Know! This world is a very narrow bridge. The important thing is not to be afraid.
--Reb Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810)
This is one of the most famous sayings by the great Hasidic master Reb Nachman of Breslov. He tells us that the journey through this world is like crossing over a dangerous bridge. He then offers sound advice on crossing such a bridge: Whatever you do, don't panic! Just proceed carefully in the confidence that all shall be well.
Or, at least, that is what he seems to be saying. Actually, there is a deeper teaching embodied in the rebbe's metaphor. To find that teaching, however, we must be willing to ask an important question: WHY is life like a narrow bridge? It isn't just the universal fear of falling that makes Reb Nachman choose an image of this kind.
A bridge connects two points of land by crossing the empty space between them. It is, in other words, a brief discontinuity in our contact with the Earth. On one side of the bridge we stand on firm ground, and again on the other side--but not in between. On the bridge we are suspended, connected to the Earth on either side of us only by something we have constructed for ourselves.
We come from Nature at birth, and return to Nature at death...but in between we walk on nothing but the superstructure of human meanings we have created for ourselves--meanings which have no reality apart from what we give them. These are the value systems by which we live our lives, and they are driven by monetary forces and social pressures which have little to do with Nature. Unfortunately, they have everything to do with fear. The bridge of life is difficult to cross only when we forget this. It is terrifying only when we no longer remember that we have constructed it ourselves.
This is why Reb Nachman tells us that the most important thing is not to be afraid. It is fear alone that makes the bridge of life seem difficult and dangerous to cross. The bridge is, after all, only an illusion created and sustained by human beings. In reality, we never take so much as a single step apart from Nature. How could we? That which seems to interrupt Nature, or to exist above or apart from it, is never real. That is why it is important to trust and have faith--first and last of all.
[This teaching is dedicated to the memory of my beloved friend, student, and mentor David Tapper, founding member of The Woodstock Koans of the Bible Study Group and an intrepid spiritual explorer throughout his 81 years of life.]
