For those people who feel that there is a greater purpose and meaning within life, there is a fundamental truth. This truth is that we are born with a particular fate to unfold and fulfil.

This truth lies at the heart of all major belief systems – a truth to which the legacy of the Toltec teachings also bears witness. Our fate starts to unfold with the specific time in history, place and other circumstances of our birth – our race, our parents, our siblings. Our intellectual ability, emotional make-up and physique are also put in place, setting the scene for our challenges and ensuring that we tend to respond to the events of our lives in a specific way, in order to learn what we need from them, and so to fulfil our fate.

Consequently, for those who believe that there is a purpose to life, there are no victims. The circumstances of each of our lives are known to the indwelling spirit well before the great event of our birth, and therefore our lives are always perfect to enable us to experience whatever we have come to experience and learn whatever it is we need to learn.

The logical consequence of this that it is only through meeting all of our challenges that we can acquire that knowledge which will enable us to realise our full potential, fulfil our fate and meet life head on. The Toltec teachings, as expressed by Toltec nagal Théun Mares, show that the arena in which we acquire our own knowledge is our own life, and the only real way in which we can acquire this knowledge is experientially – by taking action in our daily life; by fully living.

Learning how to meet life fully, so that we can fulfil our fate, is the most important journey we will ever undertake.

Yet, so many people today are dissatisfied with their lives. Instead of recognising that they have their own unique talents and forms of expression, people, through their social conditioning, “think” that they should be doing something else. Then, either consciously or unconsciously, they start to search for whatever they feel is lacking in their lives. If their searching is unconscious, they will often immerse themselves in work, or take up pastimes, or watch a lot of sport, etc. If this searching is more conscious, people often search out a spiritual path in the hope that this will provide the meaning that they are lacking. However, in both cases, these people will mostly end up seeking outside of themselves for satisfaction and fulfilment.

And yet, no spiritual path can give you what you lack inside. Any spiritual path is primarily a vehicle through which we can learn to meet life, and in meeting life, learn to meet ourselves. In one important respect, choosing a spiritual path is very similar to any other path in life that we may choose.

This point is conveyed by one of the aphorisms of the Toltec teachings in the following way:

“Any pursuit in life is one of a great many different paths. And the value of any particular path lies only in how you walk it. If you feel that the path you are walking is not for you, then you should abandon it immediately. However, your decision to walk a path or not should be based on that clarity which springs from living the disciplined life of a warrior, and not on fear or ambition; for any decision taken in the sober light of clarity cannot possibly offend anyone, least of all yourself. Therefore consider every path carefully, testing it in whichever way you feel necessary — then ask yourself, but only yourself, one question: ‘Does this path have a heart?’”

In this respect the ancient admonishment: “Know thyself” is so very apt. Yet, to become a true man or woman of knowledge, which is the meaning of Toltec, is one of the hardest tasks that we can ever hope to achieve. But if we do hope to achieve this, we must find in every possible area of our lives what constitutes for us a Path with a Heart, and then follow it faithfully, over hill and down dale, through the thick of our challenges, always meeting life head-on, until we can finally meet ourself as we truly are.

The true value of any path is perhaps best encapsulated in the following Toltec aphorism:

“Any path is much the same as any other path. Some paths wind this way and that — some paths go straight; but in the end, no path goes anywhere at all. The only real difference between one path and another is that some have a heart and some do not. The path that has a heart will uplift you, ease your burden and bring you joy. But the path with no heart will make you stumble, it will break your spirit, and finally cause you to look upon your life with anger and bitterness. The first empowers you; the second disempowers you.”

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