In a country at war, there was a king who tormented his captives rather than killing them outright.
The king led them to a room where a group of archers waited at one side opposite a huge iron door.
On the walls around them hung skeletons with arrows in their chests. In this room the king asked them to stand in a circle and said:
“You can choose to die by the archers’ arrows, or to go through the iron door. I’ll be waiting for you behind that door.”
Everybody chose death by the archers.
At the end of the war, a soldier who had served the king for a long time turned to him and said: “Your majesty, can I ask you a question?”
The king looked at him with expectation. “Yes.”
“Your majesty, what is behind that door?”
The king’s answer was: “Go and see for yourself!”
The soldier, with a little apprehension, opened the door and when he did so, rays of sunshine lit the room.
The door opened to the way to freedom - far away from that fortress.
The surprised soldier looked at the king who said:
“I gave them the choice but because of their fear they preferred to die instead of taking the risk and opening the door. That’s the truth.”
How many doors in your life are closed by fear?
How many times have good people lost freedom and chosen a trap because of false imagination?
If they had looked at reality with open eyes, they would have recognized where the real danger was and where the way out was, wouldn’t they?
“Look. See what you see, not what someone tells you that you see.
What you observe is what you observe. Look at things and life and others directly, not through any cloud of prejudice, curtain of fear or the interpretation of another.
Instead of arguing with others, get them to look. The most flagrant lies can be punctured, the greatest pretenses can be exposed, the most intricate puzzles can be resolved and the most remarkable revelations can occur, simply by gently insisting that someone look.”
From chapter 17 of The Way to Happiness®- A common sense guide for better living
Correct choices, brave decisions in life and a real competence in any area, are all based on the ability of the person to look.
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