A Lesson from the Spirit

I found myself in a vast, luminous hall. The walls were draped in fabric of a burgundy hue, and to my left three white steps led upward to the entrance. And then the Spirit spoke.

"The first step is level, the second is crooked, and you still must reach the third."

After that, I saw before me a great radiance, like a glowing grain or capsule. Golden, bright light.
"You descend only when you believe."
"Explain."
"Descending is not the same as being cast down. Do not fear descending and learning. Only a few will dare to take that third step."
"What are you talking about? Tell me about these steps: the first, the second, the third?"
"The first step is level. When you stand on the edge of making a decision, weighing everything, checking and comparing. The moment you step down, your mind begins to lend you ideas that this is wrong, that this is bad, that you made the choice listening to your soul’s voice to your own detriment.
These are the very doubts, insecurities, reproaches, disappointments from a hastily made decision. But a decision made by your soul, even if made impulsively, is not necessarily wrong.
Sometimes you move forward relying only on your own conclusions, reasonings, the rantings of your mind. That is neither good nor bad. It is simply the path you have chosen.
As long as you are guided by your own conclusions, reinforced by others' opinions, you will walk steadily, only stumbling occasionally. But where will you arrive? What will be the final aim of such a path? Have you ever considered that?
When you begin to live by your heart, by the needs of your soul, your path unfolds differently. It may lead you downward, then suddenly upward. Everything depends on what you are seeking and how boldly and openly you recognize what is happening to you.
But you must not be frightened. Where you have made a decision with your heart, having been subject to the condemnation of alien views and your own reasonings, before trying to return quickly to that first level step, consider what is truly important to you, what is valuable to you.
And you will see not just a descent into a frightening unknown, but a completely different bright world, one that will differ from your accustomed perception of reality. But is that bad?
There, where you discover the beauty of another world, feeling it, suffused by its spirit, your soul soars, blooming, reaching out its hands to the warmth that radiates across the expanses of that world.
A new world is not something nonexistent; it is simply something you have not yet explored. When you begin to think in that way—through the desire to know, to explore, to study what once seemed impossible—everything will become accessible to you, ordinary, familiar.