The Mountain Shadow (119 page)

‘Life is an organic expression of the tendency toward complexity.’

‘But are you saying that life was created by the Divine, or that it created itself?’

‘Life on this planet began from the strangely improbable but perfectly natural cooperation of inorganic elements, in alkaline vents under the seas, leading to the first bacterial cells. That process is both self-creating, and Divine, at the same time.’

‘You are speaking science, great sage?’

‘Science is a spiritual language, and one of the most spiritual pursuits.’

‘And what is Love, great sage?’

‘Love is intimate connection.’

‘I was speaking about the purest form of love, great sage,’ Let Me See replied.

‘As was I, great sage,’ Idriss answered. ‘A scientist applying her talents, trying to find a cure for a disease, is making an intimate connection, and is flooded with love. Walking a dog that trusts you through a meadow is an intimate connection. Opening your heart to the Divine, in prayer, is an intimate connection.’

Let Me See nodded, and chuckled.

‘I yield the floor, temporarily, to my younger colleagues,’ he said.

‘How can we know,’ Ambitious began, wiping sweat from his shaved head, ‘that there is an external reality?’

‘Indeed,’ Doubtful added. ‘Even if we allow
cogito ergo sum
, how can any of us know that the world beyond the mind that we
think
is real, isn’t just a very vivid dream?’

‘I invite anyone who does not believe in an external reality,’ Idriss said, ‘to accompany me to the edge of the ravine, not far from here, and then I invite you to jump into it. I will take the slow path, down the hill, and when I get to the bottom, I will continue the discussion about an external reality with any survivors.’

‘A good point,’ Let Me See, the eldest sage, said. ‘I, for one, am a survivor, and I am staying right here.’

I’d heard all the questions at one time or another on the mountain, and I knew most of Idriss’s answers by heart. His cosmology was conjectural, but his logic was elegant and consistent. His was an easy mind to remember.

‘Free will,’ Grumpy, the youngest of them, said. ‘Where do you stand, Idriss?’

‘Beyond the four physical forces, and matter, space and time, there are two great spiritual energies in the Universe,’ Idriss said. ‘The first of those energies is the Divine Source of all things, which is continuingly expressed since the birth of the Universe as a spiritual tendency field, something like a magnetic field of darker energy. The second invisible energy is Will, wherever it arises in the Universe.’

‘What is the purpose of this tendency field?’ Grumpy asked.

‘Its purpose is indeterminable, at this point in our awareness. But, as with energy, we know what it
does
, and how to use it, even though we don’t know what it is.’

‘But what is its value, sage?’ Grumpy asked.

‘Its value is inestimable,’ Idriss smiled. ‘The connection between the spiritual tendency field, and our human Will, is the purpose of life at our level.’

Idriss waved for a new hookah pipe, and Silvano brought it to the pagoda. The Italian acolyte had left his rifle outside the arena, but still moved his elbow as he bent to place the pipe, as if expecting the invisible weapon to fall from its sling.

‘Okay,’ Vinson said, whispering to Karla. ‘Like, I didn’t get
any
of that.’

‘You’re kidding, Stuart, right?’

‘Like,
nada
, man,’ Vinson whispered. ‘I hope the whole show’s not as brainiac as that part. How much did
you
follow?’

Karla looked at him compassionately. One of the things she loved most in the world, maybe the thing she
did
love most in the world, was a foreign language to him.

‘Why don’t you let me dial it down from ten for you,’ Karla suggested, her hand on his arm, ‘and give you the T-shirt version? Till you get on your feet.’

‘Wow,’ Vinson whispered back. ‘Would you really do that?’

Karla smiled at him, then looked at me.

‘Can you believe how cool this is?’ she asked.

‘Oh, yeah,’ I smiled back.

‘I told you we had to come up here.’

Idriss and the other sages emptied the burning inspiration from the bowl, and turned again to burning questions.

‘How so, master-
ji
?’ Doubtful asked quickly. ‘How can the connection to this tendency field, or to the Divine, explain the meaning of life?’

‘The question is invalid,’ Idriss said softly, being kind to a colleague who was also pursuing a truth worthy of penance. ‘Meaning is not an attribute of life. Meaning is an attribute of will.
Purpose
is an attribute of life.’

The sages conferred again, leaning toward Let Me See, who was facing Idriss directly. They shoved angels from the head of a pin, one by one, deciding which portion of the tiny dome would give them best purchase.

Idriss sighed, looking out at the faces of the students, dressed in white, a magnolia circle of fascination. The tallest trees braved the departing sun, shielding the holy men with shade.

‘So –’ Vinson began to ask.

‘Meaning of life, wrong question,’ Karla said. ‘Purpose of life, right question.’

‘Wow,’ Vinson said. ‘So, that’s, like,
two
questions.’

The sages drew apart. Doubtful cleared his throat.

‘Are you speaking of connecting with the Divine, or with other living creatures?’

‘Every true connection, honest and free, no matter where it occurs, with a flower or a saint, is a connection to the Divine, because every sincere connection automatically connects the connectors to the spiritual tendency field.’

‘But how can one know that one is connected?’ Doubtful asked doubtfully.

Idriss frowned, lowering his eyes, unable to suppress the sadness he saw waving from a lonely shore of Doubtful’s devotion. He looked up again, smiling at Doubtful kindly.

‘The tendency field affirms it,’ Idriss said.

‘How?’

‘Sincere penance, such as kindness, or compassion, connects us to the tendency field,’ Idriss said. ‘The tendency field always responds, sometimes with a message from a dragonfly, sometimes with the granting of a fervent wish, and sometimes with the kindness of a stranger.’

The sages conferred again.

Vinson used the break in the discourse to throw his arm around my shoulder and pull me into his confusion. He leaned us in to whisper to Karla, but she didn’t let him start.

‘The force is always with you, if you give up force,’ Karla said.

‘Oh.’

The sages coughed their way back into the debate politely.

‘You seek to wrap meaning up in a conundrum of intention,’ Grumpy replied. ‘But are we really free in what we decide, or are we determined by Divine knowledge of all that we do?’

‘Are we
victims
of God?’ Idriss laughed. ‘Is that what you’re suggesting? Then why give us free will? To torment us? Is that what you really want me to believe? Our will exists to ask questions of God, not just beg for answers.’

‘I want to know what
you
believe, Master Idriss.’

‘What I
believe
, great sage, or what I
know
?’

‘What you fervently believe,’ Grumpy replied.

‘Very well. I believe that the Source that birthed our Universe came with us into this reality as a spiritual tendency field. I believe that Will, our human will, is in a constant state of superposition, interacting with, and not interacting with the spiritual tendency field, like the photons of light from which it’s made.’

The sages conferred again, and Vinson almost asked what was going on.

‘The force is actually
you
,’ Karla whispered in summary, ‘if you’re humble enough for it.’

‘You are basing very much of what you say on the possibility of choice, master-
ji
,’ Ambitious said. ‘But many of the choices we make are trivial.’

‘There is no such thing as a trivial choice,’ Idriss said. ‘That is why so many powerful people try to influence all of our choices. If it were a trivial thing, they would not bother.’

‘You know the things of which I speak, master-
ji
,’ Ambitious said, a little irritated. ‘There are a thousand trivial choices that we make every day. Choice cannot be such an important factor, as you suggest, when so much of it is of trifling importance, or made without spiritual thinking.’

‘I repeat,’ Idriss smiled patiently, ‘there is no such thing as a trivial choice. Every choice is significant, no matter how unconsciously made. The choices we make, every time we make them, collapse the superposition that we call human life into one reality or another, and one perception or another, and that decision has minute or great but nonetheless eternal effects on the timeline.’

‘You call that power?’ Ambitious challenged.

‘This is energy,’ Idriss corrected. ‘Spiritual energy, sufficient to alter Time, which is no small thing. Time was the lord of all living things, for billions of years, until Will arose to greet him.’

Let Me See called the sages to confer. He was enjoying himself, even at the expense of his colleagues, or perhaps especially at the expense of his colleagues. It was impossible to tell if his tactical conclaves were designed to confound Idriss, or his fellow sages.

Vinson looked at Karla, and was about to speak.

‘Cover your karmic ass,’ Karla synopsised, ‘everything you do affects the timeline, dude.’

I kissed her quickly. I know it was a holy assembly of holy thinkers, but I was betting that they’d forgive me.

‘This is the second-best best date ever,’ she said, as the sages sat up straight, three intellectual corner-men leaning away from Grumpy, the youngest sage, with fresh energy for the challenge.

‘This is digressive,’ Grumpy began. ‘I have found your technique, master-
ji
. You
divert
from questions, through semantic tricks. Let us get down to sacred texts and instructions. If the human soul is an expression of our humanity, as you seem to suggest, is it essential to do one’s duty in life, as the sacred texts instruct us?’

‘Indeed,’ Ambitious added, hoping to trap Idriss in a snare of caste. ‘Can any of us escape the wheel of karma, and our Divinely appointed duties?’

‘If there is a Divine Source of all things, our rational and logical duty is to that Divine Source,’ Idriss replied. ‘Our only other duty is to the humanity that we share, and the planet that sustains us. Everything beyond that is a personal preference.’

‘Are we not born with a karmic duty?’ Ambitious pressed.

‘
Humanity
is born with a karmic duty. Human beings are born with a personal karmic
mission
, playing their individual part in the common karmic duty,’ Idriss said.

The sages looked at one another, ashamed, perhaps, that they’d tried to trap Idriss in the quicksand of religion, while he kept lifting himself free on a branch of faith.

‘Does a personal God speak to you?’ Let Me See asked, tangling his long grey beard with knotted fingers, bruised on the inside from years of counting red amber meditation beads in cycles of one hundred and eight.

‘Such a lovely question,’ Idriss laughed gently. ‘I presume that you mean a God that cares about me, personally, and that I can communicate with, personally, while that God, who dreamt the universe into creation, is busily connecting with every consciousness like mine, wherever it arises. Is that correct?’

‘Precisely,’ the elderly guru said.

Idriss laughed to himself.

‘What’s the question?’ Vinson asked.

‘Does God walk the talk?’ Karla whispered quickly, smiling encouragement at Vinson.

‘I get it,’ Vinson whispered back happily. ‘Like, does God pick up the phone?’

‘I see the Divine in every minute that I live,’ Idriss answered. ‘And I receive constant affirmations. It is a language uncommon, of course. It is a spiritual language of coincidence and connection. I think you know, great sage, of what I speak?’

‘I do, Idriss,’ he replied, chuckling. ‘I do. Can you give an example?’

‘Every peaceful encounter with nature,’ Idriss said, ‘is a natural conversation with the Divine, which is why it is advisable to live as near to nature as you can.’

‘A fine example, great sage,’ Let Me See replied.

‘Extending your heart to put the light of affection in the eyes of a new friend, is a conversation with the Divine,’ Idriss said. ‘Honest meditation is the same conversation.’