Siddhartha walked alone for the first time in his life. Govinda had stayed in the Buddha's grove. His father's house lay far behind him. The Samanas had not followed him. No teacher waited at the next village. He was, suddenly, completely alone.

He thought he would feel afraid. Instead, he felt as if he had just woken up.

The world was astonishingly bright. The river was the river. The grass was the grass. A blue jay cried, and he heard the blue jay crying — not a symbol of something, not an illusion to be seen through, not a step on the ladder to something higher. Only a blue jay, blue and loud and alive in the small morning.

He laughed out loud. He said to himself: I have run away from myself for twenty years. I have looked for the Self in the texts, in the fast, in the trance, in the teacher. And the Self was in me the whole time, waiting for me to stop running.

From this day, he decided, I will learn only from myself.

I have looked for the Self in the texts, in the fast, in the trance, in the teacher. And the Self was in me the whole time.