Booklet: The 9-Step Journey, A School Talk by Rhondell

The study to evolve to the possibility of higher consciousness, enlightenment, wisdom and understanding, and many other verbal attempts to label the natural state of man, has been called "The Path," "The Journey," "The Pilgrimage," etc., all implying a trip from one place to another area, such as from the conditioned state of being to enlightenment, from a very unnatural state of being to the natural state of being, which is so unusual that it is sometimes referred to as being almost supernatural.

As a possible aid to this journey, the following major places on the journey are given:

1.  THE WORLD.  The starting place for all.   The world of belief, emotions, material purpose, conditioning, mechanical reaction.

2.  CHALLENGE FROM LIFE.  Major disappointment, losses, major illness or accident, feeling that life has no meaning, etc.

3.  SEARCHING OR ASKING.  Usually asking amiss for something to produce a sense of non-disturbance.  Perhaps a real search and asking would be something like "What's going on here?" if the asking is for a real purpose, not as conditioning, The Way is opened to one.  There's an old saying, "When a person is ready, a teacher appears."

4.  SELF-KNOWING.  The study of conditioning.

5.  SELF-REMEMBERING, such as:  What am I?  Where am I?  What's going on here?  What can I do?

6.  INITIATION.  Practical acting on "What can I do?".  Learning in spite of conditioning.

7.  DEDICATION.  Making of first value LIVING self-remembering.

8.  ACTUALIZATION.  Higher states of consciousness and unconditional love.

9.  SERVICE.  As a way of saying thank you.  It could be said that the traveler learns to serve, NOT TO GET something.  However service does have side effects.