The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 13

Chapter 13 - Take responsibility for your life

Qing the young girl from the kitchen of the Pagoda had started to join Huo and the old sage for their early morning meditation and the talks the old man often gave. Some mornings there were as many as ten students who came to be with the old man. This morning there was only Huo and Qing, neither of which seemed to mind as their friendship, if you could call it that, continued to blossom since the time the old sage brought Huo to the Pagoda. Huo missed living in the forest with the animals and nature, but if he was truly honest with himself, Qing had more than made up for what he missed.
Sitting in a triangle, meditating, the old sage began to speak, "People are not interested in generating energy for their own survival and security; they want someone else to guarantee their security. In doing so they lose their power, shifting it away to someone else, family, friends, religion or the king and his government. We are continually transferring the responsibility and the blame for our lives onto others rather than understanding that what life has given us is what we have created.

"To be a part of the graceful beauty of the Infinite self you first have to take responsibility for where you find yourself in life. Once you do this you will see that the pain that you are suffering from, comes from your reaction to life's circumstances and not from the circumstances themselves."

Huo looked down on his left arm, which had been badly burnt during the fire that consumed his mother and father. His left arm was once withered and paralyzed, but now apart from one or two small scars his left arm was almost normal. He ran his fingers over his face and although he had not looked in a mirror for years, he knew that the scarring on his face had almost disappeared. It was only when he started seeing the beauty that this life had to offer that he could see the beauty that existed in everything. A young child, paralyzed and disfigured, he was able, with the support of the old sage, to see the beauty that existed in himself.

By accepting who he was and disengaging from his emotions he was able to see that he was not his emotions and he was not responsible for other people's emotions. He understood that the way it was, was just the way it was and rather than fight the circumstances he found himself in he could accept them and then move on. Most times when he gave up the resistance, two amazing things happened; either the problem just fell away or in some cases it was the circumstance themselves that taught him a wonderful lesson about himself.

In his own little dream world he had not noticed that the old sage had stopped talking and that Qing was staring at him, while at the same time trying to stifle a laugh, which was wanting to burst forth from her being.
"You will have to get used to that," said the old sage, "Sometimes Huo goes off to other worlds and dimensions that only he has the key to."
They all laughed, albeit Huo's laugh was accompanied by a rather red face, as he blushed at Qing's beautiful smile.
"Now we are all back in the present, let me finish this session by saying; remember the teaching of the Tao: nothing is long or short, hot or cold, good or bad. Once you disengage from the need to judge then you are free to be satisfied with the world and to see the beauty in all things.
life.

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 12

Chapter 12 - Be Honourable

Thanks to everyone who is reading and following the progress of the Legend of the 33rd Sage. I have viewers from many countries and it does my heart good when I see people from Russia, Korea, India, South and Central America and even Bangeladesh reading my story on my translatable blog. All the lessons and disciplines the young apprentice goes through I have experienced and I can tell you that if you live and breath these disciplines and teachings it will lead you on a wonderful life filled with adventures and experiences you would never think possible. My book the 33rd Sage & the Initiate, which has just been released follows very much the adventures that have happened on my own journey and the weird, wonderful and amazing character I have met along the way. My hope for you is that your life will be filled with such magic. All you have to do is take the first step by asking your God, higher self, the Tao or whatever energy you believe in, to be given wisdom and then be open to wherever this comes from.

Today's chapter is about being honorable. I hope you enjoy and sometime in the future when I wander to your little part of the earth we may meet and share some stories.

Blessings and Peace to you all.

Chapter 12

"Honour is the nobility of the soul, it is about being consistent in your every thought, word and action." Were the words that broke Huo free from his sleep. He opened his eyes to see the old man standing above him. "Today we will begin a new exercise. Meet me outside the pagoda in ten minutes and we will begin."

Huo splashed water on his face to wake himself up. He was tired; surely it was not time to get out of bed. There were sometimes when the disciplines of the old sage seemed downright ridiculous. He hoped whatever the old man had planned that it would have some value. Huo's thoughts and motivations were not quite right this morning; he had travelled with the sage for nearly ten years. His life had been full of experiences and along the way he had helped many people, but what of him, what was he getting out of it? Where would it lead him? Even Sages have their bad days and for some reason that Huo was not able to understand this was starting out as one of his. It was what it was. He had learnt by now not to suppress any of the feelings that came up, not to react to them, but to observe them as they would be his teacher. That was all well and good, but this morning he could have just as easily walked away from his apprenticeship. What of having fun with friends his own age or finding a woman to fall in love with and marry. Since they had been staying in the Pagoda in the city he had seen others his own age enjoying their lives and having fun. Sometimes a normal life had its advantages.
Out the front of the Pagoda all was quiet. There was no noise in the city as everyone except him and the old sage was asleep; even the shopkeepers who woke early to prepare for the daily market were still asleep. What madness did the old man have planned for this day.

Huo found the old sage at the side of the Pagoda, where he was carrying rocks from the front of the Pagoda to the garden on the left side. The old man simply looked up and with a wave of his hand he expected Huo to follow his example. So for the next two hours they shifted hundreds of rocks from the front of the Pagoda to the garden. By the time the sun had risen hundreds of people had walked past the Pagoda, many laughing at the old sage and his apprentice moving the rocks to the garden. Huo was becoming angry at the passers by but the old man's demeanor never changed. He greeted their laughter with a nod and a smile and continued moving the rocks. By the time they had finished moving the rocks Huo was sweaty, tired and exhausted. He tried on many occasions to question the sage but each time he received no response. In the end he gave up asking; he knew better than wasting his time trying to get the old man to talk when he was in one of his focused, silent moments.

Once they were finished the old man suggested that they clean up and meet again in the garden after they had meditated and broken their fast. Without another word or explanation the old sage walked back towards the entrance to the Pagoda, where he bowed three times, removed his shoes and then entered the sacred space.
All the way through the meditation and breakfast Huo could not help thinking about why they had moved all the rocks during the middle of the night; maybe it was to be a surprise for the monks in the Pagoda; maybe the old sage wanted to do it because he had something special planned for the day. Millions of thoughts ran through the young man's mind, so many that he had not even noticed that the old man did not meditate with him or that his breakfast had been improved by extra helpings of many local delicacies, thanks to the young girl in the kitchen, who had taken a shine to the young man. If he had been in the moment rather than worrying about the future or the past he would have noticed these things; especially the young girl who served him his breakfast, for if I do say myself she was very beautiful, with her jade green eyes and blue black hair, that she wore back in a long ponytail. But then I may be biased as she was also to become the apprentice of the old sage, a fact that Huo was totally unaware of.

Huo wandered out to the garden when he had had his fill of an excellent breakfast, which this morning was waisted on him. There, waiting him for him in the garden was the old sage. The moment Huo arrived was the moment the old sage began to work. Huo watched in a measure of horror and mirth as the old man picked up a rock from the garden and carried it back to the front of the Pagoda. Shaking his head Huo joined in and over the next few hours, amongst swearing and other unkind words the two of them moved every rock from the garden back to the front of the Pagoda.

It was while carrying the last rock that Huo totally lost it. It was not in the way you would think, for two hours he had ranted and raved, but now while carrying the last rock he began to laugh for he began to understand why the old sage had them doing what to any body else would have seemed ridiculous. After he placed down the last rock he went over to the old man and gave him a hug. It was the first time he had really shown this type of affection to the old man. In that moment the future and past drifted away and he was totally in the now. The old man smiled, a tear escaped from his left eye. It had taken ten years but now the young man's heart was beginning to fully open. At last he was honoring who he was and what he had become; he was honoring the process of life.

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks to Anthony Hopkins & the essence of life for the use of this beautiful photo

The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 - I Am That I Am

Over the next couple of years the old sage and his apprentice travelled all over the countryside stopping every now an again where the sage would heal people or teach children about nature and the Elements.

It was during one of these stays in the village of Te Dang when the old sage asked the young man to begin teaching the children about the inner self. For the old sage knew that to master a subject one needed to teach it to others, to allow the teaching to come from within and be expressed as an aspect of the young man in the outer world.
The young man had been nervous all day. In the years he had spent with the old sage he had always been the student, never the teacher, although from time to time he would aid the old sage in his healing of the sick, but he never led anything; always in support. This would be the first time he would take the lead. It was exciting and yet at the same time daunting. He had watched the old man engage with his audience in a matter of seconds and although he sometimes spoke to hundreds it always looked like he was speaking to each one of them individually.

How could he ever be like that? The old man had a magic about him; the magic of the Initiate. He never put himself above anyone. He never engaged anyone in an argument. He never foisted his opinion on anyone, preferring to only answer questions as they were asked. He always accepted without question what each day would bring. He never asked for anything but his needs were always provided.

He remembered back to the day when his pack and the dragonfly pendant were stolen. It had been a horrible day and yet as he looked back on it, it was one of the best teachings he had ever received. Since that day he had become the observer and like the old sage he was now taking each day as it came.

As he relived that day he tried to remember what the old sage had taught him. What had the old sage said; he was having difficulty remembering. Huo took a deep breath, held it for a moment and in seconds he could feel the calmness and all knowing of the Initiate come around him. In his minds eye he could now see the old sage sitting in a meditation.
All at once he opened his eyes and words fell from his mouth although he still seemed to be in a deep trance. The words that fell from his lips were from a deep part of the old sage, in a voice which was very different from the Sage's normal voice. "It is important that you believe that you are already the Initiate and that you have this power within you. You need to make it a part of the your now and not off in some distance future. You need to create the Initiate within, before it can express itself in the outer world. It is in the mirror worlds of the inner self where all creation takes place. What happens in the outer world is but a mirror to what you have created within. If you want to understand what you are creating with your thoughts and feelings all you have to do is look at what is happening in the outer world. If you do not like what is happening then you need to change what you are feeling and thinking. To be the Initiate you have to be able to believe in a life that you cannot hear, touch or taste, but a life that you will eventually begin to feel. It is strange that by believing and opening yourself up to being the the Initiate and walking the way of the Initiate that something inside you opens up to the possibility.

"As you walk the path you will begin to understand that the love that comes from the Tao or God is impartial. Although this energy does not care what you do with your life, it is possible to direct the energy and create whatever you want in your life. I do not mean that if you have a wishy washy thought that you want something that it will come into your life because it won't. You first have to create the feeling of already having it in the inner worlds and then this energy will be expressed and delivered in the outer world and the godforce will manifest what you already believe is yours."

Huo felt reenergized. The words of the old sage coursed through his entire being and then out into the audience before him. Children who were loud and raucous only minutes before were sitting quietly waiting for the young man to speak. "Let me tell you a story," said the young man and the children hung on his every word. "It is the story of a young boy  who was taken in and became an apprentice to an old sage. The old sage taught him about nature and the seasons. He taught him how to connect with the animals and become their friend. He taught him how to sit in the forest and connect with his inner self and to understand that everything in the universe was connected."

As he went deeper into the story and the teachings he received from the old sage he could see the connection he was having with his young students. Their eyes started to bulge as they took in everything he said and even more than that they could take in everything he felt. In many cases they could not understand what he was saying with their logical minds, especially the younger ones, but on some level they all understood.
As Huo was talking a picture began to form in his mind. He continued to teach the children, but a deeper part of himself was focused on the picture which was building in his mind. It was a scene from what looked like the future. As he focused deeper he could see himself as the old sage and following behind him were a number of apprentices, but the landscape was different and this certainly was not China and many of his apprentices were definitely not Chinese. He went deeper into the picture with his feelings and he knew it to be true. Was he creating this future because of his belief in being the initiate or was he growing into a life that was predestined?

Those thoughts and feelings disappeared as he put his attention back on the children before him. He may have had a glimpse of his future but it was what he was doing in the present that would determine what he would become.

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Become the Observer

The old sage tells Huo they will go for a walk in the forest today rather than do their meditation and martial arts training. The boy is a little confused and out of kilter as he has become accustomed to the training in the morning to start the day. His first thought is to pick up his pack and take it with them, but he falters and puts it next to the old man's pack - and "so it shall be," says the old man.

Huo felt uncomfortable. In the pit of his stomach was a queasy feeling, which he did not listen to, putting it down to the change in routine.

The old sage led him on a walk through the woods in the dark. It was pitch black, the new moon shining no light on their journey. Still feeling queasy Huo banged his head on a low lying branch; the same branch the old sage ducked under. The old man knew that it was going to be a tough day for the young man, but he had chosen it by not listening to his inner feelings. It would be a great lesson in many ways.

"Huo if you not want to get another bang on your head or lose more skin off your arms I would suggest that you walk with your feelings; obviously your eyes aren't much help in the darkness. With that the old sage took out a piece of cloth and tied it around Huo's head. "Now you will have to go with your feelings."

The young man panicked. He tried to remove the blind fold, but the old sage reached across and grabbed his arm. "Relax," was all he said and the young man took a deep breath and began to imagine what it would be like to walk in the forest blindfolded. At first he could not imagine it, but  as he became more relaxed he could actually see the forest in his inner mind. He took a few tentative steps, then a few more, soon he was walking at the same speed as he would be when fully sighted on a bright sunny day. He continued to walk easily through the forest trusting nothing but his inner sight and his feelings.

It was then that the nausea returned. He continued to walk trying to not think about the nausea, but the nausea would not disappear and it was not long before he bumped his head again and started losing bits of skin as he walked into more bushes and trees. Huo stopped and removed the blindfold. It was still dark, although a hint of sun was coming up over the hill. He sat down and closed his eyes and centered his feelings in the nausea. After a couple of minutes a picture began to appear in his mind. It was a picture of their camp and he could clearly see their two packs leaning next to each other. He wondered why he was seeing that when all of a sudden the picture changed and a band of men walked into the camp and they were soon rifling through the packs for anything of value. Huo's heart sank when he realized that the dragonfly pendant, the one that was given to him by his parents before they died in the fire was in the pack and his last physical memory of them was about to disappear. He jumped to his feet, maybe he still had time to get there and fight the men for the pendant, but no sooner had he had those thoughts when he realized in his vision of the men it was still dark; it must have happened hours before and he knew he would never get there in time.

He slumped on the ground in resignation. If he had only brought the pack with him. If he had only tapped into the feeling of nausea earlier then it could have been different. After  a few minutes of self pity he sat upright and centered his awareness. He took a few deep breaths and a picture of the bandits appeared in his mind. He sent them love and forgiveness and all the anger that he was holding towards them drifted away. They obviously needed what was in the pack more than he did. It was unfortunate to lose the pendant but his mother and father were deep in his heart. He had learnt a great lesson in the loss of the pendant and that had made it even more special. The old man had taught him to become the observer, but now he knew it was just as important to observe what was going on on the inside. He thanked the Tao for his great lesson and sent a feeling of love out into the world. It was such an expression of love that anybody who had the awareness would have been bathed in its beauty.

 Huo opened his eyes and there sitting beside him in deep meditation was the old sage. Huo waited while the old man finished his meditation and came back into this time and space. While he waited he reflected on what he had learnt that day. One surprising observation he made was the incredible control he had allowed others to have on his life; whether it was the bandits who robbed him, the village people who had made him who he was today, everywhere he looked he could see others trying to control what he thought and did. He realized that by not reacting to others and what they did to him; by being the silent observer of his own life, forgiving himself and others who trespassed against him he found that he was free to be person that he wanted to be.

The old sage just smiled; his apprentice was now free from the emotions and expectations of others. One day he might even give him back the pendant that he removed from the pack when they left the camp that morning.

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - Discipline is the Doorway to the Infinite Self

It was just after 4.a.m when the old sage shook the young man awake.
"Huo after what happened yesterday I want to change your training. Rather than continue to work on connecting you with your inner-self, which seems to be taking on a life if its own, I believe it would be best to work with your physical self. Today we will begin your lessons in martial arts and also in meditation. If you inner life continues to develop at the current rate it is important that you learn physical and mental discipline to be able cope with the changes."

"Master how will martial arts help with my inner life."

"Your inner world expresses itself in your outer world and unless we discipline, your mind, body and emotional responses then you will create your outer world based on your childish reactions to what you perceive as external influences. Everything in the outer world is only an expression of what it first created in the inner worlds. As you open yourself up to the inner worlds you will get messages from your higher self. If you are not a clear channel then these messages will be distorted by your ego and emotions. When the  message tells you to go forward your ego may tell you the opposite. It is only through discipline that we can quieten the ego and clear the subconscious mind of its previous programming.

The old sage moved into the horse stance; he took a deep breath and then closed his eyes. "Now Huo I want you to attack."
"But Master you have your eyes closed and you are so old. I am afraid that I will hurt you as I will be too quick for you."
The old sage smiled, the young man was much like he had been those many years ago. "Yes you are probably right but please do this as a favour to an old man. Attack me."
Huo faltered for a moment. Then he moved forward, dancing around the old man flicking out the odd punch, more to test if the old man would respond rather than trying to hit him.
The old sage never moved.

Huo's confidence began to grow. He would not hit the old man hard, just a light tap on his head to teach him a lesson and show him how fast he was. Before the fist reached its target Huo could feel himself being thrown in the air. As he struck the ground feeling every bruise, he replayed in his mind what had happened. His fist was about a hands length from the old man, when the old sage moved inside the fist, grabbed his arm and in what seemed an impossible move the sage went underneath him and launched him into the air. "Teach me," was Huo's only reply.

And that was when his Martial Arts training began. Each day well before sunrise the nocturnal animals would gather around in a circle to watch the old man and his young apprentice practice, using stances the animals themselves used and also working with the energy of the elements to understand how to read your opponent, but more importantly to learn how to understand and observe yourself; to move to that stage where there was no reaction. For it was in the reaction that the old sage knew that moved you out of the flow.

Month after month they practiced. First Martial Arts and then the daily meditation; one minute of meditation for each hour of the day. At first the young man could not hold his emotions in check, reacting to the strikes of the old sage which always ended up in him getting another bruise or landing on his backside. He was progressing well with the physical aspects of the training, but he could not move beyond his emotions; something he would need to do to move on to the deeper aspects of the old Sage's teachings.
The old sage was not worried, "for it was what it was, it was neither good nor bad." the young man would move beyond the ego in his own good time. It just meant that he would have to slow down on the inner work.

It was after a particularly bad session when the young man had received far more bruises than normal, the Sage's inner voice suggested they do the meditation by a stream which ran a few hundred meters from their camp.

As soon as he saw the stream he understood what his inner voice was trying to tell him. Even after all these years it was the inner voice from his Higher Self which was always there when needed. The key, as always, was to be open enough to listen.
They sat beside the stream only this time the old sage asked Huo not to close his eyes but to stare into the water and allow it to take him into a meditative state.
The young man watched the stream, not quite sure how this was going to help him to go into a meditative state. All the same after a few minutes he found himself very calm and he released the frustration he had experienced from the early training session, where once again the old man made him look stupid. It no longer mattered for he began to understand that he was not fighting against his Master but himself. That one realization released any anger he had stored in his body. At once his body healed itself, the bruises disappearing and along with it the aches and pains. He even noticed that his paralyzed left arm was now completely free from any pain and he now had full movement of it. He looked to the old sage for an answer but the old sage had disappeared. Unperturbed he looked back into the water for in that moment he knew that it was his teacher that morning.

He watched as the water flowed on by kissing the bank and givings its life force to the plants and animals who lived along the stream. He looked into the middle to see a large rock rising out of the water. The water did not seem to fight against it, but simply flowed around the rock. It did not need to react, it just found another simpler course. He understood that in time the water would defeat the rock but that it would be done in a calm balanced way. The water had so much power and yet at the same time it gave life to everything around it. He had never looked at the elements in this way before, but from that moment on he would begin to observe more, for there was far more to this world than he had previously thought possible.

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Nothing is Ever Lost

"Nothing is ever lost. Everyone who has ever lived and everything they have created," said the old sage, as he reached out his open right hand, "Is there for anyone. Nothing is gone. All you have to do is open yourself up to the vibration and you become a channel into the past, present or future. When you go into your inner self you connect with everything that has been or will be. All the geniuses or masters are waiting for you to tap into their energy. If you want to be a great artist all you have to do is imagine in your inner being that you are that great artist and then allow him or her to open up their genius to you.

"When I was studying to be part of the 33 Sages of the White Brotherhood I would sit for hours and open up myself to the sages who had come before me. I would learn in days what would have normally taken lifetimes to understand."

"Teach me," said the young man, whose mind was already opening itself up to the Cosmic Mind which held the memory of all things. The young man soon found himself wandering through the hallway of a large castle. At the end of the hallway was a doorway. From beyond the doorway Huo could see a blinding light forcing its way around the edge of the wooden door which framed the doorway. His ego mind was telling him not to go any further. He hesitated for a moment and then continued walking. His ego spoke louder, almost screaming for him to stop. In that moment he understood what the old sage had taught him about the ego's fear of death. He took a deep breath and stepped through the door. He was immediately enveloped by the light and transported to another place and time.

Once Huo's eyes become accustomed to the light, he was aware that he was surrounded by thousands of people, many who looked exactly like him. One young man came towards him. At first he pulled back, for a moment not realizing that it was another part of him from another dimension. The shock sucked him out of his body and back into the present where he was sitting by the fire with the old sage.

At first he could say nothing, for he was truly in shock, a part of him now existed in the other world and he could feel it pulling on his being. He was no longer sure what was real. Until a few minutes ago he believed the world he lived in was reality, but now he was no longer sure. He had been to a world where there were thousands of being just like him. In his feeling self he knew they had all come from different dimensions and worlds to meet together in the world which existed beyond the doorway. Would he be able to go back there? Did he want to go back? For that matter did he have a choice; for he felt like there was a part of him which now existed totally in that other world and he was not sure whether he needed to go back and retrieve it or was that the way it was meant to be. Was he in fact drawing from his others selves all the time, or maybe it was a way for him to experience other worlds and other parts of his eternal self?

He looked across at the old sage who was quickly making a pot of herbal tea. He had never seen the old sage rush with anything. Huo sat there experiencing his own infiniteness; he no longer felt shock, no now what he was feeling was a sense of calm, but beneath the calm was another feeling, it was the sense of wonder. No longer could he look at anything the same way again. He picked up beetle that was scurrying beneath his feet. The beetle stopped scurrying and looked into the young man's eyes and for a moment they shared a piece of each other.

The old sage had never seen anything like it. He quickly poured the cup of herbal tea in the hope the events of the last few minutes would not send the young man mad. It was more than anyone could stand without years of meditation and discipline. But he need not have worried. By the time he offered the tea to the young man he was calm and serene. In fact he was more than that. The old sage watched as the young man connected with the beetle in a way that he would not have thought possible. The old sage stood in awe as the beetle and the young man became one. It was not in a philosophical sense; for they had truly become one. The aura of the young man and the beetle had entwined and now the energy and memories of each were now available to each other; although he was not sure how the beetle would cope with the memories and teachings the young man had given him. The old sage was not sure anymore who was the teacher. The old sage was trying to teach him that he could draw from the teachings of the masters in previous times, but the young man had gone beyond that and he was showing the old sage he could learn from his infinite selves and even from the insects of the earth. He knew the young man was special when he had seen him in his dreams those many years ago, but now he was beginning to see how truly special he was.

It was now important for him to speed up the teaching he was giving the young man, as he was growing far quicker than he would have ever thought possible. Which in itself was a wonderful thing, but it also had its downside. Did the young man have the mental capacity to cope with what was occurring?

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Moving Beyond

Before sitting down to dinner the old sage sat cross legged on the ground. He took a few deep breaths, holding each one for a moment and then releasing his breath and with it energies from the day that he did not want to hold onto.

"What are you doing," asked the young man?
The old sage smiled and opened his eyes, turning all his attention to his young apprentice. "I am moving beyond the ego. At the end of each day I play the day back in my minds eye and when I come to an event when the flow of my energy is stopped by my ego I take a deep breath, reflect on it for a moment and then release it into the ether."
The young man returned the Sage's smile, but he was still confused; a state he was experiencing a lot since he began his journey with the old man. "What do you mean by the ego and how does it stop your energy flow?"

"There are those that say that the Ego is the mediator between the conscious and Subconscious minds. There are others who say it is our identity. While some say it is what gives us our sense of self worth or self importance. In a way it is all those things, but for me it's greatest weakness is that it stops the flow of information from our higher selves and disconnects us with everything else in this beautiful universe. Think back to the other day when you woke and found me gone. It was your ego that went into a panic. It was only when you calmed yourself down and reconnected with spirit that you became part of all things and at that moment you knew where I was."

"Sage, why do we have an ego if it limits us?"

"The ego gives us a sense of ourselves. It is important in our first few incarnations when we are here to learn lessons of a more earthly nature. It is only after our sixth lifetime when we begin on our spiritual path that we begin to move beyond the ego. The ego is the source of most of our weaknesses. Most of our weaknesses come from the various manifestations of the ego's fear of death. Fear is the ego's weapon that stops us from moving forward in our lives. The ego is lazy. It does not want to try knew things. It would rather stay in an negative state that it has become comfortable with than take a chance on a better life. Change is the death of the ego. Once you start to realize that the ego is holding you back then little by little you can move beyond it to a life where you are in the flow. Where it does not matter what is around the next corner. Whereas the ego will stop you from living, being in the flow will allow you opportunities that you never thought possible."

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My new book the 33rd Sage and the Initiate is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other wonderful bookstores and online sellers. If you want to read more about 'The 33rd Sage and the Initiate,' have a look at my website on www.the33rdsage.com or my translatable blog at http://33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/