Who knows what a haze in the mountains is? I had to deal with this phenomenon several times. It's amazing how someone leads you by the nose, but not pleasant enough.
In the history of mountaineering, there are many cases when people died on the slopes under the influence of darkness or fearing it. There are not even dozens of such examples, but hundreds. After falling from the canopy, falling into cracks and avalanches, the haze is the fourth most dangerous enemy in the mountains. The fainted goes to the most dangerous place, in the thick of the deadly troubles that can fall to his lot.
The confusion begins long before a person ceases to understand what is happening: he begins to make wrong decisions days, or even weeks before the onset of the final paralysis of the thinking principle.
For knowledgeable, experienced climbers, fighting the hassle is always like a chess game: it is a game with mountains as with an experienced grandmaster, where the end of the game means a successful descent or death, the physical destruction of even an entire group if the game is lost.
The most difficult thing for a climber is not to go through the route, not to fight with a miner, not to survive in difficult weather conditions, but to play a chess game for the mind, so that it does not leave you, and the mountains would not turn the mind of a person, like an opponent who took the initiative into their own hands. …
The result of the party is an incessant flurry of attacks, troubles that are pouring in like a horn of plenty. This is very similar to the convulsions of a dying person, to a series of checks to a cornered king, these are the last moves of the loser.
But the mountains take the initiative from the climber long before the loss becomes obvious.
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Mountains respect or disrespect a person, and this respect is the only force that can be opposed to mountains.
We must make sure that they respect you and do not want to checkmate on you. If they want, if the game has begun, then a sad end is inevitable, unless another, experienced grandmaster, the Master, takes the poor fellow on the route under his wing, covering him with himself - and then the result may not be terrible. But if the mountains are offended by a person and decided to win a game against him, and there is no one to help, the person's fate inevitably comes to an end.
All very experienced climbers know this in the same way that doctors in intensive care know that they are fighting a disease, not for the patient's life. The film "City of Angels" is just about that.
All experienced climbers know that only work on your mind, on your attitude to the mountains, on penetration into the world of mountains, work on clarity of mind and unity in the team - all this is the key to success and survival. Working on the right decisions, on adequacy, on the clarity of thought on a campaign is the key to survival.
Work on an adequate understanding of the condition of the participants, equipment, nutrition, route, the correlation of different factors and decision-making by mixing intuition and reason is the climber's task. And what is nursed with feet, or done with hands, is all a consequence of the fact that everything is being done correctly, going in the right direction. Because if everything is going in the wrong direction, then soon there will be no group, no hands, no legs for the work of those who act.
I will gradually talk about the intricacies of this mountain-man chess game, give examples, for the first time in my life I will try to unite everything that is scattered in my life and is waiting for systematization and description. Probably, this can save someone's life, and this circumstance is sufficient to start writing.
The mountains are alive
Among climbers there are many beliefs that one must communicate with the mountains, and do it as sincerely as possible, not like: “Oh, an empty belief, a ritual, well, so be it, let's do it …”, but: “Our lives depend on it. Mountains are powerful and can crush or help. These rituals have been formed throughout the development of mountaineering, and, in my opinion, mountaineering will move on in this direction, while technically everything that could be understood has already been understood.
People know how to walk, where to walk, all plus or minus routes have already been climbed, and all mountains have already been marked for ascents. But from the point of view of psychology, there are still many blank spots. And simple rituals are just a beginning, an entry point, but this world has not been mastered.
Actually, this happens in any sport: first, an athlete, under the guidance of an experienced coach, discovers the world of sports, general physical training and technique, results and competitions. But over time, the technique already remains behind, and all achievements begin to lie in the field of sensations: how to correctly change your sensations in order to come to victory over a stronger opponent.
For example, when in judo the throw speed is already off scale, but it is still not enough, then you look for a sense of the speed with which the champions are throwing, and here it opens up - a completely different dimension of human abilities.
It turns out that at hyper-speeds, super-results are no longer achieved by changes in muscles, but by changes in consciousness.
It turns out that for beginners, matter still rules over consciousness, and the race is for physical parameters. But with experienced Masters, thought already begins to defeat matter, and a change in thinking leads to those results that cannot be achieved simply with a carcass.
Few of the Masters spread about this hidden path in the media simply because people who do not understand what super-achievements are, will not understand and what super-tension is, which melts will and thought, makes them a single alloy of a completely different property than will and thought by themselves, and this fusion of thought-will-feeling opens before a person a completely different book of achievements.
And this is in any area of life, not only in sports.
I think that when Napoleon created the Republic, he acted with the same feeling, in any case, the outline of his thought is very similar to the action of this miraculous fusion of the spirit and matter of human nature, which gives birth to genius things.
This idea was known to the Masters of antiquity. How, for example, would you order to understand the words of Alisher Navoi:
To the one who has comprehended life, Flowering and dying, -
Power over Thought is more important, Than over three worlds.
There is a very clear definition of the mind that has risen above the ossification of the mind, closed on itself and has opened for itself the World of Thought, the World of Accomplishments.
And this is not a fiction, but a reality, but only for those who were able to rise above human stupidity, like birds rise above the clouds and see the sun, which is inaccessible at that moment from the earth.
I was lucky in my life - I managed to see the work of the Masters, who could find in themselves how to move to the level of interaction with Thought. Their works are obscure. Until now, the world is surprised how some athletes have been permanent world champions for even decades, significantly surpassing the younger and stronger ones. This cannot be attributed to technology - there are processes in the human body that kill both strength and endurance with age. But some unique ones amaze our imagination with what they get up to. And after all, no one can defeat them, and they, like the Titans, win everywhere and always with ease and simplicity, and do not even get tired when the champion youth are already falling off their feet.
Why? And another force carries them, from another source, from the power of Thought, energy is drawn. And to go to this source means to become a person of a different formation, head and shoulders above not only rivals, but in general the world of matter.
When we read about incorruptible saints, those who are incombustible and unkillable, about those who live super-long or super-intense, we cannot do this, not because we have weak bodies, but because they have something that humanity as a whole still has to achieve. and study for hundreds of years. But everyone can start today, and mountains are the best school for melting down human nature.
freedom
In my opinion, all great minds knew that such a transition from the material plane to the development of the World of Thought is true freedom. Freedom from the fetters of Matter, from the ossification of one's nature, freedom in the sense of acquiring completely different possibilities.
You can simply compare the statements of different people about this:
Prophet Muhammad: “The little battle is over. Now a great Battle is coming, the Great Jihad, this is a Battle with oneself. Truly great is the warrior who defeated a thousand soldiers, but much greater is the one who defeated himself! Therefore, scientists are more dear to me than soldiers."
It is known that the heyday of Islam fell on the heyday of science and art in the Muslim world. When the persecution of these soldiers, who defeated themselves, began, Islam began to decline.
Yeshua (this is his name, the world knows him more like Jesus): "Know that only Truth (Gnosis) will make you free!"
Gnosis is an ancient Greek word that does not mean the knowledge that was given to us from school, but the knowledge that is comprehended in a way called "Pistuetos", or translated from Greek "intuitive penetration into the essence of every thing through insight" or insight. as they say now. That is, penetration into illumined thinking gives a person what makes him free.
The Bible was originally written in ancient Greek and then translated into other languages of the world. But the ancient Greek language, like all the ancients, is much richer than modern ones, and therefore any translation of a word, not a phrase, but a word will be an infringement, a distortion of the meaning. The entire Bible has been translated in a similar way, and only scraps remain of the meaning of Yeshua's speeches. The language spoken by Moses, Prophet Muhammad, Buddha and Shankaracharya is also significantly different from modern languages. Probably, we are all dull, and therefore we cannot understand what They meant. In any case, Muslims still believe that the words of the Prophet Muhammad cannot be unambiguously translated into any modern language without prejudice to the meaning, and they call the translations free interpretations.
The same can be said about the words of Buddha, they are simply not understood. Meanwhile, there are those that are translated very close to the meaning. For example, once the Buddha said the following words: “Know, Bhikkhus and Arhats, that there is no permanent principle within you. And only the instructed disciple acquired Wisdom, and by saying “I am”, he knew what he was saying.” This is a very succinct description of freedom from oneself, one's own boundaries.
Thus, all those who are called the founders of religions talked about gaining freedom, about achieving such a state when a person is no longer limited by himself. And throughout their lives, they somehow showed that they knew what they were talking about, and they themselves had already become free.
I suggest people climb along their path, which is still fresh and visible. I think that there were more of those who followed in the footsteps of their predecessors (in Buddhism they are called Tathagatas), or who groped for it on their own (in India they are called natural-born yogis, such was, for example, Sri Ramakrishna, a real holy yogi, a teacher Swami Vivekananda But we don't know them all).
But if you look closely, they all began with penetration into the world of thought - they first developed a tool for cognizing that world, and then studied it.
So, in my opinion, the Masters who have achieved this in sports, in art, in religion or in managing a state or a company, they do about the same thing, going through approximately the same levels of mastery and explaining it to the world in their own way.
And it is not clear who is doing more for humanity: a monk sitting in his cell, or a company leader introducing elements of the Kingdom of God into the management of the company, as was commanded by Jesus, who said: "Let the Kingdom of God be on earth as in Heaven."
In any case, in my opinion, the skill of all of the same taste, it, like ozone, affects the minds, clearing away dirt and soot, age-old stupidity. And it doesn't matter in which country this ozone is produced: you can always taste it if you were familiar with it before.
Mastery of thought is what the best people of the planet come to, and this can be purposefully learned. In any case, in the mountains many people begin to have insights, thinking begins to cut new canvases, more like freedom. And the overwhelming tension and power of will heat up the mind so much that the process of forming an alloy begins - that very alloy of will, reason, thought, which then becomes a powerful tool for understanding the world and achieving mastery of thinking, that is, freedom from conventions and stupidity, which everyone is so sick with. …
Indeed, by definition, stupidity is not the presence of stupidity, but the absence of wisdom, which is a new type of thinking, when completely different horizons are already visible.
One of my friends, his name is Kostya, is an experienced mountaineer, who has been walking in the mountains like an adult for thirty years already, in a conversation he somehow opened up and said something like this: “Of course, mountains are another world. And in Soviet times we knew this and were silent, because no one would understand - you yourself understand, it was not easy. But even now we are silent, no one will understand."
We talked for a long time about this Other World, - what is it different and why people are drawn there so much, why many do not understand it, although they feel that it is different. It was very exciting and most importantly indicative to learn that for decades the best minds of our country kept this Secret, as a secret about the existence of the country within the country.
People were obsessed with the mountains, it was more popular than fitness centers are now. It feels like freedom fought in people like a bird in a cage, and found a way out where there is no one who limits this freedom.
The mountains gave freedom of action and thought, and many discovered this in themselves.
Mountains are very hard physical labor and mental stress, they are very important conditions for melting down the human thinking principle. In such conditions, brains and souls are boiling, and the microbes of consumerism, common people and claims boil away and make a person simple. Watching them boil away can be painful, a person is pinned and sausage is not childish. But on the other hand, when simplicity comes, it becomes clear - for what it is all. And you realize that it was worth it. So, in fact, in sports everywhere. Not at all, but often.
The climbers conveyed by nature, and often without words, this feeling of the Other World of the mountains, infected it so that others could no longer live without it. And this noble caste of mountain climbers of the Soviet era enjoyed great respect among the people, many tried to become such.
It's like purity, when they go to the mountains, like to the Temple, and return blessed. Many times I saw how the faces of the descending climbers were transformed into beauty, they seemed to achieve such simplicity that they became closer to Heaven, and much in them fell into place. Cockroaches in the brain scattered in different directions, and the happiness written on the faces is genuine.
In general, a good ascent in a worthy company is like a chess tournament or hand-to-hand competition (no matter boxing, wrestling, sambo or something else): a lot of tension, overcoming, a lot of worthy people, emotions, victories and defeats (where them?), but in the end there is some kind of transformation - you are no longer what you were before.
You overcame yourself, studied, reached a powerful tension, and now you became different, very quickly, so that in your memory you still have the old one, you still remember your sluggish movements, which seemed to you fast, you still remember your dullness, which you considered clear. Much was seen from a different angle.
It always killed me what kind of people are ordinary people. Now you have touched the present, and the people are sitting in their swamp and croaking something about what they consider important. But the Cosmos, which you saw in the night sky of the mountains, is it really important for him? And if not, then why is this all ??? The prioritization after powerful overcoming is very serious.
You change, and every time the world seeks balance with you new and also changes, with pain and explosions. This is the law: everyone has what he deserves. And if dignity grows, then the world reacts, giving new opportunities or taking away old toys that are no longer deserved to you. Only the present is real. This is what the mountains give, they are like that, and there you get this, real.
But it would be wrong to say that a man read what is real in the mountains, went there and found it. Nothing like this. Entry into this world of the present is carried out as a continuity, from one to another. Only the real one himself can open this door behind the painted canvas. Because he knows how to open, and beginners can spy on him - not everyone, but those who are looking for it.
It's like in sports - a real coach makes champions, but does not give, but makes them take. Another world changes the essence of a person, makes him more resourceful and deeper, if you know how to become like that in the mountains.
The key is the sensation of the Other World, which is much closer there than in the valleys. But this must be sought persistently, just as we train in sports. Mountains are a portal to another world, in comparison with which we all live in a sham fictional world made of cardboard and gouache. That world exists, and there are probably its Holders, thanks to whom it exists somewhere, and in the mountains it is closer, and here it is further - but this is because it exists, it exists.
Looking at how people change, I always have one thought: the law of the constancy of matter - if it has arrived somewhere, then it has disappeared from somewhere. If people have acquired so much, it means that it was somewhere, and there is more. So it exists there. We need to remind ourselves of this.
In the valleys you get dull, and much that is obvious in the mountains, in the valleys you forget like a dream. But people change, and this is proof that there is something that changes them, pours into them and transforms them for itself. Another world.
So, to start looking for another world is, in my opinion, the only correct formulation, the only correct answer, which the mountains accept and begin to help. All other climbers and conquerors of the mountains are given a hassle, because they go for the wrong one.