The drop wept: “I am separated from the sea.” The sea laughed, saying: “It is all us.”
A Sufi verse
This revolving cosmos we revere, consciousness a spark of its light, bearer of that light is the sun, around which we whirl in awe. Omar Khayam, 11th century AD
In a not too distant future, on a high mountaintop, somewhere on earth . . .“Wow,” they all sighed as another brilliant whiteness streaked across the heavens. Not recognizing a shooting star, our tiny friends pondered whether they could ever attain such grace, power, and freedom.
“When will we be freed to join the Source?” one asked.
On an early spring evening high on a snowcapped mountain peak overlooking hundreds of others, in a world of purity and graceful solitude, our frozen friends anxiously awaited their freedom. They all knew of their source, the ocean, with its majestic vastness, calm, and might, covering most of the planet. The elders in the icecap talked about it endlessly. They said the spring warmth would soon set some of the luckier ones free to flow to the ocean, the Source. The winter seemed eternal. Frozen in suspended animation, they wondered about their destiny. They didn’t know when or how, but innately sensed that freedom and union with the Source would soon become real.
Invisible forces bound our two tiny friends, Hydrogen and Oxygen, together as long as they could remember within a frozen water molecule. They shared an existence and an insatiable desire to understand, to strive for the freedom to reach the Source.
Everyone talked of union with the mighty ocean, but they were all stuck in frozen ice-crystals atop the mountain peak, millions and millions of frozen crystals, as far as our two friends could see. Translucent ice crystal lattices extended infinitely in all directions. Some rambled on about unrelated issues, some complained, some jostled for room or cracked to relieve the weight of the millions above them. The elders watched everything in a state of quiet contemplation. Our heroes were next to such a one.
“What will happen now?” Hydrogen asked the elders.
“If you are worthy, the spring warmth will soon free you to join the Source.”
“When?” Oxygen asked.
“When it happens, you will know.”
“How will it all be?” Hydrogen asked. “And how long will it take to reach the Source?”
“The journey is long and difficult. Many obstacles lead to oblivion and decay. The path is no longer clear or safe. There was a time long ago when the world was pure, when most of us reached the Source. All that is changed now. Now danger, misery, pollution, and decay block the way. Some do not wish to follow the path anymore. We are content here in this serene mountain peak ice cap, far from the rest of the world. Perplexing beings lurk there, and some need us for nourishment. In bygone eras there was purity and harmony. The word was better, but everything has changed.”
Hydrogen and Oxygen thought about what the elders said. The journey to the Source was perilous, but the alternative—numb comfort in an isolated, frozen landscape—could never satisfy their curiosity. The risks associated with finding their destination would not deter them.
The elders moved slightly to relieve the pressure from above, making a deep screeching sound and resumed. “If you wish to undertake the journey, you must take care not to depart from the path to the Source. It is no longer simple or safe. Many perish on the way, absorbed by the forces of darkness.”
Hydrogen and Oxygen looked at each other, not in fear or doubt but with determination. They were ready to take the path, to reach the Source just as soon as the spring warmth released them.
“Wow,” they sighed again, as yet another streak of heavenly light brightened their burning aspiration.
Many more cold days and nights passed while our heroes anxiously waited and questioned the eldest about freedom and the journey to the Source. Then one day, large flocks of birds appeared from the South. They seemed to be on a mass pilgrimage to their Source. The elder noted that it was a signal. They might soon be moving. Some were enthusiastic. Some were hesitant. Others wondered whether they, like the elders, should stay put in the relative safety and isolation of their familiar surroundings.
“Why bother,” one elder asked, “when we could face much hardship and misery or risk rotting in some dirty cesspool of worldly decay? It may be boring here, but at least we are safely isolated.”
Not our two friends. They looked bravely at each other. Without talking, they gazed anxiously up at the sky, where they sensed a warming sensation, the bright sunlight’s heat.
Some time later they noticed that they were near the top layers of their icebound world. Those above them had been leaving slowly. Would they also be worthy?
“It will be soon now.” the elders told our eager friends from below.
With the upper layers of ice now melting, our tiny heroes felt the sun’s intense, blanketing warmth increasing above them. Slowly, the heat loosened the ice crystal that held them. Among the commotion, they began to experience a freer state and movement. They bid goodbye to the elders, still advising them nervously to be careful along the way. First slowly, then more rapidly they flowed freely to join others sliding over other still-frozen ice crystals. They heard those left beneath shouting encouragement, concern, or caution. At last, their journey was under way.
Our excited friends were part of a tiny stream of ice-cold water flowing down the mountain. They gained speed and strength as they frequently merged with others. Soon they joined a foaming mountain stream, screaming excitedly as it tumbled down the rocky slopes to merge with a mighty, roaring river. They had never seen such a thing before. Others told our friends that the mighty flow was indeed headed toward the Source, the ocean.
An overwhelming power poured from everyone’s collective determination to attain the same goal. They moved rocks and cut through or bypassed mightier obstacles. With every obstruction removed, every challenge overcome, they felt stronger than the solid, idle, purposeless lumps of mass they pushed out of their way. A clear purpose drove them forward, whereas the obstructions sat idly, doing nothing. The growing torrent of water was unstoppable. Surely, reaching the Source was just a matter of time.
Soon they approached lowland plains covered by an endless mosaic of inhabited human villages and their feeble looking farms and livestock. Beyond the riverside settlements, the arid flat land spread in every direction as far as they could see. Out there, humans and animals huddled around the river for survival. The scene was increasingly dreadful, the earth scorched, the trees dead, the half-dead farm animals staggering aimlessly.
Here and there in the distance, monstrous factory chimneys spewed filthy clouds of black smoke. Rusted, broken pipes poured stinking toxic sludge and sewage into the pristine river. Nasty insects covered the surface of stagnant cesspools at the river’s edge.
Farms nursed malnourished, chemically infested plants, struggling in the parched, exhausted soil. Sickness, famine, poverty, destruction, and decay filled a world of desperate life forms clinging to survival. Amid unrelieved blight, nothing seemed sacred, neither life, nature, harmony—nor death.
“Perhaps, the elders were right,” someone said. “Maybe we should have stayed in isolated comfort.”
“But why don’t these creatures search for their source?” our two friends asked aloud. “Why do they stagnate in such decay and disillusionment?”
Everyone had questions, but no answers.
Another colleague in the river answered loudly, “Do not trouble yourselves with these hopeless entities. Why should you care at all? Once we reach the mighty ocean, such pathetic misery will not concern us.”
Our two tiny friends began to understand that the outside world held many unknowns. Why was there misery there and not at the Source? Why so much confusion, misery, and darkness here, yet tranquility there? Why the difference? They wondered and stared at their surroundings. If the ocean showed them neither the problem nor the answer, might there not be a higher wisdom elsewhere? But what? And where? The questions reinforced their yearning for comprehension, but they lingered in confusion much longer, as the river roared past one bleak landscape after another.
Speeding past another obstacle, our friends spotted a devastated human settlement by the river. The human occupants appeared destitute and hungry, since their crops had failed from disease. The adults were gone on a desperate search for another day’s sustenance rations. The elders were too weak and the children too malnourished and inexperienced to affect their hopeless destiny. Slime, insects, and the stench of decay and death covered a drying puddle of water in the village reservoir. In the midst of their hopelessness, the inhabitants crouched about, quietly enduring. Under the shadow of a dead olive tree, our two friends spotted a young girl and her infant brother, sheltered from the sun’s punishing rays. The girl wept quietly, while her infant brother licked the teardrops from her face in consolation, or maybe just thirst.
“We should help. They are thirsty and dying,” our friends cried.
The river roared that petty feelings and concerns were insignificant, a waste of time, no concern for superior beings like them. Not service to miserable barbarians, but the ocean’s grandeur was their rightful destiny. Why bother with obviously inferior creatures?
Despite the objections, at the first bend, our two heroes—Hydrogen and Oxygen—and some other compassionate ones left the mighty river as a little stream and headed toward the destitute children. They were anxious, but they were intuitively convinced that the harmony and wisdom associated with the Source would not condone insensitivity and indifference.
Nervously, quietly, our friends approached the crying children. As the sparkling stream reached them, the girl joyfully dragged her exhausted little body toward it, filled her dirty hands with the fresh water and carried it to her brother’s mouth and then her own.
Before they knew it, the stream carried our friends past the village. Pulled by gravity, they fell into a dry ravine, flowing farther and farther from the river that grew a distant dream. As they beheld the nightmare before them, they trembled with fear. None had ever imagined, or been warned about such an arid place. Perhaps none of the elders had ever seen such a thing. Before them as far as they could see spread a desolate desert. They saw no icecaps, rivers, streams, trees, or even sickly life forms, nothing but scorched sand drifting along. The occasional dry tumbleweed rolled about like a condemned ghost seeking redemption in a hellish realm.
“There is certainly no ocean out there,” one said hopelessly.
“See what a mess you got us into,” yelled another who had followed our friends away from the river.
The fearful commotion followed them as they descended farther and farther until finally they settled into a cavity in the desert floor. Unable to move or turn back, they were completely stuck.
“Now we’re really done for. We’re all going to rot into oblivion, just as the elders warned,” one cried.
“This certainly cannot be the reward for compassion,” Oxygen whispered to Hydrogen. “I wonder if we will ever see the Source.”
At that bleak moment they heard a firm, calm voice from below. “What source are you talking about?”
They looked down among the grains of sand at the bottom of the pond they formed, and saw a resilient, shiny being staring back at them.
“I am Silicone,” the voice continued.
“How long have you been stuck out here?” Oxygen asked.
“The winds brought me here and deposited me a very long time ago, but I have not always been here. Originally, long ago, I was part of an important ancient place. I learned a lot there.”
“Have you ever seen the Source?” Hydrogen asked. “Is the ocean as beautiful as they say?”
Silicone smiled. “Yes, indeed, the ocean is very beautiful. But why do you call it the Source?”
“Because that is where everything came from,” someone said. “It is the source of all.”
Silicone laughed loudly. “Forgive me, my inexperienced friends. The way some mistake perception for reality always amuses me.”
“What do you mean?” another asked.
“Let me introduce myself. I was not always part of an insignificant piece of sand. About thirteen thousand years ago I was part of an important crystal. As a quartz crystal, we stored information. Magnificent lights and energy beams shone through us. We could learn and memorize the myriads of information the beams transmitted. I was embedded in one such crystal in the Great Library.”
Everyone waited in silence, as Silicone gazed at the distant horizon a while. “You see, the true Source is really the source of all creation, of everything that exists. The ocean is part of it, but there is much more to it than that. The Source is a complex concept. You wouldn’t understand. I certainly never have.”
“What is the Source then, and where can we find it?” Oxygen asked enthusiastically.
“Why do you want to find it? Do you have any idea what a proposition that is? In my lifetime of many millennia, I have witnessed events, people, and much misfortune. No one understands or cares anymore. Look at the mess around you. Do you think you can make a difference? What do you seek? What gave you the idea you can find the Source? Even if you’re lucky and worthy, will you recognize or understand the Source if you find it?”
The sun disappeared below the western horizon, like a wounded and dying god surrendering Earth to the forces of darkness. Yet countless stars and the crescent moon’s light illuminated our friends’ bleak surroundings, hinting that even in absolute darkness, light still glimmers.
A breeze spread the desert sand around gently. The stars’ reflection on the surface of the little pond looked like fluttering white lace. The crescent moon could have been a wavering mirage of a faltering horned god.
“If,” Hydrogen picked up the train of though, “as you learned in that library, the Source is the origin of all creation, then it must have all the answers. Perhaps a way to improve the world.”
“Here we go again. Haven’t you done enough damage?” some others moaned. “It was your dreamy ideals got us into this puddle of death.”
“Death is just awakening.” Silicone announced to the puzzled crowd. “I learned that. You’ll see. Be patient.
“As for you two eager ones, let me explain. I do not know what or where the source of all creation is, but I learned that it is the highest truth, the embodiment of the greatest wisdom—all-encompassing, complete, eternal—and not easily perceived by just anyone.”
“But, we will not be just anyone. We will earn that privilege, no matter what it takes.”
“Do you know where to find the Source?” Oxygen mused.
“No,” Silicone replied, “that is beyond my knowledge. When I was part of the Great Library, I heard a rumor of an ancient place where the answer can be found, a place called the Chamber of Destiny that supposedly guards The Universal Sign. Yes, I believe that’s what they were called. I remember hearing about them from the elders in the library, who had been there much longer than I was. I believe the Universal Sign encoded some mysterious secret that reveals the Source of all creation.”
Everyone roared with laughter at the naïve question, all except Silicone. “My eager friends…that library is long gone. The great flood that wiped out everything on the planet over 12,500 years ago destroyed it. For millennia before that, the earth was quite different. Where we see deserts, lush forests grew, while thick layers of ice and glaciers covered other places. Then something changed everything. Gigantic quantities of ice began to thaw. The seas rose slowly at first, then suddenly and catastrophically during immense floods that destroyed much of what existed on the face of the earth. Nearly all life was wiped out. Entire civilizations disappeared from history. By the time it was all over, the oceans had risen substantially. I wonder if the remains of some of those lost civilizations are still there on the sunken coasts? The floods destroyed everything before them, including my library. All of us who were its crystal homeless vagabonds. washed around, ground down, and spread all over the planet. When at last I was on land as a part of this grain of sand, the winds blew me about and deposited me here in this desert. All information about the Chamber of Destiny and the Universal Sign was lost, along with other ancient knowledge in the library, lost forever. databanks have since become Over the millennia, we were Since then, the world has been like an orphan, growing up alone, lost, and disillusioned.
“Yet there may be a way.” Silicone murmured after a long pensive pause. “If we could go back in time, long ago before the great floods and visit the Great Library’s crystal archives, we could find the exact location of the Chamber of Destiny and reveal the secret of the Universal Sign.”
“While you have gone back in time, could you please drop us back into the river?” Everyone burst into laughter at this cynical comment.
“What do you mean, going back in time?”Hydrogen asked. “How could that be possible?” “The universe comprises many dimensions. We
perceive only the physical dimensions, but there are
many more, invisible to three-dimensional physical
earthlings. There are other dimensions on earth, and
different types of powerful energy fields that cannot be
readily detected. I cannot give you an easy explanation.
What I reveal to you is information that passed through
me when I was part of the library’s crystal databanks.
You see, the higher dimensional energy fields cross each
other at specific places on earth, often amplifying each
other and rarely creating time-space vortices. I once
came across a map of such energy fields. When they
intersect, they designate areas on earth where powerful
events regularly take place—like earthquakes,
electromagnetic anomalies, volcanoes, shifting magnetic
fields, and so on. I recall the location of one such place,
not so far from here. It is high in the caves and
subterranean tunnels of the Andes Mountains. One
special cave is where many earthly energy fields
intersect. Within it lies a rare time-space vortex, a portal,
and a sort of a gateway to multidimensional time-space
coordinates. If my memory serves, the portal somehow
transports objects across multidimensional pathways and into other perceived time-space coordinates. You see, within the physical realm, beings like us can perceive only three-dimensional space. And time, of course. Time is a one-directional variable, moving in one direction at a constant speed. We can move through space, but we cannot control the direction and pace of time. But multidimensional pathways can arbitrarily change the relative positions of time and space. As physical entities, we cannot understand that, yet it might be the only way. If we could get to the Andes portal cave and transport back to the time before the flood, find the Great Library archives and the Chamber of Destiny, then maybe we can learn about the Universal Sign. Wow, that’s a
challenging adventure!”
“We’re ready to go,” Hydrogen and Oxygen
announced.
Everyone laughed again. “We can’t even get out
of this rotting puddle you got us into. And now you want
to go back in time to find some long-gone sign to unlock
the secrets of existence and the universe?”
Some time later, through the pond’s surface they
saw the reddish desert dawn sky, the morning sunlight
illuminating the desolate landscape once more. They
saw nothing but sand, rock, the rolling tumbleweed, and
no other body of water. The night of wild imagining and
dreamy conversations gave way to renewed awareness
of their hopeless situation. Would they whither away out
there without ever seeing the ocean or even the old
roaring river?
Yet Silicone managed a smile. “There is much
about creation we don’t understand. There may be hope
for you yet, my friends. Just be patient and have faith in
the wisdom of the universe.”
No one responded until Oxygen and Hydrogen
whispered to Silicone. “We want to find the Source and
all its wisdom. That’s all we have wanted since we were stuck in the mountain. If we ever get out of here, we
pledge to dedicate our existence to the cause.” “I knew you would say that,” Silicone said, “but
I warn you. The journey will be arduous.”
“If that is our destiny, so be it.”
“Very well then,” Silicone said. “I’m getting
bored around here. Why not? I’ll come along. Plus,
you’re going to need my knowledge of the past.” “Now,” Oxygen concluded, “we need to figure
out how to get to that Andean mountain cave.” Their enthusiasm reassured Silicone. Just then,
the sun’s heavenly rays pierced the gloom and cast their
intense light and warm embrace onto the pond. Before
they knew what was happening, the sun’s warming
caress brought them to a state of exalted levitation.
Freed and weightless, the vaporized water particles
floated upward into the vast blue skies.
“Magic. Miracle.” They rejoiced, as they
departed skyward.
Before Hydrogen and Oxygen rose to leave the
pond, they embraced Silicone. Together they floated
upward, as the sun’s rays and the force of the wind
carried them up, forward, and away at great speed. They
soon joined small patches of cloud and sailed forth with
them. None uttered a word. All the while, Silicone
monitored the geography of the land passing below
them.
And then there it was, far below. They spotted
the river in the distance, just as they left it. It roared
along arrogantly, pushing rocks about and rounding
obstacles, ceaselessly twisting its way toward the ocean.
Joy, then silent awe overtook them, because still farther
the outline of the ocean appeared on the distant horizon,
a blue boundary to another worldly dimension. It was
more beautiful, more serene, and grander than they
imagined.
Finally everyone finally understood: they had
never been lost or hopeless. They were only
experiencing another dimension of their existence within
the universe, a realization others in the river might never
perceive. Unlike when they were in the river, they no
longer felt themselves superior. They felt humbler and
wiser, possessed of a deeper sense of connection with
the rest of creation. Perhaps they were one step closer to
the Source of all creation.
The others looked at our three friends as they smiled and waved goodbye. Then, gathering together as drops of rain, they fell towards the roaring waves of the great blue ocean.
For all others the journey had ended. The roaring winds propelled the three heroes of our continuing story along their starting voyage.