The Divine Esclator
For years in my meditations I would envision myself as climbing a huge mountain as the progress on my spiritual path. Every once in a while I’d reach a plateau. There, I’d pause
for days, weeks, months or perhaps years and savor the feat I’d accomplished in consciousness. I’d
congratulate myself as to how far I’d come. I’d give thanks to me for the perseverance
it took to come this far. Then the urge to climb even further would set in and
I would resume my climb. This went on for years and notching my progress on the
proverbial belt became a cherished habit. One day doing this exercise was well
underway and out of the side of my eye, I saw it. Running alongside the difficult
path I was climbing was an escalator. I was so startled I bounced out of the
meditative state into full wakefulness. It took a while for me to find my way
back to my spot on my mountain, but eventually I did.
Sure enough the escalator was still there. It was always
there. I’d failed to notice its noiseless upward glide while I trudged up my
mountain. I wanted to trudge. All the sacred books said the spiritual path is a
grind. So I grounded. What is the use of not having stories of struggle to
garnish my spiritual journey? I demanded that my path of spiritual expansion be
loaded with stories of struggle. I wanted my expanding consciousness to be a
test of strength and endurance. So that’s what I created. I even prided myself
on how much it took to make spiritual progress. Yes, grinding, trudging, and arduous
effort was the way of sages past and by golly it had to be my own as well. After
all I did aspired to be a sage.
My escalator was saying to me there are many paths to
sagedom. Although a particular admired sage had acquired wisdom from trudging, I
did not have to. All the wisdom is available to me now. I do not have to strive
for it, or walk any particular path. I simply have to ask of the Divine within
and allow that wisdom to surface within my consciousness. I know the world says
that anything worth having has to be earned. But the graces available upon the
spiritual path cannot be earned. It comes with the individual as an integral part of being, and can be received
the moment consciousness opens to it
I have been following the escalator route for quite some time
now. It is most satisfying. Whenever I doubt or question the wisdom I receive from
asking, then something would comes along to confirm the veracity of what I was
hearing from within. So here’s what I learned from that experience. I can
trudge or I can ride, the choice is always up to me. How I receive wisdom is
always up to me.
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