Climb to the Summit

 

The Mountaintop Experience

“After one arrives at the summit, after going through the total transformation of being, after becoming free of fear, doubt, confusion, and self-consciousness, there is yet one more step to the completion of that journey: the return to the valley below, to the everyday world.”

Ram Dass (Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook, p.211, Bantam Books, Revised Edition, 1990)

          Recovery from knee surgery has shown me that the journey to the summit is a long way off for me. That’s not because my knee still hurts, it is because I have a bad attitude. I lack the consciousness to show compassion to myself. In the Journey of Awakening, Ram Dass describes the person who makes it to the top of the consciousness mountain and returns to the everyday world. That person lives “in humility and simplicity.” He writes, “The being that comes back is quietness itself, is compassion and wisdom, is the truth of ages.”

          The story of climbing the mountain is the journey of becoming conscious. Most people start the climb and make it to the first rest area. There, they sit, relax, enjoy the view, and after refreshing themselves, hike back down the mountain and go home. Only a few hardy souls continue. At the second rest area, there are no amenities other than an outhouse and a firepit. The view is better, however, and they can see their home villages in the distance and ponder how small and insignificant they look from such height. From there, the climb gets steeper and more difficult. The climbers confront their own vulnerability and loneliness. They aren’t sure they will make it to the top alive. Now, an inner battle takes place—fear of injury or death enter the equation, and some decide the risk isn’t worth it, so they turn back. Those who stick it out and make it to the summit are few, and on the way, they have confronted themselves, their past, their fears, their weaknesses, and in that confrontation, have discovered their true strength. The being who comes down the mountain—because one must come down—is not the same as the one who set out on the journey. They are transformed.

          Although none of us desire the challenges presented on the path to consciousness, they are a necessary hazard. It is in confronting the difficulties of life, we gain the physical and emotional strength to make the climb. It’s hard and it takes commitment and endurance. Most of us fail repeatedly—including myself. But if we can keep our eyes on the prize and not let fear stop us, we will succeed. Success allows us to see what is possible not only for ourselves, but for every human being. Rene Daumal describes it this way: “One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen…When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.” It’s our eye-of-the-needle experience, and most of us are camels. Thankfully, a few of us make it and hold the light for the rest. Ram Dass was one of those. So was Jesus.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane