Lesson from the Spirit

Some white, light fabrics flutter in the wind. A desert. Hot sand, but it is so pleasant to stand with your feet buried in it up to the ankles. Down there it is cooler.
“I am tormented by a thirst for knowledge; not everyone wants to work for it.”
“Explain, please.”
“You are walking on this sand. What do you feel?”
“Warmth, coolness, probably comfort.”
“Because you have buried your feet deep in the sand. But what if you walked on a scorching surface?”
“Well, I would probably run.”
“Right — that is what you often do: you run, you hurry, because you feel your feet being burned.
You run hoping that further on
salvation will come for you, for your tired feet.
And you may see in the distance a gleam of water, but it is not a gleam, only a mirage.
You run after a mirage. You do not direct your path; the path directs you, showing what you are compelled to see, what you want to see, what you thirst for at this very moment. And it is shown to you. For what? — To lure you?”
“Right. Like a trap for your mind. Picture after picture. Mirage after mirage. In the phantom hope of finding an oasis. You wander among mirages, not understanding why the pain in your feet only grows, why they no longer find rest.
Do you know where this path will lead you?”
“I think not. What should one do?”
“Stop when you feel that a rebellion is brewing in your soul, protest, disagreement, when you cannot accept who you are and what you should do next, when consternation and disappointment, distrust and confusion visit you. You are subjecting yourself to persecution over that scorching sand that scorches your feet. Whereas what you need is simply to stop, to accept that warmth that scorches you.
Burying yourself deeper and deeper into yourself in search of coolness that is not coolness at all, but merely your awareness of the circumstances and deeds that exist in your life, an awareness of what you are given and for what these knowledges are given to you? For what aspirations are they given to your soul? Not as punishment and reproach, but for the sake of the growth of your spiritual nature, the revelation of your divine essence and of the design, the purpose that each of you has. There you find the answer, for there you are true.”