I’ve always had a fascination with heights. Even as a child, I would imagine what I might see from the church steeple, the top of the highest mountain or on the other side of the clouds. My first actual view of a mountain as a teenager sent me into a frenzied desire to start climbing right there on the spot. The real need, of course, was to know what is “out there”…what is out there beyond the seeable.

We all know that Mt Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, topping over 29,000 feet. We all know about the challenge that comes with the undertaking, that despite the preparation and caution taken, lives are lost in the effort to reach the peak.

I’ve studied Mt Everest, but mostly in comparison to my own mountain trek, my climb to the top of Mt Clear Vision. The seriousness of climbing Mt Clear Vision should not be underestimated. It is a much greater undertaking than climbing Mt Everest. It demands greater vigor, commitment and self-determination. It demands everything of us and shows no mercy. Both require that we take only the barest of essentials, and even then success requires the letting go of even more along the way—in fact, a whole lot more than we could imagine beforehand. Both treks will test our meddle in unbelievable ways.

Like Mt Everest, Mt Clear Vision also has a “death zone.” However, it’s here at the death zone that similarities end. To reach the summit of Mt Everest, we must first survive the death zone, the final and most treacherous leg of the journey. We make it through the death zone and we stand triumphant.

To stand triumphant on the summit of Mt Clear Vision, on the other hand, we must die in the death zone. What am I saying? I am saying that to reach the ultimate height, a trek that we all will want to take sooner or later, we have to die…die to the ego. If we are going to reach the heights, if we are to attain clear vision, stand in elevated awareness, we must die to ourselves.

The higher we climb the more there is to see. The more we see, the more we understand. The more we understand the more the ego (personal) self dissolves. The more the ego dissolves the closer we are to seeing…understanding what is important. Start climbing. Keep climbing. Have faith. We all can do it. The time is now.