INTRODUCTION

This is a book about spiritual development - your spiritual development actually, as when I wrote it, I had you in mind. It is not about launching a new religion or forming a new sect, and it is definitely not about me setting myself up as some new grand spiritual leader. It is about empowering you, so that you can actively take charge of your own spiritual development. You need never leave your own home nor join any organisation, in order to use this approach to achieve your full spiritual destiny.

The Direct Path is subtitled “A spiritual path for the 21st  century”. Why is it called that? Because in the 21st  century, the pace of life is fast and getting faster. People want to achieve outcomes with a minimum of time and effort. That describes the Direct Path very well. Instead of it taking decades or even lifetimes to achieve Self Realisation, using Direct Path methods it can be achieved in as little as one to two years. There are no priests nor incense, no traditions to observe, nor rituals to perform. There are not even any meetings to attend. But the main reason why the Direct Path approach is so fast is that the system makes it possible for you to receive instant, personalised feedback on your spiritual development efforts, as often as you need to, on a 24/7 basis. And that feedback is free, expert, and you choose whom you wish to receive your feedback from. 

This book is not a novel, so it is best not to read it straight through, from front to back. Nor would I recommend that you skim it, looking for the parts you already know about and agree with, and putting the unfamiliar or strange sounding bits in a mental bin labelled “Doubtful” or “I’ll think about that some other time”. No, this book is definitely not intended as fast food for the Soul. Rather, it is a practical, self-help, spiritual manual which is very serious about showing you how to achieve the ultimate spiritual goal. So, after you read a chapter, (and this applies particularly to the early ones), please do something to implement what it is being talked about, before going on to read the next chapter.

However, I know that some of you want to just browse and skim. So be it. But sooner or later you will need to face up to practical application, and work fully through the chapters, one by one, if you are to ever achieve the book’s potential. The topics you skip over can have a habit of coming back to bite you at some future time, because you missed doing something important.

The title of the book mentions Self Realisation, so I suppose I will have to say something about that topic, although frankly, I would rather not at this stage. Self Realisation is the destination, and a destination is best described in detail when you are getting close to it. Like life itself, the journey, and the general direction of that journey, are what is vital. If you get that right, you are bound to arrive at your destination.

But if I were to define Self Realisation, I would say that it is the achieving of your full human potential. Not some strange, exotic, spiritual transformation, but your overall, full, human potential, because your spiritual and human functioning are so connected that they can only be considered together. To develop yourself spiritually is, in fact, to achieve your full human destiny. To not develop yourself fully in a spiritual sense, is to be less than all you can be as a human being.

The material in this book comes from high spiritual sources, and so has significant purity and merit. However, having said that, the Direct Path is, after all, only one path to God. It might not prove to be the one that will ultimately entice you to take your spiritual journey back to where you originally came from. Or it might be destined to be your path, but at a deeper level outside of your awareness, you might have chosen to experience some more frustration and delay, before coming back to making a serious spiritual effort a few years from now.