A View From The Top

A third person perspective

It felt a little cold … but he was wrapped up well. He stood at the edge of the cliff … looking out into the abyss below … from the roof of the world. The top of clouds … appeared like so much cotton … on the flat bed of the world's atmosphere. Above … the sky had disappeared … and in its place … was the dark blue gloom of the universe … where the stars appeared like destinations … in the distance … peering out at its neighbors.

 

It was the place that … Kulion … had come to for his sadhana … the pilgrimage of the devout … who seeks for answers to his origin … in the life. From here … the world appeared … not as a moment in time … like his first day at school … but as comprising all time. It felt like the beginning of time … when the creator … cast his glance over the gas ball of the earth … and brought it into crystallization … as earth. He cast his favorite design first … like a baby in the womb … the island of Baffin in the Hudson Bay.

 

Its where he played … among the giant mountains of rocks … that he created as his pals from another time. He saw in his mind's eye … as he moved among the forests and streams … and was one with the deer and fish … as they moved in a gliding motion … over their terrain. And he was seized by an affection … to be like them … a being … living in the forests of the world. It grew … until he couldn't resist it anymore … and realized then that he was destined to live on the earth.

 

When he awoke … and opened his eyes … he realized that he had become the mind … of a furry … four pawed creature … with a snout … and a huge body … that stood up to 10 feet on its hind legs. He was a bear … like Ursa in the constellations … and he was pleased. She appeared to him in his dreams … like his mother … and told him of the many adventures he would have in the world. It was fun to move around on his paws … and to dash over the landscape … or to fish in the streams for salmon.

 

He was light before … as he viewed the island of Baffin in the bay … but now he was also … sound … scent … and touch. But always … he was reminded of the dreams he used to have … about becoming a being in the world … and living the life. It continued to pursue his fascination with the being … and the next time he awoke … he was a tiger … in a humid tropical forest. He moved better … and was camouflaged like the sun and the shadows … and he began to feel a sense that it was all his to have. His territory … his mate … his deer … and his life of wondrous discovery of the being.

 

The dreams began to slow down … and his bright eyes gained a greater focus of the earth and its landscape. He was beginning to forget where he came from. But on the occasions when he passed the flowering plants … especially the jasmine … he lost his self control … and would grow weak in the legs. He would have to lie down … and in the moan of his protests … he would receive visions … of the time in Baffin Island … the bear … and then the lights of the stars.

 

Kulion turned his vision in the the general direction of the East … and saw himself as the ape-man … pithecantropus erectus … emerge from a cave … completely naked … except for the hairs on his body. He lived in a community of ape-like people … and feared the awesome tiger … who would sometimes carry away one of their members for food. They grew to hate him … and in the process … slided into a greater attachment to their new found experiences … of the emerging man. They had lost all … of their memories and connection to the stars.

Kulion returned to his seat by the fire … with the other students from the monastery. Their master … the great Swananda … returned from his walk … and helped himself to some food. The other students gathered around the master … for some inspiration from the great man. Kulion kept his distance … and pondered on the dream he had the night before.

 

He had dreamt of himself … standing next to his burning corpse … in a funeral pyre. He had felt no emotion … except the mild fondness … of a body … that had served to educate him … and to help him understand himself. The dream had brought a calm to his ravages of the passions … that were besieging his mind to explain themselves. In the calm that was now descending on his person … he was faced with new inquiries … more subdued … that was prepared to say they didn't know … instead of lashing out at him … to say he was wrong.

 

It originated from a part of his passions that he hadn't been to before. It represented a bundle of passions that seemed lethargic … and moved with careless abandon of their safety … but would respond like an angry child … or bear … to what he indicated as the Gods of before. They are not Gods … Kulion had surmised … but lives lived that man had broken away from … due to our differences in the evolutionary hierarchy. Man had turned the memories of his beginnings … on Baffin … and then the bear … to appear like Gods of the beginning.

 

In his present search for his origins … it became clear that he wasn't going back to the Gods. He had to substitute for his habituated passions … the drive of the dreams to move forward … towards the realization of man. He thought it preposterous before … that man was being touted as greater than the Gods. His master … the Swananda … continued to teach of the mind of God. Kulion decided he had come to a fork in the road. He had to leave the monastery … and head out in a new direction alone.

 

As he made his descent down the mountain … he was starting to feel the effects of his decision. He had left a note for his master … before he left in the early dawn. But now he was starting to feel groggy … and soon was consumed by the dance … of his thoughts broken away from their mooring. He wondered whether he ought to return to the group … but decided against it. He pressed on in his descent … and the sliding rocks became symbolic of the loosening of his habits and conditioning. But beyond … in the distance … like the life giving light of the gnosis … was the land of the living. That's where he belonged.