Traditionally, we think of life, achievement, motion in terms of linear progression. Growth which involves moving from A to B takes time. Building muscle, training for a marathon, losing weight require progressive overload over a period of time.
A different and much more compelling way of thinking about life is in terms of vertical ascension. Growth resulting from vertical ascension is not bound by time. We can make giant leaps within seconds. A realisation can transform our life instantaneously. A new understanding about ourselves can elevate our consciousness and change the trajectory of our future. For me, spiritual and intellectual growth are a matter of vertical ascension.
There’s still linearity to vertical ascension. As we remove the big blocks, smaller ones begin to appear. They were there on the first place but they were under the weight of the heavier, more onerous constraints, and as such our sensitivity to them was numbed.
As we elevate our consciousness and understanding, new paradigms of awareness become available. This also means that there’ll always be constraints. There’ll always be more suffering, more blockages to remove, more layers of restrictions to shed.
As we uplevel our consciousness, life gives us new opportunities for evolution. And to step to the next level, we need to unravel whatever is on the way and let go of further fears by confronting our preconceived notions about who we are and what we’re capable of.
At each level, there’s suffering, fear and resistance and any worthwhile growth entails doing the hard work of reckoning with them. We don’t have to play part and we can choose to stay at the level we are at, but it’s disabusing ourselves of the notion that there’ll ever be an ever-present peace that brings a new kind of peace.