Walking Your Own Path
(The
Knights of the Round Table) are going to leave
Arthur, and so they say good-bye
to him. The text then says: “They thought
it would be a disgrace to start out in a group, in the same direction.
Each entered the forest at that point which he himself had selected, and
where there was no trail or path, at its darkest point.” The
message is that if you follow a trail or path, you’re following in someone
else’s adventure, not your own. Every human being is unique,
and must find his or her adventure by entering the forest where there is no way
or path. RG 136
Now all of you who have had anything to do with Oriental gurus know that
they have the path, and they know where you are on the path.
Some of them will give you their picture to wear, so you know where you are to
get to, instead of your own picture. TMTT 212
So the knights (of
the roundtable) entered the forest at the point that
they had chosen, where there was no path. If there is a path,
it is someone else’s path, and you are not on the adventure.
Now, what are you to do about instruction? You can get clues
from people who have followed paths, but then you have to carom off that and
translate it into your own decision, and there is no book of rules.
On this wonderful quest – it’s a marvelous romance, with each knight
going his own way – when anyone finds the path of another and thinks, “Oh, he’s
getting there!” and begins to follow that path, then he goes astray totally,
even though the other may get there. This is a wonderful
story: that which we intend, that which is the journey, that
which is the goal, is the fulfillment of something that never was on the earth
before – namely, your own potentiality. TMTT 212
Well, the next trial of our friend Lancelot is what is known as
the
You may know Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge.
The title is a motif from the Katha Upanishad: any trip along your
own path is a razor’s edge. It really is; nobody’s done it
before. And it’s so easy, particularly if what you’re
following is your bliss, your own path, to tip over and fall into a torrent of
passion that sweeps you away. This is a real lesson.
RG 138