Lesson from the Spirit

They show a flock of little lambs wandering bewildered over green meadows, bustling about, each with a bright bell at its neck.

"What is this about?"
"About laziness. About the laziness of overcoming your own faults that hinder your development. You can wander for a long time through meadows and woods in search of the truth.
But the bell you knowingly hung on yourself ties you to the place you must return to.

That is why many of you, as soon as you take your first independent steps, hearing the bell's ring, hurry back to where it is familiar, where it is safe, where you are surely expected, and even if you do not understand, you accept the rules of the game that you know.
These bells, as a distinguishing mark, as a linking element, keep you from taking your own road.
To go into the unknown is always frightening.

But where does this fear—the fear of the unknown—come from?"
"I don't know. Because you don't know what to expect there?"
"No."

"You are not afraid of the unknown; you are afraid of no longer hearing the bell on your neck, that very familiar sound.

The fear of losing what is familiar, comfortable, primary, is sometimes greater than your desire to go into your own knowing.
You cannot fear the unknown because you do not know what is there. Or rather, you do know—your soul knows—but you try to be silent, forcing everything inside you to be silent.

"What should we do?"
"Let go. Let yourself go, as parents let their fledglings go.
Just fly, and in that flight you will become aware, you will learn, gaining experience as you maneuver in the air currents."
"Learn on the go?"
"Exactly. Knowing yourself is not memorizing a quotation from a textbook, it is not learning a lesson—it's a path.
Simply take off that bell and go on a free, independent path of self-knowledge, where you see your own significance, understand your role and tasks,
your soul’s needs; understanding them, with care and reverence you offer yourself to walk that very road of knowing the truth, that very road that leads you to yourself and to the Creator.
So be it.