Time, Tide, Mind and Dream

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished. I'm sure you can see how alarming those occurrences were, and how they stirred me to immediate action. Let me explain. When I fell into this world my memories of the past were piecemeal. I did not know my name, or where I had come from. I had some skills. Have you ever had that experience?

What is time and what is place? They are convenient, illusory, common referential frameworks. True measurement of reality is not time or place but the rhythm of one's attention and the expression of consciousness. Time depends on attention. In a world of direct perception (I remembered something of that), there would be no pause or delay between a decision to act and the action, whether an action involving things or people, or an action of consciousness. My understanding is that it is truer to live by rhythm, not by time.

In your world (which I had been thrown into) a person gets an idea to do something, likes the idea, then pauses to reflect, check, fear, hope, or just wait. In this way the person is caught in time, a time that would not exist had they not created it with their attention. Some of you don't see what I mean? No matter. I would rather that you start with a question, that you be just a little bit curious. I suppose that, in your time and place, you've heard of the game of chess. Yes? Well good then, we can begin.

When I fell, somehow I understood what I had to do, not a destiny, but an imperative. These were young Souls, new Souls, some thirty-five of them. They were trusting, too trusting. They needed protection. They needed teaching. I set to work at once.

Shelter was the first order of business. Our sylvan valley (a river ran through it) offered windfall limbs of fruit trees that could be lashed together to make small structures. My charges were eager to imitate what I showed them, although they had some difficulty with the lashing at first. The broad leaves of the banana trees made excellent roofing. One girl was quicker than the rest. I called her Bean because of her red hair.

When the preliminaries of the village were complete, I withdrew to a place apart. I closed my eyes and reached my attention out in an expanding circle. I did not need my mind to travel far--it was as I had feared. There was another group just over the ridge, and they had their own guardian, someone very much like me.

I took her measure, softly, so as not to alert her to my mind's presence. She flinched. Had she felt the slight probing of my mind? I sensed right away that this tall woman was more skilled than me. I opened my eyes and considered our possible defences. I remembered a chant I could sing for protection. Silently, with my mind I sang the chant all around the valley, making a kind of invisible cocoon, one that I hoped she would not even see or feel. With this shield I could hold enemy forces at bay for a time, should we be discovered. But only for a time.

Next I imagined a chess board on the ground below me. I mentally placed pieces on the board to represent the people of this little world. My charges I thought of as white pawns, who could move a little straight ahead. Our shelters I represented with the castles. Bean I thought of as a bishop because she thought in different directions, not just a simple, straight line but diagonally. For myself I chose the white knight, a protector figure, and one who could jump over an obstacle.

Then I used black pieces to imagine our enemies. Pawns again for their community and the black queen for their leader. The queen is the most dangerous piece on the board. She can move any number of squares forward, backwards, sideways, or on an angle. I resolved to keep a close eye on the black queen and never to underestimate her. The board being complete, slowly, deliberately, I moved the white knight forward from the opening position to a square in front of the white pawns. I resolved to check the board for changes and make one move each day. My imagined game could serve both as augury to see what was happening beyond my sight, and as a constructive tool to help us move forward. I could keep track of the movements of the enemy by watching for changes on the board, and I could build on our position. What's that? You say this is magical thinking? Well, yes, of course!

Language was a more difficult matter. I wanted to plan a simple scheme that my wards could learn quickly. I settled on sounds that matched their utterance. For water, the key was the lips that mimed drinking and the W sound. I settled on O-WUH for that important word. It is a French word in your world (EAU, or the older form, EAUWE). In the same way the apples of the valley were a bit tart to the first taste. The P made for pursed lips, and then a sound at the back of the mouth as the liquid reached the throat. I taught them APPLE for that sound. Language is based on indirect perception, but it can bring about understandings that lead to direct perception.

I checked the chess board every day. Slowly, the black pawns were advancing towards the white pawns. I placed the white knight in front of my pieces. If there was to be a first wound, I would take it myself. I had means and measures to deal with that. The white castles, symbols of our building, grew taller and more handsome.

The time, or rather the rhythm of our little colony being put to good purpose, we made progress. I explained to them that they must not stray beyond the perimeter of the valley. Bean, little explorer, wanted to know why. I said simply for your safety, for the safety of all of us. She nodded, but did she agree?

I reasoned that the more her attention was occupied with tasks the less likely she would be to leave the forest. I chose an ambitious project: a horizontal water wheel that could supply power, for sharpening tools or grinding seeds. I formed a vision of the wheel, a spiritual symbol also because it forms a circle, an array of paddles shaped like spoons. I saw the model in my mind's eye, in another world. I think the genius of your world, one Leonardo, must have visited the same world and seen the same model. The work was painstaking, but my charges accomplished it. Bean checked each paddle for the correct spoon shape. When it was finished I connected it to a mill stone, and we had the power of the river. My charges were delighted.

I feel I must explain about power, because it is poorly understood if at all, and I fear you may already be misinterpreting me. Most think of power as power over someone else, but power is not really like that. It cannot be possessed, it cannot be held. I find the best way to explain power is to say that it can only be borrowed for a purpose. As long as the purpose lasts the power can be used. Then it returns whence it came. We borrowed the power of the river for a time for various uses. The power was ours to use for a time, that is all.

When you require light in the evening, you throw a switch and there is power for the light. When you no longer need the light you extinguish it, and you no longer use or have the power. Then why would anyone seek power? someone asked me once. I do not know, I answered, it is not yours to possess, only to borrow for a reason.

Much gathers more, is it not so? The more my little Bean understood, the more she desired to learn. I could not blame her. My own exercises took me farther and farther as I expanded my circle of attention. She wanted to wander farther and farther from the tight circle of our community.

But why may I not go farther? she asked simply. There is danger in the world, I explained. But what is that and why may I not experience it? She asked. Ah, you will observe that I am not, as far as I recollect, a parent, and I do not have the wisdom of one. How could I explain that not all are good, not all have kind intentions? I tried, but did I succceed? Or did she think I was wrong to hold her back? I could not bear the thought of her coming to harm. Is this something a parent feels in your world? If so, how do you adapt to that feeling?

The next day Bean asked me about Soul. Is there just one Soul? she asked, and do we all inhabit it? No, I answered. Soul is unique, individual. Each Soul is a cell in the body of God. When we need help, say to cross a river, we do not build a boat. We sit quietly and ask for what we need, and a solution presents itself. Sometimes a ferryman may come to see us across the river.

Bean smiled, and said, So you are the ferryman for me! I smiled, and answered, and I think you are the ferryman for me. Can you comprehend the extent of my joy with little Bean? This kind of love too, is an imperative, an imperative of Soul.

When I examined the chess board that evening, the white bishop had moved forward of the white knight. Quickly I moved my piece in front of my young, adventurous ward. I closed my eyes and reached out. I asked, with the all the humility I could muster, how to understand this dilemma and what to do. Swiftly an answer, or rather another question, came to my consciousness. "What is identity and what is difference?" a voice asked. I gave no reply. The voice repeated the question, then left me to ponder it.

I was awakened by two of the young girls. "Bean's missing!" they shouted. Instantly I reached out with my attention. She had crossed beyond the forest and she was hurt. "Stay here!" I commanded and ran at top speed to collect her. She was making her way back to the village when I found her, bleeding. "Someone cut me!" she said.

I carried her back to the river, cleaned the wound and bound it, then commanded "Everyone wait here!" I ran to check the chess board. The black pawns were moving ahead, and the black queen had left the board. I ran back to the river. It was then that I noticed.

When the current is moving at a slow speed, a water wheel can have strange effects. If each paddle does not eject the water it can appear almost to stand still. But this water wheel was stuck because the river was, slowly, flowing backwards. I was thunderstruck. There was only one explanation. The black queen, my adversary, had mastered the art of time, and was making time itself run backwards!

I shouted at the top of my lungs for everyone to come to me immediately, and they ran. The moment I feared had come. I counted my charges. They were all present.

With my mind, I drew an archway, a portal, in the air. I explained, "This is a door to another world. You will be safe there. Bean you will go first. Pass through now."

She wanted to wait for me, but I explained that I must be last, and she must be first, to lead the others, whatever happened. She asked me why I must be last. Because that is the way, I explained briefly, and said "Now go!"

She stepped through and disappeared from our sight. Quickly, quickly, all follow, I instructed, and one by one they stepped through that portal to safety. Last of all, I walked through the portal, expecting to see my charges, but I did not. I had gone to a different world entirely. It was a large, expansive world, like the moors on some of your islands. In the distance there was the sound of a waterfall.

At first I saw no one else, then I sensed a quiet presence, and turned around. It was her! The woman I called the black queen. Her countenance was soft, her demeanor gentle, kind, almost shy.

She looked at me with limpid eyes, an expression of a kind of love I had not experienced. Quietly, she said, "I also gave you the land," and then she disappeared from that place.

Fallingwater, by Frank Lloyd Wright. LINK: wallpaperaccess.com

A man approached, and said, "To build your house over the waterfall, you will need eight strong beams. Fortunately the beams are on sale today. Follow me."

And I awoke from the dream, tears of joy in my eye, as I felt the great distance in time and consciousness I had travelled to have that dream. I told my wife, who said "How much grace one Soul can extend to another!"

Indeed! And who was the black queen? It was years before I met her in this world, and I instantly recognized her and rejoiced that I am her student. For it is true that she, herself, is the Light and Sound and Love of God, in action.

May your travels take you where you need to go!