There is a little story about a jumping mouse, that some of you may or may not have heard. It goes something like this ... There once was this unusual little mouse that had the ability to jump high into the air, above the fields and trees. The rest of his community and companions, however, did not believe they had this ability and thought their friend was a little freaky. They felt that by his jumping he was putting himself at risk to the larger predators including the birds that circled, hunting for prey. You see, the rest of the community spent the majority of their time traveling from place to place in their underground tunnels. This they believed kept them safe and out of harms way.
Their risk taker buddy, on the other hand, would rise up above the earth, would see the expanse of the blue sky and the earth below, taking in all the beauty there was to behold. He didn't seem to have much fear of the predators and was always encouraging the others to test out their jumping skills, so that they too, may share in the vision of our jumper! The rest of the mice refused. When our little jumper would come back from his adventures and share of the sights he had seen, the others thought he was simply crazy! They didn't really believe in the existence of all the clouds, the wide array of colors from the flowers and trees. They only knew the dark, constriction of their tunnels and the long stems of grass that helped to keep them secluded from other creatures. Their view was quite limited. They couldn't even imagine the scenes, since they didn't have anything to compare it to.
The jumping mouse, once he began to see and learn from this spacious vision, could no longer be hemmed into the dark tunnels of fear, disbelief, and survival for his life mentality. Though he often felt alone and separate, he could not find it in himself to return to the old ways of his community. His journey had begun, and he followed the horizon, jumping his way into a new paradigm!
I love this story. It often becomes a guide for my perception, calling me to check into where my vision is. Am I running around in the dark tunnels of my mind's stories, fears, insecurities? Or am I jumping up to get the big expansive view, free from identification with my little self.
Along this journey, the majority of us most likely fluctuate between these two perspectives. But there are many in our world, who may not even be aware that they live whole lives in these tunnels of darkness and tunnel vision. I have found there are levels of programming that we are all indoctrinated in. These may be societal, religious, familial, or nationalistic. All of these, if they are from indoctrination, rather than ones own personal inquiry and experience, stem from the lower centers of our consciousness. All of these keep us in a tunnel, unaware of the vastness of choices, expressions and visions which expand our mind and hearts.
What exactly are these tunnels constructed of? In general, it seems much of this 'material' can be classified as our attachments and internal stories. Attachments to our likes and dislikes; to our opinions; to our judgments; to our fears and projections of others; our addictions and secrets; to our dogma; to our buying into mass fears of the 'other' and the beliefs the 'other' holds. We also build these tunnels or box ourselves in through false stories we believe about ourselves. These are often stories about our lack of's: worth, loveability, capability, importance . . . and not to forget, our perception overall that we, as human beings, are just our ego-identified selves. We believe we are only these bodies, the stresses, the emotions and all of our crazy thoughts, the personality.
If we stop to think about each of these categories, I have no doubt each of us has felt stuck and trapped in this kind of awareness, at some time or another. Doesn't it feel like we are boxed in? or only seeing tunnel vision and scurrying around trying to get free from the cause of these experiences or ourselves? Don't we feel as sense of constriction and tightness in our bodies? Isn't there some sort of survival mechanism that is kicked up within us? I don't know about you, but I get an overwhelmed sense of being limited in my options, powerlessness and all I can see and feel is the pain of my problem. My heart is not open and I feel like I am walking around in some sort of blindness, even though my eyes are wide open.
Our task is, or I will go even further to say our responsibility to our Self is to jump! As ever evolving spiritual beings, it is our responsibility to rise above the limited, programmed, boxed in, tunnel visioned perceptions. We must call on that jumping mouse, to be brave and raise our consciousness and awareness to a higher level.
One of the first steps in doing this, is to realize when we are living in a box, when we are traversing the same tunnels of darkness. We have recognize our actions which to lead to repeating patterns that continue to create constriction in our being and of our vision. Recognize when we are not merely having a preference, which soon passes, but when we are stuck in a preference, expecting and demanding that preference be met. Or, when we are in a judgmental state, creating discord in ourselves or maybe others, based on some idea we refuse to let go of and insisting others hold the same belief. Unless we realize our boxes, we can't break the walls of it down.
Once we begin to 'see' clearly and have examined our self, we are learning to jump to a higher view point. When we begin to 'let go' of what we are clinging to, in whatever form that takes for each of us, we are jumping even higher! And once we truly let go, we have reached the vantage point of our jumping friend! Our internal sky becomes blue, colors are brighter, we breathe easier, and our bodies and minds begin to expand! This is the taste of freedom. Freedom from the entanglements of the mind and it's limited ideas!
Like the jumping mouse, we see there isn't as much to be fearful of as we may have thought. The more time we spend catching our moments of tunnel vision, the easier it becomes to rise out of it.
These repeated experiences of seeing clearly and letting go, allows us then to identify more with our expansive, spacious nature of witness consciousness. We become more aware of the reality that we ARE NOT any of these stories, dogmas, fears, emotions or our body!
Although it is often difficult and sometimes carries it's own sorrow, we can not refuse to learn to jump based on our companions and community. These points of growth, in connection to those close to us, are slippery places where we need to stay even more diligent in our awareness to not get stuck in the tunnel. In the larger part of this picture still, it is our birthright and ultimate purpose of these Souls, in these bodies, to grow, evolve and return to Truth. We will all find it when we reach it, this Truth. Many paths and many languages, all bring us to this Truth. This realization can not be had when we are scurrying around unconsciously in our tunnels or sitting safely in our boxes. As we each evolve, the timings may be different from those close to us, yet, we must move forth as our higher Self calls. It is another lesson in learning, we are not these personalities we identify with, nor our feelings. So while we need to address these along the way, we need to do so with a sense of higher awareness and consciousness.
So, here's to our little mouse teacher! May we all be jumping, jumping, jumping along our evolutionary spiritual journey!
XO~
