Date: 2025-03-04
Tags: self-discovery
Source: Journals Green & Gold Wishes
I read a short story by Franz Kafka last night called ‘Before the Law’. It was about a man who wishes to enter ‘The Law’ but is prevented by a certain gatekeeper who tells him he cannot enter. The gatekeeper insists that even if the man gets past him, which would be very difficult because he is so powerful, there are still yet even more powerful and dreadful gatekeepers the man would have to contend with before he could enter The Law.
The gatekeeper did hint that the man could sneak by him if he were brave enough, but the man never does. He just waits and begs - day after day, year after year - longing to enter the law, but being prevented by this vague, arbitrary gatekeeper.
Finally, the man grows old and dies waiting, but not before the gatekeeper reveals to him that this pathway to ‘The Law’ was for him only and could not have been entered by anyone else.
I looked up the meaning of this story and it turns out that ol’ Kafka never bothered to share what he meant by it. This story resonated with me deeply though, so I thought of the meaning it has for me personally.
I saw the Law as the ultimate meaning, the quintessence of being, and the blueprint of one’s individual life. Could it be possible to access this Law of Being - to understand the meaning of life and of our own purpose here? Maybe… but not if we allow the gatekeepers to prevent us.
It seems that Kafka’s man was somewhat complicit in being prevented from entering. The gatekeeper did after all imply that the man could try to bypass him. In the same way I think we hold ourselves back from ultimate Truth by complying with our own arbitrary inner gatekeepers: fear, self-doubt, submission to external authority. The last one is a big one. We allow others to tell us what’s true, and who we are, and what it all means. It’s easier that way, isn’t it? That way we don’t have to encounter the terrifying gatekeepers on our way to truth.
Maybe the truth itself is terrifying. Terrifying by virtue of its infinite nature. It is so far beyond us, and yet it is possible, maybe, to touch the hem of its garment and be transformed.
And how do we get past these gatekeepers? That is, if we are brave enough to face them in the first place.
Links to:
Fear Prevents us From the Fulness of Life Transcending Fear Through Self-Surrender True Knowledge is Experiential, Not Learned by External Means