Selfless Climbing versus Ego Climbing
Phaedrus wrote a letter from India about a pilgrimage to holy Mount Kailas, the source of the Ganges and the abode of Shiva, high in the Himalayas, in the company of a holy man and his adherents.
He never reached the mountain. After the third day he gave up exhausted, and the pilgrimage went on without him. He said he had the physical strength but that physical strength wasn't enough. He had the intellectual motivation but that wasn't enough either. He didn't think he had been arrogant but thought that he was undertaking the pilgrimage to broaden his experience, to gain understanding of himself. He was trying to use the mountain for his own purposes and the pilgrimage too. He regarded himself as the fixed entity, not the pilgrimage or the mountain, and thus wasn't ready for it. He speculated that the other pilgrims, the ones who reached the mountain, probably sensed the holiness of the mountain so intensely that each footstep was an act of devotion, an act of submission to this holiness. The holiness of the mountain infused into their own spirits enabled them to endure far more than anything he, with his greater physical strength, could take.
To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climbers place one foot in front of the other. Both breathe in and out at the same rate. Both stop when tired. Both go forward when rested. But what a difference! The ego-climber is like an instrument that's out of adjustment. He puts his foot down an instant too soon or too late. He's likely to miss a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees. He goes on when the sloppiness of his step shows he's tired. He rests at odd times. He looks up the trail trying to see what's ahead even when he knows what's ahead because he just looked a second before. He goes too fast or too slow for the conditions and when he talks his talk is forever about somewhere else, something else. He's here but he's not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be farther up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then it will be "here." What he's looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn't want that because it is ​all around him. Every step's an effort, both physically and spiritually, because he imagines his goal to be external and distant.
Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
What does taking each footstep as an act of devotion toward something holy mean to you? How do we develop ourselves to be selfless climbers and not ego-climbers? Can you share a personal story where the difference between the two became clear to you?
Are they not one?
Climb not to get to the top, but to feel your existence and experience something greater! Intentionally turn back and train your spiritual body!
I Feel that Ego is just a vibration or facet or part of Soul/Spirit. and the 2 are only separate by degrees. Who is it that seeks the spiritual path? who is it that seeks the material path? Who is it that wants to save the world, or reach out and help someone else, Who is it that wants to please the self? Isn't it all Spirit? Isn't every breath we Breathe every step we take Inspiried? Who is it that gets frustrated when things are difficult? or overjoyed because things are wonderful? Ego is our motivation, it is the personality/character of the Spirit, we Need Ego to manifest and experience creation, even if through ego we choose negativity or selfishness or lack of gratitude,They are all experiences that Allow Spirit to know Who He/She really IS.
Giving a hand to get something in return, name, fame and the like is ego-climbing.Giving a hand expecting nothing in return is selfless climbing. When we do such actions in our everyday for people we know or do not know is a spiritual way of living. I experience such simple acts of selfless and kindness everyday which makes my day. Such actions do not have to be big or heroic. Such actions are holy actions. I see such actions in the school where I teach, in Trader Joes where I shop, and places I am not familiar.They are not pre planed and pre meditated. They are natural and spontaneous. These acts come from the heart, not the calculating mind. The more we get "schooled", the more we lose the natural ways of living.
Jagdish P Dave
For the last 30 years or so I have lived without a destination, physically and metaphorically.. I have lived moment to moment, taken life as it happened and responded to it intuitively. This has allowed me to experiment and to experience deeply. A lot of physical and intellectual baggage has fallen by the way. I can now feel and express myself much more easily, sometimes even gracefully. I can now play many roles and switch easily from one to the other.
I smile and life more often. I often cry like a child. .Almost nothing shocks me. My senses, particularly the sense of touch have really come alive. There are no strangers any more. The whole universe appears like a symphony.
I have no need to visit the so called holy places. All is holy, sacred and auspicious.
