The Book of Nothing by HJ Alden - HTML preview

Chapter 22

On the right night, at the right time, I walked to the beach. The water was as calm as I had ever seen it.The moon was shining white and blue. Dimly I saw a figure in an approaching boat. After a time I saw that figure more clearly. It was the old man I had met so long ago, singing a beautiful song that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

We sailed all night to a shore far away. There, we were met by men and women on horseback. They took me to a place among distant mountains, and I lived there and studied until it was time to return.

During our trip, the old man spoke of many things. These are the only ones that I can tell you:

“Though you have been through a great deal, it is only the beginning. You must come to a new awareness-one that contains the living names of everything on earth.”

“Though you have much more to learn, it was determined that you could not learn it on this island. For this reason I was sent to free you.”

“Every human being carries the same monster within them. In by far the greatest number of people this being is asleep. Yet even in its sleep it influences human actions indirectly, since we are naturally afraid of it and project those fears onto the people around us.”

“From time to time a person is ready to step out of the natural equilibrium that was given to them at birth, If they persist in this, the meeting you have had will eventually come to pass for them.”

“After this encounter the task is to continue to develop one’s self. In this way and this way only can we transform all that fear into a force for good.”

“Love is the reality on which all material experience is founded. The earth is the invisible made visible, in all its ferocity and beauty.”

“The monster is not the only thing hidden inside a human being. Glorious beings wait in the interior of each one of us. One of them in particular is waiting to meet you at the right time. These beings dwarf the power of the fear and pain inside us, and if we align ourselves with them, nothing can harm us, and nothing at all can stand in our way.”

The men and women we met on that far shore carried themselves in a majestic silence. I was not used to being around so many people, so I spoke only when spoken to, except when I sought out my old friend.

Occasionally one of the others would offer what they knew.

Some of what they said was so rarified I was unable to hold onto it, but a few were sufficiently understandable that I was able to remember them and I will now pass them on.

They taught me that life is a means to an end.

That love is the way, and peace the guiding star.

They spoke of the City of Sorrow as a stage on that way, one we could look back on with both delight and regret.

They said "The world of technology is a world of desperation.Yet there is absolutely no need to condemn what it has made. Rather it is important to understand the impulse."

As we talked one night, my thoughts turned to the island I had so recently left. I thought of the guard I'd had so much trouble with, and I wondered why this trouble had come, and what would happen to the one who had been so difficult for me.

Suddenly I heard thIs voice in my head:

“This guard was an old friend. He did not know he was helping you, but help you he did.” Then I saw a light shine far off in the distance. It had an authority and a presence that was unassailable, promising beauty, joy and the eternal pursuit of more and more wisdom. I looked at the old man. He put his finger to his lips and smiled, as if to say the beginning begins.