1) I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost… I am hopeless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in the same place.
But it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in… it’s a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.

This is from Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

My belief is that we are bound to repeat a lesson we are meant to learn until we evolve past it.

It’s always been interesting to me… Some always watch where they walk, some occasionally do, some never do. What is it that separates them?

Some seem to get stuck at #1. Lost, hopeless, blameless… they will likely spend the bulk of their lives navigating their way in and out of the same deep holes. Some get stuck at #2, able to acknowledge the deep hole to themselves but shrugging it off. This is a different deep hole. Not the same at all. Step #3 requires being able to admit that it’s your own fault. There are those whose egos are too fragile to acknowledge that within themselves, so they don’t introspect very often. How often do you find yourself taking a self-inventory, weighing who you are against who you’d like to become? Even at step #4, energy is still be spent to avoid the deep hole.

I think all of our maps are full of rocky roads and “holes” of various depths. Some we can leap right past and others we are bound to fall into head first over and again.

What “holes” do you find yourself stuck in repeatedly? Think about what they are, and consider which step above you might be getting caught in.