The sage made the journey from the Forest of K'an to the village of his birth. It had taken him twenty long days and yet he did not feel tired. There were days when he was offered food by the farmers or those he met on the path and there were days when he either met no one or was offered nothing. It was neither good nor bad for it was just as it was. He slipped into the town in the dead of night and rolled out his sleeping bag in the village square and went to sleep.
During the night without his knowledge he was surrounded by ruffians who were about to attack him and steal what provisions he had. If it had happened it was not good or bad, it just was. I say if it happened because the most amazing thing occurred. As they came closer to him animals came from the forest and surrounded the old sage. The ruffians had never seen the like of it before. The leader ordered his men to attack, but no sooner had they moved forward than the wolves growled and the water buffalo pounded their hooves ready for a charge. It was weird, mortal enemies, the wolf and the water buffalo were standing side by side defending the old sage. The closer they ruffians came the more the animals growled and stamped their feet. In the end it was too much for the ruffians and they ran away leaving their leader to either fight or run. Of course he ran, as something you fear holds no power when you can go beyond it.
The old sage smiled to himself and continued his deep sleep. In his deep sleep he was more aware than when he was fully awake. It was in those moments when he was closer to his higher self and his higher self knew everything and was even connected with the animals in the forest who came to protect him.
The old sage knew there was a child who had been watching him from behind the barn; a child he would meet in the morning.
As the sun came up over the village the old sage woke to find himself surrounded by many of the villagers. He smiled to himself. How people feared what they did not understand. As he stood all the villagers took a pace back, while at the same time they held out swords, axes, wooden staffs and anything else they could find for protection.
"Why is it that you fear me," the old man asked?
At first there was no reply as the villagers took another step back. Then the crowd separated and from the crowd ventured a young boy. When people looked at the young boy the villagers could only see his disfigurement. When the old sage looked at the boy he did not see the scars on the boy's face or the slight crippling of his left arm; what he saw was the beauty of the spirit in the boys heart. As the villagers turned their eyes away from the boy he spoke, "Old man they are scared of you because they think that you are a magician who will trick them out of all their money and possessions."
"What about you young man; what do you think?"
The boy looked at the old man for a few seconds. He rubbed his chin as if pondering on the question. "I would think that you would be a traveler, who slept here overnight and are just passing through. You have no carriage or animals so even if you were after our possessions you would have no way of carrying them. Your robes are not those of a great magician but the robes of a monk." The boy smiled and moved closer to the old sage and sat down next to the old man. As he did so two dragon flies flew from the forest and landed on the young boys shoulders.
The old sage looked down at the young boy and smiled. He was the one he had come to find. "How is that you know such things my son?"
"My mother, before she died in the fire," he said a tear escaping from his left eye, "would tell me great stories about travelers like you who wandered from town to town and country to country teaching people the most wondrous things. When I saw you in the square last night surrounded by all the animals I knew it to be true. I was going to come to you then but you looked so peaceful when you slept that I did not want to wake you."
The old sage sat down next to the young boy with the dragon flies on his shoulders and for a few minutes they just stared into each others eyes. The villagers moved closer, still holding their weapons, still not sure whether the old man would harm them or trick them.
It was looking into the young man's eyes that the old sage began to recognize who the young man really was and who he had been in lives long past. A tear escaped from the old man's eye. The young boy had suffered greatly in his life but it was because of that suffering that the young boy could show such tenderness to people and the animals around him. The old sage felt like he had truly come home and he was blessed by the great Tao to find the student he had been looking for all his life; a student who would eventually take over his teachings and share them with the world. This was not the time to share such a great burden with the young boy, for it it would be the young boy's decision to become his apprentice and follow the way of initiation. We all have free will and it has to be our choice to follow the inner journey of the Initiate. The old sage remembered back to when he was a young boy and how the old sage had come into his village and asked him did he want to be his apprentice. For some reason he did not even need to think about it. He knew even before being asked that he would follow the old sage; for he had seen the old sage in his dreams and he knew when the sage arrived in the village that the dreams were true and he had already packed up his small pack and told his uncle that he would be going with the sage.
What of the young boy? What was he thinking? The old sage looked again into the young boy's eyes. "When do we leave," asked the young boy?
"What about your parents; your family will they not miss you?"
"I have no family, they both died in the fire, which for many years I wish had taken me as well." More tears escaped from the young boys eyes; tears that were half, tears of sadness and yet tears of joy. He was sad to be leaving the village, not because of the villagers who for the most part would be happy to see the end of the little disfigured boy who reminded them of their own pain when the fire had killed many in the village. For many the sight of the young boy and his scars was too hard to bare because it just kept bringing back the grief of that night years ago. He was sad to be leaving the place of his birth for it had good memories as well; memories of his childhood before his parents died when everything had seemed perfect. The tragic loss had taught the young boy many good lessons, but the most important was to live in the moment and things that happened were not good or bad they just happened.
The villagers pretended to fight to keep the young boy in the village but in reality they were happy to see the back of him and so after a few half hearted attempts to talk him out of it, the young boy and the old sage, both with packs on the end of long sticks left the village never to be see again. Well that is not quite true as the young boy returned many years later, but that is a story for another time.
Chapter One - I am that I am
After a long walk the Sage and his new apprentice stopped to make camp by a river. As the sun was beginning to set, the air around them began to cool rapidly, as it was the night before the Winter Solstice. They set about creating a fire to warm themselves. The crackling of the fire was a good sound that highlighted the beauty of the element of Fire. In a balance it could keep you warm and provide life but out of a balance it could destroy as the young boy had already experienced those many years ago. In their time together the old sage would teach the boy many things but the most important teaching would be to understand and work with the power of the Elements.
They had not talked at all during the day both preferring to keep to their own counsel, which for a young boy would normally be very difficult but this young boy was different. On their journey he watched the forest coming to life as they left the village in the morning and how the different animals and insects appeared at different times during the day. Each of the creatures of the forest seem to have their own cycle of when to be active and when to rest. The dragon flies that had landed on his shoulders in the village had seemed to follow him throughout the day and every now and again they would appear in tandem to keep up his spirits. The long walk had been tiring but on an emotional level he had felt a joy he had not felt in years. He did not want to dwell on it as it would have made him remember his parents and the pain of losing them was still very much alive. Better he enjoyed what the day and the forest had to offer.
The old sage prepared them a simple meal of rice and the few vegetables they were given by the people of the village. It was enough food to last them a few days, but the old sage was not worried, nature always seemed to provide what was needed.
They were eating in silence when it was broken by the gentle tones of the young boy's voice. "What do I call you?"
The old man smiled, he was not used to having company and had never really thought about introducing himself. "My Name is Chung Fu, it was the name given by my old master when I was about your age. It is the 61st hexagram of the I Ching and means Inner Truth. I suppose we will have to give you a new name, a name that will represent this new journey that you are on. I have thought long and hard about what we should call you and the same name or picture kept appearing to me all day. It was a picture of a fire; a fire that was here to warm the world. From this day forward you will be known as Huo shi wennuan - 'The Fire that Warms.'
The young boy nodded to the sage as he could not speak as his eyes had filled up with tears. Although it was great honor to be given a name by an old sage; the name itself brought back memories of that fateful day when his parents died in the fire. He sat with his head bowed reliving the horrible event and further tears escaped from his eyes. They came in ever increasing volume and then there were the sighs of grief as he knew he would never see his parents again.
The old sage who had the gift of inner sight understood what the boy was feeling, he could see it in the astral field that surrounded his body. "Nothing ever dies," he said with such gentleness and tenderness that the boy could not help but to look up into the eyes of the old sage who was also crying. He could feel the young boy's pain and he wished he could just wish it away, but as in everything there is and was a teaching.
"What do you mean nothing ever dies," said the young man as we wiped the tears and snot from his face?
"Tell me about you parents; can you describe them?"
The tears flowed again as the young boy described his parents. He described in such detail and with such emotion that the old sage could see that they were still alive in his heart. They were the sort of memories that would never die; memories filled with emotion; memories that lived forever.
"That is good, the memories you have will be with you always, but just like your memories the energy that is your parents will never die. Their physical bodies may no longer exist but their eternal, immortal spirit will live on forever." The boy looked a little confused so the sage changed tack. "Put your hand up in front of your face, now move it away from your face, slowly, so that you are still looking at it as it moves away from your face. Now I won't you to soften your sight, don't look at your hand directly but almost look at it out the corner of your eye. What do you see?"
The boy did as the sage told him. First he held the hand in from of his face and then as he began to move it away from his face, he softened his look and turned his head slightly as if trying to perceive without his direct vision. At first he saw nothing, but then his focus changed to the point where he was not concentrating too hard or too little. Then it happened. At first it scared him and then it disappeared. He tried again, but in the trying nothing appeared. Without really knowing what he was really doing or why he was doing it, he released the need to see and of course the moment he released it was the moment it reappeared. Watching his hand and moving it ever so slightly he could see the aura as it wrapped itself around his hand. Even as he moved his hand the aura changed shaped but stayed with him.
"That is the energy that some called God, others call it the Tao. It is the energy that gives life to all things and when our physical bodies die this energy moves on." He picked up a rock and held it out to the boy. "Even this rock has the same energy running through it. Once you realize that this energy is a part of all things is the moment that you will begin to realize that you are a part of all things. You will realize that the great Tao and you are one. It will also be the moment when you realize that the word Tao is only a pale rendition for the energy itself; for the Tao is unknowable and indescribable. It is everything and again it is nothing; it is the highest and then the lowest. It is the 'I am that I am.'
"Now lift both your hands up and put them in front of your eyes. Put your pointer fingers a couple of inches apart, hold it there for a moment and then move them a little closer. Use the same soft vision that you used when you were looking at your hand. Relax and allow the magic to happen."
They young boy did as he was told. For a moment nothing seemed to happen and then almost voluntarily he took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then breathed out. A smile lit up his face as first he saw the the energy envelop each of his fingers and then the energy shot from the finger on his right hand and connected with the energy in his left hand. For the next couple of minutes he played with the energy, watching it dance between his hands. The more he played with it the stronger the energy became.
The dragon flies that had followed the young boy on his journey moved closer to the light and became part of the game. Seeming to sense the energy passing between Huo's fingers the dragon flies played their own game spiraling in and out of the energy that connected his hands. There was a moment when the aura of the dragon flies connected with Huo's aura. It lasted only a few seconds, but in those seconds Huo felt a strong connection with the dragon flies; so strong was the connection that it not only enveloped the boy and the dragon flies, but the fire, the old sage and everything within a hundred metres.
The old sage smiled to himself; he had chosen well. Huo was the one who would eventually take over his role as the 33rd Sage; already he was connected at a deeper level with the Tao or Godforce than any other child he had ever seen. His biggest challenge was to go beyond the ego and see the death of his parent's for what it really was, but there was plenty of time for that. It would not be easy but there would become a point in the teaching where Huo would be able to pull back from the ego's view of the world and see his and his parent's life from an infinite view; by being able to detach he could allow the healing process to occur.
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