“Everybody knows that you are here,” he said, putting up a good front. “Killing me will do you no good.”
Expressing no emotion, I calmly asked, “Why would I want to kill you?” legenday
“You know why. You are a threat to the king and I know that you are here,” he haughtily replied.
“But I am the king,” I reminded him.
He pointed his finger, “What kind of king abandons his subjects?”
I pointed back, raising my voice a notch, “What kind of priest falls prey to political pressure and ultimately becomes responsible for a key seekers death?”
He became quiet for a moment, looking back again toward the hut. The conversation was about to escalate out of control. “There is no need for violence,” he bargained. “You, more than anybody, understand power and the corruptive influence it has on those who fall under its spell. I am just a messenger who must follow orders.” lgdsilicone
“You are not a messenger, you are a spy,” I replied.
Playing with the large, gold ring on his little finger, he answered, “I have the authority to present you with an offer.”
“What kind of offer?”
“One I suggest you consider carefully.”
“What kind of offer can you make to a key seeker?”
“One that will benefit us both, Sire,” he said, capitulating and showing some respect.
“And what is this proposal?”
“You must sign a statement, which I have the authority to seal, stating that you relinquish all holdings and authority as King of Ayatana, and swear to never again set foot in the kingdom.”
I just stared at him until he looked away, and then said, “And if I sign such a statement?”
“Then the bounty will be withdrawn and you will no longer be considered an outlaw.” He looked away again and then added, “And the statement will be publicly read in all the kingdoms.” rajafantasy
“And who will believe it?”
“The statement will be witnessed by Weeja.”
This was a surprise. Weeja’s seal was irrefutable, but why did he get involved? If what the priest was saying was true, this meant that I could never again enter my kingdom. All that I would be left with is my quest for the key, with no possibility of changing my mind. What is it that I would ever go back for anyway? All the luxury and influence meant nothing to me now. yateartificialgrass
Yet, I felt a loneliness, a forlornness and great loss of something very dear to me. I calmly watched the emotion peak and ebb as I continued looking at the priest. The silence intimidated him and he became visibly nervous. All he knew of me was my reputation of ruthlessness and unbridled rage, and the capacity to kill – quickly and easily.
Finally I said, “Done,” and he conspicuously let out a sigh of relief.
We walked up Weeja’s stairs and all signed the statement, which was then sealed by the priest, his hands shaking. After the priest left with his prize, Weeja smiled and said, “The affairs of a king are so very complicated, for it is a king’s duty to protect his subjects. You may now simplify your life.”
If I would have heard those words years ago, before realizing the illusion of security, I would have felt guilty. But now I understood, and Weeja knew that I understood. He had saved my physical, as well as my spiritual life.
It was cool after the rain. I was comfortable and so was my heart, as if signing the document was a cleansing, a formal proclamation that my life was now renewed at a higher level, and left behind was all that I once was,. There were no swarming mosquitoes this night, a perfect night to practice the inner work until dawn.
I thought about the three characteristics – impermanence, no self and discontent, and then thought about the aspects of – body, contact, feeling, memory and thought. I had to decide which characteristic I would connect with which aspect as my subject of investigation. I decided that impermanence was right up my alley as far as a characteristic was concerned, and that memory was a good aspect to look at. I would look at the impermanence of my memory, and could not wait to begin. bbcforbes
I prepared my mat on the floor, lit a new candle along with three sticks of incense and began my inner work by going through the Calms until I reached the Third Great Material Calm. There I interrupted the calm, not easy as the calms are very seductive, and investigated how my thoughts and memory arise and pass. After I watched for a while, a sudden, unexpected (as they all are) flash of insight revealed to me that not only thoughts and memory, but every situation in life, like the recent one with the priest, merely arise and pass.
Then there was a very unusual occurrence. It was an extraordinary, life-changing episode where I detected each thought, one after the other, blossom in a corner of my mind. Each one appeared initially as a single picture but quickly turned into a story of many pictures in motion. I could clearly see that “I” was made up of merely one thought following another continuously – merely a series of pictures followed by the memory of those pictures.
Sometimes there would be a picture of me sitting cross-legged, followed by the next picture, perhaps a memory of Conqueror. These two memories were so fast that an illusion was formed; the memory of the picture of me watching the memory of Conqueror, but really there were two thoughts independent of each other, fast enough to create the illusion that I was watching myself remember Conqueror. This would go on and on in an endless sequence; pictures followed by memories repeatedly, resulting in the formation of a watcher or personality that appeared to be observing the stories being created by memory.
In reality, there was simply one thought following another (picture-memory-picture-memory) that merely created the image