My formative years coincided with the zeitgeist of the 1970’s, commonly referred to as the New Age Movement. Carlos Castenada’s books were very popular and hooked my attention. The heart path metaphor has stuck with me, since then. As I have journeyed through life I have asked myself many times. “Does this path have a heart?” I have offered it as advice almost as many times, when queried. “What should I do?” “Follow the path with heart.”
Don Juan talking to young Carlitos:
“This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy.”
~ Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Ask and you shall receive
As I was dealing with the trauma of transformation from boyhood to manhood, this concept flew in the face of what I had been taught to believe. I had my first job before I was a teenager and believed that I had to earn a living and that work was not always pleasant, it was just a requirement. The idea that I should align my work, goals and life path, with that which my heart was naturally inclined, was outside the boundaries of my thinking.
The concept that I could ask a question of myself and get an answer from deep within my being, which would guide me in the direction that I was inclined was just too foreign and unbelievable for me to grasp. So I carried on with the beliefs of my childhood, but I kept asking the question whenever I came to a fork in the road.
Heart Path
To walk the path with heart, is to walk our true path. The reason I could not find it early on was that I hadn’t let go of fear and ambition. My heart wouldn’t respond while my mind was trapped in the false narrative about what a successful life looked like. The path of ambition, money and materialism, is to identify with the world, it is the path to enslavement, not freedom.
Now I understand why Don Juan said, “This question is one that only a very old man asks.” The path to knowledge is long and circuitous. All paths lead to the same destination. We can make the journey in joy and love on the path with heart or we can curse the path we are on, as it slowly but surely weakens us to death.