The Key (A Fairytale) - Chapter 7: A Step Above Oblivion (Part 1)

"In the moments before death," a John began, "your whole life will flash before you and you will be able to see each separate moment simultaneously, noticing where you did well and where there is room for improvement. The reason that this only takes a fraction of a moment, which is a complete review of your life, is that you will now be approaching Reality, and Reality does not have earthly time as its basis. The past and future does not exist in the same way there.

"After this review of your life, you will have various experiences, some good, some bad, but eventually you will feel extremely isolated, as death is a solitary journey. Strong thought patterns might linger for awhile, possibly materializing in the form of a wispy ghost that will want to remain near the people or places you were particularly attached to on earth. Eventually, however, you will move on to where there possibly might be a period of extremely fearful states, especially if your life was full of evil. Usually, key seekers forgo this terrifying stage, but due to your recent, past connections to the tragic wars and the blacksmith's death, I will describe this terrifying stage. Just in case.

"If you do find yourself in this troubling situation, monstrous animal-like beings will chase after you, and in desperation you will frantically seek a hole in which to hide. Do not go into a hole. You will be entering some hideous, unknown womb, or possibly a cave where you will find yourself reborn into a horrible situation, perhaps trapped in a self-made prison for eons. If you can somehow maintain your awareness through this illusion, and this is where your practice of the inner work will come in handy, there will always be a light somewhere for you to go toward instead of diving into a hole, but it takes tremendous courage to go for this light, because the light is out in the open.

"You see, for those who die while still in an evil state, darkness and hiding will always appear to be a better choice than light, but of course they will be dooming themselves. The intensities and colors of the lights will vary, depending on previous life experiences, but regardless of the color, one should always go for the whitest, brightest light, even if it appears intense and frightening."

I dozed off, mumbling that I must find my key and that I would fight with everything I had. A John gently shook me, saying that the only chance I had was to fight - harder than I had ever fought before, and reminded me that I must remain awake because sleep would put me in jeopardy. A John went outside and emptied the 'pee jar' he provided for me, then filled the water jug again, as I fought for my life.

"If you can make it to this light," he continued, "there will be choices on the other side. You will see what must be refined and improved, and you will be able to select the physical form that will best provide the circumstances to satisfy and resolve any lingering desires. This will all be accomplished outside the parameters of conventional time.

After you enter the new form, which will occur in time almost instantaneously after you die, any memory of past lives and in-between lives will completely disappear. You will be an infant, and required to learn everything anew in order to survive in your new surroundings which will usually be earth, but possibly other material spheres if earth is no longer habitable. There will be tendencies that will be your strengths and weaknesses from past existences, but you must be very sensitive and listen to your heart in order to recognize these tendencies and use them to your advantage - to insure a better rebirth next time."

My body was exhausted that first night. My leg became swollen to twice its size, and as I slipped in and out of consciousness, my mind drifted to the young maiden in the village with eyes like almonds and hair shining like black silk. She was distracting me from my quest, I knew that, but I felt so empty and alone right now as death was closing in, and I desperately needed her, if only in my mind.

Then the nightmares began. I imagined Moosawa sitting next to me.

A John's voice floated in and out the next morning, "Now is the time for you to investigate the painful feelings you have. Is the pain in your mind, in your leg, or is it an entity all to itself? Is human suffering only a concept or is it a truth to be realized? He looked at me for a moment as if what he had just said was very important. Then he remarked that I would have plenty of time to investigate these things and many others at a later date, and with great masters, if I could make it through the next two days.

"These same questions have been pondered before," a John continued. "and now I will tell you a story of the original great warriors of the mind.

". . . A long, long time ago, in a hot, dusty country very far from here, freethinking people, no different than you and I, were questioning things. They did not trust the secretive priests who at the time controlled all of the religions. These priests were nothing but pious zealots, fearing the loss of their political power and eventually associating only with rich people, ignoring anybody in a lower class. The freethinkers were so disillusioned by the cloaked hatred and deceit of these priests that they refused to believe their rhetoric any longer. The only way to find authentic truth, in the minds of these freethinkers, was to directly communicate with whatever it was that they had descended from - no different than the direct communications that had enlightened the many prophets throughout the ages.

"The freethinkers knew in their hearts that there was 'something,' but they did not know what. Therefore, similar to present day key seekers, they went into the forests and risked their lives to find the truth through their own efforts. They were determined to find this truth or die trying. It was either possible to communicate directly with this Source of all things, with Reality, or it wasn't, and they were going to find out. The religious leaders warned them that demons would overtake their minds if they dared open them, but the freethinkers simply responded that the demons only existed within the closed minds of the priests, and nowhere else."

I was trying desperately to stay awake, and I wasn't dreaming; Moosawa was actually sitting right next to me! I couldn't move, or I would have grabbed his throat and throttled him like a chicken. A John put his finger to his lips, indicating that I should remain silent, and then continued his story as if nothing was amiss.

"After spending many years in the forest, these seekers of truth began returning, and their stories were not only amazing but consistent. They declared they had found the Source of everything that exists, and where they found it was, astonishingly, nowhere but deep inside themselves.
"They described this Reality as formless, timeless, beyond space, beyond nothingness, beyond consciousness, beyond perception, beyond everything we could think of . . . and anything we could not think of. The truth seekers proclaimed that this Absolute Reality was indestructible, and indescribable, expressing itself in the myriad of forms, including us. And that we no longer needed to be terrified of annihilation. The solitary thing we must concern ourselves with is our mistaken assumption that we are somehow separate and isolated from this loving Source. We are merely a drop out of the great ocean, and when we return to that ocean, we will be all of it."

I had my eye closed again, as a John nudged me awake; aparently, he knew what he was doing with Moosawa. But regardless, I had no choice; I had to trust him, as he continued with his story.

"The original key seekers had used no methods or preconceived doctrines to make these discoveries. It was not a case of studying books, accepting beliefs or listening to teachers. The freethinkers merely sat in the forest for years, watching and quieting their minds, facing their emptiness until all the past words, teachings, misconceptions, and indoctrinations faded from memory leaving just a pure, bright, calm mind. And out of this bright mind, they claimed that the "Source," the absolute reality, surfaced from within their individual consciousnesses enabling them to make their fundamental discovery; that this Source of everything is not merely in all of us; it is all of us."

I had fallen asleep briefly, only to be gently awakened again by a John, and when I opened my eyes, I noticed Moosawa leaning against the wall barely awake himself. A John's non-stop discourse resumed .

"Any worldly thing we depend upon always becomes our blackmailer, and we pay these blackmailers in one way or the other. When we count on worldly pleasures to sustain us it is no different than eating chicken bones - beside the fact that they are not nourishing, they stick in our throats and strangle us!"

I could see that my war in the kingdoms were now my blackmailer, making this quest such an ordeal. The blacksmith, on the other hand, was a simple man, and able to do it quickly. However, I also had to agree with Ariya that without the war, I would never have been convinced that power would not provide lasting happiness. Therefore, I had no choice but to accept the long struggle ahead. I concluded that I had to be extremely careful of my actions in the future, if, in fact, I had a future. I tried desperately to stay awake.