© The Uncommon Path: 
O-Books Publishing, June 2009.
Also by the author: 
Poder Y Gracia, Spain, June 2007.

Question: But, so often, we associate prosperity with money, travel, and good times?
MQ: This is true. But there is a strange discovery made by all of those people—and I mean all of those people—who attain a certain level of world success, meaning they have a nice home, a family, a good job, good friends; this discovery is that joy, purpose, or just simple day-to-day contentment can seem to be fleeting. So The Uncommon Path takes a different approach on prosperity, which sometimes surprises people. Also, I find that many people are unable to even accept the possibility of freedom from suffering and the end of personal conflict. This acceptance, curiously, is the first step to prosperity.

Question: So this new approach is based on your own background; could you tell us a little about that?
MQ: Sure. I was born in Ireland. Growing up there sometimes looked like a scene 
from the movie “Angeles Ashes” [laughs]. Somewhat out of desperation, I emigrated to the United States in 1986. After seven years of living illegally I won a Green Card. I returned to college in New York City and shortly thereafter began to study Buddhism and Zen. I also got involved in several business startups. One of these companies became very successful and after a few years, we were generating $25 million per year in sales. At one time, both my work and home address were on Fifth Avenue, but even with all this prosperity something was missing.

Question: Ease and contentment?
MQ: Exactly! You see, all these years I followed what I was conditioned to believe would lead to happiness. First, I went to college, then I studied on the weekends, and read lots of books on business and personal improvement. I did visualizations, developed a good business network, was spontaneous, and always open to new things. All of this brought prosperity for sure, lots of money, friends, cars, nice houses, good vacations and so on. But, curiously, as I sat in my brand new sports car in the middle of New York City after a show where my girlfriend was the star… I was lost, lonely, and confused!

Question: Is this when the idea for the book started?
MQ: No, not at all. In those days I still figured if I had more money, a nicer house, or a new relationship, that the pain would heal. So I continued to start businesses and live the good life. I also began to get more serious about a spiritual search that had started some years earlier. Now I would visit various teachers who would come to give lectures in the city and I would go on weekend retreats and practice 
meditation when I had the time.

Question: So you were on the spiritual path?
MQ: Well, not really. I just thought I was [laughs].

Question: Now I am the one who is confused. I thought that being on the spiritual path meant we read books, did meditations, and went to see spiritual teachers.
MQ: Yes, that is a common misperception, probably one that keep more seekers 
lost or fewer as finders of the way. It was not until 2001, after I had convinced 
myself that I was on a spiritual path for 10 years, that I realized that the way I was 
living was never (repeat, never) going to lead to the kind of prosperity we are 
discussing here: freedom from emotional and psychological suffering.

Question: What happened in 2001?
MQ: I had what is commonly referred to as “an awakening”. I was in France on a meditation retreat when, for the first time, I realized the incredible force of individual and collective conditioning and the absolute ease and contentment, which is our natural state. This is where the idea for the book finally took seed.

Question: How did this realization affect your life?
MQ: Spiritual experiences always fade with time and the only way we can know if we interpreted them correctly is to look at how our life changes because of them. Up to that point I had a life that most would consider full, normal, and successful. But, from this new perspective it now seemed a little shallow and false… well maybe a lot [laughs]. I realized, too, that prosperity was not to be found at the bottom of the wishing well, in the gaze of superwoman or in the new religion of the West: scientific materialism. I also realized that so many seekers of the way are still lost because their teachers have yet to transcend their own conditioning. The Uncommon Path on the other hand, describes four steps to prosperity that show you how to identify the illusions of the ego and concealed conditioning. This work also reveals that a passing interest or even a deep intellectual knowledge about meaning and purpose will be enough to bring ease and contentment into your life.

Question: You said “the ego”. Can you tell us what you mean by that?
MQ: The ego I refer to in this case is not the Freudian ego, which is the self-organizing principle of the psyche, but it is the part of each one of us that, mostly unknowingly, enjoys pain and suffering. Strange as it may seem, we all have this part. So the ego is individual and collective conditioning. Such is the complexity of the ego that many spiritual seekers are completely unaware that the content of their spiritual seeking is designed, developed, and orchestrated by the ego.

Question: And how does the book deal with this?
MQ: In the beginning of the book I talk a lot about the ego and how to recognize it. There are exercises to reveal its presence in conversations and in your relationships. The key to prosperity is to learn to recognize overt and concealed conditioning and then let go of its appearances in your life.

Question: Can you describe the four steps, or The Four Insights as they are called?
MQ: Sure! The assessments in the First Insight help you uncover a significant number of conditioned motives previously hidden across all aspects of life. They are the subjective: Thoughts, Emotions, and Spirituality, the inter-subjective: Relationships, Family, and Beliefs, the objective: Home, Health, and Knowledge, and the inter-objective: Career, Money, and Social Status. These are based on Ken Wilber’s “Four Quadrants”.

The Second Insight reveals that to be free of all unnecessary suffering, you can no longer live by a decision-making process given to you by a world that is still suffering terribly. Though you mean well, inherited values and the way in which they are arranged cannot support your purest aims to awaken. There is a great exercise in this chapter to help you determine your values and align them with your intention to awaken to prosperity.

The Third Insight is about meditation and offers an instruction that is so simple that even people who have been meditating for 25 or 30 years find refreshing and effective. Imagine a strike of lightning on a moonless night, where in that flash, you see true reality, if only for a few seconds. Here the darkness of a moonless night symbolizes a way of living that is just full of apparent and hidden ego-motives. The short flash represents the ever-present oneness and completion that is revealed when mind and body are poised in stillness. The Third Insight is all about your practice of stillness meditation.

The Fourth Insight is a way of being that spontaneously unfolds in direct proportion to your engagement with the other three Insights. There is no limit to the expression of the Fourth Insight; its greatness is entirely dependent upon you. The integration of the first three Insights into every aspect of your life creates the conditions for the natural emergence of your full potential in the fullness of ease and contentment. Individual transformation is a prerequisite to world peace.

Question: This seems like quite a lot of information to digest?
MQ: I believe the readers are more than ready for this and what are we going to do? We can live a relatively exciting life but forever be running from confusion and anxiety or we can stop and smell the roses while making time to look into this work, even if that is only for five minutes per day. You don’t even have to “believe” in spirit or consciousness.

Question: Seems like a clear choice to me.
MQ: Indeed, prosperity is a choice.

Question: So, how would you describe Poder Y Gracia in a nutshell?
MQ: Poder Y Gracia is the softness of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle mixed with the storytelling of Jorge Bucay, the hardness of Andrew Cohen and wisdom of Ken Wilber. It is a deep and practical guide to contentment, which presumes that you are ready to allow a little transformation to occur in your life.

Question: Do you give seminars and do workshops based on the book?
MQ: Yes. We currently have a weekly schedule in Barcelona, where we also teach Big Mind / Dialogue Yoga.

Question: How can the readers find the book?
MQ: It is in stock at Excellence bookstore on Calle Gracia in Barcelona and of course it 
is available at the website www.poderygracia.com


AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Mick Quinn's life was radically transformed in the summer of 2001 while sitting in meditation with world-renowned spiritual teacher, Andrew Cohen. Mick has been a bartender, delivery person, civil servant, and founding partner for a pair of New York City based multimillion-dollar Internet companies.

The Uncommon Path – the first book from this Irish born author is touching the hearts, minds, and spirits of all those who come in contact with its profound, yet gentle message. The Uncommon Path was published as Poder Y Gracia ~ Los 4 Pasos Hacia La Prosperidad in May 2007, by Corona Borealis Publishing, of Malaga, Spain.  Mick is currently based in Barcelona and his work is regularly quoted and featured in many publications, including The Washington Times, ADD Magazine, Crain's NYC Business, Reader's Digest, and The Wall Street Journal. Mick is currently leading events and seminars with his wife, Debora Prieto and he also provides Integral 1-on-1 guidance to individuals and groups.