Climbing A Mountain The similarities between climbing a mountain and the spiritual life are referred to a lot in spiritual literature. Interestingly, the Buddha does this rarely, to my knowledge. When we climb up, all we can see in front of us is where the next footstep will land. We need to be particularly attentive when the path is slippery or uneven. If we want to look around and see where we are, it is better to stop and do so. Sometimes we stop and we can see the view. So it is with our practice. There are times we have to look around and reflect on what we are doing and why. But the purpose is not to get stuck and carry on thinking and worrying. Stopping too long on a mountain makes us feel cold and before long we want to go back down. So once we’ve got our bearings, we proceed step by step. Every so often in our lives we can look at the view, look at the past and see what progress we have made. Sometimes it might feel we have not come very far while at others we can see just how much we have changed. If we see no progress, it could be that we’re doing something wrong or perhaps we have spent a long period working through stuff and are still in the midst of it. But when we look back over a good stretch of time – four or five years – if we’ve been constant in our practice, we should certainly see improvement both in our interior life and our lives in society. Now, no mountain is an easy climb. There are hard bits and easy bits, but all the way it is against gravity. Similarly with the spiritual path. The Buddha warned us it would be gradual and difficult. After all, just as we have to work against gravity to go up a mountain, so we must work against the mountainous drag of unskilful conditioning. There is a conversation with a doubting practitioner. He complains that the path is hard. The Buddha replies that it is, but people work at it and achieve Nibbana. ‘Nibbana! So what?’ replies the complainant. ‘Well,’ says the Buddha, ‘once you get through all this work, you will be contented and with it happy.’ So, just as that feeling of conquest and joyful arrival greets us at the top of a mountain – especially if there’s a café there – so when we finally get through all our work, we can drink of the fruit – contentedness (which means no longer harassed by sensual desires) and a heart that rests in joyfulness. But to bring us back down to ground level, this is our work. The nitty-gritty of the spiritual life. Just that commitment – against all the negativity within us that wants us to stop and go and have a coffee – to establishing moment-to-moment mindfulness. Let’s do it! Let’s devote this day to developing a bright and constant awareness. - Bhante Bodhidhamma satipanya.org.uk/index.php?page=essays/encouragements/encouragements
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 21:05:11 +0000
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