navwin » Main Forums » Passions in Prose » The Encounter
Passions in Prose
Post A Reply Post New Topic The Encounter Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
lenny
Member
since 1999-07-11
Posts 63
front royal, va. u.s.a.

0 posted 1999-08-20 01:08 PM


The late October day had dawned delightfully crisp and clear. With the temperature around fifty, the bright sun and gentle breeze combined to make it perfect for an early morning hike. Donning a pair of sturdy walking shoes, I decided to explore an area near the river which had long fascinated me. It was an area of very thick growth that had always appeared as being fairly impenetrable. Today, however, I felt a strange and compelling urge to pierce it's veil of tangled vines and dense woods.

Settng out from my vantage point high upon a steep, grassy ridge--about seven hundred feet from the river, I could perceive the vague outline of an old path winding it's way toward the deep forest. Huge grey boulders studded the path as it wended it's way through a vast field of brightly colored orange and yellow flowers. Delighting in the beauty of the scene, I soon found myself eagerly scrambling down the ridge to immerse my senses in it's beckoning loveliness.

Down in the field now, the boulders proved to be much larger than they had appeared from afar.Some of them were as tall as a two story building and all had been worn as smooth as a whales back. Great leviathons, they appeared, surfacing the golden sea of vibrantly colored flowers to guard the path against any unbidden intruders. The brillint sunlight ignited the flowers lacy petals and lent a wondrous luminescence to the whole area. Continuous gentle breezes animated this sea of color and produced graceful waves, flowing always in the directionn of my destination. It felt as if this strange, but wonderful, place were imbued with some kind of magical promise of deep mysteries, uncovered and revealed, yet ever retaining their allure. The very fragrance of the brightly lit carpet surrounding me seemed to draw me joyously closer to the deep green woods.

In a state of timelessness now, I found myself at the edge of a great emerald wall. Tingling sensations permeated my entire being. As I stood frozen in utter bewilderment, but complete calm and peace, I gazed at the towering sentinels before me. Their huge branches seemed to wave in a warm gesture of greeting and I felt drawn, as if by a giant, irresistable magnet, to enter their verdant domain.

Once inside the softly glowing world of green, things were again metamorphosed. As I gazed about at my surroundings, all objects of the physical world began to dissolve. Everything became one gently pulsing light, while yet retaining slightly discernable individual forms. Looking at my own body, I saw that it, too, was now softly glowing. Directing my attention again to the luminous forms about me, I noticed that the individual outlines of seperating them from each other were now slowly dissolving. Suddenly only one great light remained. All things, myself included, were encompassed in this all pervading light. Rather than feeling fear at this strange occurence and at the loss of my own body, I felt an extremely intense bliss. Love for all things, created and beyond, love of love itself, permeated my consciousness. Perimeter no more, I was now the uncircumscribed empyrean. Wave after wave of sublime realization washed over the shores of my consciousness. Things which had always appeared to be one way were now revealed to be completely opposite. Before, I was the cup, but the cup was unable to hold the ocean. Now I was the ocean, fully comprehending itself. All created things, I saw, were peninsulas of one vast continent. There were no islands, save in our non-understanding. Even as the wave manifests temporary individual identity, it cannot exist seperate from the ocean and must ultimately return to it. Myriad waves rise and fall but the capacious ocean remains ever the same.

After an interminable length of time, my consciousness returned to the earthly sphere. The light vibrated more slowly now and all the familiar forms of this world returned, including my own body. Becoming the little wave of myself again, I was assaulted with confusion. "What is real?" I sobbed despairingly, crushed at having to leave my oceanic home and being forced to live in the suffocating little cup of a circumscribed identity once again.

"All things are real, but not everything is absolute", I heard a melodic voice say. "The things of this world are real only relative to each other, as perceived through the instruments of the relative senses. They cannot stand alone and are thus temporal, thereby having no value beyond this world of relativity. The consciousness from whence you have just returned stands alone, independent from its creation, and is therefore much to be desired."

I turned around to see the wondrous figure of a man haloed in glowing light standing before me. His large, dark, lustrous eyes radiated an unfathomable wisdom and love. A great peace and bliss again engulfed my entire being as I gazed into his gentle face. Sitting down cross legged on a bed of lush ferns, he motioned with his eyes for me to do the same. After a long but very sweet silence I felt able to speak and with great awe managed to utter simply, "Who are you?"
"Would it not be better for you to ask the same question of yourself?" he replied dryly. "Do you not wonder at your own existence? Do you not sense your own greater identity? But no, alas--I perceive you dwell yet in great delusion. You perceive only through the senses, thereby limiting your consciousness solely to the realm of sensory stimulii. You are yet much attached to the ideas of this lower world and bind yourself with desires thereof. We will have much work to prepare you for your true destiny, the destiny of all men--ultimate liberation from delusion."

"Please, oh great one", I ventured, "my mind is reeling and I swim in delirium at these strange happenings. Pray tell me, I implore you, what is going on?"

"It is quite simple really." he replied. "As you go to school to learn and grow, and as you pass or fail according to your lessons having been learned or not learned, so it is with life. This world of yours is nothing more than a grand schoolhouse. Everyone is learning the lessons particularly suited to their own individual stage of development. When one goes through all of his lessons successfully in high school he is then ready to progress to the university level for higher learning. Similarly, when the lessons of this world are completed there is no longer any reason to remain here. It becomes time to move on to a higher world where different, more advanced lessons are being taught. If a man dies before completing his lessons here, which most do, he must return again and again to this great class that he may perfect himself and finally pass permanently to the higher worlds of light and truth and, ultimately, to Divine Realization.
It is time for you to prepare to move on now and I am here to help you master your earthly lessons that you may be freed from this most mundane of the lower spheres of creation."
"But, but, this is just too fantastic," I stammered. "As with all things," he began authoritatively, "it is only fantastic because you do not yet understand it. Familiarity dictates ordinary and extraordinary. You will come here often now and grow in the truth, that you may be free. For now though, it is getting late and you must return to your family. I will send you promptly there." With that, he stood over me and began to snap his fingers, sending me into a trance. My body at once became a vaporous light and I swirled in a huge spiral of luminescence, all the while hearing the commanding snap of his fingers.

As I returned to my mortal form and opened my eyes, I surveyed the familiar environs of my bedroom and slowly cognized my wife leaning over me. She was snapping her fingers and saying, "Come on love, wake up. It's a beautiful fall day outside, perfect for taking a hike down to that isolated patch of woods you're always talking about. And by the way, where did you get these pretty little orange and yellow flowers stuck in your shoelaces?"

© Copyright 1999 lenny - All Rights Reserved
DreamEvil
Member Elite
since 1999-06-22
Posts 2396

1 posted 1999-08-20 10:27 PM


Welcome to Passions in Prose!

Thank you for such an image-laden piece.

------------------
Shall I indulge in flights of fancy hampered by clipped wings?
DreamEvil©



Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296
Purgatorial Incarceration
2 posted 1999-08-20 10:29 PM


If I could remember them, I wonder if my dreams would be like this...

------------------
Sanity is the playground for the unimaginative.


Nicole
Senior Member
since 1999-06-23
Posts 1835
Florida
3 posted 1999-08-20 11:31 PM


Such imagery! I felt as if I was there with you. Wonderful job, and very thought provoking indeed!

------------------
"Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with." *Mark Twain*

Post A Reply Post New Topic ⇧ top of page ⇧ Go to Previous / Newer Topic Back to Topic List Go to Next / Older Topic
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.
navwin » Main Forums » Passions in Prose » The Encounter

Passions in Poetry | pipTalk Home Page | Main Poetry Forums | 100 Best Poems

How to Join | Member's Area / Help | Private Library | Search | Contact Us | Login
Discussion | Tech Talk | Archives | Sanctuary