Your soul is bound for the sky, your corpse is beneath the ground . . .You shall go up to the sky . . .You shall ascend to those who are above the earth . . . For your wings are those of a falcon, your gleam is that of a star.
Ancient Egyptian Book Of The Dead
A Chakra is a node, a vortex of energy at the conjunction point of the spirit and the body; a transition of the spiritual life-force from the higher dimensions into the four dimensional world.
Ancient Tibetan manuscript of unknown date and origin
“ We are back again, and I feel no closer to our destination.” Nitrogen said to the others, once again gathered outside the cave and engaged in several simultaneous discussions.
“Maybe, that’s the nature of the quest for enlightenment,” Hydrogen suggested.
“We are destined for complex discoveries, until we reach our destination,” Silicone added. “The journey to the Sign will not be straightforward. We must understand every bit of knowledge we find.”
Lead took the opportunity to question Silicone. “Before we came back, you said that some of the military religious Orders, such as the Portuguese Order of Christ, became the earliest multi-national corporations, but before the crusades, Europe were technologically inferior to Asia. How did they do it?”
“During the two centuries they fought, the warring nations learned much from each other. Once Europeans understood and adopted gunpowder, combining its powers with their superior naval skills, they stopped the Ottomans’ western advance. The Asian conquerors were not naval powers. Guns, big ships, scientific and navigational advances, maps and compasses, and the desire to conquer the world bore Europe’s colonial era, just as Saladin and Richard foresaw and Pizarro described.”
“What happened to the military orders’ vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience?”
“At least they stuck to obedience,” Silicone said, “a secret oath of obedience to their goal—to control the world’s riches.”
“Why,” Gold asked, “did some orders adopt the ‘5’ or skull symbols?”
“I can’t say,” Silicone answered, “but whatever they represent, the ancient world understood. They used them often in religious and spiritual art, but the meaning has been forgotten or lost.”
“But why did the church go after the Templars and not the others, like the Hospitallers?” Hydrogen asked.
“Perhaps unearthed some suggested.
“Maybe,” Calcium said, “what they discovered threatened Rome’s religious and political monopoly.”
Oxygen had another topic in mind. “Why was ancient Europe so isolated?”
“Before the polar shift, most of northwestern Europe was under miles of ice, and the rest of Europe was cold, dry, and inhospitable. Northern Europe became habitable only after the pole shift melted the ice. When the north Asian migrants met other Asians in the south, they merged culturally and racially. But, those that reached northern Europe found an uninhabited land of ice, melt water swamps, or dense forests. They preserved some of their languages, myths, and they threatened the Church? Or secret ancient knowledge.” Silicone traditions, but their descendants were isolated for millennia until new immigrants from Asia and the Romans brought them back in contact with the rest of the world about two thousand years ago. The only European ice-age civilizations were far to the south, in the Mediterranean peninsulas and islands like Malta, Iberia, and Sicily. The islands were larger and connected to each other and the continent, since the seas were lower. They left megalithic temple ruins and cave paintings.
“If northern Asia was as temperate as modern Europe before the pole shift, then southern Europe must have been like the fringes of modern Siberia. Europe could not have supported a large population, but northern Asia could have. No wonder so many ancient civilizations and monuments are in Asia.”
“During all those catastrophes, did the ‘gods’ help people? If so, which one? The one symbolized by the serpent or the bird of prey? The ‘+’ or ‘5’ gods?”
Hydrogen’s question brought on a silence just as a shower of comets streaked the clear night sky. They all thought of the same thing. For even Hydrogen and Oxygen, the event had new meaning. The shooting stars reminded them of what people saw that fateful day seventeen thousand years ago. When following glowing lights and violent storms, the sky tumbled and heaven streaked across the sky. They realized how that event affected history.
“I wonder what happened to my beloved library?” Silicone whispered.
Later they gathered near the awaiting the rising sun and departure unknown realm. Once again they cast themselves into the sparks, hues, and halos of strange light.
Moments later, they found themselves in a forested meadow of lush vegetation and centuries old Transportal, for another trees. Jagged snow-capped mountains stretched towards the purple horizon. A stream of pure water gurgled past them. Countless birds sang enthusiastically, as bees and butterflies waltzed to their enchanting tunes.
“If I were the Creator,” Helium said, “I would certainly hang around here.”
The perfect harmony of light, color, and movement, mesmerized them. “Everything is so perfectly in order, nothing out of place,” Silicone said.
Nitrogen spotted something. “Except that man over there.”
A couple of hundred meters away, an old willow tree bowed gracefully, spreading its arms to shelter a lone man’s slim body. He sat motionless, cross-legged, eyes closed. A contented smile contradicted his ragged condition. He wore old stitched clothes and no shoes. Meticulously clean, his long hair and beard and thin figure attested to arduous asceticism.
“What is he up to?” Lead whispered.
“I think he’s meditating,” Silicone said.
“What’s that?” Iron wondered.
“A state of quiet contemplation aimed at hidden truths unseen by the senses. Call it a sort of extrasensory perceptive awakening.” The voice answered from a white crystal rock, lying on a sun-bleached, wrinkled khaki cloth, along with a piece of dried flat bread and a water-filled clay bowl. “I am Sodium, and this is my friend Chlorine.”
“Two of the most abundant earthlings,” Silicone intoned, “individually poisonous, but together as salt, essential to all life. We’re glad to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“Who is this man?”
“His visitors call him Siddhartha. We have wandered around these mountains since his friend brought us here. He spends his time thinking and meditating. He rarely eats and then only the fruits and vegetables visitors give him.”
“Now I remember,” Silicone said. “He will be known as Buddha, the one who attained Buddha-hood. He will inspire the faith of billions, his wisdom and influence transcending culture and time. A person of privilege, he rejected comfort to seek enlightenment in solitude and austerity.”
“How so?” Hydrogen asked excitedly.
“His father Suddhodana, ruled the Shakya tribe in the southern Himalayas,” Sodium replied. “According to legend, at his birth a seer predicted he would be either a king or a teacher. His father tried to raise him to be king. He had everything. At sixteen he married Yasodhara and lived with her and his other concubines for thirteen years. But then, he encountered life’s harsh realities.”
Our explained. Siddhartha. One day he met a decrepit old man. Then he saw a sick person. Finally he saw a corpse in a funeral procession. He’d never seen such things. When he met an ascetic, the man’s inner strength, tranquility, and detachment from comforts awakened Siddhartha. He renounced life’s comfort and followed the ascetic’s path for six years. He studied with scholars in many places. Then came the period some call the Dawn of Truth. In time, Siddhartha gained an understanding of his past lives and the perception of human souls disappearing and reappearing in the worldly realm, people trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, depending on their deeds. He called it the cycle of karma and reincarnation.”
“What are they?” our friends asked.
“Karma is related to the way people live in harmony with others, the world, and nature. A soul’s friends wanted to know more. Sodium “What I will tell you I learned from karma influences its rebirth or reincarnation.”
“So,” Silver noted, “human spirits are reborn into earthly life, and do not ascend to the heavenly abodes of the gods?”
“The true nature, origin, and destiny of the human soul/spirit/Ka are mysteries. Let me tell you something else Siddhartha observed that is closely related to our quest. He had visions of the dissolution and evolution of many world cycles, something many ancient myths deal with.”
Siddhartha sat motionless, though he seemed to smile more visibly.
“Buddha used his new understandings to find ways to stop the corruption of the soul. Legend has it that after thirty-five years he reached enlightenment or awakening—Buddhahood. Then people called him Buddha. Anyone who aspires to Buddhahood undergoes, as Siddhartha did, the Bodhisattva, a time of intense exercise to develop generosity, discipline, renunciation, wisdom, benevolence, and perfect equanimity. Buddha taught the purest love and profoundest wisdom. He emphasized the search for the Highest Truth.”
“You mentioned that when we first met,” Hydrogen said. “What is the Highest Truth?”
“I cannot say with any certainty,” Silicone admitted, “but they say Buddha understood the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Here is how he described it:
Ignorance results in moral and immoral
consciousness conditioning activities.
Consciousness results in mind and matter.
Mind and matter result in the senses.
Senses result in contact.
Contact results in feeling.
Feeling results in desire and craving.
Desire and craving result in grasping.
Grasping results in becoming.
Becoming results in birth.
Birth results in decay, death, sorrow, pain, despair, and ignorance.
In other words, ignorance fuels humanity’s endless cycle of birth and rebirth.”
“That explains all the human suffering, pollution, chaos, and over-population we know all too well.”
“Buddha was onto something all right!” Helium burbled.
“Buddha” Silicone droned on, “understood the Four Noble Truths, which explain that first, the human condition is steeped in suffering, and its life estranged from reality. Second, humanity’s delusion, anxiety, and suffering arise from their indulgence of insatiable and illusory desires that separate them from each other, life, and reality—and the Source. Third, suffering will end only when humans suppress, overcome, and master false desires and reach a state of detachment, indifference to the world’s luxuries. Fourth, salvation comes from following the Eightfold Path of Right Knowledge, Right Aspirations, Right Speech (truthfulness), Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and finally Right Contemplation. Those truths are revealed to those who follow the path, thereby reaching toward Nirvana. Scholars have noted that the earliest, purest Buddhism was not a system of psychological and ethical guidance for life.”
“Buddha certainly tells his disciples that they should believe nothing before it’s been thoroughly pondered, digested, and tested, not even his own teachings. He always stresses the importance of intellect and reason.” Chlorine spoke from experience.
“Buddha’s insistence on individual thinking and religion but a discipline and initiative influenced Buddhism. Monasteries were widespread, decentralized, and relatively independent. Scholars formed many independent schools. Except for regional Buddhist societies, there is no supranational, centralized, authoritative establishment, unlike the case with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Those religions discourage Buddhism evolutionary approach to spirituality.”
Observing its colleagues’ ‘utopian’ expressions, Silicone Buddhist wielded much influence, and meddled in the political systems of many nations and communities. One cannot deny that elitism and corruption did not exist amongst such institutions.”
Just then Hydrogen noticed an expression of irritation on Buddha’s face. He no longer smiled.
“Through many a birth in existence wandered I, seeking, but not finding, the builder of this house,” an unfamiliar voice announced.
Our friends looked around to see who was saying words that described their mission, their reason for being there. But they saw no one except Buddha, his eyes open and looking at them. Our friends looked behind them to see what attracted Siddhartha. Seeing nothing, they turned back to Buddha, still staring with the same probing intensity. “Yes, my tiny guests, it is you!”
Hydrogen spoke first. “Forgive us for disturbing your peace, Your Highness. We did not realize you could hear us. Frankly, this has never happened. No human ever noticed us before.”
Buddha smiled. “First, do not call me Highness. Like you, I am a humble seeker of the Highest Truth. I have heard all you said since you came.”
deviation from encourages a established doctrine, but diverse, dynamic, and
Carbon stammered.
“There are many ways of understanding and
communicating with the universe. Perhaps language is
compromising and inefficient. We all hold the universal
essence of truth within us. We must tap into the stream
of consciousness, much like we feel the wind, river
currents, or the energy in nature. Often physically
handicapped people are forced to enhance their
extrasensory ability. In the last few years I have learned
nature’s hidden rhythms and language. Once I was able
to feel and help a wounded animal. I was amazed when
the other species behaved as if they knew it. That is how
I communicate with you.”
Sensing our friends’ intimidation, Siddhartha
continued. “I heard about your
experiences intrigue me. You are
journeys. Your strange, special
earthlings, whom I am privileged to meet.”
Hydrogen went first. “Sir, what is the Highest
Truth?”
Buddha laughed. “The honest answer is that I’m
not quite sure. What your friend referred to earlier is a
state of understanding I have yet to attain. Here and
now, I believe the Highest Truth is the true nature of
existence of all things, present and absent, visible or
invisible, sensed or not. The true nature of all and the
way all things relate to everything else. The beginning
of what existed before and the end destiny of all things,
and what lies beyond. The very purpose of the pulsating
universal consciousness. The heartbeat of life as we see
it. The origin and destiny of all.”
Our friends listened hypnotically. Only
Hydrogen whispered, “The Source.”
“You can call it that. Frankly, I like that. I think
we all seek the same answers. Most entities in the
universe do not thirst for them. They simply exist, floating along aimlessly. The few who seek enlightenment often fail. Only a few are sufficiently dedicated to perceive the Highest Truth. I certainly hope we are among them. Therefore The Highest Truth can also be understood as understanding one’s connection
with all creation—or the Source, as you call it.” “So seeking the Highest Truth leads to the
Creator Source.” Oxygen concluded.
Gold addressed the great sage. “Sir, we have all
seen great human suffering in different times and places
in the world.”
“The disharmony between humanity and the rest
of the earth is devastating the world,” Nitrogen added. Gold took up the theme. “Your Four Noble
Truths address the causes of human misery. Can you
explain why humans are the only species/entity on the
planet that suffers from disharmony?”
“My friends” Buddha said, “the simplest way to
talk about such things is to describe basic principles.
Everything, whether we perceive it or not, is composed
of the true essence of reality, the Source. How and in
what context I cannot yet explain, since I lack scientific
understanding of the complex universal fabric. All
creation is in some way derived from the Source. Most
things relate to the connection intuitively. A stone
tumbles, turns, and erodes in a water torrent. As summer
becomes winter, the trees part with their leaves. Birds
migrate all year to find hospitable climates. Flowers
ceaselessly follow the sun. All animals and plants are
inherently harmonious
universe.”
“Like electrical
universal electricity grid,” Silicone added.
“Humans alone seem to be disconnected. No
other species has evolved to such an unnatural state of
existence. Humans are born, live, get sick, grow weak, and connected with their
appliances connected to a and decay, nothing but experiences. They have compassion, love, and kindness, and yet they commit the most dreadful deeds against themselves and everything around them.”
Buddha paused, gathered his fluttering hair, and gazed at the invisible wind, as if welcoming a favored visitor. “I do not understand the causes of human disharmony, but I thing the causes are historic. Anyhow, universal harmony is revealed only to those who let go of self-centered delusions like greed, hate, selfadmiration, egoism, and so on. Selfless living lets us rediscover our universal connection, an eternal true love. Recognizing our ignorance, cleansing our minds, and reconnecting the soul with the universe is something only a few attempt and fewer achieve. Nirvana is not easily reached. Leaving my family and the luxuries of my youth was hard. But I know no other way. Otherwise, I would not be truly alive, but a physically functioning yet spiritually dysfunctional organic mechanism.”
“I have learned, Siddhartha,” Silicone said, “that you believe everything is transitory and impermanent. Most ancient traditions believed the immortal human soul is resurrected to reach some heavenly place. What about that?”
“Many ancient traditions deal with the duality of human nature: a physical body, and a spirit/Ka/Chi. Others describe an ordeal between the opposing universal forces of good and evil, positive and negative, or matter and energy. Those universal contrasts exist, but I believe that good and evil are different manifestations of the same creation. The essence of the universe is the source of both, yet beyond the nature of both. Good and evil are both parts of the created and perceived universe on opposite ends of the same a collection the universal of incoherent
qualities of spectrum of consciousness. Similarly, both matter and energy are transitional illusory forms of a much higher state of consciousness, the Godhead or the Source of all creation. Nobody really knows. Perhaps, science will explain the exact nature of the universe one day.”
“Do you discount humanity’s hope of a life after death?”
“Not at all. In fact, that is what we should all strive for. I believe there is no better place after life, no heavenly abode of the gods or God, no paradise. It is here. Both heaven and hell are here and now. Humans themselves are responsible for where their consciousness resides. Heaven or hell manifests from our present interactions with the world. Do you understand? They define our choice, not in some future but right here and now. We should strive to reach a higher level of consciousness. Spiritual life is a continuous journey that transcends mortal life. It does not start with birth or end with death. In one shape or another, we exist in eternity. My disagreement is not with the humans' belief in immortal spiritual existence, or the soul if you wish, but humans’ distorted understanding of it. I believe that we manifest in this miserable material existence to study and learn. Learn to comprehend the realities of the universe, to raise our consciousness level. Raise our consciousness level, so that we can manifest in a higher dimensional realm of existence. As long as we do not achieve that higher state of consciousness, we can only return into a material existence. Stuck right down here in our own entrapped tombs. That is the true nature of the four dimensional human existence.”
Buddha seemed disturbed. “It remains a mystery to me how a shadowy web of corruption, manipulation, and exploitation controls this world and its occupants, who misunderstand or misrepresent the sacred message of the Highest Truth. Maybe one day you time travelers will understand.”
“Are you a re-visitor of the sacred message?” Hydrogen bluntly inquired.
Buddha’s eyes lit up. “I hope so my friend. I sincerely hope I am worthy. I teach my friends to remain detached from unnecessary comforts and possessions, from rigidity and dogma. I hope my message does not become another distorted religion.”
“Sir,” Calcium interrupted, “you said something about human perception of a four dimensional reality. What did you mean by that?”
“Everything appears dimensions—three-dimensional move about in space, and experience linear forwardmoving time. We are confined within that realm. We have developed mathematical ways to analyze our fourdimensional conscious prison. I believe dreams and imagination let us perceive the universe in other ways. To move unhindered in the space-time continuum we often call hallucination. I have tried to escape those limitations. I freed my consciousness from my body in a controlled dream state. I transcended the boundaries of space. Then I began to leap in time. I saw my own childhood and other past events. Then I began to see past worlds. History unfolded before me. Mystics call this soul-traveling.”
Buddha paused, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sat still without exhaling. Then he exhaled, and continued. “I want to tell you something that I do not quite understand, because I am not sure if I am hallucinating or having a real experience. Often people have nearly fatal accidents. They often recount similar experiences—floating in space, watching their motionless bodies, reviewing their lives in a flash, passing through tunnels of light, rising above Earth, and in four universal space and time. We seeing and entering light spheres and astral planes, being greeted by their deceased relatives, instructing guardians, and so on.”
Buddha paused for a moment. “I believe I have experienced the higher dimensions of this planet. Several times, while in a deep meditative state. I lost consciousness of who I was and where and when. At that point, I could see the world from above. Our world was like a beautiful giant ball of blue, white, brown, beige, and green. On a few occasions something unexplainable happened. For a few moments, I saw fields of light, glowing halos, circular fields of astral light encircling the planet.”
Buddha’s description of the Earth’s astral lights reminded our friends of the Transportal.
“Another time, on a moonless night I saw little lights scattered in Earth’s astral regions, like the lights of a city seen at night form a distance. I thought I felt pulses of consciousness saying something to me.”
“What? Hydrogen asked.
“God is light.”
Siddhartha opened his eyes, looked at our friends, and smiled. He raised his head and looked at the clear night sky, whose stars appeared just like lights suspended in heaven. What did God is light mean exactly?
“I really believe, that life exists in numerous dimensions. I think it is all related to heavenly bodies and realms—not abodes. Maybe the ancients meant the same thing. When we look at the sun, moon, or the stars with our four-dimensional senses, we see everything in only four dimensions. I think there is much more to the universe and the empty spaces of the night sky. Maybe we don’t have the right set of eyes or the consciousness level to perceive it.”
Silicone whispered, “Like a receiver tuned to the wrong frequency.”
“Sir,” Sulphur said, “do you think heaven is somewhere in our planet’s astral fields or somewhere in the stars?”
“We cannot be certain either way,” Buddha replied, “but one thing is sure, heaven could be here, there, or maybe everywhere. We think it beyond our living grasp, but it may not be. The same is true of hell. I think heaven and hell can be here and now, depending on our consciousness. We can choose to exist in heaven or hell, or as how we will reincarnate in our next life. We are responsible for determining our fate with conscious dedication and effort. That is why I defined the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path as a simple ethical model during the physical journey. That, I hope, is the way to heaven, whatever or wherever it is.”
At that moment, a pair of shining red eyes appeared from the darkness of the woods. It was as if a fearsome god was coming to punish them for the crime of learning. A few moments later, a young limping deer walked out of the darkness of their unfamiliarity, to approach the smiling Siddhartha. His hand held out a piece of dried flat bread. The deer appreciatively licked his fingers, took the bread, and limped back into the darkness.
Buddha turned smilingly towards our friends. “Love and compassion are universally understood truths, don’t you agree?
“Please tell us about the ancient Hindu scriptures,” Gold said.
Buddha laughed. “They are too much to read in a lifetime, but I think you time travelers are after clues about the distant past and the fate of your library, right? I want to learn about the cataclysms and cycles of destruction, too.”
The group reviewed their past experiences and knowledge of earthly cataclysms, the migrating survivors, the climatic transformations, unexplainable monuments and manuscripts, maps showing unseen lands, and other lost and forgotten legacies. After all that, Buddha said, “I remember a phrase from an ancient text, the Mahabharata that describes a great calamity.
Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued forth upon creation. A thick gloom swiftly settled upon them. All points of the compass were lost in darkness. Fierce winds began to blow. Clouds roared upward, showering dust and gravel. Birds croaked madly . . . the very elements seemed disturbed. The sun seemed to waver in the heavens. The earth shook, scorched by the terrible violent heat. Elephants burst into flames and ran to and fro in frenzy. Over a vast area other animals crumpled to the ground and died. From all points of the compass the arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely.
“I had never understood that until I heard your story tonight.”
“It sounds like a description of meteors with dust tails throwing arrows of flame. The wavering sun would have been the planet shifting on its axis. Sir, this might describe the events over fourteen thousand years before your time. This may be what forced the northern Aryans to move south, some reaching here. The Tamil and the Indus-Sarasvati legends describe similar cataclysmic events and floods.”
“Tell me, what caused the floods?”
“The north and south poles were in other places once. Much of the world’s water was stored in gigantic icecaps. Our icecaps are not a fraction of the old ice age version. After the cataclysm, the old icecaps thawed faster than the new ones could reabsorb them, so the sea levels rose over 150 meters, inundating much of the ancient coastal areas where people lived during the ice age. There are at least six hundred known flood myths from all around the world.”
“When did the floods occur?” Buddha asked.
“About twenty-five scientists found geological between sixteen and fourteen thousand years ago, thirteen and eleven thousand years ago, and seven to eight thousand years ago.”
Buddha lowered his head, and raised his clasped hands to his heart, and sighed, “Poor souls. What catastrophe! The suffering . . . ” Then he said, “The Vedas describe the legend of Manu, a great sage whom a great fish told to build a ship. The ship carried Manu and seven Rishis or sages and landed high in the Himalayas after the flood. They saved all the seeds, crops, and animals, a