Excerpt from "The Traveler"

“You travel far to join us in meditation. How long have you been coming to learn? Has it been two years?”

“Almost three,” answered David. “I feel calmer and more relaxed. My temper has all but disappeared.”

“That is good news to hear. I know three years seems like a long time, yet we spend years in seminary to become a Monk of the Yellow Hat tradition. Meditation becomes a way to open new pathways in our awareness and our ability to use our senses. Many of us feel we can experience additional ways to exist on this plain.”

David looked at the monk. “I have been having unusual experiences when I meditate.”

“Unusual? Tell me about it.” The monk seemed curious.

David sat straight and closed his eyes.

“Sometimes I enter there-after practicing exploring the space between breaths—those sacred moments that reveal answers to questions I sometimes fear to ask.

Yet, when I do, the part of me I like to ignore and the part of me public to myself come together and create awareness--integrating gently sometimes, coming together for the first time, stronger within me, strangers to a part of me--strengths unknown to each other.

I then begin moving between night and day.

It places me in a loving, peaceful place—yet the aliveness of energy

touches me, a massage of healing.

It caresses my essential essence –

Nurturing, cuddling, bombarding my senses with pleasure.

Sounds of sight –

Sights of touch –

Touches of sound.

I become rebalanced –

My perceptions laced with gentleness -

Seeing past the pained behaviors to the beauty hiding—often frightened--hiding—

Yearning to be discovered.

Yearning to feel enoughness—

I reach through and offer a hand—

Cautious to just offer—and send acceptance –

So there will be enough feeling of safety to risk a response—

And perhaps I may share the place between breaths—

Between night and day—

So we can celebrate our connectedness.”

David opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and looked at the monk.

“I’ve started to wonder if I’m going into trance and am hallucinating. It comes and goes, but seems to be happening more frequently. It’s something like a result of my meditating.”

The monk looked at David, covering up his surprise. “Tell me more,” he said, leaning forward.

“Well, all of a sudden I see glimpses of people, people I’ve never seen before, looking at me as if through a window. The way they look makes me feel like what they see is not clear or in focus. After they look, they move, often followed by a different person. There seems to be both males and females. A few nights ago I had trouble sleeping. I got up and meditated. After a while, a male torso appeared, looked at me and said ‘Hello!’ I was startled. I said ‘Hello’ back, not out loud, but in my mind.’ He smiled. He said, ‘Welcome to my dimension. Not many of you enter here. You have learned to open a portal. You’ve been here before. Do you remember?’ I shook my head. ‘Ah, it is not unusual that you don’t remember—too bad. Visiting here allows learning new perspectives of existence in your plain. I am inviting you to visit us, to become a Traveler.’

When the man paused, I knew my thoughts were jumbled. ‘Could,’ I said, ‘we talk a little more about it?’

The man smiled. ‘I’ll be in touch.’ There was a bright flash, then a pinprick of light that slowly faded. “What do you think?”

The monk was sitting on the edge of his seat. “You must accept the invitation! Many of us have searched, but few have found a way. And you were invited!” The monk shook his head in disbelief.

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The Man thought of the monk’s reaction on his way home. When he arrived, he kicked off his shoes and sat in his most comfortable chair. He breathed in several deep abdominal breaths and started to feel relaxed.

“I wonder what he meant by a different plain,” he mumbled to himself.

As he grew relaxed, he remembered some thoughts and questions he had on an airplane flight. He had looked down and seen tiny lines that were roads. He was aware that when he was far away, objects looked very small, if seen at all.

As the plane came closer to the earth, he focused on a building. It looked small. He knew if he had been standing in front of the building it would seem very large. Inside, furniture and objects of all sizes would be seen.

“Yes.” He heard a voice. “You know when you are very large, small things may not be visible to you. You know that there is no such thing as solid and that a piece of furniture is made up of sub-atomic particles held together in empty space—the micro world in your universe. And you look at the night sky and see dots, a macro world where you could possibly be part of a piece of furniture in a different place. Macro world or micro world. They both exist at the same time. You are immense and you interact with other universes, sometimes giving birth to more universes. If you prick your finger, the drop of blood contains its own world. In addition, parallel universes exist at the same time. The images you saw were from the parallel universe existing in the same space you occupy except at different vibrations, unseen by your finiteness.”

The voice became silent. He looked around to see if he could see anything. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Was he dreaming?

The next day he rode the subway and got off at his transfer stop. Knowing he had five minutes until his train arrived, he went to the coffee bar. “Black, no cream or sugar.” The barista nodded and turned.

A man tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, and the man said, “You are The Traveler and have been invited. If you choose to come, follow me.”

The man turned and walked toward a stairway. The Traveler followed him down a flight of stairs. The man walked up to a lone subway car and nodded his head at the open door. The Traveler walked in and sat down in the empty car. “Where are we going?” The man smiled as the door closed. “We will travel a great distance in what you call a short time.”

There seemed to be a slight movement and the door opened. “We are here.”

The train had stopped in front of an old movie theater. The man led him to a path in front of the building and pointed up to the crest of a hill. “Follow the path. You will come to a building. You are expected.”

Robert D. Andrews has been a practicing Licensed Mental Health Counselor where he has worked with adults and college students, using stories as a teaching tool. For more info/purchase go to www.Trafford.com