The Mountain Top Experience

Going to the Mountain

“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again...So why bother in the first place?  Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. 

One climbs, one sees.  One descends, one sees no longer but one has seen.  There is an art to conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.  When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.”

Rene Daumal

I can get so caught up in the minutiae of everyday life that I forget entirely the life of the spirit.  Like all life, it needs regular tending—food, pure air, refreshing drafts of water.  Sometimes, in all my rushing about, I will run upon my impoverished spirit and find it practically dead from neglect.  No wonder I feel so scattered and irritable!  One’s spirit, albeit an airy and insubstantial thing, keeps one grounded, calm and connected to life. 

Some time ago, I had the pleasure of attending the “Cinema of the Spirit” film festival at the Birmingham Art Museum.  All the films were remarkably beautiful and uplifting; films about real people who are actually living out their lives in constant communication with spirit.  I came away refreshed, renewed. 

One film I especially liked was about a group of climbers on Mt. Everest.  Anyone who has climbed a mountain knows that it is hard work; sometimes dangerous, terrifying work.  It carries with it hardships, obstacles, and the possibility of injury.  Not everyone reaches the top, but those who do describe it as a mystical experience.  The view from the summit is expansive; one sees clearly where one has come from and what lies beyond.  The person who climbs back down is not the same one who climbed up.  This new person has far less fear, self-doubt, and confusion.  He will forever carry with him some of the light experienced on the mountain top.

I don’t believe that one has to climb Mt. Everest, or any other mountain, to gain this “mountain top experience.”  Just living fully awake in the present moment, with an open and grateful heart is enough.  I walked out into my winter yard yesterday.  The sun shining down, the air warm on my skin and on the ground, purple crocuses had completely surrounded an oak tree.  I don’t know when they sprung up, but there they were in all their buttercup beauty.  I felt like dancing.

Thanks be to God,

Jane