The light that illuminates the path goes ahead of us. It broadens the peripheral vision of the person who calls upon it, helping them understand where they are going and why they are heading in that direction.
Yet people often ignore their own light completely and devote themselves to chasing other people’s shadows. Shadows they cannot understand either, because they do not point towards their own fears, doubts, or concerns—in short, towards their actual problems.
They turn their backs on all of this, and their house remains unswept… They fill their time with things no one understands, and their house remains unswept… They become obsessed with other people’s paths, which say nothing about their own nature, and their house remains a complete disaster.
And sometimes, the shadow they have been chasing for so long suddenly takes flight, moves away, and disappears. When they notice, they quickly look for another to latch onto. Yet another trace of someone else, of someone else’s past, of someone else’s process.
They fear lighting the torch in their hearts, the one that shows them the way, because deep down they know it will be a completely different path. They fear discovering their profound blindness and constant contradictions. They fear rediscovering themselves, reinventing themselves, and finding the courage to begin again. To rebuild a house that no storm can sweep away.
They fear lighting the fire that reveals their truth, their baseness, their vileness, their limitations, their chains and bonds. They fear believing in transformation and giving it power.
They do not believe they can do it because they have no faith in themselves whatsoever, though they deceive themselves into thinking they can handle anything while utterly bewildered. Once again, their lack of faith in themselves leads them to chase other shadows, other traces, and the remnants they leave behind.
They overlook the fact that it worked for those people because they followed their own will rather than someone else’s; because they followed the path meant for them, the one they found within. They try to replicate someone else’s success and crash, either because they cannot reproduce it or because, even when they do, they never become themselves and therefore never find happiness. They achieve outward success, but the inner void remains intact.
Learn from others?
Always.
Walk someone else’s path?
Never.
The paths of the spirit are designed not to compete with one another and, therefore, to ensure happiness for all. They are paths that seek to bring peace to the mind and resolve every conflict or contradiction.