Why do we ‘take’ leaps? Why don’t we ‘leave’ them? Literally and figuratively. Are we not leaving things behind when we move forward? What are we leaping from and toward what?
Leaps seem somehow to be tangible opportunities as real as anything we can touch with our hands, yet they must begin as jumps from within. In this way something enfolded becomes unfolded, like falling through the air into water far below - for a moment we are terrified and thrilled, saying inside, “I’m going to take a chance that I can get from here to there, even though I’m not sure how or if I’ll make it, and my own instincts scream opposition.” The feeling of surviving is why leaps are so compelling that our lives eventually shape around them. Ahhh, to have been afraid and come through alive, whole and exhilarated – courage rewarded with ecstasy. {splash}
The moments I feel most transcendent ecstasy are when I feel like I see me in everyone, and often everything, else. it’s a palpable recognition that I am, me: we. One. Can you make that leap? Can I? Don’t wait for some religious experience, just know that after enlightenment the world still looks like it does, light still behaves the same, and you are just as one with all that is as you were before. This IS it. {splash}
Lately my internal verbal guidance comes with the voice of a man just like me, only wiser, who’s words wholly complete my experiences, brings me resolution, and organizes my disorganized reality enough to get me through another day still looking on the bright side. Kind of like ‘Conversations With God’ but its for me and not Neil. I’ll do an example right now while I write.
Me: “Do you have any suggestions of content that would further illuminate the subject heading for anyone reading?”
Me 2: “Sure. Remind them how precious it is to watch a sunset or a baby coo and babble. Let them know that that same ‘transcendance’ is available all the time as a way of life.”
And neither of those things I/we mentioned are ‘unknown’ either! but have you ‘leapt’ into one? Given yourself fully to the experience? Best times of your life? or are you falling off the back of the heaping wagon of natural riches and need to go out and get your fix right now? Regardless, everyone has seen a sunset or a baby, and given our attention each is a whole world of wonderment. {splash}
In this way – leaping with full attention into the known (personal e.g., who I think I am, what I think a day should be) I am unraveling the organized me, in a sort of farewell tour of my ‘old’ life, that is, life in the old evolutionary perspective – ‘the way its always been’. leaping to reach for a new state of evolution, another step in the relatively brief journey of homo sapiens into a higher level of complexity of awareness. The brain as a sensory organ. This level requires little active thought. More consciously receptive thought and action are the name of the game. Reflexive support for or agreement with fear has been conquered by eons of hunting, warfare, civilization and economy. Its the 21st Century, for Christ’s sake, and we’ve come a long way! The time spent by those that have gone before us has given me (and anyone) the chance for freedom from fear in one’s daily life. Now you can stand your body up not for fight or flight, or to better anyone but yourself.
{leap}
The hitch (yo, Ann Rand?) is that falling from this angle, I am You. I find the water to be land and the enemy to be in my own heart. Harm that befalls you is harm that befalls me, even if it takes me a while to eventually notice it, understand it and organize it into a new way of living and being, thinking and acting. But such a leap allows me to truly see that pure, unadulterated self-interest (i.e., greed, defensiveness, narcissism) is counterproductive to any hopes for happiness I or those in my heart might have. “Pursuit of Happiness” indeed! Those old coots didn’t know the word L-O-V-E.
In this way the whole world is rising. Even myopically self-interested systems have lead to more interwoven cohesion (see sociology and economics), and the necessary recognition that working well together is the only viable option. Fear and violence no longer flies the flag far. The human being has seen and heard too much. We can hear MLK’s voice. We can see Gandhi walk on film with our own eyes. These raw, you-tubeable experiences are very real and tangible, open to leaving a direct impression. People, many people, have publicly walked into freedom in our lifetimes, and left strong impressions very near to us. Black Americans and South Africans, Nelson Mandela and Eastern Block Communists, The Beatles, Bob Dylan. You can buy tapes by Deepak Chopra and Carolyn Myss and go study with energy healer Barbara Brennan. Each separated from us by a thin veil, barely perceptible, for we are so close to just wafting through it ourselves. See the whole final premise of the Celestine Prophecy.
In this way too, sacrificing your very life itself to a higher order becomes the very key that opens the door to the higher level. But this no longer a simple sacrifice of flesh and blood, like war or toil. The pain of revenge or hate or pride or hedonistic blood-lust are trumped by the joy of the soul at the experience of surrender to a greater power (see Alcoholics Anonymous materials)!
So ask, if you should step forward with complete fuck-it-all passion, “Where is my deepest commitment? Is it to stay safe from experiencing more fear or conquering and transcending fear itself? Is it to experiencing more pain or rage or healing or transcending the sour pain of rage altogether? Is it for pain you cannot even recognize? Is it healing or transcending? is there a diff?”
Besides, what do I do when I know the answer to these Q’s?
Forget them all and walk forward. Let go of the stories altogether, say little, play lots, move on, jump again.
