The Path to No-Self is a prequel to Bernadette Roberts' first book, The Experience of No-Self. It begins in 1949, when she is an eighteen-year-old novice in a Carmelite monastery. Eight years later, she leaves the cloister and enters what she calls the "marketplace": education at the University of Utah and the University of Southern California; working as a schoolteacher at Our Lady of Loretto High School in Los Angeles; marriage to Ronald Charles Danko in 1961; the birth of four children; and the annulment of her marriage in 1973. These external events are mentioned only in passing. The main purpose of the book is to document her inner changes from the no-ego event in 1949 to the no-self event in 1978, which in turn begins The Experience of No-Self.
The book shows how, once we have adjusted to the unitive state, the spiritual journey progreses to a more final stage. In the major religious traditions, the best-known milestone in the spiritual journey is the permanent transcendence of the ego. The fact that a great deal has been written about the journey to this point shows that many people have reached this far. But what comes next? Looking ahead we see no path; even in the literature there seems to be nothing beyond an abiding awareness of oneness with God. Had this path been mapped in the literature, then at least we would have known that a path exists. Because no such account can be found, we assume there is no path and take the union of self and God as the final goal.
The Path to No-Self corrects this misunderstanding. The book demonstrates that a path beyond union does exist, and that the eventual falling away of the unitive state happens as the culmination of a long journey of lived experience.
As a first-hand account, The Path to No-Self will be of interest to those with similar experiences and those searching for a better understanding of their own spiritual journey. Since the journey is concerned with the effects of grace on human consciousness, the book will serve as a guide for psychologists and spiritual directors concerned with the transformation of consciousness.
Therese Bernadette Roberts was born in southern California on May 20, 1931. She entered the
Carmel of St. Teresa in Alhambra, California, in January 1949 and left eight years later. She died on November 27, 2017, following a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
