I believe that in order to move forward, to identify one’s own path and not another’s, requires time to contemplate where one has been, one’s regrets and celebrations; as well as a review of one’s beliefs, values, and guiding principles.

The state of the world today leaves me unsettled in that my own grounding principles seem to be shadowed by the ramifications of war, negation of principles, righteous anger, and divisiveness.  All of this leaves a world formulated less and less by rational thinking and more and more by emotional reactivity.  Therefore, I find that my path is not an earthly one, but one drawn from the words of Buddha:

Path

Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor, nor upon scripture, nor upon surmise, nor upon axiom, nor upon specious reasoning, nor upon bias towards a notion pondered over, nor upon another’s seeming ability, nor upon the consideration ‘The monk is our teacher.’
When you yourselves know: ‘These things are bad, blamable, censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,’ abandon them.

When you yourselves know: ‘These things are good, blameless, praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,’ enter on and abide in them.