
blessed moment. I encourage you to begin consciously creating your path today. There is only
now and this moment holds miracles for you. You are Love’s purpose.