Journey To The Center Of Our Ego, Part 9

Shawn Tedrow

The next day the sky was again overcast; but on the 29th of June, the last day but one of the month, with the change of the moon came a change of weather. The sun poured a flood of light down the crater. Every hillock, every rock and stone, every projecting surface, had its share of the beaming torrent, and threw its shadow on the ground. Amongst them all, Scartaris laid down his sharp-pointed angular shadow which began to move slowly in the opposite direction to that of the radiant orb.

My uncle turned too, and followed it.

At noon, being at its least extent, it came and softly fell upon the edge of the middle chimney.

"There it is! there it is!" shouted the Professor.

"Now for the centre of the globe!" he added in Danish.

~ from A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne ~

What an exhilarating moment for Professor Lidenbrock, Axel, and Hans. One day Axel randomly decodes the ancient Runic writing, and on this day, the shadow that Arne Saknussemm had mentioned, is pointing to the way. It took the enduring faith of the professor to bring this revelation of a passageway into actuality.

Faith is an interesting subject, and I must admit, I have very little faith that this subject will be embraced by most of the Rambling Taoists on this blog.

In a previous post, I mentioned just like how William Morales discovered the Che Chem Ha Cave, we need to push aside the bush of doubt, and marvel at the wonders that were always there. In that statement, I wasn’t asking the reader to believe in something. I was asking the reader to remove their belief called doubt. Doubt is just as much a belief as belief is. Doubt has its beneficial moments and is good in the process to remove beliefs, but after it runs its course, it becomes a dogmatic belief system that needs to be discarded. Doubt becomes a block and an inhibitor to realizing Life's wonders.

A new borne child knows no doubt. The spontaneity of no-doubt, found in a child, is The Way. This innocent purity, of no-doubt, is how we should embrace each moment we live. This non-agnostic childlike attitude is living in the vibrancy of the moment. It allows for life to breathe freely and unencumbered by the belief in doubt.

Just like the appearance of this shadow was pointing the way to the entrance into the center of the earth, the spiritual life is not just a subjective experience that takes place in-between our ears.

Tao is like an ecosystem that we are a part of. Like a flower that opens its bud to the morning’s sun rising, we are interacting with Tao’s unseen (and seen) eco-energies.

Do you have this child’s faith? Do you live in this faith each moment of the day? Does your spirit feel the energy of Tao like a flower does in the early morning? Live there unencumbered by the belief in doubt.

To end this post and this series, I will leave us all with the words of Hans, Professor Lidenbrock, and Axel, after they witnessed this pivotal moment of direction in their life to enter into the center of the earth.

I looked at Hans, to hear what he would say.

"Forüt!" was his tranquil answer.

"Forward!" replied my uncle.

Now began our real journey. Hitherto our toil had overcome all difficulties, now difficulties would spring up at every step.

You can check out Shawn's other musings here.