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eugzol в посте Metapractice (оригинал в ЖЖ)
a hunting trip to a place in the mountains.
"What are we going to hunt?" I asked.
"A special animal, either a deer or a wild boar or even a mountain lion."
He paused for a moment and then added, "Even an eagle."
I stood up and followed him to my car. He said that this time we were going only to observe
and to find out what animal we had to hunt. He was about to get in my car when he seemed to
remember something. He smiled and said that the journey had to be postponed until I had
learned something without which our hunting would be impossible.
We went back and sat down again underneath his ramada. There were so many things I
wanted to ask, but he did not give me time to say anything before he spoke again.
"This brings us to the last point you must know about a warrior," he said. "A warrior selects
the items that make his world.
"The other day when you saw the ally and I had to wash you twice, do you know what was
wrong with you?"
"No."
"You had lost your shields."
"What shields? What are you talking about?"
"I said that a warrior selects the items that make his world. He selects deliberately, for every
item he chooses is a shield that protects him from the onslaughts of the forces he is striving to
use. A warrior would use his shields to protect himself from his ally, for instance.
"An average man who is equally surrounded by those inexplicable forces is oblivious to them
because he has other kinds of special shields to protect himself."
He paused and looked at me with a question in his eyes. I had not understood what he meant.
"What are those shields?" I insisted.
"What people do," he repeated.
"What do they do?"
"Well, look around. People are busy doing that which people do. Those are their shields.
Whenever a sorcerer has an encounter with any of those inexplicable and unbending forces
we have talked about, his gap opens, making him more susceptible to his death than he
ordinarily is; I've told you that we die through that gap, therefore if it is open one should have
his will ready to fill it; that is, if one is a warrior.
If one is not a warrior, like yourself, then one has no other recourse but to use the activities of
daily life to take one's mind away from the fright of the encounter and thus to allow one's gap
to close. You got angry with me that day when you met the ally. I made you angry when I
stopped your car and I made you cold when I dumped you into the water. Having your clothes
on made you even colder. Being angry and cold helped you close your gap and you were
protected. At this time in your life, however, you can no longer use those shields as
effectively as an average man. You know too much about those forces and now you are
finally at the brink of feeling and acting as a warrior. Your old shields are no longer safe."