Once there was a dark kingdom, without light or lamp. There a wise old man made a candle that could not burn out; and this candle was the first and only light in the dark kingdom.
The sage had a young disciple, whom he taught – slowly, slowly – how to look at the light and how to see by it.
The people of the dark kingdom hated the sage and his light. Now and then men climbed by twos or three out of the dark town below, up to the cabin where the candle burned, to try to put it out; and the young disciple would chase them off.
But this time, one townsman got inside. And before he could be dragged out, he knocked the frail sage down, killing him. There was wailing from the cabin: and when the wailing was heard in the town below, the people answered it with cheers.
The young man buried the sage. The men of the dark town were more daring now; it seemed that they were always creeping up, trying to get in to put out the candle. So the young man set his chair in the doorway, and with his back to the candle listened to the darkness outside. When he heard voice or movement, he stood and charged shouting; and once it was gone, he sat and listened again. He listened long, listened and chased until he was weary and past weary, until he had learned to listen half-awake and to chase without anger. How long that went on – too long.
In time the men of the dark town began to lose interest. Soon there were silences when no men came at all. And the young man, with joy, re-entered the cabin to see the light again. But he had been too long from light: and he looking so suddenly upon it, the candle burned his eyes, the light blinded him forever.
Moral: Do not turn your Back to the Light to protect it.
