The Tightrope Walk of Spirituality

It is a razor-fine line we all walk, to hold steady to our own truths, yet to also be open to new truths that other souls may bring into our lives. One one side is arrogance and surety, which are both just disguised fear of being wrong. The other side is compliance and loss of self, which are sacrifices made in order to feel sure, which brings us back to fear again. The deeper we delve into spirituality, the more we hang our sense of self and our self-esteem upon it, and ironically, the more susceptible we are to our fears and insecurities. 

Thus for anyone on the Vertical Path, the most important question we can ask ourselves is "what if this belief I hold dear is wrong?" The more we recoil in fear from this question, the more we must honestly examine that belief. If, instead of fear, we sense a simple feeling of un-right-ness, of lack of resonance with our soul, we know that, at least for now, this truth is our own. 

Problem is, not only is such a question unpleasant to ask ourselves, but the paths of arrogance or compliance are far easier than the path of self-honesty.   It is easy to lock our beliefs into place, it is easy to allow others to dictate our truths.  It is damned hard to always question ourselves.  But if we can get ourselves to a place where we can do this, the rewards are huge. Only when we achieve self-honesty can we truly have compassion for others, because these personal insights allow us to understand the actions of others.  We can see that when someone does something that upsets us, they do it because of their own imbalances.  This compassion brings us great inner serenity, because it allows us to "accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference."