gnosis I

It is the parable of the Coach.

This image represents the characteristics of man by a coach. The physical
body is represented by the coach itself; the horses represent sensations,
feelings and passions; the coachman is the ensemble of the intellectual
faculties including reason; the person sitting in the coach is the master.
In its normal state, the whole system is in a perfect state of operation: the
coachman holds the reins firmly in his hands and drives the horses in the
direction indicated by the master. This, however, is not how things happen
in the immense majority of cases. First of all, the master is absent. The
coach must go and find him, and must then await his pleasure. All is in a
bad state: the axles are not greased and they grate; the wheels are badly
fixed; the shaft dangles dangerously; the horses, although of noble race, are
dirty and ill-fed; the harness is worn and the reins are not strong.

The coachman is asleep: his hands have slipped to his knees and hardly hold the
reins, which can fall from them at any moment.
The coach nevertheless continues to move forward, but does so in a way
which presages no happiness. Abandoning the road, it is rolling down the
slope in such a way that the coach is now pushing the horses, which are
unable to hold it back. The coachman, fallen into a deep sleep, is swaying
in his seat at risk of falling off. Obviously a sad fate awaits such a coach.
This image provides a highly appropriate analogy for the condition of
most men, and it is worth taking as an object of meditation.

Salvation may however present itself. Another coachman, this one quite
awake, may pass by the same route and observe the coach in its sad
situation. If he is not much in a hurry, he may perhaps stop to help
the coach that is in distress. He will first help the horses hold back the
coach from slipping down the slope. Then he will awaken the sleeping
driver and together with him will try to bring the coach back to the road.
He will lend fodder and money. He might also give advice on the care of
the horses, the address of an inn and a coach repairer, and indicate the
proper route to follow.

It will be up to the assisted coachman afterward to profit, by his own efforts,
from the help and the information received. It will be incumbent on him
from this point on to put all things in order and, open eyed, to follow the
path he had abandoned.
He will above all fight against sleep, for if he falls asleep again, and if the
coach leaves the road again and again finds itself in the same danger, he
cannot hope that chance will smile upon him a second time; that another
coachman will pass at that moment and at that place and come to his aid
once again."

From "Gnosis I"