ABOUT BEING CARRIED AWAY
TO A SECRET PLACE
11. He crossed many remote paths and walked by ponds of solitude full of murmurs and whispers,
12. when suddenly a yaksha, one of the dangerous spirits from the ancient world, stopped him. He had taken the shape of a baby bird. The yaksha said, “The old man of the mountain told me about your dream for I am the master of all lonely places. You are a stranger in your own land and in this one. You are on the trail of a great treasure. If you find it, you’ll win heavens. If you don’t, you’ll meet death. Should you perish, no one shall notice.”
13. After this rather unfriendly greeting, the bird became huge and swiftly carried our startled wanderer to the other side of the world, and locked him up in the outpost of a lost fortress, the one they called Ambel Tankar. He was left alone and went on a diet for a long time.
14. The inside of the dungeon was baffling and seemed to belong to different places. For example, in a great cave hewn inside the rock, on the side of the cliff, there was a three-headed statue of a mighty God. Whenever he approached it, Baereli felt elated: the sense of sweetness and well-being of his dream was returning.
15. But opposite the cave, towards the outside, a window opened on to a desert. As he walked to that window, loneliness came back for it opened on that fateful desert at the gate of Jerusalem. As he leaned outside the window, Baereli was sucked out by a gush of wind and found himself traveling through space.
16. He heard the voice of the yaksha whispering: “Mighty and rich are the doors of the world religions that lead to palaces of illusions, to courtyards where meanings get lost,
17. Yet the prophecies of yore spoke of gentle qualities, meekness and simplicity,
18. So that we may find the True Door at the entrance of our very own brain, through which the path of the Quest must find its way.
19. For the blessed ones, it shall open into the petals of the redeemed consciousness.
20. The Great Teacher has taught the location of the mystical gate through which earthlings may pass, and happy are those who are listening.