If this isn’t a dream, what is it? What is it really? How does it work? I think I know what’s going on, but maybe I’m blundering through it half asleep?

The point of this question is not to determine whether you are in the middle of a lucid dream or not (though it’s awesome if it can do that for you). The deeper purpose is to look more closely at reality and question it. Not in a philosophical way, but in a concrete, right-here-and-now kind of way. What is this that I’m experiencing right now and how does it all work?

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is not affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition.

I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old person asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it.

I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?

All paths are the same, they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor’s question has meaning now. “Does this path have a heart?” One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

The trouble is nobody asks the question: and when a person finally realizes that they have taken a path without heart, the path is ready to kill them. At that point very few people stop to deliberate and leave the path.

A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.

For my part there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.

And there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly.

- Don Juan
Apprentice to a Yaqui Sorcerer
Sourced from http://www.whale.to/a/path_with_a_heart.html

Ingredients:

• One avocado
• Two tomatoes
• Juice of one orange
• Two tablespoons flaxseed oil (or olive oil. Flaxseed oil contains omega 3 for those of us who don’t eat fish.)
• Four tablespoons sultanas (try more or less if it’s too sweet or not sweet enough)
• A dash of tamari OR soy sauce OR a pinch of salt (just a little bit!)
• Some red or green capsicum, finely sliced

Directions:

1. Place everything except the capsicum in a blender.
2. Blend to a smooth consistency.
3. Pour into a soup bowl, garnish with capsicum. This adds a bit of texture to the soup.
4. Serve with crunchy toast for dipping, or flax crackers if you’d like to keep the meal entirely raw.

Serves one. Enjoy!

There’s a press release about the project over here.

This is a little different to my normal way of writing. Usually I write an outline, try to write a section, get annoyed at not being able to write anything, then invoke the “terrible first draft is okay” rule and give myself permission to write whatever I can come up with. Once I’ve got something down, I’m set. I still spend about half my time fiddling with wording, reordering, restructuring, rewriting, but once I have something down the hard part is over. I know that if I just keep fiddling for a bit, I’ll get a post I’m happy with.

Writing with a pen is different. I usually use this method when I’m journaling, AKA dumping my brain onto paper. There’s no pressure to make grammatical (or logical) sense. I just write my thoughts straight onto paper. Pose questions and explore what comes up. Usually get lost down twisty passages of thought that lead nowhere in particular, but at least I usually see interesting things along the way.

Writing this post is different again. I’m intending it to be read by others, so I’m taking a little more care to make sense and explain things. Compared to how I usually write posts I’m getting a lot written very quickly. Only: I don’t know quite where I’m going.

I like the spontaneous way this post formed itself. It feels funny calling it a post when it’s still pen on paper, but it seems the best way to refer to it. I hope to write again like this in the future and maybe even have something useful come out in the process.

Thanks for reading this little experiment, and enjoy the rest of your long weekend.

Blogs

• IttyBiz – home business marketing advice. In particular, check out the marketing school category.
• Thirty Day Challenge – great video course on niche website creation
• Finance Your Freedom – market testing and lifestyle design
• 7 Business Ideas – more market testing
• 7 Business Ideas Intro to Market Testing – figuring out if an idea is likely to work before you implement it
• The Fluent Self – dealing with the inner stuff along the way

Stuff worth buying

• Online Business School from IttyBiz – Kinda like my talk but with much more detail. Walks you through the main points to consider when starting one of the business types I mentioned. Great for a high-level view of this stuff. If you’ve had a read of all the free stuff and you’re keen to get started, this is for you.
• Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic from The Fluent Self – EBook I mentioned in the talk. Spend a bit of time on Havi’s blog, and if what she talks about resonates with you, I’d highly recommend checking out this book.

People I mentioned

• GoBuro
• IttyBiz
• Productive Flourishing
• The Fluent Self
• WordPrezzie
• Etsy
• Men With Pens

Update: Here are my slides from my presentation at BarCamp.