In C. S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, an unprepossessing wardrobe hides an entrance to Narnia, another entire world.
This notion of a hidden portal, bridge or secret passageway to another, usually better, brighter or vaster realm, located within our physical world and yet existing entirely parallel to or beyond it, forms a thread from ancient legends, through folklore, poetry and literature to modern fiction and games. Often the portal is inaccessible, either physically or metaphorically; guarded by dragons, warriors, ferocious animals or precipitous cliffs; or accessible only by performing feats of heroism, sacrifice or dazzling endeavour, solving a mind-bending riddle, cracking a fiendish code or intoning an esoteric mantra.
One hero might stumble upon their portal by chance, while another seeks it ardently, devoting their life to finding and passing through it.
The portal to the Beyond is such a popular and universal device because it strikes a chord within and rings true in our imagination. We sense there is indeed another world – better, kinder, purer, vaster, brighter – somewhere within and parallel to our everyday existence. We sense also there must be a way, an entrance, to access this hidden realm. Many of us sense also, that it is our purpose, our mission, even our destiny to seek out this portal and pass through it, even while living here, not abandoning our present world.
This hidden dimension is of course, the spiritual realm. Our meditation practise is both our portal and our Beyond; at once revealing the wardrobe and embodying the vaster realm within.
Our meditation and spiritual journey, reveals and makes accessible to us the infinite within the finite; the eternal within the moment; the immortal within each breath; the spiritual within, all around, embracing, permeating, infusing, inspiring, enlivening and illumining the material.