The Allegory of the Thirsty Knight and the Three-Headed Dragon

A knight, who had lost his horse and armor and held only his sword, walked on, hungry and thirsty. In the distance, he saw a lake, but beside it sat a three-headed dragon. With his last ounce of energy, the knight drew his sword and began fighting the dragon.

For two full days, he battled, cutting off two of the dragon’s heads. On the third day, the dragon fell, exhausted. The knight, equally spent, collapsed beside it. In its final moments, the dragon asked the knight, “What did you want?” The knight replied, “To drink some water.” The dragon then asked, “So why didn’t you just drink?”

In our lives, we are in constant struggles — whether it is to make money, gain respect, or achieve fame and power. These struggles are against imaginary enemies, born from our empty egoism, which seeks self-benefit at the expense of others and nature.

We are born into this world to find work, peace, and to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. These are our primary needs. However, beyond this basic level of existence, we must develop further. Ultimately, our egoistic nature drives us to seek the meaning of life. This nature continually pulls us forward, making us desire more and more, until we reach a point where we must understand how this nature operates within us. We must learn to direct it to the discovery of life’s meaning and purpose.

The meaning of life lives in us as an unresolved task. It exists to pull us beyond this world — outside of our petty egoism — to understand the final destination where nature leads us, so we can master it and find peace.

In our world, egoism grows with each generation, evolving from a simple desire for self-enjoyment at the expense of others, to a great egoism — a desire for eternal and perfect fulfillment that comes with discovering life’s meaning.

Our ever-growing egoism is like the three-headed dragon we must constantly battle. As egoism grows, we must chop at it, causing it to develop even faster. New “heads” grow in place of those we manage to cut off, and the process continues endlessly. Unlike the allegory, however, there is no moment when the dragon says, “You could have just taken a drink.” To navigate our growing egoism and reach the discovery of life’s meaning, we must remain vigilant. We must constantly chop away at the new “heads” that egoism sprouts, ensuring it never consumes our growing desire to attain the meaning of life.