Another Thought

I made some notes on some of the "thoughts" that crossed my mind while in India. One of those might be more broadly useful to share: What are we to make of "mountain top experiences"? Having experienced these kinds of things numerous times over the course of my life, the experience itself, was/is not new to me. But they took on a new meaning for me after some reflection in India. All my life I've heard people speak about the effect of mountain top experiences and how to "manage" that as we go back into our regular life. Perhaps you've heard some of these: They are to recharge our batteries and to give us energy to continue on when we return to daily life in the valley, or, they are to give us a "boost" and raise our "performance level" much as athletes train in mile-high Denver before competing in sea-level sports events, or, they provide that boost so that we are able to work consistently at higher levels much as mountain climbers acclimate at a base camp before attempting the final assault on a peak.

But as I reflected it struck me that there is a difference between the "effect" of a mountain top experience and the "purpose" of a mountain top experience. You see, years ago I was a US Army Infantry officer, and we trained, among other things, in land navigation: how to read maps and get where you're going in an unfamiliar area. And when you're in an unfamiliar area and you have someplace you want to get to, there is a purpose, a reason, for going to the mountain top. It isn't for the emotional or spiritual battery charging, though the vistas from the mountain top are often beautiful and breath-taking. Nonetheless, that is not why you go there.

You go there because, from the heights, you can get a good view of the surrounding terrain, you can review where you've been, you can check where the best routes forward may be, and most of all, you can reassure yourself that you are still on track to the objective you want to reach, or make the necessary course corrections so that you will achieve your objective.

This was a key event in my trip to India. The good news is that you don't have to go to India in order to make this kind of review. A few questions will do it. Where do you want to go? What is the purpose in your life? How do you intend to get there? How've you been doing? What course corrections are necessary? What potential dangers may lie in the terrain ahead? How are you going to deal with them? I don't have all the answers for my own life, but I have begun the process of working on them. And I know where I want to go.