The Narrow Path.

"It is not the easy path that takes you far, but the one on which the soul does not stray."

An old master lived in a mountain village.

He was not famous, and he did not have a crowd of disciples at his gate.

He just sat every morning on the stone in front of his house

and watched people pass by.

Two roads led out of the village.

One was wide, smooth and fast.

The other was narrow, stony, and winding.

Most people chose the first.

One day a young boy stopped in front of the master.

- Which road is better? - he asked.

- The one that will get me down faster...

or the one that is harder to go?

The old man did not answer immediately.

He just picked up a handful of dust from the ground

and slowly blew it out of his palm into the wind.

- The easy road - he said finally -

will take you quickly to the valley.

But not always where your heart wants to go.

The boy was silent for a long time.

Then he started towards the narrow path.

The path was steep.

He slipped.

He was tired.

Sometimes he looked back and saw those on the other path, who had already gone far ahead of him.

He stopped for a moment.

He almost turned back.

But he remembered the silence of the master.

Not his words.

His silence.

And he went on.

When he reached the valley, he was not greeted by a crowd.

Not applause.

Not glory.

Just a pure spring, where those on the wide path had never reached.

He stood there by the water and understood: It is not how fast we get there that matters, but whether we get there

where we truly belong.

Years passed.

The boy became a man.

He returned to the mountain.

The old master was no longer sitting on the stone.

Only his place remained there, and a smooth worn path that many had already chosen.

The man smiled for the first time.

Because he knew: the reward for the right path is not praise.

But that someone else finds it.

The Silence.