The monastery, on the lower slopes of Mt Everest, was a tumbledown affair, there being only five surviving monks to maintain it. Renegade soldiers had attacked it, a year before, and now all five of the surviving Vipassana monks were working to rebuild it stone by stone, with their bare hands. \u00a0I arrived weary, and my head throbbed–I wasn’t used to the thinner air here. I bowed to the nearest monk, a man of middle aged in the robe of a Master, and said, “I am here to study. I was sent by Hanh.” The monk ignored me, and adjusted the stone on its crumbling wall. I had used the proper language. Why was he ignoring me? I was nettled. It had been hard enough to get here, without being ignored too… “I am Dedeman,” I said. “I am here as appointed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The monk ignored me. I was puzzled. There was no vow of silence at this monastery and I had committed no solecism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the other acolytes spoke to the Master. “I thought I heard someone say, ‘I am here.’ But–I believe it was the wind.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yes,” the Master told him. “No one but else but we five are here–thus it must have been a trick of the wind.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I smiled. “Perhaps if I set to work with you? I am here, after all, to work…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Again I heard a sound like ‘I am here,” said the acolyte. “Perhaps an echo?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If a newcomer was here,” said the Master to the acolyte, “I would sense it. A man is not here if he is asleep. There is someone here who is asleep. He speaks in his sleep. No one is truly here but we five…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly I understood. I gathered all my attention to the present moment, and to the sphere of fine energies around me; I stopped identifying with my weariness, my irritation. I was now quite present. “I am here,” I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Ah yes,” said the Master, nodding at me. “Here you are. We have been expecting you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The monastery, on the lower slopes of Mt Everest, was a tumbledown affair, there being only five surviving monks to maintain it. Renegade soldiers had attacked it, a year before, and now all five of the surviving Vipassana monks were working to rebuild it stone by stone, with their bare hands. \u00a0I arrived weary, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n