I used the sea of consciousness and the spiritual mountain metaphor in earlier articles in this series on spiritual growth.Now I want to add another metaphor, one that can also give a visual reference to my words, a ladder.The Sea of Consciousness is the universal un-manifested potential.The Spiritual Mountain reflects the manifesting of that universal potential which does exist on the physical plane but has no realization of its own inherent spirituality.The ground on which the ladder stands is that base, the virtual sea of humanity in physical incarnation but mostly unaware that there is more to life than the dense physical.I have previously described the awakening process as very slow, an emerging from a cocoon of denseness that takes many prods and tickles from the universe.Once we have metaphorically sat up, rubbed our eyes and realized more is possible, the ladder then comes into play.There are no free rides from the universe.You build your own ladder through your total experience.You will have earned the right to the ladder that leads you from the dense physical to full consciousness.You just did not realize you were building that ladder while you were asleep in matter or beginning to wake up.Each experience contributes to the overall whole of the experience.The moment you realize in the smallest possible way that there is or can be more, you move out of that dense base layer and step up to the first rung on an incredibly tall ladder.I hope you built your ladder strong, sturdy and level while you were asleep in matter because you are going to use that ladder to climb level by level into the heights of spiritual consciousness.As you climb onto that first rung, you can see that there is more than you realized, more possibility, more development, more use of yourself.You can also see others climbing on a similar journey up their own individual ladders.You are not alone.There are companions.Obviously there are not as many others as in the sea of humanity in which you shared that former sleep.The masses are still asleep in matter and the experience of spirit.But now your awareness knows that is not all there is to life and living.What is the good news? You do have company.You may struggle with your first few experiences.Some may even drop back into that sea because they need a few more tickles from the universe to wake up enough to recognize the ladder they themselves are building.Eventually all will awaken, but we are only concerned with your awakening at the moment.You are on your own bottom rung.You are enough awake at this point to start your climb.As you rub your sleepy, puzzled eyes, ou may not be aware that you have earned that position while asleep in matter.Company As you look around you may make contact with some of other awakened sleepers and you can share in a common experience, like classmates.Occasionally you will be guided or taught by someone on a higher rung.You will start to build your awareness, perhaps singly, perhaps collectively.Personal effort and experience will help you strengthen the bottom rung of that ladder.You would not want to climb a very tall ladder with a weak bottom rung would you? It is important that you take your time to learn those initial lessons thoroughly, to strengthen that ladder of consciousness and to build toward the moment when you can climb one more rung.There is no hurry.The universe exists in timelessness.You can use all the time you need.There are no real mistakes here.If you make what you or some other well-intentioned person thinks is a mistake, it is not a mistake.It is more a lesson for where you do and do not belong in your journey.Not everyone "succeeds" at every lesson at any level but particularly this can be particularly true for this first rung.Suspected failure cannot be such because the universe discards nothing.It merely transforms it into some other use, such as matter to energy and energy to matter.Not everyone you meet will succeed with their initial attempt.It is important only that you try and that you learn from that trying.Not everyone slowly awakening can make the whole journey with you as each journey is individual and personal.Some of these companions will still be visible from the next rung, some will not.This is your personal ladder and each rung must be earned and reinforced to strengthen the whole of your spiritual ladder.Your entire ladder and each succeeding run will only be as strong as your best efforts on each rung.Companions may come and go as pieces of each journey match up, but companions can also change from level to level.Your job is to do your personal journey to the best of your ability, learning as you go, climbing each ladder rung as you are able, repeating as necessary, recognizing "failure" for what it is - a different path, and rejoicing in each obvious victory.
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