“Karma has no menu, you get served what you deserve.”
A man was traveling a notoriously dangerous landscape when he saw the clouds of a storm appear on the horizon ahead of him. Seeking shelter from the storm, he came across a cave. He was unsure if the cave was safe to enter, or occupied by others who would seek him harm.
So the man called out into the cave and listened.
Moments later, he heard what he thought was a voice shouting back at him. He called again, and sure enough, moments later the voice replied in kind.
Drawing his weapon, the man stepped into the cave. At every possible sight or sound, he jumped and swung his sword but hit nothing but air.
He searched the cave high and low for the source of the voice who continued to call after him but try as he might, he could not.
The more frustrated he became in his quest, the louder he shouted. And the louder he shouted, the more angry the voice sounded in reply.
He emerged from the cave days later, starving.
With nothing to show from his fruitless quest chasing an echo.
Consider this… That life itself is an echo.
‘What you send, will come back.
What you sow, you will reap.
What you give, you will get.
What you see in others, exists in you.’
What does your echo reflect upon you, Impaler?
There was once a time where you saw the storm clouds gathering on the horizon of your life. You alone know how dangerous the landscape was that led you to stray towards the cave to seek shelter.
And seek shelter you did, in the form of the mask that covers your face.
But the second you placed that mask upon your face, you became like the man shouting into the cave.
Fear-filled and swinging your weapon at anything that would move, you sought out your echo.
The voice took over. It controlled you.
It became you.
You entered the cave in search of something, and found only death and destruction.
The Impaler was born out of that echo, and it’s been reverberating ever since.
The small breath of freedom only adding to your frustration as the mask claimed you once more.
Those voices becoming angry.
Your echo sounding in your own head.
But who is truly at fault for the souls that lie in your wake? The voice of the echo that drove you mad, or the one who chose to place the mask upon his face and enter the cave in the first place?
For echoes are but a reflection of ourselves.
What you have sown, Impaler, you will reap.
What you have given, you will receive.
I am no echo, Impaler.
I am the cave.
In me, people seek shelter. They yearn to learn from me.
But those that lack enlightenment will only ever hear echoes in the cave of the mighty mountain.
Listen.
Fools fall for echoes where enlightened men hear the truth.
What do you hear?