January 1 – The first step depends on the last

By | January 1, 2020

Dear Friends,

A talk by Joseph Goldstein this summer started with this quote from René Daumal’s Mount Analogue:

Keep your eye fixed on the way to the top, but don’t forget to look right in front of you. The last step depends on the first. Don’t think you’re there just because you see the summit. Watch your footing, be sure of the next step, but don’t let that distract you from the highest goal. The first step depends on the last.

René Daumal, Mount Analogue

As Joseph comments, the last step depends on the first – we have to take the first steps… maybe we’re doing that today… Starting the year off with meditation and reflection!

That first step also depends upon the last. Joseph says, “The direction of our journey, the direction of our first steps depends on our understanding of what the last step is. It’s helpful to have that comprehensive view of the direction that we’re going in.”

If you’re familiar with the many lists in Buddhism, you’ll notice that equanimity (one translation of upekkha, also translated as equipoise or balance) tends to show up at the end of the lists – the fourth of the brahma viharas, the seventh of the factors of awakening, the tenth parami, and a characteristic of a higher level of concentration. As such, equanimity might be seen a “last step” that can inform our first steps.

Reflection: What is your understanding of the last step for you? What does balance and ease feel like? How can you use this understanding to guide your practice this month?

Guided meditation: Tanya Wiser offered a 18 minute guided meditation on intention setting, if you would find that helpful:
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/9610.html

Feel free to share your reflections, intentions, or comments below or by email.

With warm wishes,
Andrea

4 thoughts on “January 1 – The first step depends on the last

  1. Cheryl Kosowan

    Regular awareness… one step at a time… and making time. These are my first thoughts after hearing this dharma talk. Thank you Andrea.

    1. Andrea Grzesina Post author

      Thanks Cheryl! I appreciate your thoughts!

  2. Robbie Drummond

    I am curious how the truth of all dharma is presented in paradox. My left brain craves simple straight forward facts… the one and only solution as it were. The answer comes in forms that cannot be directly possessed (or even known for that matter). Jesus said “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” – different context admittedly- but still a paradox meant to put us back on our spiritual heels.

    Equanimity is the still aquifer, that underlies all of Creation.

    If we wish to describe our awakening as a journey, a series of steps on a path towards a distant destination it is not the last step. Equanimity is the path itself.

    Siddhartha after six years of arduous spiritual endeavour in the forests of asceticism achieves enlightenment by touching the earth. He was always on the earth. It was beneath him all along.

    1. Andrea Grzesina Post author

      Hi Robbie. I appreciate your statement, “Equanimity is the path itself.” Thanks for sharing!

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