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IAM has a great opportunity, and needs your help to achieve it.
One of the greatest difficulties in the path of self-development is to understand what is the goal, and what are the steps to that goal? If we don't have a clear picture of what we can be, we have no hope of attaining it. At IAM, we do have a clear goal of what human development is, and how the opening of the heart is key.
The goal of spiritual development has changed in the last thousand years or so. It used to be "become pure, luminous consciousness." Now people ask, "What for? What can you do for me?" So what influence can a spiritually developed person have on the world, and what are the steps to develop that ability?
Our roadmap of self-development is one of the greatest gifts we can pass on to the world. The clear descriptions of the 18 stages truly gives inspiration and meaning to the purpose of life. "The Map," as we call it, comes from the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and incorporates the work of the great map makers --
- The labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral (above) is a visual image of the path, though not generally understood as such because it does not have the stages identified.
This version, with the numbers of the first 9 steps, has never been published before.
- Farid ud-Din Attar, who wrote "The Conference of the Birds," described the first 9 steps of the path in allegorical terms.
- Abu Nasr as-Sarraj (died 988) described the path of spiritual development through stage 9, though in a way that can only be understood by those who have been through it.
- The Yogi Patanjali described a sequence of meditations from dharana (concentration) through seven levels of samadhi, but these attainments do not mark the stages of one's life.
- In the 20th century, Erik Erikson, Daniel Levinson and Clifford Anderson described their research into adult psychological maturity, but psychological maturity is far from the end of the path. Their studies end at stage 5 of The Map because they didn't consider what's possible in spiritual maturity. Furthermore, spiritual maturity does not correlate to physical age.
Can you imagine how useful an experiential map of complete adult development could be? When you understand the sequence of steps that people go through, you can know whether at this point in your life you should be developing your mind or your heart, achieving or surrendering, celebrating an advance or getting back on the path. Some events that seem to be tragedies are actually breakthroughs, and some events that feel like progress are actually back-sliding on the path to completion.
How do you know what you can count on when you have to make a decision in your life? At each step of the path, the way to access your inner guidance changes. Furthermore, each step on the path has a trap and a puzzle. A lot of frustration could be avoided if one knew what is the current challenge and what should be postponed for later.
Our work on this book for 35 years is completed! The book is in final draft form and will go to the publisher soon. You can still help us finance the publication...
Send us $20, and we'll send you a signed copy of one of the first books printed, expressing our gratitude. You will help this book come to life, this year.
Could you contribute $200? We'll send you a book as above, and a beautifully designed T-Shirt that says, "Ask me about The Map." And a receipt for a $160 charitable donation.
If you can contribute $2,000, we'll be pleased to acknowledge your help in the Forward of the book. We'll also send you a book and T-Shirt as above, and give you a receipt for a charitable donation of $1960.
If you can help IAM at any financial level, please click one of the buttons on the right.
It takes a community to build a school, and you're part of our community. Thank you for your support.
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