small words.

Yes. Love. G.o.d.

They are words that are easy enough to say and which fill vast empty s.p.a.ces.

There is, however, one word - another small word - that many people have great difficulty in saying: no.

Someone who never says no, thinks of himself as generous, understanding, polite, because 'no' is thought of as being nasty, selfish, unspiritual.

The warrior does not fall into this trap. There are times when, in saying 'yes' to others, he is actually saying 'no' to himself.

That is why he never says 'yes' with his lips if, in his heart, he is saying 'no'.

First: G.o.d is sacrifice. Suffer in this life and you will be happy in the next. Second: People who have fun are childish. Remain tense at all times. Third: Other people know what is best for us because they have more experience. Fourth: Our duty is to make other people happy. We must please them even if that means making major sacrifices. Fifth: We must not drink from the cup of happiness; we might get to like it and we won't always have it in our hands. Sixth: We must accept all punishments. We are guilty. Seventh: Fear is a warning. We don't want to take any risks. These are the commandments that no warrior of light can obey.

A very large group of people is standing in the middle of the road, barring the

way into Paradise.

The puritan asks: 'What are these sinners doing here?'

And the moralist bawls: 'The prost.i.tute wants to join the feast!'

The guardian of social values yells: 'How can the adulteress be forgiven when she has sinned?'

The penitent rends his clothes: 'Why cure a blind man if all he cares about is his illness and when he doesn't even say thank you?'

The ascetic protests: 'You let that woman pour expensive oil on your hair! Why didn't she sell it instead to buy food?'

Smiling, Jesus holds the door open. And the warriors of light go in, despite the hysterical shouting.

The opponent is wise.

Whenever he can, he makes use of the easiest and most effective of his weapons: gossip. It doesn't take much effort to use it because others do the work for him. A few misdirected words can destroy months of dedication, years spent in search of harmony.

The warrior of light is often the victim of this trick. He does not know where the blow came from and cannot prove that the gossip is false. Gossip does not allow him the right to defend himself: it condemns without a trial.

When this happens, he puts up with the consequences and the undeserved punishment, for, as he well knows, words are powerful. But he suffers in silence and never uses the same weapon to hit back at his opponent.

The warrior of light is not a coward.

'You can give a fool a thousand intellects, but the only one he will want is

yours,' says an Arabic proverb. When the warrior of light starts planting his garden, he notices that his neighbour is there, spying. He likes to give advice on when to sow actions, when to fertilise thoughts and water conquests.

If he listens to what his neighbour is saying, he will end up creating something that is not his; the garden he is tending will be his neighbour's idea.

But a true warrior of light knows that every garden has its own mysteries, which only the patient hand of the gardener can unravel. That is why he prefers to concentrate on the sun, the rain and the seasons.

He knows that the fool who gives advice about someone else's garden is not tending his own plants.

In order to fight, you must keep your eyes open and have faithful companions

by your side.

It can happen that someone who was fighting alongside the warrior of light suddenly becomes his opponent instead.

The warrior's first reaction is hatred, but he knows that a blind combatant is lost in the midst of battle.

And so he tries to see the good things that his former ally did during the time in which they lived side by side; he tries to understand what led to that sudden change of att.i.tude, what wounds he had acc.u.mulated in his soul. He tries to discover what made one of them abandon their dialogue.

No one is entirely good or evil; that is what the warrior thinks when he sees that he has a new opponent.

A warrior knows that the ends do not justify the means.

Because there are no ends, there are only means. Life carries him from unknown to unknown. Each moment is filled with this thrilling mystery: the warrior does not know where he came from nor where he is going.

But he is not here by chance. And he is overjoyed by surprises and excited by landscapes that he has never seen before. He often feels afraid, but that is normal in a warrior.

If he thinks only of the goal, he will not be able to pay attention to the signs along the way. If he concentrates only on one question, he will miss various answers that are there beside him.

That is why the warrior submits.

The warrior knows about the 'waterfall effect'.

He has often seen someone mistreating another person who lacks the courage to respond. Then, out of cowardice and resentment, that person vents his anger on someone weaker than himself, who takes it out on someone else, in a veritable torrent of misery. No one knows the consequences of his own cruelty.

That is why the warrior is careful in his use of the sword and only accepts an opponent who is worthy of him. In moments of rage, he punches a rock and bruises his hand.

The hand will heal eventually, but the child who got beaten because his father lost a battle will bear the marks for the rest of his life.

When the order to move on comes, the warrior looks at all the friends he has made during the time that he followed the path. He taught some to hear the bells of a drowned temple, he told others stories around the fire.

His heart is sad, but he knows that his sword is sacred and that he must obey the orders of the One to whom he offered up his struggle.

Then the warrior thanks his travelling companions, takes a deep breath and continues on, laden with memories of an unforgettable journey.

Epilogue

It was dark by the time she finished speaking. The two of them sat watching the moon rising.

'Many of the things you told me contradict each other,' he said.

She got up.

'Goodbye,' she said. 'You knew that the bells at the bottom of the sea were not just a legend, but you could only hear them when you realised that the wind, the seagulls and the sound of the palm fronds were all part of the pealing of the bells.

In just the same way, the warrior of light knows that everything around him -his victories, his defeats, his enthusiasm and his despondency - form part of his Good Fight. And he will know which strategy to use when he needs it. A warrior does not try to be coherent; he has learned to live with his contradictions.'

'Who are you?' he asked.

But the woman was already moving off, walking over the waves towards the rising moon.