Great Heights
Gunung Agung
A culture steeped in Hindu traditions, the Balinese people revere the tallest volcano on the island, summiting at an early age to bring her offerings.
Gunung Agung, Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩
Where does life feel alive again? Where do the senses awaken and the dead become undead? Where does spirit flow without effort both inward and outward to self and source?
11 long yet not-so-long years ago, I summited Gunung Agung, the tallest volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali. It was the volcano that created a tectonic shift in my own dealings with the world.
It was my first taste of freedom, much like how you feel when you drive a car all by yourself for the first time. The road ahead is wide open and this expansive feeling of possibility seeps in. The routes are endless, the destinations infinite, and the journey is sacred.
It showed me that life exists beyond the griping rigidity of routine. That living so, if we’re not careful, can slaughter our senses, cripple our vitality, and still the effervescence of our being.
There’s something hauntingly spiritual about walking through the night. Night is a grand conductor to guide us to the seat of the soul as darkness deprives us of everything that gets in the way of making contact with the deepest parts of ourselves.
The blackness sharpens everything. With nothing to see, clarity of what’s within is gained. The physical exertion silences the mind and that silence is compounded by the absence of noise all around. A long draught of water both tastes and feels like the elixir of life. There is an earthy grounding that happens with each push-off of the foot, pressing firmly into the stone mountain, absorbing and channeling its sturdy, steady strength, felt through the muscles and into the very marrow of bone.
Clouds at arm’s reach
“Excuse me while I touch the sky”
Jimi Hendrix
The connection with self penetrates deep into the body. Reality surpasses the constraints of time and space. There is only the moment at hand and the only task is to advance to the next.
Breath, once taken for granted, reclaims its title as life-giving & is ravenously devoured when there are breaks in the climbing.
The cool air is piercing & invigorating. Everything feels so alive it crackles with electricity.
All this achieved only through innocent, unsuspecting & unexpecting eyes. Ones that are filled with innocent wonder with every turn, stop, and inhale.
The reward at the top enrichens the experience tenfold. The sun gently rises, turning black to indigo & its various hues. The rest of the colors arrive in timely order, illuminating the clouds that are but at arm’s reach. There’s a collective silence.
At such great heights, there is only respect and reverie, awe and appreciation, and a fullness for life and all the possibilities that are and that have not yet been dreamed.
At such great heights, all one sees is majesty, mysticism, and the infinite possibilities all around and within.
