The Book of Manuals

That Someone gives him what he most needs: time. Sooner or later, everything will once more work in his favour.

5. A warrior of light is wise; he does not talk about his defeats.

A warrior of light accepts his Personal Legend completely.

His companions say: ‘He has remarkable faith!’

For a moment, the warrior feels proud, then immediately feels ashamed of what he has heard because he does not have as much faith as he appears to have.

At that moment, his angel whispers: ‘You are only an instrument of the light. There is no reason to feel proud or to feel guilty, there are only reasons to fulfil your destiny.’

And the warrior of light, aware now that he is but an instrument, feels calmer and more secure.

Rules for the 21st Century

1. All human beings are different, and they should do everything they can to continue to be different.

2. Each human being is granted two possible courses of action: doing and thinking. Both lead to the same place.

3. Each human being is granted two things: the power and the gift. The power is what drives a man on to meet his destiny; the gift obliges him to share with others what is best in him.

4. Each human being is given a virtue: the capacity to choose. For those who do not use this virtue, it becomes a curse, and others will make their choices for them.

5. Each human being has the right to two blessings: getting things right and getting things wrong. In the latter case, there will always be a kind of apprenticeship that will lead him back to the right path.

6. Each human being has his own sexual identity and should live according to that identity without guilt, provided that he does not oblige others to share it.

7. Each human being has his own Personal Legend to fulfil, and that is his reason for existing in the world. The Personal Legend manifests itself in his enthusiasm for what he does.

Additional clause: one can abandon one’s Personal Legend for a short time, provided that one does not forget it completely and returns to it as soon as possible.

8. Every man has a feminine side, and every woman has a masculine side. One must be intuitive when using discipline and objective when using intuition.

9. Each human being should know two languages: the language of society and the language of signs. The first allows us to communicate with each other. The second allows us to understand God’s messages.

10. Each human being has the right to seek happiness, happiness being understood as something that makes you happy, but does not necessarily make other people happy.

11. Each human being must keep alight within him the sacred flame of madness, but behave like a normal person.

12. The only truly grave faults are these: not respecting other people’s rights, allowing oneself to be paralysed by fear, feeling guilty, believing one does not deserve the good or bad things that happen in life, and being a coward.

Sub-clause 1 - we will love our enemies, but not make alliances with them. They were placed in our path to test our sword and deserve the respect of our fight.

Sub-clause 2 - we will choose our enemies

12a. All religions lead to the same God, and all deserve the same degree of respect.

Additional clause - A man who chooses a religion is also choosing a way of worshipping and of sharing the mysteries collectively. However, he alone is responsible for how he behaves on his path and has no right to make his religion responsible for his steps and his decisions.

14. We hereby declare an end to the wall separating the sacred from the profane: from now on, everything is sacred.

15. Everything that is done in the present affects the future and redeems the past.

All dispensations to the contrary are hereby revoked.

The art of the sword

(An adaptation of a few extracts from a book written for Samurai warriors and entitled Treatise of Tahlan, after the author, who was both a fencing master and a Zen monk.)