Below is a chapter from Joseph Goldstein’s book Insight Meditation - The Practice of Freedom. This passage is a description of our journey.

Imaging yourself jumping out of an airplane and freefalling for the first few minutes. Imagine the sense of exhilaration. But then you realize you do not have a parachute. So you panic and fall through the space. Falling..falling..falling…Filled with terror that you do not have a parachute. Until a certain moment arrives when you realize that there is no ground. At that moment of the journey you just enjoy the ride.

We often go through a similar emotional sequence in meditation practice. As our identification with things loosens up a little we see the repetitive change. At first there can be real exhilaration, a greater sense of spaciousness. But feelings of panic can come when we realize that there is nothing at all to hold onto. Both the objects of awareness and the faculty knowing them are continuously falling away, like water over a waterfall.

We understand now on a deeper level that nothing we grasp at for security actually provides it.

But as we continue with the practice enlightenment dawns; there is no ground to hit and no one to hit it; just empty phenomenon rolling on. Then we feel the great relief of letting go, the deep feeling of equanimity and the joy of ease.