metaphor on night vision

Have you ever walked in the wilderness or countryside at night with an electric torchlight? Most people would choose to take one, for fear of getting lost in the darkness. The focused beam of the torchlight illuminates a narrow patch in front of you, but everything around it remains invisible, hidden in the darkness that has become even darker as a result of sharp-cut contrast with the flashlight.

But if you suspend the fear and just allow yourself to switch off the torch for one moment, you will suddenly see that the forest is not dark at all.. that it is bathed in silver light, that there is the beautiful moon and millions of twinkling stars in the sky, smiling at you. As your eyes get used to night vision, you will see more and more clearly, you'll notice the path rolling out in front of you and leading farther ahead. And then you will realize that it was never dark in the first place, just that the light of the torch hid everything from your eyes by contrast, that the narrow focused beam has deprived you of the hidden entirety of nature.

The things we have learned in life, at school, from others, are like these narrow torchlights - values and beliefs that we keep desperately holding on to, for fear of having to face the dark night - what we think Life to be without a rigid "truth" to hold on to. We each carry our own torch and try to force our narrow lights on others, but even all combined together they will never be able to replace the full beauty of the moonlit night and the glow of the myriads of stars above us. To see that beauty for the first time, however, one must dare to be brave enough to switch off their own torchlight for a moment. To trust in the night. To risk getting lost. To trust that the road will appear to the blinded eyes in a few seconds' time. And it takes immense courage. To give up your small security trusting in a greater one that you have not seen yet, since your eyes have been blinded by your separate small truths. The torchlight vision is what keeps you constricted to a narrow path you're afraid to step off of and keep stumbling on, tripping over rocks you failed to address. But once you dare to make that step... once you let go of that narrow deception of artificial light, and once you have found that night vision that is naturally yours, you can never get lost. You see that the forest road is not full of threats and pits, every turn and cave is clearly visible, and so are the fruits on the side paths; you realize that it's always been an endless garden for you to play in, one where you can never get lost.