Qualities & Talents

"I must have a name for you old man," said Rishi, "we have known each other for nearly two years and I feel ridiculous calling you old man."

"Your ridicule is my newly found function," replied the old man wryly. "Names," he continued, "are useless ... you might as well call me Bob."

The old man shuttered and thought, "what was I thinking!"

"Bob!" shouted Rishi. "That's perfect!"

"You can't call me Bob. I forbid it!"

"What ever you say, goes Bob," replied Rishi, "I am your servant."

The Old Man put his right hand on his forehead and wondered, "how could I let my birth name slip out like that?"

Then a feeling of knowing came over him. He brought up his beloved coconuts of future possibilities and noticed that the number of outcomes had increased by several orders of magnitude since yesterday.

"I see," said the old man, "you have found the qualities of your talent. You helped loosen my tongue."

"Yes." Said Rishi. "Its exactly as you said, right before my eyes the whole time, I have a track into people's minds through my own will."

"You understand..." said the old man before Rishi interrupted him.

"I know. I know. I must be careful how I use my talent."

"Very careful. Need I remind you that it was my talent that enabled us to both survive the trial of your fears and it was only because I faced my own fear that my talent could save us at all."

"Yeah, I know. I promise to be careful. Its not like we meet people up here anyway. What have we seen, like maybe a dozen of your worldly students in the two years since I arrived?"

Rishi laid back on his dusty old sleeping bag and surveyed the cave. It was cool, dank and stank. He absolutely adored the smell of it. It was home to him. He could just make out the entrance in the distance with its trickle of light flowing down to Bob and him.

"Ha!" he thought to himself. "The old man is Bob."

Bob stood up and headed toward the cave entrance. "I'm going down to find out where our suppliers are. Are you going to search for the 1000 meter cave?"

"That's what I do every day Bob."

Bob growled and said, "I'll stop you from prying my mind in the future. You know I can."

"Yes," said Rishi, "but I'll get satisfaction every time I say, 'hi Bob!'".

Rishi rolled off his sleeping back, picked it up and followed Bob to the cave entrance.

"You could tell me your last name," said Rishi, "I'll call you by that if you like."

"You'll get no more information from me!" shouted Bob.

Rishi laughed as they hit the cave entrance. In a few seconds he squinted out into the morning sunlight and stepped around the old man.

He shook out his sleeping bag, trying his best to eliminate any dry soil that had gathered from the cave floor. Then he rolled it up and carried it back into the cave.

There hadn't been any food for a few days so Rishi and 'Bob' were fasting. Bob called back to Rishi and said, "I'll be back this evening with food, if I'm not you best fend for yourself, okay?"

"Got cha Bob," replied Rishi.

Rishi traveled past Bob's animal skins and back in the cave toward the watering hole. When he got there he noticed it was nearly empty. It had been a dry and cold winter. Water, the Rishi knew, was not an issue. Where he was going there would be lots of water, too much in fact for him to get past to make it to the 1000 meter cave.

Every day he mapped out new pathways in the cavern complex. He knew more about these caves than anyone had ever known but he still could not find a safe way to the 1000 meter cave. He had climbed up the slide and retraced his steps to the top of the cave, looked down into it and wondered if he should get a rope. But there at the top of the cave he saw a grand opening in its western wall. He knew there had to be a way to get to that cave, but as of yet he'd not been able to find it.

He hiked up and down the caves and then squeezed through a tiny opening into a small chamber with several large stalactites. There were no stalagmites because water flowed through here for thousands of years, preventing their formation. Rishi jumped up and grabbed a ledge in the top of the chamber. He couldn't see where he was but he knew the cave so well that he didn't need to.

His eyes continued to adjust and he began to see the green glowing algae as he pulled himself, snakelike, along the floor of this narrow passage way.

"Into the chamber of possibilities," he thought, "a physical representation of what Bob sees in his head when he closes his eyes."

A memory surfaced. "Why won't you tell me the way to the 1000 meter cave?" Rishi heard himself ask. Bob replied, "Because you must find it on your own and it'll help keep you busy."

"But you can see the route?"

"Yes, several routes, one of which you know, but of course that way is certain death if you should try to enter. In late summer when the water is calm, it is not deep enough for you to jump in from the top of the cave and in the winter when the water is deep enough you will get swept downward in the caves and drown to death."

"I'm not very fond of water as it is," though Rishi once the memory dissipated.

Rishi sat in the chamber of possibilities, closed his eyes and tried to meditate.

Death of a Rishi

Rishi, wide awake, sat up on the two meter horizontal amethyst crystal.

"I think its going to be a few hours before the sun rises," he thought to himself. "I guess I might as well try to meditate again."

When Rishi said, "try to meditate," he was echoing his first spiritual teacher's words. UncEgg had said, "kiddo we don't know how to meditate and we haven't for millennia. There are those who do but they are few and far between. The odds of meeting such a person are insurmountable. So I sit and I try to meditate. I have no idea what I'm doing. I have no idea what the goal is. So I read books, I control my breath and I watch my thoughts dancing before me like sparkles of the rising sun on the ocean's surface."

In reply, the young Jon Rishi asked his UncEgg, "Does anything happen when you try?"

"Nothing ever happens Jon," replied UncEgg, "Its always the same and I know I'm doing something wrong but I don't know how to fix it."

UncEgg had died of a heart attack not long after this conversation.

Rishi reflected on his Uncle and thought, "That dude smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much and enjoyed greasy food way too often."

Another part of his mind said, "Yeah, but he sure was a cool unhealthy old dude."

"Yeah," Rishi agreed.

He closed his eyes in the pitch blackness, folded his ungainly legs and fidgeted trying to find something to grasp onto within himself.

Was there a thought, some sound or imagery on which to hold? How could he meditate? What was meditation?

These thoughts bounced around in his head for a few minutes before he got tired of them and banished them.

Then it happened. Or more approximately, it didn't happen.

For a brief moment Rishi felt absolutely nothing. No thoughts. No feelings. Just a sense of existence stretching backward and forward in time forever.

Rishi took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and lost himself totally.

A rumbling in the cave stirred him from this experience.

The sun had risen, the crystals in which he sat were well lit and it took a full minute for his eyes to adjust before he could open them fully.

The floor of his geode shook and he knew that more settling of the rock was happening beneath him. At this moment he realized fully that he may never leave this mountain again, that he may lose his life among this crystal. For some reason, he didn't care.

I go willingly. I follow in Master UncEgg's footsteps.

Inside himself he felt a pull and stood up. He gingerly ran across the floor of the geode, up its eastern face, and climbed up to the dark opening. As he climbed through the dark opening, the massive geode broke away from the wall to which it had been attached and fell. Rishi held on to the inside of the cave and pulled his feet out of the geode's opening.

He looked back and watched the 15 meter geode fall a thousand meters and splash into the lake floor of a huge cavern. The walls had many crystals and much stone. Somehow Rishi knew that there would be no more collapsing this year. This new giant chamber had been made for him and the light that streamed in through the quartz guide at the top would light the chamber for thousands of years.

Rishi struggled and pulled himself into the cave opening before the adrenalin wore off, then turned back and looked into the massive chamber.

He saw three colors of quartz: Rose, Amethyst, and of course clear, but he also saw stones of different geometry and quality. Hopefully, later he would be able to return and explore the chamber.

Looking into the darkness of the cave before him, Rishi crawled forward. The tunnel was narrow and short, perhaps a meter by a meter and bent this way and that.

"Once again," thought Rishi, "I must go forward and not back."

After ten minutes of crawling, even with eyes adjusted, Rishi could not see where he was going. There was algae on the floor of this tunnel but he could not see its glow.

Perhaps if he sat for a while, his eyes would adjust further as they had in the old chamber that had been his home for a short time.

As he sat and pondered what to do he remembered his flash light. He wondered how long the batteries would last if he used it. He came to the conclusion he should save it for later. Only in dire need should he use the flash light.

An idea struck him. "I wonder," he said out loud. Gingerly he touched his finger tip to some of the algae on the ceiling and then touched the tip of his tongue to his finger.

After forty seconds he could see the glow of the algae.

"I'm seeing the glow of the life in that algae," he thought to himself as he began to crawl forward in the cave. The algae was like some self fulfilling prophecy.

This tunnel took many turns and had many forks. Some went left and right, some went up and down. Each time a gentle pull in his gut told him which way to go. He paid attention to the pull and noted that it always took him in the direction of the most algae.

He began to rely on that fact and stopped paying attention to the pull.

At one particular intersection he saw many algae to his left and struck out for it. After a meter or so of crawling he fell through an opening in the floor, landing two meters down on hard rock he struck his left shoulder and head quite brutally.

The pull had said, "Not this way," but because his mind had become attached to the way of "the most algae" he had not heard it.

Presently he climbed up the wall of the pit through the hole and back tracked to his wrong turn.

There he closed his eyes and paid attention.

"To the right," it said, "not the left."

So he turned right and followed the pull within him.

As he turned a right corner the tunnel became very smooth and he noticed a vertical shaft above him that seemed to stretch on forever. Before him lay a steeply angled tunnel, with a smooth algae laden floor. He recognized its type immediately. It was like the cavern that started this adventure: a one way trip. It was yet another way that lead forward with no possibility of going back.

He pondered for a moment then turned around in the tunnel, put his feet down the tube and followed the pull forward.

He slid around and around, down and down for a full minute, and ended with a splash in a pool of water in a delicate chamber that smelled of humanity.

"Be careful in that water," said the old man from some unknown direction, "its our drinking water. You best get out of if as soon as possible."

Rishi almost cried at the recognition of the old man's voice but instead staid the feelings and forced thankfulness into his heart.

"Am I out?" Rishi asked as he swam toward the voiced shadow at the shore of the pond.

"Yes," replied the old man, "and assuming the plumbing hasn't changed too much, our cave life will be much as it has been for our teachers and our teacher's teachers."

"Nothing's changed up here?"

"Nothing," replied the old man. "Did much change down below?"

"Everything," said Rishi.

"Did you see the crystal cave?"

"Oh yes, but its gone replaced by a massive chamber the likes of which..."

"Don't tell me Rishi," interrupted the old man, "you can show me after we rest and heal."

"We won't be able to get back up there," said Rishi as he stood up.

"I know, but that's not where we want to go anyway," replied the old man.

As they walked back through the dark caverns Rishi asked, "How did you survive old man?"

"I was grasping the rock for my life when I waved to you the first time. Once I climbed upon the rock and waved again the roof collapsed above the swirling pond."

"I saw that. It looked as if it crushed you."

"It didn't. It fell around me. In my mind I saw a single possibility for survival, but it was crystal clear and I followed it. I knew where every foot fall needed to be. I have never been that one pointed in my life. It was amazing!"

"How did you get back up here?"

"After the collapse and the subsequent restructuring of the cave there was a large opening to the cavern we came in through."

"You just walked out?"

"Yeah, once I got to a safe portion of the cave, just under where you found your necklace, I found an opening into familiar caverns."

"Lucky."

"Ha Ha!" Shouted the old man. "You don't really believe in luck after this adventure, do you?"

Rishi stopped and the old man turned. Rishi saw the old man's body glowing with a powerful aura. "Are we still alive?" Rishi asked.

"You and I died in this cave today and yesterday and yet we live."

"What does that mean?"

"Difficult to say."

Rishi and the old man walked in silence to the old man's home. They sat and ate some fruit brought by the old man's students.

It had been a long time since Rishi slept peacefully.

Crystal Illumination

Rishi had laid on his back for about five minutes. It seemed only a heartbeat in time for him. The rumbling of the chamber had stopped and all the water in the cave had drained into chambers below. He just barely sensed that the ledge on which he lay stood fully ten meters above the bottom of the cave. There was no going back. Was there a way forward?

He finally stirred and rolled toward the rift against the wall of the chamber. He put his hand into it and felt cool water.

"How could there still be water in there?"

His geologist mind drew blank after blank after blank.

But then, perhaps he should be thankful, the vein of glass on which he perched might have a thirty foot drop on both sides and that water might be the only thing preventing him from falling to his death.

"I really can't wait. I really mustn't." He thought to himself.

He looked at the cavern, his home for the past few days, and noticed how very little of the green glowing algae remained. Much of it had been spirited away by the nearly invisible effects of the water pouring through the cave.

Rishi listened to the river flowing down from the ceiling of the Chamber. It was fast, but not so fast as to sound terrible. "The water must have lain across the ceiling of this chamber for eons, and today the roof decided to give way. Today it decided to take my life and the life of my new friend. It only half succeeded."

"I really can't wait. Any wait is taking a chance of further collapse."

The fear of death weighed over him. It was as if the Angel herself floated above him, tempting him to do something rash. Yet She also temped him to do nothing, because She knew nothing was as rash as something.

Rishi put his hand in the water again and felt the wall of the crevasse he needed to sink into. It was smooth and oddly angular, feeling along it he formed a mental image of its structure. Then it dawned on him, "I'm sitting on the side of a massive quartz crystal!"

Leaning his face over the water Rishi saw a distant glow.

"That is what the old man meant when he told me I'd know where to go, there's light at the end of this tunnel."

"How could there be light this deep in the cave? The light looks white, but honestly in this much darkness how could I be sure that the faint light I'm seeing is white. It could be the glow of green algae."

Beneath him, much deeper in the bowels of this mountain, came a rumbling as more eroded stone collapsed under its own weight and the weight of the melt water.

"No time for thinking," said Rishi outloud, and he plunged head first into the water.

Righting himself he looked down the dark water filled passage way, put his head above the water, took a deep breath and swam as fast as he could for the blurry light ahead of him.

As he swam he kept floating to the top of the passage way, scraping his back on the sharp points of large quartz crystals. This spurred him downward as well as forward toward the light.

He exhaled his breath slowly over time as he swam down the 45 degree decline toward the light. As he approached the light source he was nearly out of breath.

The light streamed in through a small opening in the surface of the crystal passage way. Even though the passage way continued on a down angle, Rishi squeezed through the opening toward the source of light. He ran completely out of breath. He allowed his buoyancy to lift him upward toward the light as his lungs ached to take a breath. They burned and pleaded, trying to inhale oxygen, but he forced them to obey to his will, to take a breath now meant death, to wait perhaps another minute meant life.

The light grew brighter and brighter as he floated upward. He kicked a little to gain speed. It seemed to take an interminable amount of time.

As he approached the surface of the water, the light was blinding and he had to close his eyes. He took a deep breath and tried to open his eyes. He could not, his eyes were not prepared for the light of day.

His mind pondered the light. Had he just come into a chasm in the mountain? Was the light the light of the sun or was there some other trick the mountain was playing.

Feeling around the edges of the shaft he and just floated through he found more quartz crystal. He felt large hexagonal structures. It seemed too dangerous to climb out before he opened his eyes. As a geologist he knew there could be very sharp tiny crystals that might slice him to ribbons as he attempted to lift himself out of the water.

He relaxed in the pool and waited.

He felt the distant rumbling of crashing rock and decided he'd better pull himself out anyway. Feeling around he felt a horizontal patch of large crystal. It was laying on its side so he pulled himself upon it.

Just as he slid onto the glass he felt the water leave his feet. The tunnel beneath him had just drained and now there was a 20 or 30 meter drop behind him. He would only be able to move forward from here.

"The cave seems to like that theme," Rishi thought, "Always forward, never back."

Laying on his back, Rishi began to slowly open his eyes. The light was blinding but he felt sure he was safe in opening them.

He lay on the inside of a giant quartz geode. It was 14 meters in diameter. The top was fractured in two places, in the top most fracture light poured in from above. The other fracture, along the east side, was dark.

"Perhaps the lit fracture is the exit", he thought, "but how am I to get there. Perhaps this whole room was water filled when the old man's teacher entered it."

Rishi sat up and surveyed his surroundings. Most of the room was white quartz, but a small block of it, which he happened to be laying upon, was amethyst. It was stunning.

For a moment Rishi wondered if he should be rushing along, after all it was possible these geodes would be the next to collapse.

Rishi laid back down and drifted to sleep. Apparently the adrenalin had worn off.

He awoke several hour later in total darkness.

Remembering where he was and his previous day's adventures he mused, "clearly that is sun light. Now I must wait for dawn before I can try to climb out of this wonderful structure."

Many Lives in One Cave

"Wait a minute," said Rishi. "What are you implying here?"

The old man climbed down to another level of rock, slipped and splashed into shallow water. He looked up at Rishi and replied, "You always come back here to face this fear, and you always die here."

"That doesn't make sense," said Rishi.

"It makes perfect sense," contradicted the old man.

Rishi retorted, "You're saying this fear comes from past lives?"

"Yes," replied the old man, "you better climb down and be prepared to get wet. We need to get moving. Do you hear that water behind us?"

"That's not important," said Rishi. "I want to understand this reincarnation implication."

The old man gently slid off the rock on which he stood, into the water, and said "The water is deep here, we must swim."

"This is ridiculous!" cried Rishi as he climbed down to the water level.

"Honestly," said the old man after he turned to face Rishi, "what you did before doesn't matter. Past lives, how ever pertinent, really don't mean anything."

Rishi slid into the water and began to dog paddle. He paddled out to the old man and said, "I don't believe in reincarnation."

"I don't either," said the old man. Then he turned and swam as fast as he could for the north wall of the cave, the wall where he knew he could find the way out.

Rishi saw the old man swimming fast and strong and mimicked the old man's movements, he swam confidently after the old man and found a healthy rhythm quite quickly.

The old man lifted himself onto another island of rock: this one glowed so brightly as to almost appear on fire. Rishi swam to the old man and said, "Then why would you say that was my past life?"

"Partly because its true," replied the old man, "and partly because I had foreseen these events and knew that this was the easiest way to assist you with your first swim."

Rishi pulled himself out of the water with a great perplexed expression on his face. He and the old man needed to cover about 35 meters to get to the north wall of the chamber.

As the confusion on Rishi's face began to wane, the old man said, "We must face all our fears to graduate from this place and you only have one fear left. It was given to you when you became master of this cave thousands of years ago and in a freak accident became trapped down here. You put that crystal in the wall over there, shouted up to your students that you were going to try to find a way out and were never heard from again."

The old man kept carefully ahead of Rishi. As Rishi followed making sure he could hear and ask questions, the old man lead him to another wet sink hole.

The old man climbed into the water as Rishi said, "so that was the skull of the Master of the cave?"

"Oh no," said the old man as he tread water, "that was the skull of a student of my teacher's teacher." In that life, your fear overcame you and you fell to your death.

The old man twirled around in the water and swam quickly away from Rishi covering ten meters before Rishi had even formed his next question. Rishi put his finger to his mouth as if to speak. Seeing the distance between himself and the old man, Rishi slid into the water and swam after him.

The distance across this pond was vast. The old man swam about 30 meters and pulled himself out of the water onto a smooth, solid, almost glass like ledge in north wall of the cave. He could just make out the gap at the base of the wall.

In fact the distance was so vast that the old man realized he had made a mistake in swimming that far.

In the distance, to the south, the sound of rushing water became overwhelmed by the sound of falling rock. Some of the roof was giving way under the weight of the water pressing down on it.

Rishi had stopped swimming and unconsciously doggy paddled while staring at the north wall of the cave.

"What is your question!" shouted the old man.

Rishi had suddenly understood why the old man had started this conversation and from that realization his fear surfaced. The old man's shout awakened Rishi and Rishi moved slightly forward in the water.

"I ... " stammered Rishi " ... I can't remember."

"Just swim toward my voice Rishi, just swim."

Rishi did as he was instructed for a minute, making a few meters distance but it became harder and harder for him to concentrate.

"There is nothing to fear here Rishi," said the old man.

"I wish I knew that," thought Rishi.

The old man lowered himself gently into the water and very slowly and carefully tread out to Rishi.

"Give me your hand Rishi," said the old man.

Rishi held up his hand, the old man grabbed it and towed him carefully to the smooth stone.

With the old man's help, Rishi started to pull himself out of the water.

At that moment a large piece of the roof, perhaps the size of a circus tent, broke away from the center of the Chamber's ceiling and fell with a large crash onto the green island and into the pond they were in.

Rishi pulled himself up the rest of the way as a wave of water from the the falling rock struck him and drove him against the north wall, he struggled to not fall in the water filled crack and then struggled to keep from being drawn back into the pond as the wave bounced off the north wall.

"Rishi." said the old man.

Rishi whipped around and saw a giant whirlpool of water where the pond had been. The old man circled around and around, faster and faster.

Rishi started to move for the water when he noticed that the green island in the middle of the pond was gone and apparently a collapse of the floor had created an opening, a way for the water to escape the chamber.

"Stop!" shouted the old man.

Rishi stopped at the edge of the smooth stone and noticed that the water had drained down several feet from its edge.

"You must face your fear!" shouted the old man as he drew closer and then circled farther away.

"That is all that matters now!" shouted the old man on his next pass.

"Swim!" shouted Rishi. "Swim toward the middle and sling shot out!"

The old man shrugged. "Okay" he shouted above the noise of the water, "I'll try."

The old man began swimming toward the middle. It had the affect of accelerating him tangentially toward the middle. As he approached the center he flipped out of the whirlpool and got very close to Rishi. They reached for each other and the old man smiled as if to say "thank you."

But their arms missed and the old man was carried around to the new southern shore of this gyro-pond. The old man crashed into a rock. The pain was excruciating but the old man managed to heave himself out of the water onto the stone. Rishi stared at the old man for a moment and the old man waved to him.

At that moment another large portion of the ceiling collapsed and fell into the swirling pond. The water had drained several feet but it was still everything Rishi could do to hang on and not be drawn into the water by the wave created by the collapse. It was a miracle that nothing fell on him.

"The old man was not so lucky," thought Rishi.

Between a Rock and a River

Rishi slid down on the cold moist stone to the water's edge and touched its surface. Then he pressed his finger to the stone just a few millimeters under its surface. "Too bad its not this deep the whole way along," he said to the old man.

"Agreed," replied the old man.

"We should go now," said Rishi succumbing to a momentary brashness. "Lets get it over with."

"Wait a moment," said the old man, "I know some things about what we're trying to do."

In the pervading darkness all Rishi could make out of the old man was his outline against the green glowing algae. As the old man sat on the slippery floor he effused an air of power and certainty. This made Rishi feel more confident about the outcome of his adventure.

The old man began searching the possibilities, to refresh his mind of ideas on where to go and what to do. He noted that because of his presence in the chamber, the likelihood of deadly accident had greatly decreased for Rishi, but increased considerably for himself.

"Coconuts," he thought as he flipped them around, opening them and examining their fruit.

"Where's my pack?" Asked Rishi.

"Its up in that cave: hopefully we'll be able to dig it out. It doesn't matter though until we get out of here. Please give me a moment to continue my research."

Rishi didn't understand what the old man did while in his head but he did understand that the old man seemed to have some insight so he respected the old man's wishes.

After a few more minutes the old man said, "Listen, I'm only going to say this once: if something happens to me, you are to get out of here. I've lived a long time and now that you wear that necklace around your neck my job is done."

The old man listened to himself, laughing at his lies. "Its true in one sense," he thought, "but false in so many ways."

The old man continued to listen to himself. "Ahead of us about 100 meters, just at the edge of the wall we can just barely make out, there is a trench. The trench is only a third of a meter thick but it stretches almost the length of the cave.

"That drop off is our goal. We must move into that sink hole right up against the wall. There are other sinks before that one which if we enter, we must swim past, to enter any of those sinks is certain death as they only travel down into numerous deep and sealed caverns below us.

"My teacher said that when he was in here, there was no pond, except that which was at the edge of this cave in the trench that I mentioned earlier. That meant that at one time the caverns under us were open and had drained the water from this chamber. My teacher fell into a pit climbing across the chamber but managed to climb out and make his way out. My teacher knew to swim the water because of what he saw there."

"I have to enter water through a narrow opening?" asked Rishi.

"Yes, as do I, it is the only way out."

At that moment each man heard a rumbling from the blocked entrance behind them, the old man scrambled toward the right side of the cave near Rishi and they both watched as rock tumbled down the opening. Then a fairly large stream of water began flowing out of the wall. It started as a small trickle and quickly gained power.

More rumbling eschewed from the cave entrance and the water picked up pace again.

"We have to go now Rishi," said the old man.

The men made their way along the cave, carefully looking for the warning sign of a massive drop off in the stone. They paid attention to the green glow of the algae, looking for it to disappear under them. It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for.

They stood at the top of a large cliff of crumpled rock for which there was no way around.

"It looks like we're going to have to swim in deep water from here," said the old man. "Just don't panic and remember you body floats, kick like your sister taught you and where possible keep your head above water. Above all, BE CALM."

Rishi nodded and felt his heart in his throat. There was a tension in his back, shoulders and a tightness in his stomach that reminded him of something just out of his awareness.

The old man lowered himself into the water and stood up. "Its not very deep, just a meter or so, lower yourself down."

The river flowing into the cave brought a few more boulders with it. These were much larger and seemed almost too big to fit through the opening that the old man had passed through. The old man noted their outline and thought, "what have I done?"

Rishi and the old man waded a few more meters and climbed onto a taller rock. Then continued feeling their way along warning each other of perils.

The rock underfoot became quite varied in size and features. "This is probably rock from the ceiling," said the geologist part of Rishi.

"Oh my!" exclaimed the old man, "look!"

Before the old man was a large cliff of broken stone, perhaps ten meters high covered with algae.

The old man continued, "I had no idea this was here. I thought perhaps we'd gotten to the sink more quickly than estimated. How are we going to get around this?"

"We're not said Rishi, we have to climb over."

They each made there way out of the water using the broken stones as hand and foot holds. It took several minutes to climb to the top. From this vantage they could see all the glowing algae of the chamber.

"That is where we're going," said the old man, pointing toward the far end of the cave.

From here they could see the disturbance of the water caused by the river of debris flowing into the chamber.

The pile on which they walked came to an end as quickly as it began so Rishi and the old man climbed down. They proceeded slowly and methodically, making sure each foot and hand had some place to go to insure they didn't fall. They had no way to know how far down they would fall if they failed to cling to the rock. The algae's light made distances very difficult to calculate.

Rishi felt around looking for a hand hold and felt something smooth and round with two holes and squared ridges along one side. After a moment he realized what it was and let out a little shriek.

"Oh," said the old man, "that's your body, don't be so shocked. You wore it a very long time ago."

Whoops on purpose

Rishi sat along the edge of the higher portion of the chamber, watching a small stream glinting slightly in the eerie green light of the cave's algae.

The old man had said, "Be quiet and let me work this out!" a long time ago and Rishi had not dared to ask about further progress.

The old man sat in the stream of water. The cold flowed across him and helped his focus on the array of bananas. He had spent the better part of an hour examining the possibilities. Always he kept his teacher's warning in the forefront of his mind.

"Once you find your talent," said the old man's teacher, "know that it is foolish to attempt to master every possible future. You merely need to master the moment and the future will take care of itself."

He had pushed aside many shades of yellow and umber, but still wondered at the best hue to choose. Blue for safety, violet for growth and knowledge.

Rishi sighed and the old man heard it. The old man was a little bothered but compassion welled up in his heart and he said, "Tell me Rishi, which color: blue, green, red, or purple?"

Rishi sat up a bit straighter and said, "purple! That's the color of the fire in the stone!"

The old man smiled and chuckled. "Yes in deed," he thought, "that was very obvious."

The old man broke off a banana from the bunch and offered it to the Goddess of knowledge. "OM AIM" he said as he opened it. "OM AIM" he said just before he took a bite and "OM AIM" he said after he swallowed. He closed his eyes, watched the green hued bananas disappear.

The old man focused on the task. The banana tasted better than anything he'd eaten in more than four decades and fighting the desire to desire more, he forced himself to take another bite, repeated the mantra "OM AIM" and watched as the red bananas disappeared.

He repeated this process another time, using the last bit of banana to eliminate the green hued possibilities.

All that remained were purple hued possibilities, about 400 million of them.

"Is there a way," asked the old man to himself, "to insure that he faces his fear and increase his likelihood of success? That would be a balanced outcome."

Shifting the bananas this way and that he caught a glimpse of a gold banana.

"What was that?" he thought.

He twisted his view around and around, caught sight of it a few times and then zoomed in on it. When his consciousness touched it, he realized that it was the solution he sought. The Goddess had turned this banana gold because it was the ideal action for this moment.

"Yes!" he said out loud. He opened another banana and ate it slowly and methodically. Before each bite he said, "OM AIM" to show his devotion to the Goddess of knowledge. After he finished the last bite he shouted, "Manifest Manifest Manifest!"

The rock outcropping immediately behind him, from which the water flowed, caved in, smashing hard into his back and thrusting him forward into the slide of rock. He had just enough time to lay back as he passed through the narrow opening.

In a matter of seconds he was laying beside the small pond with Rishi squinting at him. Even though the old man couldn't see it, he knew Rishi's face expressed utter astonishment.

The old man's back hurt. Perhaps he bleed, but at least he did not have any broken bones.

They both listened as the sound of crashing rock rumbled down to them through the cavern.

The rumbling above them stopped and a few small rocks and stones tumbled and slid down coming to rest just behind the old man.

The old man sat up and said, "Perhaps I should have examined the fruit of that golden banana before I removed all other possibilities."

Rishi did not understand but asked, "I thought you were afraid."

"Oh don't be confused. I don't wish to be here."

Rishi asked, "I thought you said you wouldn't come down here."

"That is true, partly because of my fear and partly because this cave is sacred. It held that stone for one who would need it for so long and we are not allowed to go in here. But, obviously that does not hold true any more. That tradition ended today."

Rishi paused, changed the subject and asked, "Are you hurt?"

"I may have some cuts and bruises on my back, but I think I'm relatively unharmed, considering how much I could have been hurt by the cave in."

"Why did it happen exactly after you said, 'manifest, manifest, manifest?'"

"That isn't important. What is important is that we are both caught in a cave that is likely to flood sooner or later. Although the cave in may spare us from torrents for a while, while the upper caves fill, sooner or later that rock debris will spirit through here taking everything with it."

The old man closed his eyes and requested the possibilities. After a slight pause, while he relaxed and allowed the adrenalin to leave his system, an entire crop of coconuts appeared before his inner vision.

"Coconuts," he murmured.

Feeling the bananas still on his lap he picked up the three remaining, said, "here have some lunch, I won't be able to use these any more" and tossed them to Rishi.

Rishi ate them and laid the peels next to him while the old man sat very still.

"He seems to search himself a lot," thought Rishi.

After a few minutes the old man faced Rishi and said, "I understand now. We are stuck in this cave, the only way out for now is forward. You and I must both swim the distance here if we wish to survive. We might have only a few days, there are too many external factors to be sure, but odds have it that if we leave right now, we will be doing the best we can. Every minute we wait we are decreasing our odds of survival."

"You understand I'm petrified of water," said Rishi.

"And I am petrified of caves," replied the old man. "Yes I know full well what you are feeling, you must rise above it: it is the only way we can survive."

Which Futures Shall I Destroy?

The old man smiled at the bunch of bananas in his hand. They were starting to form brown spots but the meat was firm and whole. He would present the bananas to the Goddess of Creation first, but assuming she smiled upon him, soon he would be able to use his other, untested, talent.

He finally understood why he saw bananas when he visualized future possibilities, because Rishi would present him with bananas. Many devotees had visited the cave and none had ever brought bananas. At an altitude above twelve thousand feet and leagues away from the tropics, how could anyone ever bring bananas? So many times he had wished the fruits of his mind's eye were apples or pears. These fruits could be found anywhere in the valley below the old man's cave. The answer to why he saw bananas became self evident.

The old man closed his eyes, mostly for effect, clutched the bananas, and asked, "Mother show me the possibilities." Nearly an infinite number of banana fruits showed themselves to him. "Mother, please accept this gift from Rishi and I. We are fools to question your wisdom. We apologize for our ignorance and wish to receive your blessing of this fruit."

The infinite bananas before his mind's eye narrowed to a manageable number on the order of a billion.

"Oh thank you Goddess," exclaimed the old man, "Thank you for this opportunity to make a difference in this man's life!"

Rishi laid quietly while the water washing his back picked up pace. He waited for the old man's to say what should be done next, but his patience was growing thin.

The old man finally understood his teacher's words, "when you offer the fruits of destiny without devotion, you will not be able to make use of them."

It was a confusing phrase his teacher had said a hundred times and one the old man had never forgotten.

"Please show me the best way to help Rishi find himself." The old man asked. Then the bananas before his mind's eye changed from yellow to many colors of the rainbow.

The old man was shocked. They had always been yellow. Always a perfect representation of a banana. Now they looked like plastic alien fruit from another world.

The water flowing at the old man's feet was an inch deep now, it flowed from the ceiling, down the wall behind him and reminded him that time grew short.

"OH CRAP!" came a shout from Rishi.

"He has realized his predicament," thought the old man.

"Did the first spring melt happen today?" Rishi asked the old man. A large, well focused, intonation of fear sounded in his voice.

The old man opened his mouth and the bananas disappeared from his mind's eye. "No Rishi, it was yesterday and the water is just starting to get here. It is cold again so I don't expect a torrent but you should probably move to the side of the cave just to be sure."

"How does he know I'm laying in the flow?" thought Rishi.

The old man returned to his rainbow of bananas and recognized that the color coding represented the possible spiritual lessons that he and Rishi might experience should different routes be taken.

"By giving me these bananas," thought the old man, "he has given me the ability to prevent entire swaths of future. I can eliminate any karma, just by eating a banana. The question is: which futures shall I destroy?"

"I could eliminate his death, but that makes it much too likely that he'll just walk out and never return. I could remove the possibility that he not face his fear, but that restriction could make it so he never chooses again, always opting for where the wind blows him. I should not be the wind that tells him what to do because he may come to rely on me too much."

Flipping the bananas this way and that, the old man looked from every perspective he could imagine. He saw things from Rishi's point of view. Saw his life and his life's mistakes. The old man even noted how Rishi had more often failed himself and those who loved him and still managed to end up in this cave. Clearly the banana of this cave was strong in his life.

"Oh Mother," sang the old man out loud, "what do I do with the wisdom you give? Which direction do I go from here now that I notice I live?"

Rishi heard the old man's singing and said, "hello. I'm still down here."

"You haven't moved like I asked you to Rishi. Move so I might get another perspective!"

Rishi failed to understand the old man but rolled toward the dryer portion of the chamber as instructed.

"Ah," said the old man, "that's much better." After a long pause the old man said, "Rishi, if you climb up a bit of the wall there you will find a loose stone."

Rishi used the wall to hold himself and even though the algae was slippery he managed to stand up. Then groping around for a few minutes he said, "I don't feel it."

"You must climb higher."

Rishi climbed the wall the best he could. He got up about five feet and said, "Is this far enough?"

"You must climb about five more feet upward and five feet to your right."

Rishi did as the old man instructed.

Up and to his right Rishi found a loose stone.

"I got it!" he shouted up.

"Good," said the old man. "Pull it out and allow it to fall to the floor."

Rishi jiggled the rock and after a minute it fell to the floor with a thud and bounced all the way into the pond where it came to rest in about three inches of water.

"Okay. Done!" shouted Rishi.

"Inside that opening is a crystal with chain, grab it and put it around your neck."

"How did you know this was here?" asked Rishi.

"My teacher heard the story from his teacher who heard it from his teacher. It goes back thousands of years."

"Why didn't your teacher get it when he was in this chamber?"

"You ask good questions, Rishi," said the old man. "He did not know about it when he fell into the cavern, his teacher was in the valley getting supplies, and my teacher swam out before his teacher returned."

Rishi reached into the opening, felt around and finally had his hands on the necklace. He pulled it out and felt for the stone. It was large, hexagonal, and seemed to refract the light of the algae quite well.

"Is this quartz?" asked Rishi.

"So legend states," said the old man.

"So have you figured out how to get me out of here yet?"

Rishi carefully climbed down the wall and put the quartz crystal and its chain around his neck.

Then, slowly, his perception cleared and he yelled, "OH MY GOD! MY DREAM JUST CAME TRUE!" Pausing for a deep breath Rishi said, "I can't believe it. I forgot all about my dream. Beside the pond, within the wall, I was to find a crystal with a violet fire within it. And now I have!"

The old man thought, "Had he kept a calm mind he would have found the crystal on his own, still its nice to know the bananas are his backup."

Ten Thousand Bananas of Death

Rishi awoke. He had slept a very long time. He rolled onto his side and felt the wetness on his back.

"Oh damn," he thought, "I'm still stuck in this cave. Why did I come here? What was I thinking? Sheesh, I guess I wasn't thinking at all."

"I wonder how long I slept," he asked out loud.

"Almost two days," echoed the words of the old man down the tunnel.

"Two days!" Rishi shouted. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"Wake you? While your body adjusted to the altitude? I certainly wouldn't have done that."

"I'm really thirsty," said Rishi.

The pool in the room with you is completely safe to drink. Even though its a bit stagnant, the algae in it is safe.

Cupping his hands, Rishi scooped some water toward his mouth and drank. The water tasted wonderful and quenched his thirst beyond all expectations. It left a funny after taste though which Rishi marked without a second thought.

He rolled to his back and closed his eyes feeling elated with the drink of water. He opened his eyes and realized that he could see a bit of the cave ceiling. The algae glowed and the sensation of being able to see in almost total darkness enthralled him.

"I can see!"

The old man stood at the the top of the slide, the area where the water overflowed during the heaviest melt.

"Yes," said the old man, "The algae glows. That algae is in all of this cavern. It is digesting the limestone and it gives off some light. Many are not sensitive to that light you should consider yourself lucky."

"I probably won't need my flash light any more," called up Rishi. Changing the subject he asked, "you are at the top of my jail cell? How did you know I'd awakened?"

"You stopped snoring."

"So you came to say hello?"

"No. I came to make sure you were still alive. If you die in there then I have to haul out your body to protect my drinking water."

"But you hate the cave."

"Hate is a strong word," said the old man. "I fear the cave, its true, but I also know how to rise above that fear to accomplish what I need to accomplish."

"I need to learn that," replied Rishi. "You would have risked your own life just to pull my body out of here?"

"There are many reasons I would slide down to you, that is just the one that made me visit this portion of the cave this moment."

Rishi became quiet for a moment. Hunger pain twisted deep in his stomach but he felt it unimportant. As long as he had water he would be fine.

"Can you bring me my back pack?" Asked Rishi.

"It is here, shall I attempt to slide it down to you or should I just send your special shoes?"

The Rishi pondered out loud, "I wish I knew which was more likely to succeed."

The old man paused for a moment and then said, "There is a slightly higher chance for the larger pack to get stuck, but I doubt either choice will work for you. I believe you've chosen to face your fear."

Under normal circumstances, Rishi's impatience would override his awareness and he'd demand the old man to send the pack down immediately and to come with it.

But Rishi sensed a few things. First, the old man would not come down the slide unless he had to. Second, he hadn't thought of just having the old man send the shoes, and third he hadn't realized the pack could get irrevocably stuck inside the smallest portion of the slide.

"That pack has a lot of useful things in it. It might serve you better if I let you keep it," said Rishi.

"I would not know Rishi," said the old man. "But I doubt I need anything in it."

"At least," replied Rishi, "take the fruit out of the pack and keep it for yourself, then I think you should put the shoes in the thick plastic bag and slide them down to me alone. This way at least the pack will survive and if I lose the shoes that won't be a big deal. Plus I believe they will fit better through the narrow opening. In fact I'm not sure the pack would fit at all."

"Plastic bag?" pondered the old man. Then, as a reflex, he began sifting through the fruit of karma with his mind's eye. It was dark enough here that he didn't even need to close his physical eyes.

"There and There!" thought the old man to himself, "Bananas with the shoes in a plastic bag! Oh my glorious..."

The old man's thoughts trailed off.

Rishi interrupted the old man's realization. "You should eat the fruit right away, I'm not sure they will last much longer. They were green when I started but they may be brown by now."

The old man barely heard him. He was focused on the Ten Thousand Bananas of Death involving those damn golf shoes. "Why did Rishi bring his golf shoes with him?" Thought the old man.

"Are you going to grab the fruit? I'd really like you to have it," said Rishi.

Allowing himself to be disturbed from his activity the old man unzipped the back pack.

"Good!" Said Rishi as he heard the zipper sound from up the corridor.

The old man reached in and felt around. Then he felt something smooth, cool and long.

"Oh my God!" the old man declared, "you have brought me bananas!"

"Yes. You aren't allergic are you?"

The old man instinctively sat down in the trickle of spring water flowing under him and began to chuckle. The laughter began to build like a small snow ball rolling down the precipice of the mountain outside. After a minute he was laughing so hard he had stopped breathing. His stomach wrenched in pain. He almost passed out.

Rishi lay there confused feeling a small stream of water striking his back. He glanced up, looking over the pond at the glowing ragged wall of green a foot ball field away. There was a large black area in it. It looked like a shadowed sand pit in a large green runway.

"No algae there for some reason," thought Rishi.

When he could speak again the old man whispered, "for the love of God man, don't mention this again, I don't think I could stop myself from laughing to death. When people say God has a sense of humor I don't think they realize exactly what they are saying. Now I promise you: I know God has a powerful sense of humor."

Time and Time Again

The old man heard the distant echo of a snort from the sleeping Rishi hundreds of feet below. Sound traveled well in this cave. He closed his eyes, focusing on his favorite activity. It was the activity his mind loved the most and the only activity which he allowed.

In his mind, he opened the peels of a thousand bananas and looked at the meat of the fruit of karma. He had performed this task so many times that it had become second nature. "Here I sit," he thought, "and here are my options."

Yesterday the old man had only three hundred and fifty thousand options. "Only 350 thousand, that's a miracle," he thought. That was the smallest number of options the old man would ever see: because in those possibilities, he saw 349 thousand yielded a stranger at his cave opening. He had believed this stranger to be his student. He had believed that the stranger would come to learn from him as he had once come to this cave to learn from his teacher. However, he realized now that he had projected that idea onto the 349 thousand options. He should have paid more attention to the meat of the bananas. "If I had," he thought, "I may have helped avert the current crisis in the cave."

He laughed to himself. "Crisis: what a stupid word," he thought. "As if there is anything to be done. As if there is anything wrong with the situation." He closed his eyes tighter for a moment to put away the fifty million or so possibility bananas he was examining for similarities and said his favorite mantra which had been taught to him by his first teacher, UncEgg. "Everything is perfect. Everything is perfect. Everything is perfect."

He chuckled to himself and thought how wonderful it is that no matter how many powerful spells learned, nor ability gained, the most powerful mental charm he has is the one given him by his Uncle during his precocious childhood.

"Okay Maa, please show them all to me again and let me pretend I can help Rishi."

A billion billion billion bananas appeared before his mind's eye and he began sorting out the unlikely possibilities. When he was done in a matter of moments he looked at the sorted and organized 16 million possibilities and saw that there were only three general outcomes: First and most likely, Rishi waited too long and drowned in the cave or was crushed against the crystal. Second, Rishi entered the water, became enveloped by his fear and drowned attempting to swim the length of the sink. Finally the third option, Rishi made it to the other side.

The number of bananas for the third option was orders of magnitude less than the number of fatal bananas.

His mind paused for a moment. "Why bananas? She always shows the possibilities as bananas. Why bananas?"

Turning his minds eye back to the possibilities he saw that nothing he did would help Rishi in any way. There were possibilities he had set aside where he tried to help but in every case he either ended up dead, trapped with Rishi or both. In many occurrences Rishi lost his pack by trying to have it lowered to him, in many cases it would become stuck. How could he explain that to Rishi? Perhaps there were two hundred thousand paths that got the pack or the special shoes to Rishi, but the old man knew that Rishi should not climb out the way he came in because if he did, the worst possible outcome would occur: he would live and never know his truest fate, never discover himself in the crystal pit. To survive and not face his fear was Rishi's surface desire, but the old man could not help that outcome. He had already chosen to not help with those paths and has therefore pushed those bananas aside.

Could he explain these things to Rishi? Surely Rishi would not understand. Despite his name and attitude, he was not realized.

Another snore echoed from the cavern and flustered the old man. "That man is a loud sleeper," he thought. "If he survives and stays he will have to sleep elsewhere. That banana is required."

He chuckled at himself.

Hydrophobia

This fear came from deep within Rishi. This fear of water. It was so very dark in the cave, and the water so deadly quiet that Rishi's mind raced as he contemplated crawling into it.

He called up to the old man, "Surely there's another way out that doesn't involve me getting wet?"

After a long pause, the old man replied, "I don't know how to get out of the room, but the previous occupant, my friend and teacher, told me that he had to swim out of that cave."

The old man didn't want to tell Rishi what else he had been told. His teacher had said nearly thirty years before that the only way out of that wonderful room was through a submerged cave.

"How did this cave get to be like this?" thought Rishi. "I studied geology because of this cave, because of that dream, now I must use my skills to think my way out of here."

Rishi took a great deep breath and exhaled slowly. He allowed his mind to focus on the chamber. The floor was perfectly smooth and flat and covered with a slimy green algae which he'd been killing by the billions since he arrived in the cave. They would recover, he knew, but part of him wondered if they felt the tragedy of his mistake as well as he did.

Clearly the cave entrance where the old man sat was a crack in the rock, probably due to settling, but this portion of the cave was different. This portion looked etched out by water. Probably the water in the pool before him. "That's why its wet and that's why its smooth," he thought. Had he walked back that far to get here?

"Oh but then!" His mind raced. "This is an underground pathway for a river of fresh water for melted snow!" He had barely beat the grass and flower sprouts to this altitude when he climbed to this cave. The snow would be melting soon. The room would flood. Slowly at first and then quickly and with more violence than any river in the world. The size of the chamber bore testimony to that.

The cavern in which he rested was created by a large chunk of very hard stone blocking the water's progress, causing it to cut out this chamber before finding a way around the blockage.

Then he knew the horrible truth. The old man's pause when answering his previous question suddenly became explained and he shouted at the top of his lungs, "THIS IS A SINK HOLE I LIE BEFORE!"

With massive trepidation the old many replied, "Yes. You have to swim through the hole to come out the other side. You must swim under water for nearly five minutes. Although this is probably as low as the water gets so you may find air pockets in the water cavern before you."

"Listen," said Rishi, "I have this massive fear of water. I mean, I really hate it. I don't even know why. I've been afraid of it my entire life, since I was a baby. My mother tried to give me a bath and I freaked out. She could only give me sponge baths until I was old enough to take a shower. Showers are okay. Pools of water are not. There must be some way for you to help me."

"I will do my best," came the reply from the old man, "but your time to overcome this fear is greatly limited. Soon that cave will be a raging torrent of water."

"Why did he go down there?" The old man asked himself, "why not ask me how to explore the safer portions of the cave? Why do the young never follow the wise and old? Why do they always follow the unwise or worse, try to blaze new trails with reckless abandonment?"

Rishi turned onto his side and flicked on the flash light. He looked at the surface of the water, just a few feet away and knew that under it lay a slippery slope that lead to an entirely dark, water filled death trap.

Then an idea struck him.

"You could," he shouted, "slide my pack down to me and then I could put on my climbing shoes and walk out of here!"

"That's a good idea," said the old man. "Should I send just the shoes or try to slide the whole pack. Oh, but ... what happens if it gets stuck, it would be a bad idea for me to accompany it, I'm not certain these old lungs can hold their breath for five minutes while I swim."

"You wouldn't have to. I could pull you up the cave behind me on a rope."

"You need to understand something Rishi," said the old man. "I'm deathly afraid of caves."

"What! You have got to be kidding me!"

"That's why I came here, to face my fear and master it, but I have found that all I can do is exist with it, watch it, and keep it from stopping action. It is the only way I can function as a cave dweller."

Rishi felt defeated. Rolling on his back, he realized how tired he had grown.

"I have to sleep now," he called up to the old man. "Lets think about things and when I awake we can try to come up with a solution that will respect both our fears."

"Agreed," said the old man

"Sleep well," thought the old man, "you have a long day ahead of you."

A Bit of a Wash

Rishi pushed himself along the smooth floor of the narrow cave into the moister air below. His light showed a glimmer of something, far along the descending cave. He knew it was the pool he had dreamed.

Suddenly the moisture on the floor increased and he found it easier and easier to slide.

He had just enough time to think, "this is easy," when he realized that he wasn't able to stop himself from moving.

The floor of the cave had grown wider and his feet no longer touched the walls. He began to slide faster and faster down the cave. The very distant glimmer from his flash light approached much more quickly than he cared to admit.

He flipped onto his back hoping to grab the ceiling with his hands but it raced away from him. The corridor had opened into a room.

He did not want to get wet. He did not want to disturb the water. He tried to maneuver sideways, tried to make it to the edge, but he fell flat on his face.

The floor of the cave began to level off as he approached the pool of water. As he attempted to lift his head to see how close he was to the water, his face splashed into it and he stopped moving.

He pushed himself upward, grasping for breath. Terrified of water since birth, he had never allowed himself to be this close to any body of water no matter how small. Glasses to drink and showers to wash were all he tolerated.

He tried to stand on the wet floor and slipped again, this time falling hard one hand landing in the pool.

He rolled to the side, away from the pool and then used his little flash light to look around the chamber. He would not attempt to stand again.

The chamber was large. It was so large that he couldn't see the ceiling or the walls with his weak little light. Glancing toward the pool he could not see over it or where it went, he only noted that it too stretched left and right toward the impenetrable dark.

"Surely," he thought, "the old man drinks from here, surely he knows how to get out."

As if to answer him he heard the very distant voice of the old man. "I'm afraid you are on your own Rishi, I know better than to go in that room because the old man who lived here before warned me when I accepted his first lesson. I have never been in that room. I drink water elsewhere.

"You mean I'm stuck!" shouted Rishi.

"Oh no. There is a way out."

"I have rope!" Cried Rishi.

"I have checked, it is not long enough."

"You will come and help me?" Asked Rishi. His voice echoed around the chamber and he marked how large the chamber must be to create an echo of that delay.

"I cannot help you Rishi, you found your way to the goddess and she has shown you that you must always bow when you approach her. Her ways of teaching are quite slick, wouldn't you agree?"

The old man said that last sentence in English which showed his mastery of it. Perhaps it was his native language.

Rishi took a deep breath and thought, "There must be a way out of here."

He carefully attempted to crawl toward the left side of the cave along the still and lucid pool of water.

The humid air felt good in his lungs. The hard damp stone under his hands and knees felt comforting. As he crawled toward the edge he looked for the wall. It was many minutes before he found it. The pool met the wall here, there was no way around the pool to go forward.

It was at this point that Rishi's mind began to clear. "I must conserve my flash light."

He switched it off, placed it deep within his pant's pocket and felt along the wall trying to use it to climb up the slippery slope toward the opening he had entered.

As he crawled his hiking slacks became more and more coated with the slime rubbing off the surface of the stone. Why had he not put on his caving equipment? Why had he been so rash to explore?

He got a dozen meters or so when his slimed jeans stopped being an aid and slipped out from under him. He fell flat on his stomach and slid down the slope slowly coming to a rest a few feet from the pool of water.

He flicked on his flash light and could just make out the wall he had attempted to use to escape the chamber.

Then, back up on his hands and knees, he made his way toward the right wall. It was some ten minutes before he got there. This was indeed a large cavern. The pool of water filled the rest of the cave and he could not tell how large it was.

"I should at least have put on my cleats," he grumbled under his breath.

Switching off his flash light again, he tried again to use the wall to propel him toward the entrance he had fallen through.

The floor here was not so wet and he made good progress until he go to a point which was roughly thirty meters from the pool, there his hand slipped and he tumbled down coming to rest directly next to the pool, exactly where he had first crashed.

"This is so frustrating!" Thought Rishi.

New Myth for Peace

Rishi approached the cave entrance and felt a tinge of trepidation. He had traveled a long way to come to this moment, many miles across land, many years through time, and many levels of consciousness.

Stepping through the mouth of the cave, he noticed a warm breeze blowing across his face. The air was damp and warm, not dry and cold as he had felt outside. There also was the smell of humanity, an unexpected sensation.

"Had someone else discovered the cave?" he wondered.

An old man, completely naked, walked up to him squinting his eyes slightly. "Come Come," he said in Arabic.

Rishi hesitated.

"Not Arabic," said the man in Farsi, "How about this?" he asked in Hindi.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Rishi in fluent Sanskrit, "I understood you, its just that I didn't expect anyone else to be here."

"Sumskrita!" The old man exclaimed. "That will make your lessons much easier," he said in English.

"Lessons?" said Rishi mimicking the old man as he followed him deeper into the dark cave.

"Yes. Lessons," said the old man in Sanskrit, "why else would you come to see me?"

"But I didn't know you'd be here. I've been dreaming of this cave since childhood and its taken my whole life to find it."

"Ah I see. What is your name young lad?"

"My name is Jon Rishi."

"And Rishi is how you see yourself?"

"Yes." Replied Rishi. "Yes it is."

"You are here to teach me?"

"Oh no," said Rishi, "I'm here to meditate to find a way to teach others what I know."

"Very well then, we serve the same purpose, we shall be ..." The old man's voice trailed off as they approached his small fire.

"Room mates," He concluded.

Rishi dropped the pack off his back and sat on it. It had been a long day. He uncoiled his sleeping bag and with very little hesitation fell asleep laying upon it.

When Rishi awoke, a few hours later, the old man snored from somewhere in the dark cave. Rishi didn't remember where he was at first, but slowly it dawned on him that he was in the cave of his dreams. Ironically he hadn't had any dreams during his first sleep in the cave of his dreams.

The old man snorted and stopped snoring. "You are awake," said the old man.

"Yes. What can I call you?"

"What does it matter? It is only you and I who live here."

Rishi grabbed a flash light from his bag, switched it on and proceeded farther into the cave. A smile flashed across the old man's face as he thought, "Why must we always explore?"

Almost as if he were answering the old man's thoughts, Rishi said, "I'm looking for the chamber I found in my dreams, the one with the crystals.

"Oh ho!" cried the old man, "You have good dreams. I do not know of such a chamber but should you find it I would like to meditate in it."

"The cave is exactly as in my dream," said Rishi as he walked deeper. His voice echoed his progress to the old man as the old man lay on his bed of animal skins.

Rishi smelled more moisture. The cave was warmer than the outside air. There was likely flowing water in here. He came to the conclusion that this water kept the old man alive.

Turning left at the first fork he encountered, Rishi noticed the well worn look of the floor, as if water had flowed across it for Milena. He noted the striking difference between the smooth floor and the jagged ceiling.

The rock itself was totally unremarkable, but the room Rishi sought was not. The passage he walked narrowed exactly as he remembered and he knew he walked the right way. He turned right at a tee and peered at the slope before him.

The ceiling approached the floor and he crawled through a narrow opening leading to a steep down turn of the passage. This was a bit different from his dream. Even though it was small in the dream, he didn't remember having to struggle to move through it.

"There will be a pool at the bottom of this," Rishi thought to himself.