The Higher the Climb, the Better the View

By Lanaria Amberkira, The Netherlands

When still in our mother’s womb, we are one with the primordial essence. In our essence, we are as newborn children. We instinctively do what is good for us, without even having to think about it. We have unconditional confidence in our environment and in others. There is no conflict between our thoughts, our emotions and our instincts.

As our lives progress, our personality changes. We lose the primordial innocence as we are forced to adapt to adulthood in a society that deprives us of individuality and free choice. Our essence is gradually altered through environment, work, relationships and the things that are done to us and the things we do unto others. In our lives, we are victims and perpetrators at the same time, innocent yet responsible. During our life’s journey, we become alienated from our essence, from our true selves. This alienation may cause life to become useless or meaningless, a source of suffering.

Every human being is in a lifelong process of development towards higher forms of consciousness. However, many are stuck in their own prison, in the self-imposed spiritual confinement. Obviously, life comes with many ups and downs, with mishaps and calamities at every corner. But even though some calamities are unavoidable, many stem from a distorted vision, a biased judgement influenced by our own environment.

Signposts indicate the way, but you must take the journey yourself.

Many of the so-called calamities in life are the result, not of mere circumstance, but of our own cardinal sins. Wrath, envy, pride and so on. Our gluttony kills animals and forests. Our aggressiveness and fear have led to war and the arms race. Anger and greed lead to destruction and starvation. Sloth, or better yet, indifference, allows for much evil in this world, for as Edmund Burke’s famous proverb goes: “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.”

The question is whether and how we can overcome our obstacles, how our actions are in accordance with the divine, spiritual laws of our path of life, and whether we express our energies in a positive way.

Do you have feelings, or do your feelings have you?

Our inner guidance helps to distinguish moralism from true morality, guilty feelings from actual guilt, false pride from real strength. Let go of what seems ‘good’ and try to return to our essence. Our essence of unconditional love and trust and in harmony with our thoughts, emotions and our instincts. As Joseph Campbell once said: “The best we can do is lean toward the light, that is to say, intend the light, and what the light is, is that of the harmonious relationships that come from compassion, with suffering, understanding of the other person.”

The path of life is a solitary one, yet there are guides, counselors, soul and conscience. We are never alone, not even in our own quest. For, again from Joseph Campbell: “We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a God. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outwards, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

We humans, we all have feelings, emotions, thoughts, in the past, now, and in the future, from anywhere in the world, from Asia to North America, so we are unique, and not so unique, even very similar to others. We were all been unborn, carried all in the belly of our mother, we all have the same blood, and from the earth we are born, and in the earth we shall return. It is how we deal with life and what choices we make.

Reach out, help each other, stimulate one another. This age, above all others, needs our compassion, our creativity and our propensity for love. Only by truly reaching out can we create a world without wars, where love becomes the foundation of a new society, where we really live together, where equality applies and respect for all that lives.

If we lose contact with the wisdom of our heart,  our soul, our love, nothing else helps. If we love, the rest is superfluous. Let’s not put or hold the love within us in prison, and let us release that love in the world. In this world where darkness increases and where love is the only remedy.

As the Gospel of Thomas says: “The Kingdom of the Father is spread out over the Earth, and men do not see it.”