The Long/Short Path

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The Long Path/Short Path

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" ...I still believe there is a certain amount of effort and discipline

required of us early in the spiritual quest. For a period of time, we must do

battle with our ego, which is fully capable of being both extremely noble and

unbelievably selfish. We must struggle to subdue its natural desires for

power and recognition and discipline its selfish actions by conscious effort.

 

" In mystical language, this is called the 'Long Path' approach to truth. It's

a little like doing hard time in the Old Testament where the Hebrews wandered

in the wilderness for forty years. We have a little wandering to do

ourselves. Think of it as spiritual conditioning. It is essential we learn

the disciplines involved in thinning and purifying the ego and detaching

ourselves from our fears and illusions if we are to ever return to the

complete awareness of our Source. Sometimes we will succeed in getting the

ego to behave itself. Perhaps we will learn to be more loving or more patient

in certain situations. But as with the children of Israel, there will be more

times when we will fail. No one can be on guard all the time. Besides, the

ego can be an incredibly subtle and elusive adversary.

 

" But here's the paradox. As necessary and useful as this battle with our ego

may be, there will come a day when we must leave the fray. We will have to

stop fighting against our weaknesses and give up striving to improve

ourselves. After serving our 'forty years' in the long path wilderness, we

have to make an effortless transition to the 'Short Path' and wait patiently

for the movement of grace. Otherwise the ego will live on --- new and

improved to be sure --- but alive nonetheless. Where there is effort, there

is ego. And where there is ego, there is pain. As Paul Brunton writes,

 

'The Long Path creates a condition favorable to enlightenment, but since it

is concerned with ego, it cannot directly yield enlightenment. For its work

of purifying the ego, however necessary and noble, still keeps the aspirant's

face turned egoward. ...Everything that he accomlishes in the way of

self-improvement, self-purification, or self-mastery is accomplished by the

force of the ego. No higher power, no grace of the Spirit, no faith that

transcends materialism is needed for these things. Whatever it is, and

however beneficial it be, reform of the ego's character will not lead

directly to the destruction of the ego's rule. For although the ego is

willing to improve or purify itself, it is not willing to kill itself.'

 

" The problem with salvation or enlightenment by 'muscular' self-effort is not

that it makes us bad people or that we will one day burn in hell for our

foolishness. It simply doesn't work. It cannot take us to our final goal of

unification with the Logos. Even though our character may improve, we remain

enmeshed with the dynamics and projections of the ego. Because doing

anything, even reforming the ego, requires the force and strength of the ego

itself. And there's the rub. Any effort I expend in trying to weaken or

surrender my own ego will only serve to build it up even stronger than

before. In other words, self-effort can never rid us of our self so that we

can rediscover our true Self.

 

The Apostle Paul once pointed out that the ego (he called it the flesh or the

old man) lives according to the 'law of sin and death'. He could just as

easily have called it the law of strenuous self-improvement. Obedience to

this law of the ego may improve our image and train us in some necessary

disciplines, but ultimately it will turn our quest for Reality into simply

another project. And as we have discussed before, ego projects can never lead

us into the promised land. They can take us right to the border, but no

further. Just like Moses, the ego is forbidden to enter paradise. "

 

- Richard G. Young, Ph.D.

" Paths of a Prodigal "

 

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