Who Needs Need? The Sixth Pathway

Who Needs Need? The Sixth Pathway

“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.”—Richard Bach, Illusions

By Gregg Sanderson

When you get to feeling good all the time, you might tend to get down on yourself if you aren’t always 100 percent “Spiritual.”...Whatever that means to you. Ken Keyes wrote The Sixth Pathway for just such moments:

“I accept myself completely here and now and consciously experience everything I feel, think, say, and do—including my emotion-backed addictions—as a necessary part of my growth into higher consciousness.”

One day, when I asked a friend how she was doing, she said apologetically that she was ATTEMPTING to follow the Pathways. Hey. That’s all any of us can do. No apologies needed. Think of a ship at sea. The navigator plots the course to the destination, but the winds and currents require regular course corrections. A course correction doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with the ship. It’s that way in life, too. You’ve plotted the course for your “ship of life,” then the winds and currents throw you off. No course correction you ever need to make can ever mean there’s something wrong with you. In other words, you’re OK, even if you screw up now and then. As a matter of fact, sometimes you have to, just to remember that you haven’t arrived yet. The sixth pathway addresses one of the most insidious of the limiting beliefs foisted upon you. Every time you turn around you’re told you need something outside of yourself to be OK. The mark of the con artist is first to convince you there’s something wrong, then of offer you a way out for a simple tribute. You’re not OK because your clothes are dirty. Buy my soap. I’ll save you. You’re not OK because you’re going to get sick. Buy my pill, I’ll save you. You’re not OK because times are tough. Vote for me. I’ll save you. You’re not OK because you’re going to hell. Put a dollar on the plate. I’ll save you. There isn’t much input these days that just says, “You’re OK, just the way you are right now. That’s where the sixth pathway comes in. “I accept myself completely...” Every bit of you. Even those extra pounds. “here and now...” You’re not going to be OK. You already are. “and consciously experience everything I feel, think, say, and do...” That covers it all. “including my emotion-backed addictions...” It’s OK to get caught up in your “stuff.” “as a necessary part of my growth into higher consciousness.” How else could you become aware of the causes of your suffering? See the Third Pathway. Now, we’re at the halfway point of the Twelve Pathways. If you follow just these first six, it would be enough to assure your unending happiness...if you live alone in a cave. For the rest of us, there’s those pesky “others” we have to deal with. You know who “others” are, don’t you? It’s anybody who isn’t you—those who never got a grade for “...works and plays well with YOU.” Yet, there they are and they’re your unavoidable playmates in this sandbox of life, so you might as well learn to love them. Although it may not look that way from your vantage point, they’re also learning to love you. Follow the rest of the pathways and make it easy for them.

Happiness is BS

with Gregg Sanderson

Gregg Sanderson, one of our long-time contributors, passed to spirit in September 2021, and we are continuing the 12 Pathways Series in his honor. He also authored Spirit with a Smile and The World According to BOB. During his life, he was a licensed practitioner in the Centers for Spiritual Living and a Certified Trainer for Infinite Possibilities. His earlier books include What Ever Happened to Happily Ever After? and Split Happens—Easing the Pain of Divorce.

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