In 2008, Ueli Steck, speed climber and extreme mountaineer, scaled the north face of the Eiger in 2 hours and 47 minutes—of course, without any safety equipment. Two ice axes in his hands, crampons on his feet. Fascinatingly insane.
Reinhold Messner was once asked why he climbs the world’s highest mountains on such high-risk expeditions. His reply: “Because they’re there.” With this, he offered a rather unspectacular answer to why people not only strive to push their own limits but also challenge and even overturn commonly accepted truths. Boundaries are meant to be crossed and expanded; this is the driving force of evolution. Moving toward the edges of existing reality keeps life’s conservative tendency to preserve itself and its forms in constant motion. Life’s equilibrium is fluid. Living systems remain in a balanced state only briefly, if at all. This holds true for all living beings, from body organs to biospheres, societies, and organizational forms in politics and economics. A living organism must change—it has no other option if it wants to survive. The ability to transform and grow beyond itself isn’t just a trait of living systems; it’s the essential characteristic that defines the difference between the living and the non-living. Living organisms are defined by their openness to the flow of energy and information. This openness can only be sustained as long as they constantly adapt to conditions and stay in fluid harmony with the so-called “environment.” Remaining static, pausing, waiting, hesitating—these are not categories of life.
Chemist and Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine explains that change is only possible when an organism reaches the boundaries of its own order. Applied to our lives as humans, both individually and collectively, this means: only when we are willing to let go of existing orders can we survive. This applies to our circumstances, beliefs, preferences, plans, and even to any paradigm, no matter how scientifically sound or convincing it may seem in our lives.
Everyday life usually means that people move within their boundaries. But these boundaries are not secure enclosures; they exist only in the mind’s imagination, which desires a life that is safe and predictable. Yet the fragile, finite nature of our existence reveals this to be nothing but a wishful dream.
When Siddhartha Gautama, the sheltered prince, encountered sickness, death, and poverty for the first time, he felt an unavoidable urge to overcome these apparent threats to life. He knew he wouldn’t achieve this within the luxury of his father’s palace, so he ventured into the world to test every boundary he could find. He became the Buddha because he accepted no limitation and, in doing so, rediscovered the boundless nature of the spirit.
A person whose life is shaped by this attitude has ceased to complain about the hardships and conditions of his world. He sees the mountain. And instead of settling comfortably into his living room chair, he decides to climb it—simply because it’s there.
