The Inner Islands

In this informal discussion with her friend Susan, Wini makes an important distinction early in the text. "I usually think of the way you have described, that of using certain rituals and traditional prayers or of setting aside certain periods of the day for deliberate meditation, as the First Path, or the way of selection or exclusion. And I think of the way that has become habitual with me, what I would describe as the embracing of all experience as it comes to conciousness and making a certain intentional response to it, as the Second Path, or the way of inclusion."

Most of the discussions, organized as letters from Wini, elaborate on this Second Path as experienced in moments of pain, in thinking of death, and in experiencing love. The Second Path leads Wini to profound realizations. "So there are times when I seem to see in a sudden flash of understanding that the highest peak of life may be gained by those who by all ordinary standards are frustrated at every turn, and yet by a final acceptance of their helplessness, their vulnerability, can channel all the gathered-up life within them into an intensity of tenderness and compassion."