What's a path? | Forum

Primitive man understood very well the significance of a path. Any modern stealth hunter can point out the difference among paths. A path, to the carnal beast, is the 'way.' Way through, way out, way in, way over, under, across, beneath, around and asunder. Paths are multifunctional.
Have you ever followed a rabbit path? Peered through the tunnels they make in the tall grasses? How about a deer path? For such great beasts they tread lightly and make narrow paths through thickets and thorns and open patches for bedding.
Wildlife prefer the brush; the young forest when the hardwoods are around 10 feet tall and the thickets, grasses, and underbrush are in fierce competition. That environment is when a path is most important. There is nothing but brush facing you on all sides. You can't see your way. The path leads you. A path can be both a direction and an escape. The prey animals know all to well the value of a path through thorns to protect them from predation. There are paths that lead to safety and needs and comfort.
Paths lead the way.
Your path will depend on your motivation.
The direction is your choice.

It's a means-ends thing?

If you've ever been lost in the woods you look for signs of a path. If you cannot find one you make one.
Wandering through life is no different. You either find your way following someone else's footsteps or blaze your own trail. Either way, you are lost without direction.
As I said, paths are multifunctional. Some paths have no end.

@Dimitri:  "The way you live your life"

How so?

Behold, a collaborative quote:

"Always turning left doesn't make one walk the LHP. That's NASCAR." --Dimitri & Shawn

;)

@Farter: That's probably the most coherent thing you've posted yet.

@Padowan: Think it's a cybernetic thing? ;)

@Shawn
Cybernetics? Hmm..
My first associated thought is 'process.'

@Padowan: Process of what? :)

@Shawn
Consciousness.

@Padowan: Of what?

• self-awareness
• deep structure
• presuppositions
• shadow self
• emotional states
• instinct
• personality development
• unconscious reactions and behaviors
• fears and desires
• intrinsic and extrinsic motivations; influences
• understanding of power and self-efficacy

A path is something you navigate.

 Paths can be a guide, but just because they exist on terra firma (ground) doesn't mean they will lead where one desires them to. Anyone that's been in touch with nature and the forest primeval knows when one is lost and directionless, you can use landmarks and the sky to guide your individual path (assuming that you lack a compass or GPS and there are no immediate paths on the ground).

In the daytime, (northern hemisphere) if you see the sun rise directly above a mountain top or river valley (the further away the landmark the better), that area is due east. If you keep the mountain or river's relative position over your left shoulder, not facing it, walking forward you are headed due south. You now have two true directions to navigate, and you can plot the other directions using these reference points. Don't use the sun itself as a reference, because it moves, and you will end up in a perpetual U-turn.

At night, (northern hemisphere) if the sky is clear and you can correctly identify the North Star (Polaris) among the constellations (between the "Big Dipper" and "Cassiopeia"), keep it to your right shoulder and you will be moving due west. Keep it to your left shoulder, and you'll be moving due east.

Practical life hacks aside, though, philosophical 'pathways' are guides as well, but some may not lead where one desires nor will one have a clear destination or outcome. The philosophy of pragmatic learning is one such path, filled with many directions and no tangible destination or conclusion. Only gained experience and a hunger for knowledge can be utilized to navigate which way an individual moves along the path (forward or backwards, progression or regression). To discover that the path has no end can sustain one's hunger to learn more and enrich themselves (walk the path until death) or it can discourage and take away one's sense of purpose with no direction (dead person walking the path). It can become a life choice, either way.

The greatest discovery I've made on literal and metaphorical paths through the decades of my life journey; always choose the dark, difficult and one you fear to tread.
You'll find the most growth.

@Padowan

In walking the path of a pragmatic learner, experience and knowledge are like a Snickers candy bar for the mind. It satisfies hunger. (I think this is a better metaphor than Nascar LHP/RHP, lol).

I've always chosen the path less traversed. The old axiom 'to suffer is to learn' is what keeps me grounded even in the darkest, most difficult journey of discovery in my life.

I need to make a correction. Not all of my paths have been of my own choosing. Some have been hurled at me with malicious intent of disempowerment.
My choice then was 'do or die.'
So far, I'm still breathing.

@Padowan: This thread has convinced me that paths are cybernetic. But I'm not going to bore anyone with the details. ;)

To me a path is a set of principles one choose to follow in order to produce happiness and achieve goals in ones own life.

A path is a set of markers or clearings constituting a 'way through' a terrain (verdancy, water, ice, lava, desert, etc.).

At times this term is also used to refer metaphorically to a set of principles or disciplines to achieve one's objectives or the aims of one's priest, cult, or religious system.