Further Beyond ( Plus Ultra)

Plus ultra (“Further beyond”) is a Latin motto and the national motto of Spain. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, and is a reversal of the original phrase Non plus ultra (“Nothing further beyond”). This was said to have been inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, which marked the edge of the known world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence.

I’m not the type of traveler. I did not see much. I was several times in a different country than mine. Never outside of Europe. And yet I am fascinated by the idea of ​​traveling, of movement, of overcoming difficulties and simultaneously agreeing on the unpredictability of subsequent days. We do not know what the weather will be exactly, who we will meet, what will happen to us. The journey is a mystery discovered minute by minute.

The element of risk and the realization of dreams have always intrigued me. They belonged to a world where I did not have an entry card. I did not consider at all that I could risk and fulfill my dream.

I read a lot about high-mountaineering, even without gaining the lowest accessible peaks. I was interested in how it happens that people overcome their limitations, both physical and mental. They are going to win the highest peaks of the world. Some say they are fools. That they risk their lives and are often fathers or mothers. However, is it not that we are choosing our dreams but rather dreams are choosing us. And when they choose us, our free will in this area becomes very limited. Something makes us act. Something that is stronger than us. Maybe even we would like to change our dream for others. However, for some reason it is not obvious.

I am fascinated by far travels, discovering new lands and mountain peaks.

I am also fascinated by traveling deep inside myself. Escape from the world and discover new opportunities and be a loner separated from this world.

Why? I think that in both versions people try to become free. They are looking for freedom. And freedom is in its essence beauty, a state close to the ideal, a heavenly state here on earth and certainly a deficit product.

We live in a enslaved world. The slavery times have not passed. People want to subjugate others. Too often. This happens not only in obvious situations. Abduction, use for slave labor, violence. This is also happening in a seemingly cleaner world in which the law works.

On a daily basis, the manipulation is ubiquitous. All media use the natural tendency of a man to have more and to have what others already have. And that leads to the restriction of freedom.

Advertising of products and advertising of credits and loans. If you do not have it yet, borrow money to get it. Your life is meaningless without having this or that. Do everything to have it. Better phone. Better TV. Better computer. To know even more precisely what you still lack. Better husband. Better wife. Better friends. And the needs in man are unlimited.

Even if you find passion. Passion for words. This game starts again. You can write more, you can write everything, you can write better, you can write faster. I hear the voices : look at me, I have it and you can have what I have; do only this and that and you will have everything; read and write until you lose your breath.

And I say stop. I can not do anymore. I do not want faster. I want better but at my own pace. I am really looking for freedom. In everything I do. I like the feeling of freedom and independence. I can learn from others, but I would like to create the vision of my life. The rythm is in me. And that’s probably why nobody can have exactly the same successes as others. I am enslaved by my own and imposed needs, but I struggle with this enslavement. I like the taste of freedom like the taste of rain. I have sometimes envied others that they have. More than once, I thought I should have it too. But I believe that we were born to be free and that freedom could heal us.

Relief brings me faith. Faith that says you have everything in God. It softened my efforts to satisfy unlimited needs. At the same time, thanks to faith, I began to cultivate my dreams. Dreams that without faith have no chance to be realized. Faith has changed my way of looking at helplessness, hopelessness and lack of meaning in life. It gave me space in thinking about life more broadly. Earlier, I had the impression that I live in prison. I could not do anything, I did not have a chance, I did not have the opportunity. I was held by force on the earth, with a life sentence.

Now I know what freedom tastes and this taste is perfect. I want to remember it. Only freedom allows me to go further by making my own choices.

God discovered the possibility of writing in front of me. However, discovering this possibility without believing that I will find a way to do it would not make sense.

Once I thought that nothing further was possible. Nothing. Maybe for others, but not for me. Nothing more is possible. Maybe for others, but not for me.

I was standing in the port, waving my embroidered travel handkerchief for a goodbye, and watched the ships leave for another distant journey. And I stood, I was jealous, but I could not believe that any journey could be meant for me.

Thanks to writing, I started to think differently. My world within me has expanded its boundaries. Previously, only what was visible was possible. I could only reach the lands already discovered. That’s how I thought about myself. Nothing further. Nothing more. I thought about myself as a finished product.

Writing made me believe that the impossible is possible. I believed that something exists further. That there is something more.

And that everyone can take a step further and embark on their journey. Far or very close.

The monks used to say — come to your cell and it will teach you everything.

It seems that the law of spiritual travel is like this: the one who does not move, but stays in prayer, goes further than the one who puts on his shoes.

I think that you can also refer to writing, which is also a journey. In my opinion, it is more spiritual than real. And that is why sometimes the most important are moments of silence writing, when no one can see and nobody reads it than everything that happens with our texts later when the world will see it. Although it is not difficult to think the other way around.

Of course, it’s not going to be completely out of the world, unless you’re really a hermit.

That is why I try to take care of a few moments during the day, which bring total separation from the outside world, from the expectations of my own and the expectations of others.

It is such a daily journey into yourself. Search for fresh thoughts untouched by commercialism and not imposed by the outside world. This trip is almost impossible, but I try with stubbornness.

And although I often hear a voice that says stop, it’s not worth it, nothing good will be there and there is nothing further. I do not listen to these voices uncritically and thanks to this it is easier for me to take this one further step.

Taking one step beyond what is. Looking beyond horizon, beyond time and reality.

Remember. Every day, with faith, try to go a step further. This one step is quite enough to fulfill your legend.