This is a new revision of the book I did in 2006.
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01 – HIMALAYA
Himalaya Mountains (852 BCE)
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The yogini sat on the porch of her cave in the high Himalaya as the breeze brought the fragrance of the wild mountain flowers.
She was trained in deep meditation, which means actual work with pranic forces, and not just sitting emptily with nothing to do. For a woman there must be a useful activity.
She was vegetarian by conscience but sometimes dabbled with fish the way Jesus did. She had her start as a wealthy princess. Much like the Buddha, she gave it up to become wise in other ways.
First she went to stay in a graveyard the way Indian yogis sometimes did, but she found the work very oppressive. So she moved to the high mountains. There were many other yogis there and it was beautiful.
She followed a simple life in her hut. There were teachers in the region to help her.
When she’d been there six months, there was an apparition. A flying saucer. Being from a non-technological time, she had no idea what it was. It hovered overhead, and then released a shower of flower petals all over her.
Thus was born the legend of the saint receiving celestial floral blessings.
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02 – PUB
Vancouver, BC
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Riana was a graduate student in Vancouver, Canada. Her focus of study was ancient Buddhism.
Her particular research interest was linking up the similarities between this and the modern Christian teachings of the New Testament. She was known as a near-expert at this.
One afternoon she sat with her friend Cedar in a small pub on campus.
“Remember when all the pubs used to have small round tables with red terry cloth covers on them?” Riana asked.
“You’re showing your age now.” her friend replied.
“I’m only 26. But they used to be that way because if someone barfed, they could just remove quickly it and throw it in the laundry. Also the red wouldn’t show the barf stains so much.”
“Damn, that’s brilliant. No wonder you get a PhD in a couple months.”
“My classes are done but I still have to do my thesis.”
“Have you started yet?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Because to do the right thesis, the one I really want to do, I have to travel to India.”
“Why India?”
“Because that is where the famous yoginis of ancient times were.”
“Yoginis?”
“Female adepts who lived simple lives and cultivated pure Spirit.”
“And there were such people?”
“The one I’m most interested in is called Laksminkara. She was a princess but then gave it up to become a rishi. A rishi is someone who is advanced in the knowledge of being.”
“And you can do your thesis on her in India?”
A waiter appeared and deposited two more glasses on the table. “There’s a burn mark on the terry cloth here, Sir.” Riana said in jest. The man sighed and left.
Riana took a long draw from her Strongbow Cider. “I just have to get travel funds for India.”
“And how?”
“I’m going to ask Vincent, my academic advisor.”
“Do you think he’ll loan it?”
“I don’t know but it’s worth trying.”
The next day, Riana sat across from Quail Vincent with a large mahogany desk between them.
“Money. It’s always about money …” Vincent mumbled.
“It usually is.” Riana. “But in this case, the payoff is huge.”
“In what way?”
“I get to do truly ground-breaking research.”
“You think?” Vincent snorted. He pulled a tissue from a box and blew his nose loudly. “As head of the department, it’s my job to screen all PhD applications. If what you describe is true, then you could really be onto something. But I’m concerned about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“India. It’s rather grubby and dusty to put it mildly. Are you ready for some serious crowded humanity?”
“Well after Covid, the numbers will be down.”
“HA. That’s possible. Still, I can find an endowment for you to around $10,000. But you’ll have to make sure that your sources are impeccable. You have to cite first-hand sources only, not second-hand.”
Riana bolted upright with excitement. “I can do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Conceptually speaking, I know I can do it.”
“Conceptually?”
“I mean, evidentially. I can find the best supporting research.”
“How do you know?”
“My friend is into UFO’s. She knows a lot of things she doesn’t know.”
“Say what?”
“It’s OK, Sir. I’m so happy you’re helping me. I promise to do the best job ever.”
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03 –
Riana was on the phone with her best friend Ella the next morning. Ella was a graduate student at a private theological college next door to Riana’s large campus.
“I’ll cycle over in an hour, and we can do brunch at your fancy grad department cafeteria. I hate to use that term though because anywhere else, it’s a three-star restaurant.”
“PhD candidates have it pretty nice.” Ella said.
Soon Riana was on her mountain bike making her way over to the other campus. A light rain was falling on a gray April day in Vancouver. She locked her bike up and made her way up three flights of stairs, entered the lounge and found her friend seated at a corner table. Ella was mid-20’s, same as Riana, but to Riana’s long light brown hair, Ella was chestnut shoulder length, and was slightly shorter with an equally good figure.
“Ahh, forever chasing far away yogis, when the plain truth is right under your nose.” Ella remarked.
“That’s a statement if I ever heard one.” Riana chuckled, sitting down. “And you have a corner on truth, do you?”
“I have a pretty good indication of it.”
“I agree that Christian Exigesis has a lot of power to it.” Riana said, “and you have a right to feel proud of your research. But I have a sense of adventure that you don’t know about, and I want to get to the root of things.”
“The timeless message of Jesus Christ is the root of things.” Ella remarked.
“To you it is, but from my research there are ancient spiritual traditions that predate the Christian doctrine, and I’m committed to finding that out. I’m going to get a coffee. You want one too?”
“Make it breakfast tea for me, thanks. And get two croissants. And don’t forget the honey.”
Soon Riana was back with the fare. “You always put a lot of honey in your tea, don’t you?”
“Just enough. Riana, it concerns me that your explorations are more about your curious mind than your sincere heart.”
“I’ll grant you that.” Riana said, sipping deeply her French roast. “I’m kind of both heart and mind, but sometimes the monkey gets the upper hand. By the way, the news I’m here to bring. I’ve got the funding.”
“You WHAT ..?”
“That’s right. I’ll be going to India for my on-site research.”
“Oh my goodness. All on your own?”
“Unless you care to join me.”
“Whoa. Slow down. When do you go?”
“According to Vincent, my academic advisor, the bursary funds should arrive in around two weeks.”
Ella leaned back and took a long sip of tea. She felt a slight sense of overload. She reached into her bag and felt the texture of her New Testament. “God is a mysterious Presence.” she said. “He shows up to different people in different ways.”
“I think God is the same but it’s the people who see it differently.” Riana said.
“In Christian tradition, Riana, God is called Father. Do you know why that is?”
“Tell me.”
“Well, Jesus used this term in the famous Lord’s prayer. But part of my research is to go deeper into that. The why and the how of it. We do know that there is a cognitive association with any word used.”
“And Father engenders an optimal association?”
“Yes, absolutely. Because it denotes qualities of wisdom, strength, and caringness.”
“I can relate to that. Words never lie. They always have a meaning.”
“And how long would you spend in India? And where would you go?”
“I was hoping you might help me with that.”
“From what I know, India’s a hot dusty place at the best of times. Crowded too.”
“Yeah, I know. But the great Mahasiddha had retreats way up in the Himalaya mountains. The one I’m focused on is called Laksminkara. She was pictured as having a halo, the same as many Christian saints.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yeah, it’s true. A halo is a halo. Made up of light. Why light?”
“Wow, now you’re onto something.” Ella said. “It’s no accident you’re meeting me this morning.”
Riana held her cup close and sipped slowly. “That offer of accompanying me is still open. Two can work better than one.”
“But I have a couple of research projects on the go right now.” Ella said.
“Why not work remotely?”
“Let me give that some thought.”
“Give it some thought, and fill me in on the meaning of light in the Christian tradition. I have to get a good grounding for my speculations.”
“Light is the subject of the first Book of John.” Ella said.
“That’s good. It must hold a key to the Christian message then.”
“It does. Jesus often stated that He was the Light of the World. But it’s not talked about so much. Except in the Gnostic teachings.”
“And the Gnostic materials were left out of the official Bible?”
“Yes, they were. But they are always there in the background, waiting for some serious investigation.”
“And does your college support that kind of extracurricular material?”
“Usually only when it’s backed up by solid Biblical material.” Ella said.
“You’re going to have to join me then. There is a lot for you to do.”
“Well, I do have the money … And you say it’s around two months?”
“Give or take.”
“Let me give you an answer tomorrow, Riana. Meantime, I have to go back to my books and my laptop and find out more on what light really means.”
“I’m getting excited about this thing, Ella. Super excited.”
“Yeah. I can’t blame you.”
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04-
Omsk, Russia
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Tami sat in the international student lounge at the University of Omsk in Russian Siberia. She sipped on a rich tea that had the flavors of cinnamon and cloves. She took a good bite of her syrniki, a breakfast cheese pancake. She decided to send a Whatsapp image of her breakfast to her good friend Ella in Vancouver.
A moment later, the familiar two checks in blue came on, meaning Ella got the message. There was always the moment when Tami wondered if Ella would respond right away, usually the case if something was really funny. Or if she would pause awhile and savor the treat. Ella stayed silent, and Tami dug back into her syrniki.
The cheese was rich, a blend of yellow Siberian goat cheeses. It was beyond delicious. Tami was glad she’d enrolled in the English program for botanical studies here. Omsk was the perfect place to earn her BA, and was close in distance to the legendary forest retreat of the sage and prophetess Anastasia.
The legend of Anastasia had clealy drawn Tami here. But her love for the culture of Russia mellowed her pursuit while she worked on her program. Tami’s focus was the ancient healing herbs of the steppe and taiga.
A moment later, she noticed Ella’s reply, a heart emoji. Tami turned off her phone and opened her backpack. She pulled out her creased volume of John Seymour’s “Self Sufficiency”. She sank into the book and the world around her vanished.
She was now in a world of fence-building, bee-keeping, canning and preserving, and orchard planning. Tami was fortunate to own a 5 acre parcel of land in Nova Scotia. It was thickly treed, not far from the wild Atlantic Ocean, and Tami could spend hours daydreaming the ideal development plan for it. She knew she needed a good deep well. That came first and wells usually cost around ten thousand dollars to locate and to make. Good refreshing ground water is the foundation stone of good living, Tami knew. Everything leads from water.
Tami laid out a plan similar to the kin’s domains described in the Anastasia books (often known as the Ringing Cedars of Russia series). An ideal domain consists of at least one hectare (two and a half acres), well treed. From this you design space for a house, a food garden, an orchard, and a small pond if possible. The entire perimeter of the domain is graced with a living fence of tall sturdy conifers, and the spaces between these are filled with thick berry bushes. This allows for maximum privacy.
There is a technique called Hugelkultur, by which all organic scrap material is piled in high long barrows, and is then covered in soil. These long mounds are ideal for growing food on because the decaying material beneath provides rich nourishment for a long time. Hugelkultur mounds make excellent perimeter plantings.
A call came in on Tami’s Whatsapp. It was Ella.
“Preevyet Preeyache” cracked the voice from Vancouver.
“Hey buddy you too.” Tami barked. “Whaddup over there?”
“Isn’t tech amazing that we can do these free international calls.”
“Tech has two sides, buddy. You know that.”
“Do I ever. And AI is around the corner and that’s a spooky thought.”
“Maybe not even around the corner.” Tami said. “And yes it is plenty spooky. What’s going on over there?”
“I called you to ask for advice. My friend Riana might have scored a scholarship to go study in India for two months. She’s doing field research for her PhD thesis. She wants me to go with her.”
“Really. What did you tell her?”
“That I’d give her an answer tomorrow.”
“Isn’t Riana the friend who’s doing ancient Buddhism study?”
“That’s the one. She’s big on core meanings. She doesn’t much care for conventions or lots of wordiness. She’s good at getting to the core of things. For her, the big thing with Buddhism is the notion of loving-kindness as a motive behavior. But she’s also tying it into the central Christian doctrine of love. She thinks that Christian love is the same thing.”
“And she’s going to go study that in India?”
“She’s focused on a certain ancient Avatar who eschewed the pursuit of power to become an exemplar of wisdom, and to be even more focused, of love.”
“Wow. That’s a stretch. Why does she have to use this ancient person?”
“Because that ex-princess was a key figure of the Mahayana tradition.”
“And she can do a decent thesis on that?”
“I think she’s really after something else.”
“Like what?”
“I think she wants to prove that different altars exist within all the belief systems, and that the measure of the altar determines what the true intention is.”
Tami paused for a good minute. “Hello. You still there?” Ella asked.
“Ahh, I like it.” Tami said quietly.
“How?”
“It’s cutting through the verbiage and getting right down to the core intent. It’s pulverizing the bullshit.”
“That’s exactly how Riana sees it.”
“Well, I think you need to go with her.”
“You do?”
“Obviously, with your background in western theology, you’re in line to find good research for yourself.”
“You know, I didn’t consider that.”
“Well, consider it. Do your own project while she does hers. You can download all your stuff to your professors if they go along with it.”
“Worth considering. You know, most theologians can’t account for all the missing years of Jesus’s ministry. Some think he worked for his father Joseph as a travelling tin merchant. But I’m with those who think he might have gone to India.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Mostly because at that time, India was a golden civilization. The great philosophies came out of there. They had a great university called Nalanda where scholars from all around the world came to study.”
“Ella, that’s a fact, because from what I’ve found out, the ancient Russians had very close links to India. They even called themselves not Russian, but Ved-Rus. Vedic Russians.”
“And Russia is not even that far from India.”
“It isn’t. It’s due north for the most part. And once you cross the Himalaya, you’re onto the vast Siberian plains and steppe.”
“So traditional Russia was strongly influenced by India’s great golden culture.” Ella said. “I find that amazing. Even more so because today it’s coming back as a great theocracy with a ton of dedication and a kind of vision for the future.”
“Hey, Ella. How do you know this?”
“I’m selective in my choice of data streams.” Ella remarked.
“I think you should go on that trip.”
“I’ll let you know soon.”
A few moments later, Tami put her phone back in her bag. From the large windows of the kafeteriy kolledzha, the afternoon sky looked beautiful. The sun was peering through golden clouds and casting long beams across the land outside.
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05 –
Vancouver BC
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“You’ve got to tell me something about light.” Riana said to Ella. They sat having tea in a small college bistro overlooking the Salish Sea. Ella was busy putting thick organic honey into her Darjeeling after adding cream. The cliffs below them were covered in old-growth cedars and Douglas firs, all the way to the ocean rocks below.
“What do you need to know exactly?”
“Well,” Riana said, “I did some digging yesterday on the subject. It seems that many religious rites of bygone times involved the sun.”
“You mean like the Egyptian sun worship?”
“A lot more than Egyptian. Mayan, Celtic, Japanese, Persian, Indian, in fact, most ancient cultures placed the sun in central importance. I came across this quote from the ancient Upanishad scriptures of India: ‘In the golden city of the heart dwells The Lord of Love, without stain. Know him as the radiant light of lights … The Lord is the light reflected by all. He shines, everything shines …’ “
“Wow, that reminds me of some lines in the Bible.”
“Where?”
“The First Book of John.” Ella replied, pulling up a Bible on her tablet. It says: ‘This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. …and if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another …’ And in 1 Timothy 6:16 it says: ‘He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light.’ “
“So tell me then.” Riana asked. “What is it about light? And what should we know better about it?”
“It seems to be a basic feature of God, I guess.” Ella said, shrugging.
“But what kind of light? Surely it’s more than just photons. The sun has a lot to do with it. The reason I ask is that God is mostly defined as love, at least by Jesus who called God ‘Father’. But then Jesus also said things like ‘I am the light of the world’ on more than one occassion. So what kind of light was he referring to?”
“Maybe he looked at the sun often.” Ella said.
“And what happens when you look at the sun?” Riana asked.
“I get a feeling of inspiration. At least when it’s low on the horizon and is not too bright.”
“Ella, have you ever heard of sun-gazing?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Guess what. Sun-gazing is deep in the lore of ancient India.”
“You don’t say.”
“Seriously. There is an ancient tradition there. But these things get lost in the mists of time. However, things squeak through nonetheless. So today, there is this underground tradition of sun-gazing. I think the authoritites don’t like it. Maybe because it’s too obvious.”
“Well, it sure seems direct. What could be simpler than looking at the sun? Just so long as you don’t hurt yourself, that is.”
“That’s exactly it, Ella. I’m starting to put this together now. It is exceeedingly simple, yet for some reason, the masses are not aware of the true significance of the sun. They just take it for granted.”
“Like taking love for granted, no doubt. Maybe people are just too busy.”
“Busy and distracted, yes.”
“And where are you taking this subject?”
“Straight to India.” Riana said. “I’m sure that the ancient rishi were all sun-gazers. I bet Jesus was too.”
“Wow. That is VERY provocative. Could you do a thesis on this?”
“My thesis is on Laksminkara, but she is often portrayed with a halo around her head, a kind of a holy light-effulgence. As are most of the Christian saints. And it turns out that Buddhist saints all have halos also.”
“These are serious threads.” Ella remarked. “I haven’t taken this very seriously before. Not sure why not. But now that you’re onto it, I should be too. So what flight are we leaving on?”
“WE …. ??” Riana jumped up and hugged her friend for at least a minute. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”
“Not for anything.” Ella sighed. “This is big stuff. And I like stuff that I haven’t seen before. Despite all that’s been said and done with Christianity, you can still discover new stuff.”
“Ella, if we figure all this out, we might have ourselves some really serious PhD’s.”
“Not to mention high standing in some ancient traditions that are half-lost.”
“Not half-lost for long, if I have any say in it …” Riana remarked.
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to be continued …..