Manual of the Warrior of Light

The sword was not made to be used by the mouth.

Sometimes Evil pursues the Warrior of the Light, and when it does, he calmly invites it into his tent.

He asks Evil: “Do you want to hurt me or use me to hurt others?”

Evil pretends not to hear. It says that it knows of the darkness in the Warrior’s soul. It touches wounds that have not yet healed and calls for vengeance. It mentions certain tricks and subtle poisons that will help him to destroy his enemies.

The Warrior of the Light listens. If conversation lags, he encourages Evil to continue talking by asking all about its various plans.

When he has heard everything, he gets up and leaves. Evil feels so weary and empty after all this talk that it does not have the strength to follow him.

The Warrior of the Light unwittingly takes a false step and plunges into the abyss.

Ghosts frighten him and solitude torments him. His aim had been to fight the Good Fight, and he never imagined that this would happen to him, but it did. Shrouded in darkness, he makes contact with his master.

“Master, I have fallen into the abyss,” he says. “The waters are deep and dark.”

“Remember one thing,” replies his master. “You do not drown simply by plunging into water, you only drown if you stay beneath the surface.”

And the Warrior uses all his strength to escape from his predicament.

The Warrior of the Light behaves like a child.

People are shocked; they have forgotten that a child needs to have fun and to play, to be slightly irreverent and to ask awkward, childish questions, to talk nonsense that not even he believes in.

And they say, horrified: “So this is the spiritual path, is it? He’s so immature!”

The Warrior feels proud of such comments. And he remains in touch with God through his innocence and his joy, without ever losing sight of his mission.

The Latin root of the word responsibility reveals its true meaning: the capacity to respond, to react.

A responsible Warrior is one who has proved able to observe and to learn. He is even capable of being “irresponsible.” Sometimes, he has allowed himself to be carried along by a situation, without responding or reacting.

But he always learned his lesson; he took a stand, listened to advice, and was humble enough to accept help.

A responsible Warrior is not someone who takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, but someone who has learned to deal with the challenges of the moment.

A Warrior of the Light cannot always choose his battlefield.

Sometimes, in the middle of battles not of his choosing, he is taken by surprise, but there is no point in running away. Those battles will merely follow him.

Then, at the point when conflict seems almost inevitable, the Warrior talks to his opponent. Showing neither fear nor cowardice, he tries to find out why the other man wants to fight, what made him leave his village in order to seek him out to fight this duel. Without even unsheathing his sword, the Warrior persuades his opponent that this is not a fight for him.

A Warrior of the Light listens to what his opponent has to say. He only fights if absolutely necessary.

The Warrior of the Light is terrified when making important decisions.

“This is too much for you,” says a friend. “Go on, be brave,” says another. And so his doubts grow.

After some days of anxiety, he withdraws to the corner of his tent where he usually sits to meditate and pray. He sees himself in the future. He sees the people who will benefit or be harmed by his attitude. He does not want to cause pointless suffering, but nor does he want to abandon the path.

The Warrior allows the decision to reveal itself.

If he has to say “yes,” he will say it bravely. If he has to say “no,” he will say it without a trace of cowardice.

A Warrior of the Light accepts his Personal Legend completely.

His companions say: “He has remarkable faith!”