the ways are many...

There is no single path to enlightenment.

Yoga has no monopoly.

Life itself is the great enlightener.

I met a man once who, after the shock of hearing his wife tell him that she had ceased to love him, that she had for some time had a secret lover, and that she requested a divorce so as to be able to marry him, felt a collapse of all his hitherto confidently held values and beliefs.

For some days he was so affected that he could not eat.

But his mind by then had become so extraordinarily lucid concerning these matters and himself, that he experienced moments of truth.

Through them he came into a great peace and understanding, an inner change.

What was the morning sun which awakened him?

He did no yogic exercises, entered no churches, was too intent on his worldly business to read spiritual books.

This brings me back to the theme:

do not submit to the pressure of those who say there is only a single way to salvation (the way they follow or teach) do not let the mind be trammelled or narrowed.

The truth is that the ways are many, are spread out in all directions, are individual.



— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 5: Self-Development > # 209
Paul Brunton