Career Management, life path,career choice, life change

How can each of us find life paths that lead to peace, happiness and self fulfillment? Certainly there is no one way for everyone, but maybe there are guideposts that can be of help to all.

Though no doubt a lifelong process, my journey toward a metaphysical perspective began to accelerate in late 1988, in response to my employment situation. Feeling embattled and alone, I was wrestling with the painful decision to close down a business begun in a spirit of service, that had degenerated into preoccupation with profit. It was then that I was introduced to A Course In Miracles — a book gifted to humanity from such an unusual perspective that only by joining a Course study group could I be sure that my understanding was more or less correct.

Finding Direction To My Life Path

Following my first study group meeting, I had a dream that left me in a state of deep peace that remained for several days. I dreamed that I, and an invisible companion, were in what seemed to be the ruins of an ancient temple with a starry sky for a ceiling and carved rock objects of Aztec-like design on the smooth stone floor. Suddenly, one of the objects began to move, leading us out of the room and along a corridor without walls, opening onto vistas of a mountainous jungle. At an intersection, an arrow made of metal and gold rose from the floor, slowly turned in the air, and led us down another corridor until it began to vanish. Following it, I (we?) walked into the familiar space of a fast food restaurant.

During the following years, I read and re-read the Course. And my perspective changed. Relinquishing my pride in self-employment, I accepted a job. I continued to work alone, albeit in daily telephonic contact with co-workers in other parts of the country and the world. The work was interesting and paid well, and I enjoyed the interpersonal contact and cooperation. Soon, however, I began to yearn for work directed more by my own intuition than by societal norms and conventions.

Groping for direction, I turned to Pennsylvania's Himalayan Institute for a weekend workshop on "Finding Your Own Path In Life: The Many Paths of Yoga and Spirituality." I learned about the four different types of Yoga (i.e., "union with God") — the Raja Yoga path of the intellect (e.g., the Course), the Raja Yoga path of meditation (the focus at the Himalayan Institute), the Karma Yoga path of service, and the Bhakti Yoga path of devotion.


innerself subscribe graphic


I also learned of lucid dreaming from the Institute's resident caretaker and "character", who told me of his experiences with conscious dream travel and gave me a private tour of the Institute's large book and magazine printing plant.

This weekend had such a powerful healing effect upon my mind that I soon resolved to seek out other such places and to create a national publication supported by ads from these organizations.

Heeding Advice To My Life Path

By mid-summer, I was well into a major part-time research project — identifying personal growth centers throughout North America. I was also becoming preoccupied with how to effectively format and sell advertising space. So, in an effort to return to a deeper peace of mind, I departed for another personal growth weekend — this time at central Virginia's Satchidananda Ashram.

Also known as Yogaville, the Ashram is a large community founded by Swami Satchidananda, spiritual mentor of Dean Ornish and other leaders of today's U.S. holistic health movement. In the spirit of Karma Yoga, Yogaville's weekend guests are invited to donate time to selfless service. For me, washing the windows of the Ashram's library was a wonderful experience — something I was doing for no reason other than to be of help to others.

Saturday evening, the Yogaville community and its guests gathered in the spirit of Bhakti Yoga for satsang. The guests were invited to submit written questions to the Swami. I did not do so. But before he began reading and answering questions, the Swami gave a short talk that directly addressed my preoccupations — speaking of how advertising was not necessary and how "when the flower opens, the bees will come."

I was astounded by the synchronicity of the Swami's talk, but I did not heed its message. Instead, I stubbornly forged ahead with sending out nearly 1,000 ad solicitations. The response was much too small to justify launching an ad-supported periodical. So I rethought the venture and gloomily concluded I would have to publish a book — a huge amount of additional research, not to mention writing and much greater financial risk.

Discouraged by the failure of my initial idea, and overwhelmed by the prospect of compiling a large directory while engaged in a demanding fulltime job, I again retreated to a weekend workshop — this time at Washington DC's Institute for Attitudinal Studies.

One of the weekend's experiential exercises was "initiated symbol projection," where I allowed space in my consciousness for a power animal to give me guidance. The animal that emerged was a spirited horse, who signaled through his actions that I should share my envisioned book venture with other people — including them in it and making it their venture as well as mine. Never before or since have I encountered such a seemingly autonomous entity in a non-sleep state of inner consciousness, and the empowering feeling of riding on that horse, in a thundering swirl of Native American riders across a vast plain, remained with me for several days.

Surging Ahead

Within a month, I had quit my job and was working full time on the book. Fourteen months later, it came off the press. Now involved with book marketing, I am once again self-employed. But unlike before, I feel this work can be of widespread benefit, especially to people open to the voice of Spirit and to the many paths leading to union with God. For as is stated in A Course in Miracles, "A universal theology is impossible. But a universal experience is not only possible but necessary."


Recommended Book:

The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose
by Dan Millman.

Dan Millman presents an entirely new way of understanding life and the forces that shape it. The Life-Purpose System, a modern method of personal growth based on ancient wisdom, had helped thousands of people find new meaning, purpose, and direction in their lives.

Info/Order this book


About The Author

John Benson is a writer and proprietor of a publishing company. John is the author of: "Transformative Adventures, Vacation & Retreats: An International Directory of 300+ Host Organizations" ©1994, published by New Millennium Publishing, P. O. Box 3065, Portland, OR 97207.