The Ladder of Your Life - Which Rung are You on?
Posted: Thursday, January 20, 2011
by e
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
If a ladder represents our life, the rungs of our ladder represent our breakthroughs. Have you had one lately?
Sometimes we think that we have arrived at the top rung of our ladder. Nothing else needs to be done. All we have to do is hold on and hope no sudden wind blows us off.
And sometimes we become scared of the heights and want so much to climb down! But when we look below, all our old rungs have disappeared. Oh no.
As we look back on our particular ladder of life, whatever it is, there is usually the acknowledgement that new rungs have always been preceded by a change in heart. Without that change in heart, our new quasi rungs more often than not represent only a variation on the same theme where instead of standing on that new rung, we were merely dancing around on our old one. If our new rung is nothing more than what we aspired to in our heads, then true change never results, only preconceived change. Something we imagined.
We might think that we have to give up old familiar rungs in order to climb higher, but it doesn’t work that way. That would be an agenda of giving things up in our heads to get somewhere other than where we are. This is a sign of discontentment. Only when we are satisfied with our rung, when we completely accept what we are and where we are, does that new rung appear. When our hearts are still attached to the old rungs yet we force ourselves to climb up to that that new one, we would just have to climb back down in time.
If we see ourselves striving for a new rung and then acquiring it, that is not a true new rung. That is a pretend rung, a temporary stance that will quickly seek it’s own level, which is the lower rungs.
A new rung, a true one, is experienced only when we find ourselves mystically standing on that new rung, and notice that all the rungs below have lost a little of their interest for us without our trying in any way to change that interest. We have new things to do now. We now leave our playthings behind, no different than a child leaves his or her toys in the toy box while the child finds new meanings to their fledgling experience of life. It‘s not that we dislike the old rungs or want to get rid of them, it’s just that the passion has dimished, never to return in the same way.
When we are still and quite, when our mind slows down its frenetic pace and takes a rest, then we get hints and intimations about that next rung. Or after we experience a trauma of some kind where our mind can’t comprehend what’s happening or keep up with it, some kind of life changing incident; a debilitating illness, a loss, something that shocks us off our perch. Then a new rung can magically appear.
And when we first stand on that new rung, looking back at the old one, we wonder how we could have been so confused, so unseeing, so opinionated, so proud and self-assured, so callous to all that is happening around us in this measureless universe. But, alas, after we sit on our new rung for awhile and get used to it, hints about the next rung filter softly into our consciousness whispering for us to climb a little higher. “Come on,” our new rung says, “take a chance and leave that all behind“.
Part of us, however, wants to remain where we are. Climbing is so much trouble, so dangerous, scary, and we are just getting used to our new perch. So many will climb no higher. This is the top of their ladder.
But once in a while, there are those rare ones who can easily let go of each rung as they climb it, and as they let go, the climb is not even noticeable.
The danger is that each rung has it’s own capacity to trap us on its safe resting place where we can again go to sleep, and sometimes we fall so fast asleep that we can no longer let go. We rationalize that this is it, that there is nothing more. And we believe ourselves.
But even then, there are those times when a sudden insight into yourself and what you are doing with your life moves you higher, seemingly without your involvement. To understand in a flash, to know for certain that one’s life has been going down a dead end track can be traumatizing - all the rungs below us suddenly collapse and we fall face first to the ground. It can be as if our ladder itself no longer exists, and we find ourselves lost to everything, everyone, and we suddenly become terrified.
Rather than remain with this emptiness and fear, an emptiness and fear that is the hidden gateway to the freedom of the true sacredness inside of us, most will blindly grasp the first available rung that comes along. Then, instead of saving themselves for good, which means seeing through the illusion of ourselves and the illusions of life, we again embrace the illusions of a quasi sacredness of second hand knowledge and books that cement us to our new rung, probably for the rest of our lives.
The truth escapes us once again - the truth that all things change regardless of how secure our rung seems to be. That life, if viewed realistically and objectively, is loaded with stress of all kinds. And behind all of this change and stress, nobody is there, except just a thought, a phantasm, a bubble in a stream that can burst at any moment.
When we think that things do not change for the worse and then get blindsided when they do, the ladder gets heavier. When we think that life is endless fun and pleasure, and then find ourselves in an earthly hell, our ladder gets even heavier. And finally, when we think that there is someone behind it all, our selves separate from the sacred that must take responsibility for it all, then our ladder really get heavy.
So what rung are you on? What takes up every waking moment of your consciousness? That’s your rung. Can you go on to the next? Or does that rung you stand on have your number. Has it convinced you that you now know everything?
For people who are materially inclined, their ladder is comprised of simply getting more - more money, more things, more experiences, more fame and respect, and more friends. For people who are spiritually inclined, their rungs consist of authentic changes in character, shifts in consciousness.
When we are stuck on a particular rung, what keeps us from moving is the attachment we have with that rung. We become relaxed and secure to the point that any movement at all threatens our comfort zone. New rungs are risked usually only after one of those psychological ah ha moments, or when a radical change takes place in our circumstances.
Attachment is what keeps us from moving. For example, if that first rung represents the world to a spiritually inclined person, the next rung would float above the world just a little bit. This means that when we are on that second rung, we don’t turn our backs on the world, or on our friends, it’s just that we suddenly may have seen something that was previously out of sight. Maybe we saw in a flash of insight that the particular job we are doing is a little dishonest, or that we have become self centered in our interests to the point of rejecting others.
That flash of insight places us on our next rung. Once we really see what we are doing without the fog of attachment and habit patterns hovering over us, without the justification of doing whatever is necessary for our own pleasures and not caring about anyone not in our immediate family or group, we can never go back to the old rung in the same way.
Something has changed, something has shifted. And the old pursuits of worldly accumulations change to a pursuit of something else. Not quite so tangible, a little more difficult to explain where we suddenly see ourselves in a different light.
If we had previously thought of ourselves as primarily a business man, a teacher, a politician, now we see ourselves still much the same but the “Primarily” shifts from primarily a business man, teacher, or politician to primarily a religious person. This is the rung that many people perch on for life, a new direction where helping others and being a good person overrides any inkling to accumulate if that accumulation might cause pain to others. We begin to not only acknowledge others, but begin to see that there is more to life than only the apparent external things.
As this change takes place inside, and as we become comfortable on our religious rung, occasionally there is another one of those ah ha moments where the next rung is secured.
This new rung is loftier than the old rung where we may have thought that our particular religion and way of life was superior to everyone else’s, a carryover from when we were totally caught up our competitive worldly existence on rung one. Now a certain confidence arises where we have the courage to follow what we feel in our hearts. Our hearts become our authority, and even though we still follow the tenets and beliefs of our religion, a certain level of true freedom begins to take place as we begin to touch the sacred itself rather than the representation of the sacred that we have had to rely upon in the past.
This new rung, however, is not quite as comfortable and cozy as the old one. We find that we cannot become quite attached to this rung as we had with our old rungs because we now see the nature and bondage of attachment. And as well, we glimpse, maybe for the first time, our true potential which is slowly replacing a smug belief that we know.
And we find ourselves sincerely caring for others in our hearts, not just our immediate group and family, but all of humankind that is no different from us in our daily struggles within existence.
Life, which we at one time thought was a lark, now begins to reveal its realities.
So on this rung, instead of blindly following our religious tenets and laws, we find that something quite unique is happening inside - a freedom of expression where we truly love others regardless of their circumstances or their outward opinions or what they stand for. We have now reached a point of potentially truly loving our neighbors because we see that underneath us all is the same sacred ocean, with the different waves on top mere ripples that come and go.
The next rung may be when we acknowledge, through another flash of insight, that our minds continue to be clogged with insensitivity and self aggrandizement. We recognize that we have a long way to go before we are truly holy. It’s not as bad as it once was, but still unsettling. This is where we might surrender to that which is greater than we are, and allay all our thoughts and volitions to just sit quietly in the presence of that which is sacred.
This is where the rungs become quite lofty, where we begin to let go of our attachments to ourselves, and our rungs. Where we no longer hold on as tightly to our ideals and opinions and instead surrender to that which is greater, trusting that the wisdom of the sacred will instill in us the insight to cut through our remaining delusions.
At this stage, on this rung, we might understand in a flash, that all our thinking and discerning has been no more effective than a mosquito trying to bite an iron ball. We have changed in our hearts, but we know that the change is not the product of anything that we have done or accomplished. In reality, it is the effect of letting go, of direct seeing, of letting the sacred ease into our being as we relaxed our ambitions into its presence.
At this rung, as we see that we can really do nothing, we may actively pursue practices that help us let go and simply bask in the presence of that which is greater. We might begin seriously practicing meditation or contemplative prayer, practices which at one time were so boring, but now instill such love and peace in our hearts that we could not imagine being without the stillness and contentment they offer us.
Standing on this rung, admitting that we do not have all the answers and seeing that the questioner is no less than sacred itself, no longer are there any questions - only the absolute. This rung now becomes the true religious quest, no longer involved with accumulation of any kind. A letting go to the extreme where emptiness of all we ever thought we were ushers in our true selves.
So this rung involves a private, solitary quest, concerning the deepest and most serious question of all - a question that all the books and sermons could never adequately address for us. This is standing at the threshold of being face to face with the sacred.
This is standing on a ladder that never existed. We were always there, we never needed a ladder, but in our confusion, we never realized it.
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Top-level comments on this article: (8 total)There is a constant climbing or evolving of consciousness definitely and you have put it very nicely. This very thought provoking and needs to be read a couple of times to really understand and imbibe every word. I wouldn't come to conclusion immediately, but I definitely know that I am on one of the rungs of spiritual effort but still continue to perform imperfect actions. :-) Thank you.Thank you DM. Perhaps the capacity to just see our imperfections is in a way a perfection in itself.
Metta......e
Ray - I wish we had more people like yourself in Congress. Then there might be intelligent life on earth. As usual, you probe deeper than most of us as to the reasons why we think the way we do.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is attempting to go to a lower rung thinking they'll find happiness. "I'll turn back the clock and try and get the same kind of job I had 20 years ago because it was fun, and I was making good money then. I was younger then."
It doesn't work. We're not the same person we were 20 years ago, and we shouldn't try and be. We've moved on whether we like it or not. Hopefully we're more generous, less selfish, more wise.
But I'm still haunted by the spectre of Henry Fonda at the end of his life in the movie "On Golden Pond" telling his real-life daughter Jane, I think he said something like, "I can't tell you I've learned a dammed thing."
John SammonHa! I remember another of Henry's quotes, can't remember the movie, about lumberjacks or something, anyway he said something like, "Eating, sleeping, F---ing and working, that's all there is to life, son. Make anymore out of it and you'll end up in more trouble than you can think of."
Also love "Bonfires of the Vanities" author, Tom Wolfe's famous uttering, "You can never go home."
Thanks Sammon..........e
I'm getting closer to the rung of self-acceptance, it's been a bit of a climb but worth it. I probably sound like a broken record when I say this, but I really enjoyed this one E.I enjoy you, too Brianna. Maybe someday we can hang out on a rung together :)
Does that mean I never really needed to read this article in the first place?:-) Wow, wish you would have told me that about 2000 words ago,:-) that was an awful tall ladder there compadre. But worth it as usual. Thanks for the insight that I never really needed, because I'm already there, thank God!:-) Remember to keep that Thai food warm for me, would ya?I apologize. Seems I get longer winded every year!
Ummm, Thai food!
Thank David......e
“This probably describes my style of basking in creature comforts during those rare interludes when I happen upon them."
Yeah, but you can let go of them and never look back :)
Interesting quote from Jung.
There is a rung (so I’ve heard) that rises above even the idea of “me" or “my" life, or the past, or the desire for future experiences. It’s a rung that sits in the moment with nobody present, no past, no future, not even a present, but something is conscious of it. Which, when you analyze it by stringing each of the absurdidly still moments together, is a good definition of eternity, and a place beyond time and space.
Personally, I think some people get to take the elevator all the way to the top.Hah! Top of what? Usually that kind of elevator barely gets past the first rung.
A thought-provoking article if, perhaps, a little wordy. But a reminder of how important it is to be aware of where the universe wishes to take us and the need to let go of entrenched positions.Hi Ruth, Yep, I was shocked as well. I usually write a spiritual article very fast and in one sitting and record whatever comes into the mind once I focus on something, which I did here. And when I clicked on word count, I immediately thought to myself, "Boy, who is going to read this tome unless they really find it interesting"? So I'm glad you did.
Best ......e
Great article Rock, all the more so for someone that believes in the Karmic wheel! The human race sadly is a little disorientated right now and due to magnetic influences that slipped our attention we are all now furiously climbing up a ladder which is in fact upside down!!
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