You are not here by accident. If you have come this far, it means that something within you already knows there is no going back to your former life. You may try to look behind you, you may even try to preserve your old name, your old desires, your old hunger, but all of it is slowly beginning to fade.

The death of the ego does not come as punishment. It comes as a stern guardian who neither comforts nor explains. It only looks on coldly, because it sees more than you do. It sees every path through which you tried to escape.

Every gate you entered, believing it would lead you to freedom. Here, you will begin to be cleansed. The soul releases from itself a kind of filth that can no longer be hidden beneath wonder, desire, or a beautiful story told about oneself.

Everything that was false begins to fall away, and everything that was an escape loses its power. Before you lie paths. Perhaps both lead to the same place, but not everyone who stands before the gate of the heart will be ready to pass through it.

To find God within yourself does not mean to rise above being human. Sometimes, it means descending so deeply that there is nothing left behind which you can hide. This painting does not speak of an ending. It speaks of suspension between who you were and who you are afraid to become. Of the silence in which the ego walks itself to the gallows, because it knows it can no longer lead the way.

What within you is still pretending to be alive, though for a long time it has been asking for death?

(70cm x 100cm)