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.