Lesson from the Spirit

Scorching lava. I walk forward on jutting stones, and beneath me the lava churns. It is very hot.
“A lesson about overcoming oneself.”
“I’m listening.”
“You often practice punishment by depriving yourself of something. You carry this punishment within you as a manifesto, as something you are proud of, something that should be accepted and sung by society through you. But you are mistaken—by trying to bend yourself to the needs of others, you are only trying to accept yourself.”
“What does it mean to overcome oneself? Does it mean to conquer?”
“Not exactly. To overcome yourself means to accept yourself, and to accept the views of others, their judgments and conclusions about you. When you take a step, it is hot, but you keep walking. Many stop when they listen to the opinions of others—that it is dangerous, that it is madness, that it is a desperate step. But desperation exists only in the errors of others’ minds, in their judgments, in their desires to be noticed, in their pleas for help through you, through the remarks, reproaches and judgments they make about you. By taking steps along this path, you leave behind everything that held you back from this step, everything that kept you from finding yourself; all of it burns in this lava, so with each step you feel lightness, lightness and a steady understanding that there is your salvation in the direction you are going.

Beautiful waterfalls open before my eyes when I have passed the lava. A beautiful girl swings on a swing in a silvery dress and laughs, smiles, revels.

“Only by freeing yourself from others’ judgments can you find lightness. Now imagine this path with many heavy bags. Could you still pass then? Your fears and doubts multiply in the opinions of others; they echo around you, not letting you take a single step. This is far harder than distrust of yourself. Through others’ condemnation, you form distrust of the world as a whole, doubts about doing anything, for fear you will not do it correctly, rightly, as is accepted by the majority. But what is the majority? It is you yourself. You form the reality you observe, live and cultivate within yourself. Let the path of the one who walks it be revealed to your sight, and let none who, with faith and truth, in trust in their Spirit, dare to go further, falter; step by step they will acquire lightness and confidence on their way, learning and gathering those particles of themselves which, by the gentle touch of the Creator’s Divine ray, are transformed into the unity of that soul which, with pure intentions and an open heart, leads its way to itself—to that form of the highest Divine principle that it is.”