Chapter 1
“Hi.” My name is Rian. I am a boy. My year has progressed. Yet, I am no closer to achieving an understanding of my ultimate goal, which is to understand the meaning of life. So, I directly ask for help from the cosmos. I look up into the sky. I bellow out, “I am ready or at least I think I am!”
Can you picture it? Me, stark raving mad, standing outside in the park and staring straight up into the sky and saying, “I am ready or at least I think I am!”
Imagine if you will the parents in this park. They whisper to their young ones. “Come here!” They huddle their kids close to them in terror of me. They whisper to their children, “Stay away from that guy.”
This is the crazy set-up. This is how I ingloriously ask the universe to help me understand the meaning of life. Nothing happens. Ha. I am not met by a bolt of lightning. The day proceeds forward uneventfully. The next day proceeds and so on with no great change. I am ready to give it all up. Then, another part of me says no.
This is a strange moment in my life. Apparently, there is more than one part of me. This other part of me says, ‘If you want truly want a personal reconnection with the divine, you must search for the meaning of life.’ Somehow, I find this makes sense. For whatever reason, I think that if I do this search that the mystery of life will begin to appear before me. Still, the days move onward with no change.
A month or there about later I come to sit outside at my favorite cafe. I order food. After the waiter leaves with my meal request, I feel a presence. I look up. A female stands looking intently at me. She is about 10 feet away. She is tall and lean in stature. She stares at me with an unusual facial expression, as if she knows me.
Hmm. I study her face. I disagree. I do not know her. I think in my mind, ‘Come, sit, and have lunch with me.’ It is my telepathic way of saying please join me if you would like. My telepathic idea seems surreal to me. I do not have any reason to believe I have this telepathic capability or that she in turn can read my mind. I decide to smile to take the edge off this stare fest.
Before I can gesture politely to come over and share the table, she walks over and sits down. As she sits down across from me, she says, “Thank you for inviting me.”
I am thinking, ‘But I did not.’
She replies back, “Oh, but you did invite me. You did not say the words out loud. I heard them in the wind. It is called telepathy.”
I am puzzled by her mystery. Before another thought can pop in my head, a different waiter comes to the table. He takes her food order.
I look on at all this in bafflement. I say, “It appears you have me at a disadvantage. My name is Rian. Do I know you?”
She looks me straight in the eyes. This is how I quite unexpectedly feel we have met before, but I cannot place her. I go through my human memory bank of faces. She does not appear. Yet I see her with me in another place and time. We are together somewhere that I do not recognize. A moment later, her eyes shut. I am back in the present. She remains sitting across from me. It is as if nothing just transpired, but I know it did. This is weird.
She replies with eyes wide open, “No, you do not know me here. But I heard your request to the cosmos. You want to know the meaning of life.”
Ah, it is my guess she was in the park about a month ago when I put on quite a display. I study her face. She evidences no nervousness with me. On the other hand, I would be tremendously careful making contact with someone like me crazy enough to talk to the sky. I smile to try and calm nerves. I try to rationalize to her my mental insanity. “I felt a presence. I had an encounter with something out there.” I point up into the sky. “This is why I was bellowing vertically upwards into the clouds. I apologize. I made quite a spectacle of myself.”
She looks serenely back at me. “These spectacles are necessary. You caught my attention.”
Hmm. I agree with her. She has my focus too. “Yes, you are correct. To catch the eye of the Universe, you have to want to know the meaning of life. You don’t by chance know someone who can help me?”
She looks at me in her special way. She speaks softly. “Your request is unusual. If I grant you this wish, then what will you do with it?”
I grin. Surely, she teases. I decide to tease her back. “If I am granted this wish, I will forever be in your debt and at one with the cosmos.”
During the entire time I talk and even now, she continues to inspect me quite seriously.
I gather from her manner that my last response was insufficient. I come up with another rather weak alternate response. Before I say this idea out loud, she raises her hand to stop me. She replies to what was only in my mind, “No. That will not do.”
I am a bit embarrassed. Suddenly, an answer comes forth from somewhere that I do not know. I tell her solemnly, “What could be more important than to know than the meaning of life?” This is when I notice her eyes are an unusual red color. She looks straight into my eyes. It is as if this will provide her with important information. Maybe it works, because I suddenly feel strangely compelled to answer her truthfully, “Should this gift of the meaning of life be granted, I do not know what I will do with it.” I pause to think and then reply with more honesty, “My intent is to cause no harm. I even have the altruistic belief that maybe by knowing the meaning of life I can help others.”
She gives me an imperceptible nod and says, “A wise man once said, I cannot offer up guarantees. Please instead look into my soul, weigh your decision based on what you find there.”
This woman is definitely different. I stare uncertainly at her. Hmm. Where is this going? She expounds on the supernatural as if she knows of what I ask. I try another tactic. “I am not making this request as an ‘in crowd thing’, but rather because it agrees with me.”
She says nothing. She just continues to stare.
I am getting a bit unnerved. Her constant complacent stare fest is a bit unusual. I eventually give in to a dream from my mind and say, “If you wish to decide my fate based upon a look at my soul, please go ahead. If I am unworthy, then I accept it is not meant to be.” I open my eyes and look straight at her.
I feel the wind whisper seven times. Calamity comes first. It is replaced by a pure innocent light. A wave of energy comes. I am stronger. A calmness enters. The rains come. It washes my human form. Symbols and signs come next. I understand for the briefest of time scientific theories. This wisdom immediately is replaced by a hidden world. I see things that are not here. Clouds pass. Sunlight reappears. Just like that, the sights I temporarily saw are gone. It is as if none had taken place. But I know better. I look at her. She stares at me. I remember what took place. She nods agreeing with me.
My meal arrives. Hers arrives a bit later through this second waiter, which I think is odd.
She says as we eat, “It is from about 2 a.m. to sunrise each morning that I will best be able to communicate with you. From this small initial investment in time, you will begin to learn the meaning of life.” She slides a book across the table. “First off, read Chapter 1 and follow the instructions.”
As suddenly as she is here, she is gone. It is like she was not present. A cold shiver runs through me. No plate is on her side of the table. Her chair is neatly tucked in under the table. It is a most untenable situation for my mind to grasp. If she was never here, then what happened?
My waiter comes by with the check. The itemized bill is for a single meal, mine. I ask him curiously if he saw my friend visit and leave. He shakes his head no. He apologizes, “I did not see her with you, please excuse me for not coming back to take her order.”
A new chill runs down the back of my spine. I get goosebumps all up and down my arms. Nevertheless, I tell him, “Not to worry. It is okay.” I sign the receipt. I leave a tip.
I am in consternation. Am I delirious? No. I tell myself. I am sane. I was not hallucinating. Or, was I?
I want to know. I smell the air. Ah, her lingering scent remains. I sense her presence too. It wafts to the one side of me. It is an unusual situation. I feel her, but I cannot see her. How is this possible? This is how I begin to realize that we live in a deeply mysterious cosmos.
I contemplate this situation some more. I admit that I thought I was talking to a woman. But if she was never physically here, what does that mean? I do not know. I think about the context where this contact could be logical. My only thought is that she is not physically real but yet very real, which seems strange to conclude.
As you may be guessing, I do not have a clue as to what just took place. I check to see if I am mentally okay. I test my mind on mathematics. I know 12 times 12 is 144. I carry out additional fact checks. I don’t detect any sudden mental aberrations. For this reason, I am hopeful that I am sane.
This is how I begin to think that in time I will understand the purpose of all that just transpired. It feels like I had a connection with something out there. I sense that I saw a woman, who maybe is not physically present, which is weird to think possible.
I decide to test my physical abilities. I want to make sure I am okay. So, I take my pulse. It is normal. I get up and go for a walk. I find that I am in control of my faculties. Interestingly, the book she left, I am carrying it in my hand. While every other item associated with her visit disappeared, this book remains.
I find a bench. I sit. I open the book to Chapter 1. A note slips out and slides as if directed into my right hand. The note reads, ‘Remember. Follow the instructions. Be patient. It takes time to activate and feel the light. I will come once you are ready to receive it.’
This is how I begin to read Chapter 1. It is about the wind. These are seven key energy points in the wind. They connect with the human body. This is how I start to learn. Over the next few days, I read and reread Chapter 1 and practice the instructions to get as the book instructs in tune with the wind.
The lowest tune of the wind is the most impure. It contaminates all who let it enter and stay. This wind offers up falsehoods and evil. Its messages travel the farthest. It impacts the most people on Earth. The book says the sound I hear when this wind flows through is of the material world, which will keep me up at night and from right thinking.
Hmm. I am hoping the other winds are better.
The sixth wind is described next. The book describes it as follows, ‘The sixth wind balances the dark wind. I am a white light. I am innocence. I offer up my light with no pretense. A cymbal is often my symbol. I make a sharp note. It is a wake-up call.’
I accept that for every darkness that a light exists that can counter the dark ill effects. I am interested in what else there is in the book. I flip forward through the ensuing chapters. I am baffled. The other chapters are blank. They have no text. Hmm.
I flip back to the text in Chapter 1. It says, ‘Your first step is whenever life gets you down or angry or confused to think of the sound made by the cymbal.’ I play the cymbal sound on my phone to acquaint myself. I find this single note catches my attention. I find it creates a stopping point in my mind. I think of it as a mental reset button.
I practice the cymbal sound every day. It seems a trivial matter. I wish I had more to do. But Chapter 1 counters my plea. It says, ‘To master right thinking involves learning each step in the meaning of life completely before moving to the next level.’
I have been practicing this wind exercise daily for about 1 month. Nothing eerie has happened. Another week goes by. I am with friends. We just graduated from high school. It is in the summer, before I begin college. Jack and Gloria begin arguing about the politics of things. I nod my head in agreement with the one person. When I hear the other person voice their opinion, I find myself inwardly shaking my head no. This situation has gotten me upset. I look around. I notice that I am not the only person in the group feeling flustered, unhappy and angry. I see it in other faces too.
I go home irritated. It is not until the next day that I realize what happened. I got riled up in political nonsense. For the first time, I appreciate how easy others can take control of my emotions. This I find is the key. If I let other people’s controlling thoughts enter and stay in my mind, this can cause wrong thinking. I need to reset. I think about the book and the sound of the cymbal. I play the cymbal sound on my phone. This single note clears my mind from the political emotional clutter. I am in wonder. I say inwardly to myself, ‘Wow! The book is making sense. I am moving one step closer towards the meaning of life.’
This is how I begin. I start to see how one simple idea helps tremendously. I still recall the two people and their political disagreement. But now, I am not emotionally involved. I see the two people’s perspectives unemotionally. Two people with two different viewpoints.
Then, sometime between 2 a.m. and sunrise a few mornings later I awaken. I do not get up. My alarm clock is not going off. What I feel, however, is a presence, a contact. It is invisible. Yet, it is clearly sensed. I am met with waves of calmness. It enters my soul and leaves me in serenity. Now, there is a softness to this day. It is a gentle saxophone sound that plays in my mind and soothes me. I tell you tranquility is underrated.
Another two weeks pass. It is again sometime between 2 a.m. and sunrise. It is a spiritual knock on the door. At least, this is my guess. I feel a mystery fluid enter my body. It is blue in color. It enters through the top of my head. The fluid flows down from the crown of my head, flows through my head, enters my body and drains away. The blue liquid exits from my fingers and toes. I hear the sound of a voice. It has a rhythm. It is gentle. I hear a flute, too.
I did not expect any of this. I do not understand the purpose and therefore how to appreciate these gifts. I would like to know what this all means. Maybe, it would help if the book included this information. I think maybe if I had known about these particular spiritual items ahead of time that I would understand their purpose. I open the book back up. I read the last sentence in Chapter 1. The book sentence says, ‘Be patient.’
I am trying to be patient as the book asks. I am trying to explore too. Talk about double talk and a mystery. I want to wait and let this mystery come to me. But I cannot be too patient, I am just not that kind of individual. I want to go out and grab on to the unknown. You must be thinking that I have to be kidding. No, I am not. This mystery piques my interest that much.
I am reminded again of the woman at the restaurant. Her red eyes. I remember the hidden world.
