A WISDOM MOMENT OF TRUST

“If you can’t cross over alive, how can you cross when you’re dead?”

~ Kabir

The need to step into what we fear and, in so doing, disperse its hold on us is powerfully brought to life by a moment in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. After searching everywhere within reason and memory for the Holy Grail, Jones stands on an enormous precipice, a deep chasm before him, the Grail waiting on the other side. His father, wounded and depending on the Grail to heal, cries out possible interpretations of the clues Jones has been given to reach the Grail.

After what seems like a lifetime of inner debate and escalating fear, he dares, against everything he knows, to step into the void above the chasm, and as he does, an enormous stone foundation appears beneath his feet, a bridge that was there all along.

This is a moment of risk and trust, a wisdom moment that repeats itself in our lives in both small and large ways. Over and over, the cup we need to drink from, the ancient ever-healing cup of wholeness waits beyond some deep chasm we are afraid to cross.

Often we are driven to the edge by the cries and clues of elders and loved ones, only to find that nothing makes sense, that there seems nowhere to go. And then the atom of risk begins to replay itself in those brought to the edge.

Then, when all known ways of seeing have failed, we sometimes dare to step into the void. Whether that void is a chasm of purpose or self-esteem or a ravine in relationship or a canyon of addiction, this crazy-wisdom step - that begins with risk and lands in trust - reveals a foundation that was there all along, but which is only made visible by our risk to think and see in new ways and out trust to step in to what we fear.

~ Breathe deeply and know that even the smallest moment of risk and trust is difficult.

~ Center yourself and meditate on a chasm of your own making.

~ It might be a trench of stubbornness or pride that no one can cross, or the echo of your own pain that isolates you , or the vastness that builds when you are afraid to tell someone the truth of your heart, or the absence of belief that you deserve what waits on the other side.

~ Lean into your chasm gently until the fear subsides.

~ Lean into your chasm and offer, through your breathing, a wordless compassion for yourself and all others in our very human struggle to step with risk and land with trust.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo