| CLIMBING MOUNTAINS |
In passing through life we acquire aspirations, goals, mountains to
climb.
I have created a lot of goals during my long life. Each demanded
attention and focus and action. The direction was always the future.
When I grow up I’m going to be: Tarzan, an Indian, a marine
biologist, a medical technologist, an artist, a teacher, a master
potter… a lover, a husband, a father, a son, a famous person. All
things I wanted to be in the future. All mountains to climb.
I did accomplish the above in some way or other. Much has to do with
definitions. When do you know you have succeeded in reaching your
goal? When do you say you’re done, finished?
Perhaps my desire to be an artist illustrates a common denominator
of man’s character. Ever since I can remember I created things, I
painted, I drew, I wrote. Something subconsciously drove me to
creating art. Well, fine. However, I wanted to be good, the best,
famous as an artist. That was my goal. What I found was whenever I
had any degree of success, I was not satisfied. I merely raised the
bar higher, setting a new goal.
Each time I got to the top of a mountain, rather than enjoy it’s
view, I chose another bigger mountain to climb, another goal.
Eventually, and thank goodness, I saw the pattern of always raising
the bar. So I felt enlightened. I could keep raising the bar
endlessly, or I could accept that I was already there, already
successful. It is a state of mind that can’t be measured by
accomplishments. When you reach this level, what’s the use of
setting another goal? Why bother? You are already enlightened! There
is no future. You are already there.
Now I am depressed. I’m bored. What’s the use of doing anything? I’m
already there. I live in the moment. There is no exhilaration, no
direction, no looking forward. Is it that you are born, you live a
span of time, and then you die? Is that it?
Or are goals an essential part of being alive, being human? I think
we have these things, these mountains to climb, as part of our
purpose in life. When I see the cartoons of the great guru sitting
with his long hair and beard on top of the mountain giving sage
advice to some climber, I wonder what that great guru does all day.
Is he bored? Is he dead? We are not without our human conditions of
body, mind, emotions and spirit. Until we leave our bodies in death
we contain all conditions. Hunger, reason, joy and anger, and a
sense of some higher intelligence are all operating in us.
I want to feel alive. I want goals. I want the highs and lows of
trying to reach a new height. I want another mountain to climb. I
don’t care anymore about succeeding (a changing condition anyway).
However, I do want to move gracefully and happily through life. If
these new mountains excite me, and I can approach them with
enthusiasm and love, then I will be on the right path no matter
where it leads. I will be the viewer and the view. I will be the
mountain range and more.
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