The Passage Through Hell
I'll put up an entry that I stumbled upon by accident.
When the passage through Hell opens beneath your feet along the path you are on, jump in. You will not be able to avoid it, merely delay it, and you will not be more prepared later than you are now. You will not be able to see the end of the passage; its final steps are invisible at the beginning. There is always an end to the passage, however interminable it seems; Hell is unable to seize you forever without your complicity. However awful it seems in the moment, your passage will eventually end.
You will drop things that are precious to you along the way. Many of them will be lost forever. Your passage will not be over until some of these precious things are lost. You will not know what has to drop and what does not. Drop everything, because later you will be able to pick up again those things you didn't need to drop. You will also discover, afterwards, that you have picked up pieces of yourself that you didn't know about beforehand.
Not all of your tears will be equally useful. You will cry over things you have lost and you will cry over your own predicament. The tears of loss will speed you and the tears of self-pity will entrap you. Regardless, you will weep.
All passages through Hell are equally forgotten. You will not remember much, if anything, of your passage. You will lose some of your life during the passage. Make your passage as intense and thus as short as possible, therefore, so that you lose as little life as possible. Since you will lose some it regardless, you might as well lose less than more. Although your misery may be great, it won't matter in the end, and it hardly matters during the passage, since all intensities of misery generate a desire to avoid them.
Each passage through Hell is equally solitary. Your friends may sustain your physical life during your passage, but they cannot take even a single of your steps for you. If you rely on your friends to help you feel better about your passage, you will only prolong it. The only assistance along the passage itself that an outsider may offer is to act as a demon with a whip, but few know how to wield pain without permanent damage.
When the passage through Hell opens beneath your feet along the path you are on, jump in. You will not be able to avoid it, merely delay it, and you will not be more prepared later than you are now. You will not be able to see the end of the passage; its final steps are invisible at the beginning. There is always an end to the passage, however interminable it seems; Hell is unable to seize you forever without your complicity. However awful it seems in the moment, your passage will eventually end.
You will drop things that are precious to you along the way. Many of them will be lost forever. Your passage will not be over until some of these precious things are lost. You will not know what has to drop and what does not. Drop everything, because later you will be able to pick up again those things you didn't need to drop. You will also discover, afterwards, that you have picked up pieces of yourself that you didn't know about beforehand.
Not all of your tears will be equally useful. You will cry over things you have lost and you will cry over your own predicament. The tears of loss will speed you and the tears of self-pity will entrap you. Regardless, you will weep.
All passages through Hell are equally forgotten. You will not remember much, if anything, of your passage. You will lose some of your life during the passage. Make your passage as intense and thus as short as possible, therefore, so that you lose as little life as possible. Since you will lose some it regardless, you might as well lose less than more. Although your misery may be great, it won't matter in the end, and it hardly matters during the passage, since all intensities of misery generate a desire to avoid them.
Each passage through Hell is equally solitary. Your friends may sustain your physical life during your passage, but they cannot take even a single of your steps for you. If you rely on your friends to help you feel better about your passage, you will only prolong it. The only assistance along the passage itself that an outsider may offer is to act as a demon with a whip, but few know how to wield pain without permanent damage.