Door. Door. Door.
Wherever you go, there is a door.
To open. To close. Or to go through.
Sometimes to pass by too.
You can hit the door.
You can break the door.
Or you can pretend that there is no door.
The door is however there, whether you like it or not.
There is a path leading to the Door. There is the Door. There is a path behind the Door.
There is the Old World. There is The Door. There is the New World.
Door is the threshold experience
There are three actions you can take at the Door:
Action #1
You can patiently wait at the Door in hope it will be opened for you. You believe that there is somebody behind the Door who will know when you want to enter.
It may happen of course, but it is unlikely. Such a passive waiting will put you at the mercy of external circumstances, which is ineffective, to say at least. It may take a long time before the Door opens or perhaps it will never happen.
(Digression: Note however that active waiting is a different story. It is a process in which you make yourself familiar with the Door and gain understanding what the Door is about. In such a process you consciously prepare yourself for what awaits for you behind the Door. In other words, you make yourself ready to enter.)
Action #2
You can turn back and investigate tricks or ways to get to the world behind the Door. Perhaps there is a way through a window from outside, a hidden corridor from the other side, or another door. Finding a shortcut or roundabout may work well in some cases, but in the majority of cases, the Door is there for you. On purpose.
It is your Door and there is something for you to learn from the experience of going through this Door. If you neglect the Door, skip it or replace it with another door, chances are high that you will come back to the same door. It may be the same door but it may also be another door with the same purpose.
Action # 3
You can approach the Door, go through it and step confidently on the path that will show before you. This is of course not necessarily easy but the most beneficial approach. Why? The door is a door on your path so going through it will only enrich your life experience and help you to grow faster.
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So, if you think about the action at the Door, make yourself ready to go through it.
Doors are everywhere
You wake up in the morning and you enter the conscious world. Door.
You get up and leave your room. Door.
You enter the bathroom. Door.
You leave the bathroom. Door.
You enter the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Door.
You open/close the fridge. Door.
You go and wake up kids. Door.
Door. Door. Door.
You leave for work in the morning. Door.
You enter your car or a bus. Door.
You arrive at your work. Door. Door. Door.
And then you go to other rooms, meeting places or buildings. And you pass doors.
Doors. Doors. Doors.
You enter cafes, cars, buses, trams, rooms, buildings or lifts. Doors.
Doors. Doors. Doors.
Then you return home. Door. Door.
And there are more doors. Doors. Doors.
You enter the bathroom. Door.
You come to your bedroom. Door.
And you fall asleep and enter the dream world. Door.
The final Door.
Door is a metaphor
Door is a metaphor for any threshold experience.
Door is a moment in which you hit the water surface at the swimming pool on a hot day, after you jumped. There is this sharp, deeply penetrating experience of cold water overwhelming your body. And there is the world of magical floating in the water.
Door is your first driving lesson that will lead you towards a new independence. It is the moment in which you start the engine, hold the wheel and feel the car move. You drive it!
Door is the decision to start volunteering as a helper with handicapped children. And there is this amazing moment when you open yourself to communicate through means you have never thought were possible.
Door is the conversation you will have with your beloved one to tell her that your relation has come to an end. And there is this moment in which you can both reflect on the greatness of the relation and depart in peace.
Door is the meeting with your boss to tell him that you are quitting your job to start own business. And this is the moment in which you finally grasp that there is no way to live by setting to lower standards that you want to live.
Door is the talk with your parents to tell them you are leaving home for a job abroad. And this is the moment in which you open up for new experiences.
Yes, door is the threshold.
Three steps of consciousness
You make your preparations in the Old World for what awaits you behind the Door. The Door is a sharp moment of self-consciousness where the learnings from the Old World and the hopes and ambitions for the New World meet and entangle.
At the Door you are already in the process leading from the past to the future, from ideas to actions or from actions to tangible results.
The Door is the crossing point and it matters now how you enter the New World. You can use the Door as the moment of summoning your confidence and remembering your intent for what awaits you behind the Door.
And the story about the Door is an excuse to tell you that there are three basic steps in consciousness. Preparation before the Door, the threshold experience at the Door and the embracing of the path the begins on the other side of the Door.
Three steps of consciousness: Preparation. The Door. New Path.
Observe these three steps and practise them with intent.
Be awake when you walk through a door. Pay attention. Focus. Embrace the path that opens up.
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Top photo courtesy Jose Luis Mieza Photography, available under the Creative Commons license on Flickr. The image in the text shows a painting of the remarkable Chester cathedral. I made it some years ago when a number of paintings were collected there.
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