Jumping On and Off This Magical Rope

Jumping On and Off This Magical Rope
by Shawn Tedrow

We must get to the place where all of our conditions and beliefs on what enlightenment and truth is or isn't becomes painfully meaningless, where one's preferential spiritual understanding and knowledge doesn't work anymore, and going off the cliff of all our human understanding becomes our only option. (Please note that I am not suggesting pursuing and trying to get this to happen).

This is when all of our philosophy that we are grasping on to and all our transcending efforts abruptly cease and come to an end. But what is so strange and perplexing, in order to get to this critical point, it was all of our useless contextual philosophizing and egoic efforts that we are letting go of and divorcing ourselves from that actually bring us to this hot-point of a spiritual crossroad. What has been realized to be useless had usefulness.

There was a time when I visualized this spiritual journey we are on as being a magical rope that is suspended vertically in air, starting from the earth’s crust and extending up beyond the heavens. Very much like a Jack and the Beanstalk scenario.

Some of us are moved within to jump onto this rope by faith and begin journeying upward, not-knowing where we are going, like inspired pilgrims on an expedition-odyssey headed towards uncharted living.

This rope represents our sincere interactive engagement with our spiritual journey which involves deep heart workings accompanied with very intense thinking.

As we struggle and climb upward, below our feet this rope is aflame, burning-up and disintegrating. We keep climbing and ascending upward but below our feet this rope keeps on being reduced to ashes (there is no turning back).

Finally, we get to what feels like the end of the rope at the top, but this burning flame keeps moving upward all the way into our hands grip. The heat is unbearable so we let go into a freefall. As we are falling, besides knowing that there isn’t a rope to grab onto, we realize there is no ground below us. There is nothing solid to fix onto period. There is only Source.

Falling, we seamlessly blast through the minuscule cell of the never ending universe that we have been living in with a weightlessness-sense that self was left behind.

This Magical Rope...the paradoxical unnecessary-necessary.

You can check out Shawn's other musings here.