It seems that all of us as we grow up, knowingly or unknowingly, build an armor around ourselves against all our fears and disappointments to protect ourselves from further threats. Very soon we forget about the enjoyment of life and become preoccupied with attending the armor to make sure, it is ready to protect us at all times.
One of my most favorite books is the “The Knight In The Rusty Armor” by Robert Fisher. He masterfully walks us through the life of a knight lost in his purpose to live, not knowing why and what he was living for. It is perfect just the way it is so I can only paraphrase telling the story without any personal additions.
The story begins with a knight who was the greatest one in the kingdom and the king’s favorite. Always ready to march to any threat facing the kingdom. He had a shiny armor with all his gear and his horse ready for action. He spent all his day polishing the armor, sharpen his sword and attended his horse to make sure that he was always the best of the best. He was proud that as he walked through the city, the sun would radiate from his armor and he would hear the praise of all the kingdom for how great he was.
He became older, got married and had a son and lived in his castle near the king. There was peace all over the kingdom and there were no more threats, so there were no more use for the Knight’s services. But he always had his armor on since he had gotten used to it and was always ready to protect and had no time for his family. Eventually the time passed and because he had not used his armor, his armor started to rust to the point that he could not move any more. His helmet would not open any more to allow him to eat. He could not take off his armor and very soon he became the prisoner of his armor.
He realized that he was going to die if he did not find a way to take off his armor. So he reached out to the king who was his friend and king told him the only person who could help him was the wizard who lived deep in the middle of the jungle. So the knight said good by to his wife and his son and headed to the jungle.
After many beautiful events he found the wizard who agreed to help him and assigned two of his assistances to help him. The scroll so he could feed him through his helmet with his small hands and Rebecca the bird to fly over his head to show him the way.
AT first the knight had no respect for the two animals since he thought humans are superior to animals but very soon they became friends as three of them talked to each other more and he realized that they are his only hope for living and much wiser than him.
The wizard had told him that in order for him to be able to takeoff his armor, he had to conquer and pass through the three castles and this did not require any of his fighting skills. The first castle was the Castle of “Silence”, The second was “Knowledge” and the third was the castle of “Will and Daring”.
As he passes through each of these castles with beautiful terms of events and enlightenments, each piece of his armor falls apart. After he passes through the last castle the only armor left is his breast plate. He finds himself at top of the cliff with the last riddle to solve that tells him to let go of the cliff that he is hanging on to for dear life. It said that if you let go, you will not drop down into the bottom of the abyss but you will be elevated to the top of the mountain instead.
“THOUGH THIS UNIVERSE I OWN, I POSSES NOT A THING, FOR I CAN NOT KNOW THE UNKNOWN IF TO THE KNOWN I CLING”. He finally trusted and let go of all fear and allowed himself to fall into the abyss and to his surprise the breast plate came off and he rose up to the top of the mountain instead, finding his path back home to his family as a new man. “For indeed, the knight was the brook. He was the moon. He was the sun. He could be all those things at once now, and more, because he was one with the universe. HE WAS LOVE.” (From the ending Chapter).
(Note-The 3 Castles will be explored in future postings.)
Alex Abossein,
InnerFit, Oasis For Perfect Health