The life you were born to live
Dan Millman
Mountains to climb: The life paths, page 12
“We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the paths of life.”
– Carl Jung
“The entire birth number indicates, in pure mathematical form, the particular blend of qualities comprising each individual’s life path. This path doesn’t just lead us forward; it leads us up the mountain we’re to climb. The final or right- hand digit (or digits) of our birth number indicates the summit of this mountain – our primary life purpose. (In the case of single-digit numbers, the one digit represents our life, as well as the challenges along the way.) In order to reach this summit and experience the fulfillment of our personal destiny, we necessarily encounter the tendencies, drives, and hurdles represented by the digits on the left and bring them to maturity.
Viewing our life purpose – what we’re here to do – isn’t what comes easiest. This statement, which I repeat as an emphatic reminder throughout the book, suggests that although life need not involve unnecessary suffering, this world dones present challenges and tests that allow us to learn and evolve. In particular, on mountain path of personal evolution, as we work to fulfil our life purpose, we engage in a creative struggle with negative or undeveloped tendencies related to our life purpose. Climbing up a mountain path and rising to greater heights requires courage, commitment, and directed effort- If we’ve prepared well for our climb, our journey is less difficult than if we’re unprepared; either way, it’s still a climb.
We each begin down at the base, and as we ascent through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, we encounter periods of preparation, initiation, and training, including challenges that allow us to recognize and improve our weakness and develop our strengths. Those of us who become disheartened or discouraged when life feels like an uphill climb have forgotten that the effort and challenge create fires that temper and strengthen our spirit.
The paths of life hold adventure and danger, pleasure and difficulty. Your path, or that of a friend or loved one, may seem clear and direct for a time, then turns sharply in a surprising direction. At certain points on our journey. The road forks and we make choices that influence the rest of our life; we may choose to push onward and upward, to coast downward, or to remain where we are. Each path has its own challenges, each challenge contains a lesson, and each lesson leads toward the summit of the mountain we were born to climb. The higher we climb, the better view.”