Jiancidiaosu - The Journey to Mount Kailash: Enso, #3

By RICHARD HOWE

The golden threads of their lives lead to this final quest to unlock the secrets of Mt. Kailash … but who will survive the hostile physical challenges or the invisible dark manifestations from inside the void. And just as they enter the boundaryless void … Yufei senses Yufeng in danger … Yufei fails to find her … he struggles to rejoin this world … but the scene before him is frightening beyond words. But then … something totally unexpected happens that is … joyous beyond words … and a new traveler joins them on their pathway … to the ultimate destiny of all immortals … eternity.

Capital intrigue, personal revenge, and fate send our legendary heroes on a new journey to fulfill their destiny …. but first they must survive a deadly Kara-buran (black sandstorm) and defeat a large force of jihadi warriors. Only then can they learn the secrets of Mt. Kailash and discover their part in this drama of … light versus darkness.

At Mt. Kailash, Yufei and Yufeng will make the critical inner journey into the sacred mandala with Yufei's father, Scorpion, and Yufeng's new friend, Qime, a kidnapped and abused Tibetan slave woman they acquire in ChangAn.

To Tibetans, the sacred Mandala represents the harmony of the Tibetan Buddhist universe. But, as they learned in Gobekli Tepe, that harmony was disrupted several millennium ago by dark manifestations.

Since creation, there has been a balance between Light and Dark … but, over time, that balance has been disrupted. Their aim is to enter the void and hopefully restore balance to the Mandala of the Universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RICHARD HOWE
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987087756

RICHARD HOWE

I graduated from Bowdoin College in 1967 and spent most of the next 30 years as a real estate developer. In 1998, I moved to China. and over the next 25 years, traveled throughout the country and studied the history, culture, and philosophies of China, India, and other regions of the world (the Middle East, Christian lands, etc.). I have had a life-long burning desire to understand the mysteries of life. This quest has led me on many pathways … from acquiring and reading thousands of books, to trips to ancient temples, to solitary meditations on mountaintops and even visiting an ashram in India … and finally, one day, after all the many years, I found my answers. Then, in 2020-22, during the pandemic lockdown in China, I was invited to translate several Chinese historical books to be published in China. I enjoyed the endeavor so much that I embarked on writing about my search for the hidden meanings of the universe - hidden within the ancient texts … but set in an adventure novel story during Song Dynasty China. Fortunately, from my readings, I had a large database of ancient wisdom. During the epidemic, I wrote three books, The Enso Trilogy, which are the culmination of my life's golden thread. Each book in the trilogy focuses on a critical aspect of a spiritual life: enlightenment, fulfillment, and the afterlife. In Jan. 2023, while I was finishing the 3rd book, I contracted COVID. A few months later, a heart specialist told me I had a major problem in my heart valve which would require surgery to fix. I told her that I had done everything in my life and with the completion of these three books, I was ready for the next life (Socrates said it better). I read the other day, 'Sometimes we're afraid of something, because we're afraid of something else'. I think death is like that … people are afraid they won't finish something, but this fear is just a creation of our mind. I just finished Book IV (publish date Jan 2024) which delves into the backside of the universe's tapestry, to understand the divine purpose of it all. In this book, I write a lot about possibilities becoming probabilities and then becoming reality. It's about the journey after death and the purpose of my life. Thank you for reading my books.

Book preview

Prologue I The Forgotten Dimension

"The two worlds, this world we see and the afterworld ... are just one ...

The other, the realm of the gods,

is just a forgotten dimension of the world we once knew."

IN CHINA, RELIGIOUS beliefs are evident as early as the Yang Shao Culture of the Yellow River Valley, which prospered between 5000-3000 BCE. The Yang Shao Culture was matrilineal, that is, women were dominant. By the Shang Dynasty, (1600-1046 BCE) two millennium later, their religious beliefs had changed so that now there was a male king of the gods named Shangti ... as well as lesser gods ... for the mountains, river, lakes, and other special places. Typically, the female goddesses were kind and benevolent, and the male gods aggressive and malevolent.

In this other realm lived the Queen Mother of the West, (Xi Wang Mu), the goddess of immortality, who was often represented as a beautiful woman with long hair. She lived in the Kunlun Mountains, in the Western Regions, in a castle of gold, with a moat around it, so sensitive that anything, even a hair, which fell upon it would sink. She walked every day in her Imperial Peach Orchard, whose fruit held the divine juices of immortality.

During the Han period, the hope for immortality found expression in the cult of the goddess Queen Mother of the West. Her paradise was portrayed as a land of marvels where eternal trees grew, and rivers of immortality flowed. People of all social levels expressed their devotion to her, and shrines were erected under government sponsorship throughout the country.

Also in this other realm, lived the Mongol’s supreme deity, Tengri, The Sky God of the Heavens, the creator of all that exists ... who determined the fates of men and affairs of state. He was depicted blue and eternal and was viewed as the male principle. Tengri’s divine consort was Umai, the Mother Goddess of Nature. Prayers and sacrifices were also offered to the sacred ‘Earth-Water’ goddess, belonging to the Middle World.

Chinese temples and shrines were cared for by priests and monks, who were always men. Women were allowed to enter monasteries ... to devote themselves to the work of the gods ... but could not hold spiritual authority over men. These worship services all had one thing in common, the sound of music; most often bells and wooden fish-shaped bowls. The prayers were said three times a day, to the sound of a small bell, and drumming on the wooden bowls. Incense was burned regularly at services to cleanse the place of evil spirits and negative energies.

The first thing the Great One produced was Water (Da Yi Sheng Shui).

The Water, then helped the Great One, form the sky (Tian).

The sky, then helped the Great One, form the earth (Di).

The sky and earth assisted one another forming

the spiritual and the radiant (Shen Ming).

The spiritual and the radiant helped one another, to form yin and yang.

Yin and Yang helped one another, forming numerous forms.

‘Tao is spirit, which is the originator of all things in the world... even the origin of consciousness and mental activities of men.’

Guan Zi

1 Darkening Skies

"Insight enables you to know the Way ...

It is not attainment of the Way."

AT XIANGSHENG (THUNDERING) Rock, in the Wuyi Mountains, near nine-bend stream, there are these words engraved on the cliff ... 

"Time passed quickly."

AND FOR OUR TWO BUSY heroes floating by on a bamboo skiff, this seemed especially true ... but they felt something else lately ...

Everyone could feel it ... like a storm was coming... but it was not the weather that they felt ... and it wasn’t just in this small town in northern Fujian, China.

A darkness of rage seemed to be descending everywhere ... people seemed on edge ... quick to argue ... while tribes and kingdoms were quick to do battle ...

In the Middle East, the armies of the Islamic jihad slaughter millions on their march through Persia, the Hind and northern India. Buddhism the peaceful religion, is banned, temples destroyed, as the Muslim ‘holy’ jihad kills and enslaves thousands of thousands of peaceful innocents.

But it wasn’t the great Caliphate armies, this time, his army was just an empty shell ... and it wasn’t the powerful Ayyubids ... it was the Khwarazm’s sultanate ... ravaging east of the Caliphate and into the Northern India and threatening Tibet and even China ....

In Europe, Christian crusaders slaughter their way to the Holy Land to defend their God of Compassion. These warriors of their Compassionate God even sack, pillage, and destroy the Christian capital of the East ... Constantinople.

And in China, the Jin invaders have control of the north while in the South at the Southern Song capital ... greed and corruption reign unchecked.

In the far north. The Mongol armies are growing in power, raiding the Jin ... pillaging, retreating, then raiding again... testing ... growing stronger ... smarter. The leaders in the Song capital thought they could outmaneuver the Jin barbarians by an alliance with these northern Mongol barbarians ... they were mistaken.

Chief Councilor Zhao Ruyu, the Queen Mother and court officials in desperation to save the legitimacy of their Heavenly Mandate (and their own fortunes) had forced the emperor to abdicate. They brought in a new Emperor – Ninzong – whom they hoped they could better control for the good of China ... they were mistaken too.

In the beginning, there had been a glimmer of hope as Zhao Ruyu enlisted experienced Neo-Confucian officials like ZhuXi, to restore order and run a better, more accountable government; however, this effort for righteous benevolence was destined to be short lived. Corrupt officials resented the loss of their personal enrichment fiefs and plotted with a rising new minister who was related to the Imperial consort.

As Minister Han Tuozhou rose in power, the Neo-Confucianists and Zhao Ruyu declined, outmaneuvered by the corrupt patronage system surrounding the new Emperor. Han resented the elite scholar officials, and especially Zhu Xi, who rose to prominence after passing the Jinshi exams and performing meritorious service. Minister Han, however, did not pass the Jinshi exam but rather rose through his relationships. Finally, after several recent setbacks (the assassination of Minister Chao and the scandal/death of Lord Kong), he now has the support of enough corrupt ministers and royals to execute his plan to replace Zhao Ruyu as the Chief Councilor.

In the fourth year of Qingyuan, Zhao is set aside, Zhu Xi, and others became subjects of a literary inquest and are listed as offenders, banned by the government. In the ensuing purges Minister Han denounces all the neo-Confucianists ... ZhuXi is disgraced, his teachings are denounced, and he is exiled home to Wuyi Mountain ... to retirement and hopefully his passing away.

Behind this dark turn of events is a new power couple who have organized support for Minister Han for their own purposes, Prince Sui, and his wife, Kong Er, who has been plotting to avenge her family since their destruction. Her hatred is as boundless as the dark sky ... like an attacked octopus which sprays its deadly ink everywhere ... eventually filling up the immediate area into a black killing zone.

But the real target of her darkness is not the former Chief Councilor or even the aging Zhu Xi ... her focus of vengeance is on the two legendary heroes, who killed her brothers, the Chen family ... and the mysterious assassin who killed her father.

Kong Er had many stories to explain her family’s fall ... greed and corruption, however, were never mentioned.

Over the past few months, she has sent her spies to root out every detail of her family’s downfall ... the perpetrators and their methods ... she is as smart and cunning as was her evil father ... the difference is that now ...she knows her enemy ... and won’t be distracted by big schemes like her father.

Although Han will be the Chief Councilor, she, and her friend the emperor’s consort, can pull his and the emperor’s strings easily, letting them believe they are in control ... and her husband, Prince Sui, can control the royals. At first, they counsel Han to get rid of their chief competition, the intellectual neo-Confucians ... later they will get him to reverse course when he needs their support for their war party ...

Han’s ultimate delusion is believing that he, and he alone, can command the armies to regain the lost north lands ... and Kong Er will encourage him in this folly ... who cares what happens, she thinks, either way I win.

But now all her planning is in place and in the days and weeks to come, she will cast her evil net to inflict maximum pain on all her real and imagined enemies.

But Zhu has been through these purges many times and remains detached from it all. On his return, he is met by his dear friend, Gonggong ... whose life is summed up in a poem by Lu You ...

Written in a Carefree Mood

Old man pushing seventy,

in truth he acts like a little boy,

whooping with delight when he spies some mountain fruits,

laughing with joy, tagging after village mummers;

with the others having fun stacking tiles to make a pagoda,

standing alone staring at his image in the jardiniere pool.

Tucked under his arm, a battered book to read,

just like the time he first set off for school.

Translation by Burton Watson

2 Meanwhile ...in Wuyi

Yin: the shady side of stream; often represented by the moon.

Yang: the sunny side of the stream; often represented by the sun.

WHEN ZHU RETURNS HOME to Wuyi, his health is poor, but he remains optimistic and loyal to the emperor... or rather to the imperial system. He returns to his beloved books, focusing, in this winter of his scholarship, on the Book of Rites. To Zhu Xi, the rites are both the foundation of an enlightened society and the pillars of building the common good ... to him, without rites, man is little more than the barbarians.

The rites aren’t just the sacrificial worshiping rites to the gods, but the entire order of society ... from the gods to the emperor to everyone below ... and back up through the family, to the country, to the government, etc. Rites are the guardrails of society ... what enables man to rise and become virtuous and benevolent. Rites enable the father to control the family, the magistrate to control the villagers, the central government to control the country ... enabling them to defeat their enemies and live in prosperity. The Rites are present in all societies throughout time ... albeit less obvious in some societies under the guise of laws and regulations.

To Zhu Xi and his followers, a state permeated by true Confucian practices would be so internally strong and would have such an attraction for outsiders that retaking the north would require only a minimal effort; likewise, a state lacking true Confucian practices would be so internally weak and unattractive that retaking the lost lands would be quite impossible.

During this time, many idealistic scholars flocked to Zhu Xi and his like-minded scholars. Frustrated by the prevalent conditions at court ... these  intellectuals assumed a peculiar distant lifestyle. Prominent in scholarship, educational activities, and social leadership and filling some relatively minor government posts, they asserted their ideological authority with an air of exclusive superiority, much to the displeasure of conventional Confucians. However, the prestige they acquired was an implicit threat to those in power. The new Chief Councilor Han Tuozhou was particularly alarmed when he found some of his political adversaries sympathetic to and even supporting this school. A number of other bureaucrats at various ranks shared Han’s alarm; one after another, they accused the school of being similar to a subversive sect, calling it a threat to state security and attacked its alleged disrespect for the court. The school was accused of offering false learning and being un-Confucian. Several dozen of its leaders, including Zhu Xi, were banished, some to distant places. Thenceforth, all state examination candidates had to declare that they had no connection with the school.

In the Song Dynasty China ... and throughout the East ... there are no different life paths, nor are there any individual decisions about one’s life’s choices ... it is all decided from birth. And no matter where one is on the planet, society’s ‘rites’ (rules, regulations, customs, economics, etc.,) control and limit a person’s life choices. Well ... almost everyone ... there are always a few who believe that ...

One’s destiny depends on oneself ...

not heaven ... surely not society.

Yufei and Yufeng are running their businesses from Xiamei, a small village upstream from Wuyi ... their shops are on a small side street, straddling a small stream where several new shops trading in tea and other products have started to flourish. Since their first trip, they have had several more shipments arrive from the old Western capital, ChangAn, even while they were travelling to Arabia ... and, so far, business has been good. However, they have had some feedback from buyers on shelf-life problems ... the new fried green tea does not seem to last as long as the old bricks of tea ...

Yufeng is working on that problem with her older sister, Lanting.

Yufeng’s herbal medicine shop is thriving also ... she has incorporated many of the things she has learned from foreign books and her travel experiences. After they returned, she also spent several months training in Quanzhou ... part of the time with Physician Wu and she also monitored some classes at the Quanzhou branch of the Imperial Medical College there.

The college offered classes in internal medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, ophthalmology, ear, nose, and throat, and dental, dermatology, orthopedics, acupuncture, moxibustion, trauma and wind diseases.

Because of certain references from prominent benefactors like Medical Minister Lord Chen, Yufeng is allowed to select her classes. Several of the doctors consult her on specific herbal treatments and she holds the ophthalmology class in suspended awe when she performs the cataract operation which she learned in Damascus at the famous Nuri Hospital.

Her favorite area of study is pharmacology and especially medicinal herb treatments and formulae. In the day, she treats patients and prescribes medicines ... in the evenings she studies her books. At her medicine shop, besides her assistant, Xiaosi, she has two additional volunteer apprentices now who have been trained to follow the course of each patient’s treatment, which they record daily in the shop’s case-study workbook ... methods she learned when she visited Arabian hospitals, and studying books given to her by the great Moses Maimonides in Damascus.

Internal medicine is attractive for her also ... as she hones her projecting skills that Sister Zhang had awakened in her. Also, she has a keen interest in acupuncture and moxibustion. Intuitively her treatments are holistic ... relying on the body’s natural defenses to cure problems.

To her, the human body is like a small cosmos with channels of energy activating every part of the body and keeping it functional. Sometimes there is an imbalance in these internal forces ... the qi ... and acupuncture ... inserting thin needles at key points on the body ... can stimulate the flow of this energy to return the body or organ to balance.

Moxibustion is similar in nature ... only instead of needles, moxa (dried mugwort leaves), are placed on the acupuncture point on a low burn to warm and stimulate the area.

Her medicine shop contained everything necessary for the preparation of medicines: drawers lining every wall, containing hundreds of different herbs, and in the back ... her laboratory ... with various ovens, vessels to contain the medicines, a cellar for storing chemical substances and raw materials, ceramic vases and bowls, cups, a hand-mill, glass vessels, and a wide selection of ceramic vessels characteristic of a top laboratory.

However, unlike the other merchants, who work to make a profit ... to Yufei and Yufeng, business is just the role they play in life ... in a game of experiences to fulfill their potential ... playing, as it were, in the drama of this world ... and, at the same time, going through the external motions that their families and society expect ... for now.

They sense that their business activities are an integral part of their journey... intertwined within it and other threads.

They both sense that ... all those things that happened on their western journeys weren’t accidental ... and that it is leading to something else ... but that something is still not ripe yet for picking ...

Every week, the couple climbs to the grandmother tree to meditate; each time they go deeper and deeper into the void. And each time they become more comfortable being one ... not like yin/yang ... not even like two swallows flying in unison anymore ... just one spirit ... each one entangled with the other’s spirit, awareness, thoughts, and feelings.

It’s not that they can read each other’s thoughts ... rather, it is that they have the same thought at the same time ... that something remembered from the drama of life ... past, present, or future ... rises to their consciousness at the same time ... and at those times, they usually look at each other and smile in the shared insight.

Increasingly, Yufeng finds Yufei drawing his enso circles ... as though anticipating something ... lately, they also sense a darkening approaching.

Did you sense it too? she asks him as they start to gather their things to make the decent.

Yes. he says lost in his thoughts.

What is it?

I don’t know, but it is coming soon. he says.

Should we warn the others?

Will they understand?

Probably not but it is still something we should do.

He agrees but at the cliff top he pauses and stares down ... at nine-bend stream ... first at the beginning and then as it flows out to the main river running to the ocean. She usually leaves him alone when he is like this ... but today ...

What is it? What do you see when you stare at the stream today? she asks.

I don’t know. I sense there’s some piece I am missing lately ... and the answer is in the stream.

Master Zhu told us once that the stream is like life ... the same at the beginning, the middle and at the outlet ... that there really is no past, present, or future ... that is just our minds playing mind games.

Is that what you are wrestling with?

No ... I understood that long ago ... there is something else that I am missing ...

Maybe you are trying too hard to see with your eyes.

He looks at her, then understands and laughs, Maybe you are right... next time I will see without seeing.

"In one of the ancient texts it says that eyes cannot see ... that you see physical things through your eyes; your spirit self, the seer, is hidden behind. The eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and touch senses are just receptive organs for physical phenomena ... like doors ... your spirit-self is hidden behind."

When they get back down, the two pause again, at the stream ... which is clear so that he can see the bottom ... then he closes his eyes, as if trying harder to see something.

He hears her voice, When you are looking at the stream of life ... don’t miss the obvious.

He is startled and looks at her, as she bends down to splash the water near the boat, What?

She just nods toward the stream ... to the clear water.

It’s as though she struck him, he snaps his head back, That’s it!

What?

I’m just looking at the obvious ...

I don’t understand.

I should focus on the missing ... why am I missing something now?

She shrugs.

Why didn’t you sense that old woman in Basra?

She smiles and nods.

Something was cloaking her evil intentions.

So ... you think, something is cloaking things here?

Yes!

Cloaking what? Something that happened in Arabia?

He laughs, I have no idea ... but it must be important.

She looks around.

He says, Let’s just be more careful now.

Okay.

She smiles and they get into the boat and float off downstream.

Yufeng tells him, Oh ... I promised Gonggong that I would go to the academy to treat Master Zhu’s knees ... do you want to come?

Yeah ... I want to talk to Gonggong about some things too.

Okay ... let’s both pole ...haha.

Then the two pole their bamboo skiff together upstream to the academy.

After they are gone, a stranger comes out from hiding behind some boulders.

What the two don’t realize is ...

The darkness is here in Wuyi.

3 Treatment for Zhu

Qi ... the energy substance of which all things are made.

THERE HAS BEEN NO CAPITAL-appointed magistrate in Wuyi county since the murder of the last one; just temporary officials, who come for 12 months and are replaced ... which is fine with the locals.

When they get to the academy they first bow and pay respects to Master Zhu and Gonggong ... then Yufeng puts on her medical face and orders Zhu to lie down.

Yufeng treats Zhu’s arthritis knees ...arthritis responds very well to acupuncture. When combined with moxa, it can relieve pain and reduce inflammation immediately. Some acute cases require only a few treatments. Needles are typically placed into points surrounding the painful area, bringing circulation to the area, and helping relieve the stagnation that causes pain and swelling ... she advises him to add more ginger to his food ... plus she gives him some additional herbs and ginseng to mix in with his tea.

As she treats him, Zhu can’t stop talking.

Many ancients ... me included ... believe that these diseases of the mind and body ... including vices ... are introduced into the body and mind through impurities of qi.

What do you think, Yufeng?

Yufeng is twirling some of the needles to increase the stimulation. Then she holds his arm ...

Hmmm ... ‘impurities of qi’ ... it could be ... I just try to return the body’s natural balance of qi ... but since we can’t see or measure the qi, it is difficult to discover any impurities ...

Zhu looks at her touching his arm and shoulder, What are you doing now ... my pulse is down by the wrists...

I am checking your wei qi ... the qi just under the skin which regulates your immune system. ... it seems better now ...

Yufei is listening and he asks Zhu, These ‘impurities of qi’ ... what do you know?

Zhu says, I recall reading ... somewhere ... in one of the ancient books about this ... but I forget now.

Turning to Gonggong, Do you recall reading this?

Gonggong ponders it for a few minutes and shakes his head, No ... but if you are interested, I can do some searching ...

Just then Yufei looks sharply at Yufeng ... they both are thinking the same thing ... the grandmother at Gobekli said something like this ... some darkness in the fabric of life energies ...

Yufei says to Gonggong, Yeah ... we would like that ... I will help you too when I have time ...

Yufeng smiles and adds, Me too... but first, Gonggong come her ... stick out your tongue ...

The older men are mystified by this sudden interest in an off-hand phrase.

But now ...

The thread has been sewn ...

4 Wang Tea Factory

When they get back in town, they go to the Wang tea factory to see the family. Chen and Lanting are fine, the tea business has been good; Lanting sold the tofu business to their aunt in another village ... it was too much to run both businesses and raise two children ... the second child born during their sea voyage.

Chen Anhua finally took the examinations and passed remarkably high but there were no positions open as there has been a flood of graduates passing the exams ... but fewer official jobs for them. But he is fine helping Lanting with the business ... for now.

After the victory over the Kong’s, Anhua stepped up to the task and assumed many new responsibilities ... in the family and in the village.

Madam Wang is getting older but watches the grandchildren and helps as she can. Madam Wang’s new focus is getting Yufeng married but Lanting tells her not to worry.

She is different from us, Mother ... let her be ... Yufei is a good boy and respects her immensely...you have nothing to worry about.

Lanting tries to calm her mother’s concerns.

Ha! You just wait until your children are older ... it is a mother’s duty to worry. she tells her.

But it is more than that ...

What, mother?

The people are talking more ... those two’s lifestyle is affecting others ... some other young people want to make their own lifestyles now ... just like Yufeng and Yufei ... many of the mothers are not happy.

Lanting laughs and hugs her mother.

Tell them to join the 13th century! This is modern times!

Then she asks, How is granny?

Granny is older than the mountains but works with the same energy as someone thirty years younger. Yufeng has noticed a change ... and she’s worried.

Madam Wang shakes her head.

Not well ... I had the Taoist physician look at her and he said her pulse was weak and parts of her body inside were failing. He gave me some medicine, but I don’t think she has long.

Lanting is surprised, Granny? Dying? ... then she shakes her head,

I thought she would live forever ... I never thought ....

Her thoughts drift off, then she says sharply, Yufeng!

Does she know?

Yes ... I told her yesterday ... she is ...

What?

She ... can’t accept it ... she has always been closer to granny than anyone else.

I will talk to her ... Lanting says thinking, "and to Yufei also .... Mother, don’t worry about them, they were destined to be together ... yuan fen ...."

Her mother looks at her questioningly ... so, Lanting adds,

Like one ....

Madam Wang looks at Lanting ... not sure about what she means ... to her, love ... only comes after marriage, after children, and many years living together ... and even then, it is not a oneness ... more of a relationship between two people.

But Lanting knows Yufei and Yufeng are different than others ... Yufeng is her own person, but more so ... she is Yufei’s spirit-mate ... which Lanting doesn’t understand either ...

Yufeng is someone Yufei could talk to anytime about anything and she feels the same... just looking at each other brought joy to their hearts ...

Such friendship surpasses the love between husband and wife... as Lanting well knows now ... her and Chen Anhua’s love is more ... traditional ... satisfying to both, but without the deep inner intenseness of her sister. What the villagers call ming yun.

Meanwhile in Granny’s bedroom, Yufeng is spending more time taking care of her as she is devoted to her grandmother. Ever since she was growing up and the family didn’t have a large house, she and granny slept together, and they have been bonded ever since ... especially during their herbal expeditions into the mountains. Now that granny is declining, Yufeng is confused about the circle of life and death and sometimes the confusion causes her to be depressed.

Everyone tries to cheer her up, but granny is fading and everyone, except Yufeng, has accepted the approaching reality. Even Yufei is unable to break the depression enveloping his spirit mate.

One day, by the stream, he tries to break through...

We have talked about this before you know ...

She tosses a rock into the stream, I know ... it doesn’t make the reality any different though. ... the rock still sinks...

It is still a rock though ... even if it is under the water ...

She doesn’t respond.

The body dies, the spirit doesn’t ... the stream is like the veil ... the rock is just beyond the veil.

But ...

Granny will always be with you ... even if she goes beyond the veil ... she is like the folk myths ... timeless.

She moves closer to him ... and to change the subject.

Lanting says mom is pushing for us to get married.

He looks at her, and feigns distress, What? Now I am depressed!

She laughs and pinches him, You rascal ... do you think I am going to wait forever for you to awaken?

They both laugh and start to return home.... two clouds have passed ... for now.

But when they get up, she looks at the ground near the stream ... strange ... she thinks ... only one shadow ...

She looks at him and asks, Have you gone deeper into the void?

He sighs and nods, I didn’t want to tell you ...

Why?

I wasn’t sure if you were ready to try it ... what do you think?

She shrugs, I don’t know ... it is scary sometimes.

What did you sense?

I sensed granny was going across the bridge soon.

She stares at the stream .... sighs ... and stands.

Then she says, Let’s go see granny ...

Okay

From an inscription in a Buddhist temple along the Old Silk Road. The Law of the Buddha is referred to as the ...

‘Dew of Immortality’

5 The Taoist Monk

Elsewhere ... Scorpion comes and goes ... one day he is there at their shop, disguised as a Taoist monk, and then just as quickly he is gone. He likes to stay in the shadows of life ... ‘dead’ in the eyes of the world. To Yufei, he confides that he has been searching for his father, the old warrior.

At Feili’s Herbal Shop, Yufei is discussing this with Yufeng ...

He is still not comfortable in this world. Yufei tells Yufeng in the back of the shop.

Is he still battling his demons? Yufeng asks him.

He nods.

Can’t you help him?

He looks at her in disbelief,

Me? Help Scorpion? I would feel like a mouse warning an elephant not to trip on a twig.

He is your father, and you see things more clearly. He is a good person still ... but he is stuck in a mudhole. You need to show him the lotus.

Lotus?

Yes ... the beautiful flower that rises from the mud.

He is quiet.

He needs to drop the past ... all that he has done and all that has happened.

He thinks ... he will find closure by finding grandpa.

How is that?

I don’t know ... every person has different pieces of their puzzle to put together ... now that he has us, finding grandfather, to him, is an important piece of his puzzle ... but their karma is holding each of them back .... like those compass pointers when put them near each other ... always turn the other way ...

He is like a cat chasing its shadow ...

Just then Pangzi comes in to tell them that there is a new customer at the trading company asking about different goods. Pangzi cautions them to be careful, he doesn’t like the man’s smell.

They walk next door and see a man snooping around the samples.

Unknown to them, it is that same man that spied on them on the river, only now he is disguised as a merchant. He asks about this and that and Yufei deflects his questions ... finally he leaves, and as they watch him walk down the path along the canal, Yufei tells Pangzi to follow him.

Yufeng holds her nose, Pangzi was right ... he didn’t smell good.

Something bad surrounds that man...

ELSEWHERE IN WUYI ...

At Tingzhen’s plantation ... although many of the tea growers in her village grow a white tea, she has started growing the green tea and selling it to Lanting’s company, which processes it and sells it. Monkey is working with her when he is in town, helping in everything ... he loves her and her son, but she still has her demons and can’t handle a relationships with any man.

Monkey and Pangzi (lifelong friends) often get together for a drink and talk about things ... lately, Pangzi notices a certain frustration in Monkey, so he advises his friend,

Give it time ... and give her space ... she will come around some day.

I know ... it is just frustrating to see her in pain and not being able to help. Monkey confides in his friend.

How are the love birds? he asks Pangzi.

Pangzi laughs, They are amazing ... two bodies ... but only one spirit. 

Do you remember on the trail ... that time he stabbed himself?

Monkey nods. Ever since then, they are like one ... it is beautiful ... and scary.

Scary?

It’s not our way.

Our way?

Our culture’s way ...

So what? They are in love. Monkey says.

People talk ... they don’t like it when young people make their own decisions.

What people?

The grannies at the market.

Monkey laughs, Are you listening to the grannies? What happened to my fierce blood brother? Did you bump your head?

Pangzi smiles, You are right, but the grannies say what other people think ... I just worry about them.

Everyone that knows them, worries for them ... everything will be okay. Monkey reassures his friend.

MEANWHILE LANTING IS having a chat with her old friend Tingzhen ...

Tingzhen ... these negative thoughts are like clouds; they have come to you ... but they do not belong to you. Every thought comes from the outside. Like clouds wandering in the sky ... sometimes there are so many clouds, the sky disappears; however, if you pay attention to the sky, the clouds come and go. Sadness and anger arise ... like a cloud. You need to just change your focus from the clouds (negative thoughts) to the sky (clear mind) ... it is just a matter of focusing correctly. The clouds are not you and they cannot dominate you.

When you mind starts to wander, don't try to stop it, just become aware of the sky.

The arising of thoughts is sickness; not continuing them is medicine.

SOME PEOPLE THOUGH get used to dwelling in self-pity ... Tingzhen is one of them.

Tingzhen, you need to stay busy ... like when you helped during the epidemic ...

Tingzhen pretends to be knitting ...

Lanting tells her, Monkey can help you get your house and plantations in shape ... and be a protector. Let him help.

I don’t know ... I am not ready for what he wants....

Don’t think about that ... just be happy now ... you need someone to help you and Monkey’s always happy.

Maybe ...

Monkey just arrives and overhears part of the conversation ... he likes that word, ‘protector’.

He calls inside, Hi Tingzhen ... Hi, Miss Lanting ... I am back if you need anything ... I was just picking up some tools that Pangzi borrowed.

Tingzhen tells Lanting, Pangzi is always borrowing tools from Monkey and not returning them ... once I asked him why he never says anything to him ... he told me ... he saved my life once...

MEANWHILE IN QUANZHOU ...

Like many of the reform ministers, Lord Chen has returned home to Quanzhou where he takes more interest in the family business and the Medical Bureau affairs. Like Zhu Xi, official duties are part of the scholar’s role in society, but a troublesome duty most of the time ... so this respite from all the backstabbing and corruption in the capital is not at all unwelcomed.

Chen Yi is Prefect (cishi) of Quanzhou and now the government has added more counties to his oversight ... Xiamen & TongAn and that part of the