Chapter 31 - Riding the Dragon
Time seemed to speeding up and yet he was not aging. The old sage was now in his late sixties and yet if you met him he would have appeared to be a man in his early to late thirties. It was not his diet that made the difference, although these days he needed to eat little to maintain who he was. As he made the journey from Ego to Spirit he realized that he no longer had any real needs. He accepted life for what it was; somedays he would eat, other days he would not. Some days he would stay in a Pagoda, other days he would sleep under the stars. To him it mattered not; from the quieting of the ego he understood that he was all things and he would draw to him what he needed on his journey. Of course there would come a day when the journey ended and he would shake of his mortal body and enjoy the freedom and lightness of being that he experienced in the spirit world.
There was a part of him that would have been quite happy to go to sleep one night and for his physical body not to wake up; for he knew that he was Eternal, Immortal and Infinite. It was with those thoughts that he went to sleep next to an open fire, with the full moon and all the nocturnal animals for company.
He drifted down in his levels of consciousness to the point where he was in a deep sleep. It was the level he experienced in his deepest meditations; the level where all things are connected. It is the level where the heartbeat that can be felt is the heartbeat of creation, which is accompanied by a song not unlike that of a bird song. Some mystics had called it the sound of the earth, but it was far deeper than that and Huo had remembered hearing the sound when he went up the tunnel and into the spirit world.
In what appeared to be a dream he was once again sucked up the tunnel and spat out into the spirit world. For a few moments he floated around the world and reconnected with some of the places and people he had seen and met previously. It was such a freeing experience to throw off the physical body, part of him wondered why we ever incarnated in human form. He knew the answer was to experience a life of emotion and the ego; to understand its strengths but also it's weaknesses and ultimately to transcend the human condition.
In many ways he was already more spirit than ego; he had seen the energy beyond the form; had experienced the wonders of the Tao and been one with nature. But deep in his heart centre he knew that his journey was not over. There was much more that he had to do in this world. Maybe this journey to the spirit world would give him some more answers or at least send him on the next part of his journey. In his inner self he asked to be shown where to go next on his journey.
He stopped floating through the air when he came to lake which reminded him very much of the Lake of Li, in the Forest of K'an. He floated down to the shore of the lake and there to greet him was the old log, from the real Lake of Li; the log where his students would sit when he would teach them.
He sat upon the log as if he was visiting an old friend. To him the log was very sacred. It reminded him of all the students he had ever taught and how their faces would light up when he told them one of his stories; stories which often came from so deep within him that he did not know the story himself until he began to tell it.
He was sitting on the log when he heard a sound coming from the water of the Lake of Li. The sound was off in the distance from the other side of the lake. He watched as a wave of water rushed towards him. Rather than being scared, he was mesmerized by the rising wave of water. Beneath the sound of the oncoming wave he heard another, deeper sound, it was almost guttural like the sound of an animal clearing its throat.
He watched in awe as the wave crashed over the top of him. Drenched, he did not try to move or run as he could feel the energy in the wave. When the wave crashed back into the lake there left behind was a twenty foot dragon. Huo could not believe it. In all his wonderful life he had never seen a dragon. The dragon was red in colour, with shinny skin that glistened in the sun; skin that kept changing in colour from red to blue, brown and green. It had five claws on each foot.
The dragon seemed to be smiling at him.
He could sense its power. Rather than be scared of it the sage moved towards it. By the time he had reached the dragon it was sitting, relaxed as it did not fear him.
Anybody watching from a distance would have thought the sage and the dragon were sizing each other up, ready to strike. That could have not been further from the the truth, for within both of them was a deep respect for the other. Normally the dragon would put the person, who came before them, through a number of trials to see if they were worthy. The dragon knew this one was worthy; he could feel it with every ounce of his being.
He wondered why the sage had called him into being, for he could see that the sage was already well on the way towards his spiritual goal. The dragon opened up its feeling centers and allowed itself to enter into the old sage.
The sage could feel the energy as the dragon entered him. He opened himself up to allow the dragon to see all of him; even those aspects that he had hidden from the rest of the world.
In moments the dragon was reliving the sage's life. It was an ability that dragons had, so it was fruitless to try and hide anything from them. Everywhere the dragon looked there was a lightness to the Sage's being. The dragon could feel that Huo had wanted something but he could not feel what it was. In all the lightness there was one small shadow. This must be what the sage wanted help with.
He sent his energy into the shadow. It was as if a bright purple light was shone into the darkness revealing all there was to be seen.
The sage felt as if his heart was being ripped apart. The intensity of the pain forced him to look deep inside his heart. Without the purple light he would not have been able to do it; it was as if the purple light somehow made it more bearable. What the purple light was really doing was to increase his own vibration for a few short moments so he could become one with his shadow; for to go to the next stage he would have to be free of his shadow, his ego, otherwise the energy would destroy him.
Huo stepped into his shadow and there waiting for him were his parents and the love of his life Quing. All four of them embraced and Huo experienced a great release as he realized that he had was still feeling guilty for what had happened with his parents in the fire that many years ago. He could see that they were still very much alive and the guilt just fell away. It was in that moment that he understood the true power of forgiveness was to forgive yourself.
He turned to face Quing, although older she still looked beautiful. They stared into each others eyes for the longest time, seeing other lifetimes they had shared together and lifetimes in other dimensions yet to be shared. "Till we meet again," said Quing.
Huo watched as the loves of his life moved out of the shadows and back into the light where they belonged.
Huo awoke far calmer and more peaceful than he had ever felt in his life. Although it may have only been a dream, he realized that there had been a great release of energy while he slept and he was now different from the man who went to sleep.
He looked around himself and everything seemed different, lighter somehow. It was not just the landscape which looked lighter, he felt lighter himself, like he had been released by a burden which he had carried for years.
He put his hand inside his robes and removed the dragonfly pendant that had given him so many good memories. He looked at the pendant and a smile came to his face. In his mind's eye he could see his parents, Quing and Chung Fu they were all smiling and laughing and with a gentle wave they all turned and walked away from him.
The old sage was overcome with joy, rather than lose the greatest influences in his life he know understood they were always with him. All he had to do was look inside his heart; they were always there. There was no more guilt; he was what he was and in doing so he had taken the most courageous journey that anyone can take the journey within, the journey of the warrior sage. His life was sacred and he was dedicated to his own journey.
He stood, gathered his pack and continued on, free from the voices of the ego which had always tainted how he had seen the world.
As he walked away anyone watching would have seen him hang the dragonfly pendant on the branch of a tree.
Later that day spirit would ensure that a young girl on her own journey would walk past the tree that day and the pendant would come into her life.
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