C H A P T E R   S U M M A R I E S

The Introduction:
Awakening to the uncommon path

The aim of this book is to dispel any possibility that concealed conditioning 
is commanding your quest to awaken. The Introduction starts with a radical 
distinction between conceptual-free-will and conscious-free-will, which 
forms the basis for the entire book. This sets the stage for your awakening 
to flourish as you integrate the unfolding perspectives into your current
ways of being. Your subsequent willingness to express your awakening -
in communion with other people beyond conditioning - holds the key to 
a new world. The Introduction tells the first real-life stories that appear 
throughout the book. The opening of the book also reveals that Awakened 
Relationships and Awakened Love allow us to evolve consciousness by 
affording the spiritual development of humanity. We will return to these 
point often as the book progresses. 

In this chapter you will learn:
- The difference between conceptual and conscious-free-will.
- How to untangle your free will from conditioning.
- How the ego's dharma drives the search for the awakened life.
- How to recognize concealed conditioning in yourself and others.
- The joyful possibility of relationships without conflict.
- That freedom is really a matter of choice - yours.




Chapter 1:
The Four Insights - An Overview

This chapter is an overview of the Four Insights of Awakening that create 
and sustain the conditions for the awakened life. They are: Renounce; 
Reclaim; Recall; and Relate. The 4 R's guide you in identifying concealed 
conditioning that may be affecting the outcome of your quest to awaken. 
They also show you how to unhinge the effects of shadow and concealed 
conditioning from your decision-making process, thus ending their 
reappearance in your future. The Four Insights are the cornerstones of 
The Uncommon Path. This chapter prepares you for the exercises
included later in the individual chapters on each of the Four Insights 
(Chapters 9-12.)

In this chapter you will learn:
- How to evolve your consciousness by choice.
- How to evolve your awareness through many levels.
- How to let go of concealed conditioning in your motives for living.
- How to make great decisions that are free from hidden habituation.
- To access the power of an awakened life together with other people.
- How to co-create reality in harmony with those who have awakened.




Chapter 2:
The Whole 'I'

Awakening your full potential implies that you are a self-confident, self-
reliant and an emotionally intelligent individual. Included in Chapter Two 
is a simple exercise on identifying and curing shadow. It is only when
the 'I', or the Freudian Ego, is complete in you, that you are free to focus
on the path of complete liberation. The second chapter goes on to help you
identify the separate sense-of-self and the ego -  the part of humanity that 
is motivated by seemingly personal fear and desire, which is compounded 
by long-term interactions with family, media, culture and the world. Here, 
we also distinguish between the healthy and unhealthy aspects of the ego. 
This chapter outlines several new perspectives on the independent force of 
conditioning, beginning with behaviors in which conditioning and 
unconsciousness are most obvious. Identifying the unhealthy-ego 
simultaneously reveals the awakened choices that allow you to transcend 
its influence in your life and relationships. 

In this chapter you will learn:
- Why a whole 'I' is essential to your awakening.
- The distinction between the healthy and unhealthy-ego.
- How to locate the wisdom of true individuality.
- How to see the ego-mind moving in yourself and other people.
- The key to advanced emotional intelligence and nonviolent dialogue.
- How to end all unnecessary conflicts in your personal relationships.




Chapter 3:
Two Ways to Joy

This chapter takes a lighthearted look at the origin of the separate
sense-of-self and the ego-mind whose role it is to defend that
concept. It explains how we unknowingly develop an attached to
this 'me'-sense because of the natural process of development,
which occurs between four to seven years of age. Chapter 3 continues
by describing the ways in which we craft and secure our separate
sense-of-self and how we eventually are molded by the opportunities
and limitations of our particular culture. We also discover that there
are two ways to joy. This chapter explains what these two paths are,
how to recognize them, and how to select the way for you that will
allow the complete expression of your full potential. This chapter
ends with a look at the ego's response to the process of dead and
dying with a beautiful except from author and Diamond Way Buddhist
teacher, Lama Ole Nydahl.

In this chapter you will learn:
- When the ego first appeared in humanity.
- The difference between healthy individuality and narcissism.
- How to prevent the unhealthy-ego from draining your awareness.
- About the separate sense-of-self and how to let go it when needed.
- How culture influences our personal fears and desires.
- About the preconscious mind and the after death process.




Chapter 4:
The Grace of Resistance

The fourth chapter reveals that a discomfort zone is felt resistance
to a new direction in life for which you are already prepared. Here
you see that trust in transformation transmutes turmoil into truth,
and that on the spiritual path, all limiting fears dissolve once you
obtain objectivity on the opposition―the unhealthy-ego. Your
suffering, as well as the pain and distress you cause others, comes
mostly from your inability to recognize resistance as the invitation of
consciousness to evolve. We also see how anguish is not really caused
by things that happen to you; it is a result of conscious or unconscious 
opposition to your birthright of evolution. This chapter reveals that
often it takes more energy to pretend you are happy than it does to
let go of unnecessary suffering. It also shows how emotional and
psychological struggling is a manifestation of mediocrity masquerading
as contentment and how resistance to change points the way
to your release from all unnecessary anguish and suffering.

In this chapter you will learn:
- How to transcend and include the fear of change.
- The difference between the 'now' and a brief moment of clock time.
- How to fearlessly pursue challenges as a path of awakening.
- The hidden shortcomings of Positive Psychology and psychotherapy.
- The significant causes of depression and how to release that suffering.


 

Chapter 5:
Freeing Your Mind

Chapter 5 reveals the keys to acting, free of conditioned limitations.
Since the past always appears as rampant thinking, this chapter shows
that the awakened life emerges upon the realization that this activity is
consuming most of your attention. The ego loves a busy mind; when
you recognize the unhealthy-ego's hand in your thinking, you learn to
invite ease and joy into your life. Your awakening begins with the
understanding that thoughts are a mechanical process of a healthy
mind. The fifth chapter also reveals that interpretation is key because
a thought is present in your awareness does not mean it has any
significance for you or the world. Freeing your mind from conditioned
ways of thinking is further supported by a process by which you can
learn to disregard thoughts that are not supportive of your desire to
live in harmony and communion with other people.

In this chapter you will learn:
- Who you are is not just your thoughts.
- How to identify the influences of the ego in your thinking.
- How to free your mind from the struggle with unwanted thoughts.
- The power of being unmindful.
- Three ways to relate to thinking and emotions.
- How an awakened person relates to the content of his/her mind.




Chapter 6:
Karma and the Ego's Dharma

The sixth chapter provides a perspective on karma (the consequences 
of the past) that is most applicable to contemporary living. This chapter
begins by outlining the relationship between action and karma in a way 
that appeals to both the neophyte and the often jaded, advanced 
seeker. Since we are all inclined to act in particular ways because of 
our past deeds, we naturally assume that karma has to do with our 
actions. This chapter reveals that it is not the act that establishes 
karma, because doing nothing can also create karma. Karma is often 
interpreted as cause and effect, or action and result, hence directly 
related to doing something. We will see how this conditioned
understanding of karma tends to lead us in circles as we create 'good' 
karma and avoid 'bad' karma. In this way, the unhealthy-ego keeps us
busy and well clear of the true rewards of our chosen path. This chapter
reveals that by recognizing the gift of karma, it can be transcended.

In this chapter you will learn:
- What is karma and why it is important to acknowledge its wisdom.
- How to see the movement of karma in your life and relationships.
- The precise cause of karma.
- How to act without creating karma!
- How to let go of all your karma.
- A technique to harness the full power of your attention.




Chapter 7:
Awakening Conversations

Your words have tremendous power - far beyond that which you assume. 
Your words either support or degrade the conditions for awakened living. 
Many of the words you use keep you separated from authentic joy. In this 
chapter, we will see how your conversations determine your destiny. 
Most interpersonal exchanges are heavily laden with the topics and 
words of the lesser-mind. This means that many so-called 'meaningful' 
conversations are nothing more than the ego in one person talking with 
the same ego in another person. This chapter provides dozens of ways 
to help you identify the presence of the unhealthy-ego in everyday 
conversations. The purpose is to show you where concealed conditioning 
is alive and thriving in dialogue so that you can transcend and include 
its influences there.

In this chapter you will learn:
- The favorite topics of the ego-mind.
- How to avoid putting your foot in your mouth again!
- How to know when the ego in another person is speaking to you.
- How to transcend conditioned conversations in important relationships.
- A way to empower your speech and listening with true compassion.




Chapter 8:
Awakening Relationships

In this chapter, the types of relationships that are significant to awakening 
are defined. For the sake of this work, relevant relationships are those most 
pertinent to your search for and/or progression along your chosen spiritual 
path. Chapter 8 continues with an exercise that helps you identify all of 
your relevant relationships. The goal of this chapter is to prepare you to 
relate with other people as an awakened person, in relationships that are 
free from personal conflict. These types of interactions hold the keys to a 
new world for all of humanity. This chapter shows you how identify the ego 
in your most important relationships and how to evolve the basis of those 
interactions. When a true shift in consciousness has occurred, conflict in 
your primary relationships will dissolve. This chapter shows you how you 
can end all superfluous suffering in your personal and business relationships.

In this chapter you will learn:
- What are relevant relationships and why they are important.
- That not all relationships are relevant to your awakening.
- How to spot the influences of concealed condition in your relationships.
- Ways to introduce awakened love in your primary relationships.
- How the ego is likely to respond to your desire to be conflict free.
- How to bring lasting peace to your most cherished relationships.




Chapter 9:
The First Insight - Renounce Conditioned Motives
 
Ridding yourself of all opinions formerly accepted begins by creating 
new permanent structures in consciousness through which your 
awakening can be expressed with great ease. Bringing the influences
of concealed conditioning to your attention is one half of this task. 
The other half is to consent to letting go of these influences. This 
process of identification and renunciation - free of all requests to 
overcome or conquer - brings the unhealthy-ego into the light of
awareness, where it cannot survive. Your awakening subsequently
flourishes. The First Insight contains an exercise that is based on
Ken Wilber's 4 Quadrants, comprising of several hundred statements.
Each statement brings you to a point of objectivity on the possible
presence of concealed conditioning in everyday circumstances.
All major aspects of life are addressed, including: spirituality,
family, relationships, career and money. 

In this chapter you will learn:
- How the ego-mind conceals itself in everyday situations.
- That the desire for love or money is never a problem!
- The power and grace of voluntary simplicity.
- To see hidden habituation in thinking, relationships, and culture.
- Dozen of instances in which you can let go of conditioned motives.
- The distinction between conditioned motives and eternal motives.




Chapter 10:
The Second Insight - Reclaim Your Consciousness

The Second Insight is all about the power of great decision-making.
In this chapter we discuss your values and why their composition
and arrangement is essential to your awakening. Values are core
structures by which you make all major decisions. You value what
you consider to be important. The more essential something is to
you, the more that value will be evidenced in your life and actions.
Since you already possess the qualities necessary for your awakening,
the arrangement of those existing values is key to manifesting that
outcome. We will see that to evolve as a conscious person, the
arrangement of your values can be shifted slightly from an emphasis
on individual needs to a focus on inclusiveness and expansion. To
create and sustain freedom, the arrangement of your values must
be capable of directing such a pure intention. 

In this chapter you will learn:
- Why inherited arrangements of values do not allow for awakening.
- How to tell if the ego-mind is manipulating your values.
- The joy of never having to change your mind again.
- How to recognize and harness the power of awakened choices.
- A method of rearranging your value to guarantee your awakening!




Chapter 11:
The Third Insight - Recall Your Origin of Oneness

The Third Insight reveals that your true nature is not so much the
constant movement of the mind, but one of great peace, ease and
joyfulness in which all creativity arises. This chapter describes a
simple yet powerful practice of stillness meditation. This practice
is often the first place you will come face-to-face with the true
force of the ego in you. In stillness meditation, you practice
recognizing and disregarding the ego-mind so that when you
encounter it in your daily life you will have the self-confidence
and willpower to let it be. Stillness meditation is a metaphor 
for awakened living. The Third Insight complements and
informs the preceding two insights.

In this chapter you will learn:
- What stillness meditation is and why it is so important.
- Why people who have been practicing for 20 years have not awoken.
- How the ego can get addicted to spiritual experiences.
- Why so many gurus have fallen from grace.
- How to ease the burden of a troubled mind.
- How to recognize pure stillness, simply and easily.




Chapter 12:
The Fourth Insight - Relate as Your Full Potential

The Fourth Insight is a spontaneous emergence. The last chapter describes
how its blessing supplants a formerly conditioned trance with the sweet 
intimacies of freedom from all unnecessary emotional and psychological 
suffering. The appearance of the Fourth Insight is entirely dependent upon 
the extent of your engagement with the preceding three Insights. The 
Fourth Insight encompasses every aspect of your life. Its emergence 
becomes the foundation for our engagement with other people as living 
examples of the infinite creative potential inherent in each of us. The 
Fourth Insight reveals the possibility of a new world. The Fourth Insight 
confirms your availability to merge with, evolve and expand the waves 
of unity consciousness that are appearing in our world - not so much 
for your personal good, but for the sake of humanity. 

In this chapter you will learn:
- How to recognize the emergence of The Fourth Insight.
- How to enliven your life with awakened compassion.
- The power and potential of forming awakened relationships.
- How to transmit awakened love in all of your relationships.
- The three types of collective consciousness experiences.
- How to come together with other people beyond ego-identity.

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