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.