Suddenly, images began to appear. I did not have to think and imagine the parts of my problem from that moment. I just looked at the flashing images of my past business life without a reaction.

I watched a television serial. I watched it without changing the channel.

Big things came out. Small things came out.

Big or small, important or silly, relevant or irrelevant - I caught everything and threw them into the soft fire.

The clock ticked away the minutes.

Then there was an image, sticky and black. The fire did not consume it.

Esther, a customer, paid thirty dollars in cash for a keyboard. Later, she forgot that and sent a check for the same keyboard.

I knew it was mistake. Yet, I ignored it.

Thirty dollars was not a big deal. After all, I did not cheat Esther. It was her mistake.

Her mistake? Really?

There was a sudden revelation. I was capable of cheating others. At an opportune moment, I would cheat the innocent in the unsuspecting broad daylight.

My attitude was wrong, totally wrong. I had no financial problem, only a wrong attitude.

In a moment, Mr. Clean became Mr. Dirty.

I had to face myself.

I was a cheat. It was difficult to accept.

Just thirty dollars and I was a cheat!

I felt thorns in my eyes. I wanted to open my eyes and give up the whole exercise. But, I persisted.

I resolved to return the money to Esther. I told her from the deepest depths of my heart, "Esther, I am sorry."

There was crack in the stone.

I looked at the fire. "This is a promise. I’ll never repeat the deception. No more wrong attitudes, small or big," I told the fire.

Scales smoked in thin air - in a puff. Thirty was perfectly equal to three millions.

A sword of light struck on the sticky knot heavily. There was a sudden freedom.

A dark point was flung into the fire.

The point disappeared.

Mr. Dirty disappeared. Mr. Clean disappeared.

Only the mystic fire existed. It burnt and burnt.

No Bill. No chicken. No Arnold. No Debbie.

The fire grew.

Waves of thoughts, feelings, actions, desires and disappointments suddenly sprang from nowhere.

I offered each and everything to the fire, one by one and each at a time.

Waves of happy and sorrowful faces, right and wrong attitudes and favorable and unfavorable circumstances appeared.

I offered each and everything to the fire, one by one and each at a time.

The fire consumed the good and the bad.

The engine driver dug the coal and threw it into the fire. He did his work patiently.

Then I knew what the inner work was.

I dug the black pit of my past and threw the coal into the fire.

My pit! The bottomless pit!

The fire grew. It grew and grew.

I dug. I threw.

My minutes swallowed months and years.

I dug. I threw.

I heard the future song that no ears can hear.

I dug. I threw.

I saw the vast landscape that no eyes can see.

I dug. I threw.

I tasted the sweet juice that no tongues can taste.

I dug and dug the black pit of mire. I threw and threw the coal into the fire. I did my inner work.

I dug. I threw.

A small window suddenly opened in silence.

I saw a faint light from a distant ship that floated on a dark sea. The tiny little light twinkled like an ageless star.

A door opened on my front. An unexpected freedom broke my shackles.

A door opened on my right. A tiny fountain of freshwater sprang from my desert heart.

A door opened on my left. An unknown icy hand began to caress my burning head.

A frail blade of grass quivered in a windless air on a high mountain’s summit.

There was a little cascade of peace above my confused head. Clean air rushed in to fill my thirsty lungs.

Someone lit the sun that never sets.

A fugitive white bird flew and wandered in the infinite bright blue sky.

I broke into another space and time. In thirty minutes, I crossed millenniums.

A beautiful fairy with twelve golden wings blew a long whistle from a faraway fairyland.

There was a soft thud.

The wheels rolled.

The engine moved.

My journey to the center of my heart

Began on the sunlit path.

* * * *