Up, up and... ouch!

When we went downward into the lands of fantasy and daydreams, the grains of reality became fewer, larger and softer.  The opposite happens if we ascend into slightly higher realms, usually by way of religion in some form.  Notice that you can join a religion and hang around in the large portal courtrooms without ever setting foot on the pyramid of ascension, in which case you may not notice any of this.  But if you move ahead up, the grains of reality become smaller, harder and denser. As below, the forms may seem familiar, but they now contain more than they did before in the same space.

This may impress you: There are words up there that have stood unchanged for thousands of years, while entire civilizations rose and fell in the herebelow.  And there seems to be no reason why they should change for another thousand years, if only there are any around to heed them. There is a majesty to this unyielding durability, that provokes awe and confidence.

But there is another side to it.  Having come from a softer realm below, you yourself are soft. You will find that things do not accomodate you, do not yield or compromise.  If you bash against them, you get bruised or cut easily. There seems to be rough edges everywhere, and the garments of the realm chafe, and your feet blister.  Worse yet, those who reside habitually on this plane often seem not to care.  "That's just how it is" they will say if you complain about your fate. Worst of all, they may even hurt you themselves.  They say things that cut you deeply, and you may think: "This is a hard speech." Of course, there were plenty of people who hurt others where you came from, but you could get back at them. Here, this doesn't work. The people of this realm ignore your needles and laugh at your barbs, as if they themselves were made of living stone, impervious to mundane attacks.

This is where quite a number of people leave in a huff.  "There was no love" they say, meaning that they could not do as they pleased and still be accepted.

Others take on a discipline up there, but find it too hard.  It seems needlessly rigorous, as if made for someone more than human.  You are chafed and blistered.  The discipline does not compromise:  You may chose to make exceptions for yourself, but then you start to sink in mysterious ways.  This sinking is not easily visible to those still in the worldly realm, so you can fool them for the longest time.  But for those who still stand in the discipline you compromised, your position is clearly visible, like a hare hiding its head in the bushes.  As you hide your head in the lower realms of thought where you feel at home, your ass remains visible for the longest time until you finally disappear from sight entirely.

The only way to endure at a higher level is to absorb and be transformed into the same quality. But who is capable of that?