Revelation is not reached by imitation.
You cannot skip the path and expect truth to appear.
People are always searching.
And they are always searching for shortcuts.
This is not a flaw.
Every psychological framework knows this.
Which is why shortcuts are so often sold as solutions.
In spirituality and self-development, the shortcut is often presented as an image.
A person sitting in stillness beneath a tree.
Peaceful. Silent. Complete.
This image represents what millions long for.
And that image is not false.
It is, however, deeply misleading when sold as a starting point.
The Buddha beneath the Bodhi tree is not a method.
It is a conclusion.
What is rarely mentioned is the six-year path that preceded it.
Six years of study.
Six years of disciplined exploration.
Six years of testing ideas, abandoning them, nearly dying through asceticism, learning from multiple teachers.
The stillness under the tree was not the cause of revelation.
It was the result of lived experience.
What many attempt today is to leap from their current state directly into someone else’s final moment.
Without the path.
Without the testing.
Without the discarded concepts.
Without the embodied understanding.
But revelation does not emerge from posture.
It emerges from experience.
Even if you could jump straight to the final image, you would not receive the same insight.
Because revelation is not transferable.
It is shaped by the road that led there.
And in modern life, that road does not lead away from the world.
You will still live where you live.
Work where you work.
Navigate the systems you are already part of.
Your path to yourself does not begin somewhere else.
It begins exactly where you are.
Understanding yourself.
Observing your environment.
Recognising the structures you move within.
Keep what helps you walk.
Discard what promises arrival.
Do not expect truth to be revealed to you by imitation.
The only revelation that matters is the one you reach by walking your own path.