RYUHIKO - 08

Life in the lair soon evolved into a routine. Moru would arrive shortly after sunrise with two old fashioned quart bottles of milk.  Catherine, who was always up before the sun, would have steel cut oatmeal with top milk and fresh bread ready for Moru and him. The whole raw milk was a treat. When a bottle of unpasteurized whole milk is allowed to sit, the cream floats to the top. That's how it gets its name 'top milk'.  As a child, Shinmasa's parents always bought their milk straight from a dairy farmer. It definitely got the kids to the breakfast table. The first ones there got the top milk for their cereal.

Catherine was a whiz with a cast iron dutch oven. She would do porridge, stews, a vegetarian version of shepherd's pie, a Greek style vegetable casserole and Italian orzo spinach soup, just to name a few, as well as cobblers and deserts. She would definitely make Alton Brown proud.  Shinmasa always wondered where she came up with all of her supplies. He never saw her leave. There wasn't a road for 30 miles nevertheless a grocery store.  He figured that Moru was providing for her needs somehow.

After a hearty breakfast Shinmasa would transform to Ryuhiko and training would start. He didn't return to his human form until they had high tea about four o'clock in the afternoon. Then he would rest and Moru and he would critique their day.  They would eat another substantial meal - usually from Catherine's seemingly magical dutch oven - in the late evening and Moru would leave. Catherine would finish her chores and retire to her room. Shinmasa would go out on the ledge above the glacier cirque and meditate.

Shinmasa didn't think in terms of progress related to his meditation. It served a purpose. It kept him focused, helped him be more mindful and aware, and he was learning how to manage his emotions. He 'technically' knew all about meditation. He rapidly moved beyond following his breath, although he always started there.  He knew that as he saw past experiences go by like video clips he should acknowledge them along with any emotion and then permit them to move off.  Most people think that our life history flows like an unbroken ribbon when, according to Buddhism, it is a string of these clips. They can be looked at as an event or as minutely as a single breath.

One night as Shinmasa sat meditating he began to study an experience closely.  In the clip he was a small boy with Mahotsukai Ryunake, when he was the family gardener, and another man.  In his mind Shinmasa was leaning closer and closer to see and wishing that he could hear, when he suddenly fell into the historic time clip.

Shinmasa was shocked. He looked around. The others did not appear to be aware of his presence. He spoke but no one appeared to hear.  He was still the observer, but somehow he had actually entered the historic event, the time clip from his past. He watched and listened.

The man to whom Mahotsukai Ryunake was speaking was Japanese. He was tall, well built and dignified. His skin was the color of oak and, close up, showed the affects of time and conflict. His hair was jet black and pulled back into a traditional hair knot. He was wearing a black kimono with gold and silver hamaka and a red montsuki haori jacket.  Shinmasa had not seen such beautiful formal wear since his sister's wedding.

"The boy is strong and clever," Mahotsukai Ryunake was saying. They were both looking down at the child, Shinmasa. "He will take after his father."

The man smiled. "I just wish that he did not have to meet our mutual adversary."

"He will be ready," said Mahotsukai Ryunake. "He is already very skilled in the martial arts."

Shinmasa's Mother approached. She bowed low. "Takai o Ryutada"

"Barako," said Ryutada bowing. "You look good.  You have done a wonderful job raising young Ryuhiko."

"Thank you, my Lord," Shinmasa's mother smiled broadly.

Shinmasa didn't really pay any attention to the rest of the conversation. This was his biological father. She had called him Takai o, or high king. He wanted so much to talk to him but he could only watch. He wanted to see him as a dragon. He wanted to ask him about the light of which he had heard in more than one story.  Listening carefully to the accounts of Ryutada destroying Babe Kgwebo every storyteller mentioned Ryutada putting his hand on Babe's chest and light passing through Babe.

Returning to his meditation felt to Shinmasa like pulling his head through the neck of a tight sweater. He sat looking out into the darkness. He had just seen his biological father, the famous and revered Takai o Ryutada.  It made Shinmasa feel so much better to know that the famous dragon king actually came to visit his son even if he couldn't tell him who he was.

Night after night Shinmasa entered life events where he might be able to catch sight of his father and observe him use the light, but it never happened.  He was watching the clips of his life go by when he noticed the space between the clips.  "Of course," he thought to himself, "sunyata."

Many Buddhist teachers and meditation masters tell how one can get a glimpse of sunyata by getting in that space between the clips. Sunyata is usually translated "emptiness" but it can be translated "spaciousness" and "Openness". It is actually of great positive significance in Buddhism.

Shinmasa thought of the Heart Sutra which contained the famous saying with which every Buddhist student struggled. "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.  Emptiness is not separate from form, form is not separate from emptiness. Whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form."  He smiled to himself.   Sunyata is not a void. It is the foundation and true nature of all phenomena. It is the basic principle of all existence.

For several more days Ryuhiko practices the arts and skills of being a dragon and understanding his adversary, Lefu Sefefo, by day and Shinmasa meditated and reached out to the space between the clips where he might get a glimpse of sunyata by night.

His chance finally came. It had been a good day and Shinmasa was focused and comfortable in his meditation. He was calmly watching life clips flowing by and observing the space between. In his mind he moved closer and closer as he had done so many times before. But this time the movement of the clips seem to get slower and Shinmasa was able to look beyond.

Shinmasa was standing, or at least he thought he was standing, in a vast void. He was trying to take it all in and make sense of what he was experiencing when there was a voice behind him.

"I didn't expect to find anyone here nevertheless you, my son."

Shinmasa turned. It was his father, Ryutada. "How is this possible?" He asked.

"We are both seeking a glimpse of sunyata," said Ryutada with a smile and turning to look out into the void.

"Is this sunyata?"

"No," said Ryutada, still looking intensely into the void. "but we should be close. We have broken out of our duality."

"But we're here together," insisted Shinmasa. "That can't be. You are dead so you must be from the past and I'm here from the present."

"That may be true," Ryutada laughed, "but last time I knew I am quite alive. The teachers tell us that time is an illusion. Guess this is the proof. Of course I'm here in my now and you're here in your now. I'm evidently dead in your now. Please don't tell me when that is."

"Would that cause some sort of time paradox?"

"I don't think so. But it would weaken me because I would always be aware of my own impending doom and therefore would not be as bold as I should."

"Takai o, I have actually been searching for you."

"How? Why?"

"Never mind the 'how', it didn't work. But everyone who tells how you destroyed Babe Kgwebo tells of the light that came from your hand when you touched his chest.  No one knows what it was."

"The light is the power of all goodness, compassion, peace and joy."

"Goodness, compassion, peace and joy have a power?"

"That's the best way to describe it," said Ryutada. "Have you ever noticed what happens when a group of people are joined together in peace and joy for a good purpose and show compassion?  Nothing can stop them. There is a power. They are stronger than evil and hatred."

"And you found a way to harness that power?"

"No. I don't think so." Ryutada stood and puzzled that for a few moments. "I didn't 'harness' anything. I realized the power and I realized that Buddha was right when he taught that all humans are, by nature, good and compassionate. I learned to focus the energy.  If I were to have focused the power of goodness, compassion peace and joy on an evil human, the goodness and compassion would have overcome their evil and enable them to return to their natural goodness and compassion. Since Babe Kgwebo was made of evil and hatred there was no natural goodness to which to return. He just ceased to be. That's why Lefu keeps his distance from me."

Shinmasa thought about what he had just heard. Could it be so simple as goodness and compassion? Obviously it had been.  "How do I learn to do that?" he asked.

"You can't learn," Ryutada put his hand on the Shinmasa's shoulder. "You can't learn it like ashi guruma or Hikikomi  gaeshi.  If you are pure and true to your calling as a protector, it is inside you right now. It will be there when you need and you will know what to do."

"But Masuta . . . ."

"Trust me," said Ryutada patting Shinmasa on the chest, "it is in there."  Ryutada paused as though listening then said, "I must go."  With that he vanished and Shinmasa was sitting alone on the mountain ledge above the glacier cirque.



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