The lone traveller's journal.
In the furnace like atmosphere not even a blade of dry grass moved, not even a bird stirred. The harsh light of the sun made everything look bleached. I, the lone traveller, cursed the soaring temperature and my loneliness, as I thought about resting my weary, travel sore body. The great ball of fire at its zenith burned everything mercilessly!
My legs took me over the sunburned hill where I chanced upon a pair of dry trees.
I felt it was as if The dry trees were standing guard like last sentinels looking over the ruined remnants of an old kingdom long forgotten. Their arms frozen in fealty to their lord. Protecting his sacred treasures awaiting his return.
I sat silently on the dried grass under the shadow of one of them, contemplating what they would be feeling like, the silent sentinels, who witnessed the meandering flow of power through the millennia. I wondered how it would be to listen to the countless stories they had to tell.
How would one listen to their thoughts. After all how would they speak?
The silence grew as stifling as the hot air. I thought to myself,How out of touch have we been. Though a part of each other, we have grown so distant. Man and nature.
As my fingers brushed across the dried prickly grass,a faint rustle was heard.
Suddenly, I realised that a voice that was barely a whisper was saying something.
I looked around in wonder, trying to find its source. When I concentrated on it to sate my curiosity. The voice was coming from nowhere, but at the same time it was coming from everywhere. It was from outside me, yet the same voice was inside me. As it grew louder, I realised it was speaking in a language everyone knew, but had long forgotten.
What is this voice? And how am I able to understand the language?
The same way you know how to breathe. The voice answered my unspoken questions.
Who are you? I asked it.
Who do you want me to be? It asked me back.
Are you real or a figment of my imagination?
How do you know you are real?
I... Well.... I can sense myself. I mean, I see myself in mirror, I can feel when I touch. I can smell things. I can taste. And I can hear...
Ah ha! Was the smug interruption.
Alright! alright! I concede. I replied, flustered.
So, I couldn't help but notice as you were sitting by the gates of my realm, you were saying you wanted to listen to our story.
Oh, you are the voice of the tree!? Tell me your story. I said. Intrigued at the fact that I hadn't spoken my wish out loud in the first place.
hmmm, its not gonna be easy, we Need to open this one's mind a bit.I heard the voice wonder, then it asked "what makes you think I am the tree?"
So you are not the tree? A frown appeared on my face with puzzlement.
I didn't say that exactly. I am that which is everything, yet is nothing.
How can that be possible? Its a paradox. My confusion evident in the tone.
ah. You are Still caught in The trappings of maya. Free yourself.
Come on, do you have to speak in riddles. Isn't there a direct way?
Alright, you want a direct way? lets do this the direct way. Close your eyes and I will show you our story.
I did as instructed.
Now open your mind. The voice instructed.
How?Bewildered at the command.
Let go of All conscious thought. Just be. If thoughts flow, let them be. don't try to react or analyse. Just be. Be aware of the breath.
I was aware of the silken sensation of the breath passing through my body. Then as the feeling picked up, everything around me started to vibrate. A strange hum reverberated from everywhere. Within me and around me.
I couldn't bear it any more.it was a pleasant, yet painful feeling.
I began panicking. Afraid to lose myself in the chaos that ensued.
don't worry, just breathe. The voice reassured me in soothing tones , the way a mother calms her child who is having a nightmare. And A luminous being encompassed me in it's entirety. bright and eternal.
Then suddenly A moment of nothingness. Nothing existed. but if nothing existed who was the one witnessing it?
The thought kindled a spark which brought everything into existence from the nothingness.
I was everything, yet nothing. I was everywhere, yet nowhere.
I witnessed the genesis! I saw The whole universe changing, merging and Morphing into its different avatars.I saw The birth of Stars, I saw their different deaths. I saw whole galaxies vanish, I saw some new ones formed. I saw how our planet was formed.
Everything flashing in front of me. Time had no meaning, Millennium passed in a second, and each second felt like a millennium.
I watched as numerous forests grew and decayed, I watched numerous creatures blink in and out of existence, sometimes entire species evolving, some going extinct.
I Watched Numerous Kingdoms of men as they came, collide on the battlefields, and watched as the ashes of huge armies lay scattered, settled back into the dust whence they came from.
I saw Entire civilizations as they weaned, grew, struggled, survived, and disappeared entirely.Seas, oceans, mountains, vales. Transforming into each other in the blink of the eye.
All these but an infinitesimally small pause in the continuous flow of creation. It was Total chaos, yet there was a certain harmony to it.
I was overwhelmed at the miracles I was witnessing. I thanked whatever power that bought me here. probably the luminous being that embraced me before.
Then gradually, I sensed a pattern, a rhythmic thumping, almost like a heartbeat. And then a flow, like breathing in and out. Swirling, and eddying the creation continued, like waves crashing on to the sands of time forming a shore.
Then came the moment of understanding. It was my own heartbeat and breathing! I was the luminous being itself!
What is the significance? what did it mean?
No words can answer that question, so I let it be.It was one concept which permeates our consciousness, but is impossible to capture into a framework of words.
It was like holding onto a smooth orb coated in oil. When we hold it gently, it stays in our grip. But it slips through our grasp the tighter we try to hold on to it.
It meant everything to me, yet it meant nothing. I basked in that feeling till I was content.
Gradually, I opened my eyes to a drastically changed scene. the humidity had increased, The atmosphere was still stifling, yet it wasn't the same as before. It was thick with sense of a foreboding. A calm before the storm, if you will.
Quick wind started blowing with a lingering fragrance of the promise of fresh life in them. Dark storm clouds covered the land in all directions. Thunder clashed, lightning flashed.
As the clouds hung heavily in the sky above, I lifted my gaze up, a silent prayer going to the power behind all creation.
and as tears of joy formed in my eyes, the first drops of rain landed on my upturned face...
I sat in the rain, my whole being cleansed and bathed along with everything around me. I don't know for how long I sat.
I sat till The storm had passed, both within and outside.
I sat and saw The columns of clouds that were still suspended in the heavens above. They formed a temple of sorts, a cathedral in the heaven above for the sun!
The divine alchemist, the sun strode forth bright and bold. Turning everything he touched into gold!
The cathedral of clouds, the gurgling brook in the plain. The tops of trees washed in the rain. the colourful birds, proud and vain.
The whole world was born anew! The grass green with drops of dew! Little green buds appeared on the branches of the trees. Flocks of flying ducks and geese!
Trill of Songbirds singing with joy! distant flute of the shepherd's boy!
And as I caressed the fresh tendrils of a sprout lying in the fragrant soil lit by a solitary ray of light, praising the divine miracle called life, the voice echoed somewhere in the recesses of my mind,clean and bright,
"Come, lets tell our story Together. Now and forever."
And the lone traveler, though in solitude, was never alone again!
In the furnace like atmosphere not even a blade of dry grass moved, not even a bird stirred. The harsh light of the sun made everything look bleached. I, the lone traveller, cursed the soaring temperature and my loneliness, as I thought about resting my weary, travel sore body. The great ball of fire at its zenith burned everything mercilessly!
My legs took me over the sunburned hill where I chanced upon a pair of dry trees.
I felt it was as if The dry trees were standing guard like last sentinels looking over the ruined remnants of an old kingdom long forgotten. Their arms frozen in fealty to their lord. Protecting his sacred treasures awaiting his return.
I sat silently on the dried grass under the shadow of one of them, contemplating what they would be feeling like, the silent sentinels, who witnessed the meandering flow of power through the millennia. I wondered how it would be to listen to the countless stories they had to tell.
How would one listen to their thoughts. After all how would they speak?
The silence grew as stifling as the hot air. I thought to myself,How out of touch have we been. Though a part of each other, we have grown so distant. Man and nature.
As my fingers brushed across the dried prickly grass,a faint rustle was heard.
Suddenly, I realised that a voice that was barely a whisper was saying something.
I looked around in wonder, trying to find its source. When I concentrated on it to sate my curiosity. The voice was coming from nowhere, but at the same time it was coming from everywhere. It was from outside me, yet the same voice was inside me. As it grew louder, I realised it was speaking in a language everyone knew, but had long forgotten.
What is this voice? And how am I able to understand the language?
The same way you know how to breathe. The voice answered my unspoken questions.
Who are you? I asked it.
Who do you want me to be? It asked me back.
Are you real or a figment of my imagination?
How do you know you are real?
I... Well.... I can sense myself. I mean, I see myself in mirror, I can feel when I touch. I can smell things. I can taste. And I can hear...
Ah ha! Was the smug interruption.
Alright! alright! I concede. I replied, flustered.
So, I couldn't help but notice as you were sitting by the gates of my realm, you were saying you wanted to listen to our story.
Oh, you are the voice of the tree!? Tell me your story. I said. Intrigued at the fact that I hadn't spoken my wish out loud in the first place.
hmmm, its not gonna be easy, we Need to open this one's mind a bit.I heard the voice wonder, then it asked "what makes you think I am the tree?"
So you are not the tree? A frown appeared on my face with puzzlement.
I didn't say that exactly. I am that which is everything, yet is nothing.
How can that be possible? Its a paradox. My confusion evident in the tone.
ah. You are Still caught in The trappings of maya. Free yourself.
Come on, do you have to speak in riddles. Isn't there a direct way?
Alright, you want a direct way? lets do this the direct way. Close your eyes and I will show you our story.
I did as instructed.
Now open your mind. The voice instructed.
How?Bewildered at the command.
Let go of All conscious thought. Just be. If thoughts flow, let them be. don't try to react or analyse. Just be. Be aware of the breath.
I was aware of the silken sensation of the breath passing through my body. Then as the feeling picked up, everything around me started to vibrate. A strange hum reverberated from everywhere. Within me and around me.
I couldn't bear it any more.it was a pleasant, yet painful feeling.
I began panicking. Afraid to lose myself in the chaos that ensued.
don't worry, just breathe. The voice reassured me in soothing tones , the way a mother calms her child who is having a nightmare. And A luminous being encompassed me in it's entirety. bright and eternal.
Then suddenly A moment of nothingness. Nothing existed. but if nothing existed who was the one witnessing it?
The thought kindled a spark which brought everything into existence from the nothingness.
I was everything, yet nothing. I was everywhere, yet nowhere.
I witnessed the genesis! I saw The whole universe changing, merging and Morphing into its different avatars.I saw The birth of Stars, I saw their different deaths. I saw whole galaxies vanish, I saw some new ones formed. I saw how our planet was formed.
Everything flashing in front of me. Time had no meaning, Millennium passed in a second, and each second felt like a millennium.
I watched as numerous forests grew and decayed, I watched numerous creatures blink in and out of existence, sometimes entire species evolving, some going extinct.
I Watched Numerous Kingdoms of men as they came, collide on the battlefields, and watched as the ashes of huge armies lay scattered, settled back into the dust whence they came from.
I saw Entire civilizations as they weaned, grew, struggled, survived, and disappeared entirely.Seas, oceans, mountains, vales. Transforming into each other in the blink of the eye.
All these but an infinitesimally small pause in the continuous flow of creation. It was Total chaos, yet there was a certain harmony to it.
I was overwhelmed at the miracles I was witnessing. I thanked whatever power that bought me here. probably the luminous being that embraced me before.
Then gradually, I sensed a pattern, a rhythmic thumping, almost like a heartbeat. And then a flow, like breathing in and out. Swirling, and eddying the creation continued, like waves crashing on to the sands of time forming a shore.
Then came the moment of understanding. It was my own heartbeat and breathing! I was the luminous being itself!
What is the significance? what did it mean?
No words can answer that question, so I let it be.It was one concept which permeates our consciousness, but is impossible to capture into a framework of words.
It was like holding onto a smooth orb coated in oil. When we hold it gently, it stays in our grip. But it slips through our grasp the tighter we try to hold on to it.
It meant everything to me, yet it meant nothing. I basked in that feeling till I was content.
Gradually, I opened my eyes to a drastically changed scene. the humidity had increased, The atmosphere was still stifling, yet it wasn't the same as before. It was thick with sense of a foreboding. A calm before the storm, if you will.
Quick wind started blowing with a lingering fragrance of the promise of fresh life in them. Dark storm clouds covered the land in all directions. Thunder clashed, lightning flashed.
As the clouds hung heavily in the sky above, I lifted my gaze up, a silent prayer going to the power behind all creation.
and as tears of joy formed in my eyes, the first drops of rain landed on my upturned face...
I sat in the rain, my whole being cleansed and bathed along with everything around me. I don't know for how long I sat.
I sat till The storm had passed, both within and outside.
I sat and saw The columns of clouds that were still suspended in the heavens above. They formed a temple of sorts, a cathedral in the heaven above for the sun!
The divine alchemist, the sun strode forth bright and bold. Turning everything he touched into gold!
The cathedral of clouds, the gurgling brook in the plain. The tops of trees washed in the rain. the colourful birds, proud and vain.
The whole world was born anew! The grass green with drops of dew! Little green buds appeared on the branches of the trees. Flocks of flying ducks and geese!
Trill of Songbirds singing with joy! distant flute of the shepherd's boy!
And as I caressed the fresh tendrils of a sprout lying in the fragrant soil lit by a solitary ray of light, praising the divine miracle called life, the voice echoed somewhere in the recesses of my mind,clean and bright,
"Come, lets tell our story Together. Now and forever."
And the lone traveler, though in solitude, was never alone again!
