My son David recently rediscovered a paper he wrote in college comparing King Arthur of Great Britain and King Gesar of Ling in Central Asia.  We had several conversations at the time and since then we have had more discussions about the way these two legends helped guide and mold their respective civilizations. Many of our discussions occurred during the years I was writing Windhorse Warrior, a novel about Eastern Tibet during the Chinese Communist invasion and occupation.  In my novel the story of King Gesar inspires a small group of people to create a socioeconomic structure based on Buddhist and true Communist principles that would provide an alternative to what was being forced upon the Tibetan people. Besides promoting my novel I hope this, and following posts, can help the West discover and understand King Gesar and the East, King Arthur.

The legend of King Gesar is an orally transmitted epic poem. The verse of the songs and opera performances were not written down until the late 19th or early 20th Centuries. The legend still has significance among Tibetans, both in exile and those still in Tibet, and among the people of Mongolia, Tuva, Buryatia, Kalmyk and other Buddhist groups in Central Asia. The story is kept ‘alive’ by bards who enter a shamanic trance, visit Gesar’s time and place, the Kingdom of Ling, and recite the legend from first-hand experience. The female or male bard observes and gives voice to the activities of Gesar and his warriors and courtiers in their separate reality though at the present moment. In this way the story deepens and evolves with each bardic visitor. Each one sees and understands some unique part of the mythic motif of ‘once upon a time, far, far away’ which magically unifies the present with the past and future, the eternal now.

Literary accounts of King Arthur began before the 9th Century but it is likely these were preceded by an oral tradition transmitted from generation to generation and place to place by Celtic bards and perhaps the Druids themselves who kept ‘alive’ a legend of a warrior king who embodied their highest ideals. We might assume that they did so in the same way as the shamanic bards of Central Asia: by ‘spirit journeys’ into a parallel world. We can assume this because shamanic methods of spirit journey are universal and thousands of years old.

There are Celtic mythological roots to stories of Arthur and Merlin throughout Britain, Wales, Ireland and Britany including tales of Merlin involved in the creation of Stonehenge. If so, these stories go back at least 4000 or 5000 years. The Celts developed an extensive empire that, by 200 BC, reached across Britain, northern France and into the Italian peninsula. They were eventually conquered by the Romans in the 1st Century BC. This began a period of Roman and Christian influence over the Celtic culture.

Historians believe there never was a British king named Arthur but his name first appears in an account of British history written by Nennius, a 9th Century monk. He wrote of King Arthur as victorious over the Roman empire in the 2nd Century BC while also waging a 5th Century war on the Saxons. The name Arthur appears in this account because Nennius needed “the Welsh-sounding name to add focus to what was principally a political treatise” (Scott-Robinson). By using the name of a well know mythological hero of Welsh epic poetry, Nennius added deep significance to his fanciful history. In the 12th Century Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ and further embellished Nennius’ account. This book “owes a great deal to Geoffrey’s fertile imagination” (Scott-Robinson).

Thus an earlier bardic legend of Arthur, a heroic war leader, was co-opted and modified to fit political intentions and contemporary cultural values. By the time novels were written and printed for the literate noble class in the 15th Century, Arthur had become more of a figurehead while the real action of the stories centered on his knights. Western civilization was changing; the individual began to take center stage rather than the collective represented by the King.

By this time, too, creative imagination was the novelist’s tool instead of shamanic spiritual journey. The modern writer imagines his or her own world and shares it with the reader or audience through text or screen. Culturally popular stories such as Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings, Narnia or Harry Potter evoke an alternative world ‘in a galaxy far, far away’ or just through the wardrobe. A good writer or director enables us to participate in other worlds of the imagination but seldom enter, like a shamanic bard, the “zone unknown,” as Joseph Campbell called it. Gifted writers, nevertheless, if they are open to the muse, can tap into mythic truth* and a good listener can participate in the imaginative journey ‘further in and higher up’ into Narnia.

Over the past seven to five hundred years, the ability to have direct access to deeper realms of spiritual insight has faded away from industrializing societies. The result is that today stories of King Arthur are nearly unrecognizable as a spiritually or socially uplifting saga. For example, a recent movie about King Arthur (http://kingarthurmovie.com) is an action film presenting a tumultuous Camelot with characters mirroring the violent, competitive, self-serving values of our patristic system. There remains not a shred of the ideal good king who created an ‘enlightened society’ in which all the people could thrive. As the global ‘babylon’ of self-centered consumerism continues to expand its reach, the legend of King Arthur will continue to succumb to this erosion. And even the legend of King Gesar, as it catches on and is translated into Communist Chinese culture, will experience a similar erosion.

I have some questions that are open to discussion: If these old epic legends are the result of spiritual journeys, how do shamanic bards tapped into the same inner landscapes, heroic personalities, and events? Are Camelot and Ling actual places in a parallel world? Or is it the power of suggestions; one bard follows another’s lead in describing the place and events? And what about the modern novelist or screenwriter; would their stories about Camelot differ from what we are given to read and watch now if they could cross into that parallel world through shamanic trance?

Shamans held places of importance in early societies. In many places in the world today she or he is someone who walks with one foot in the everyday world and the other foot in the spirit world.  Epic legends, including Arthur’s and Gesar’s, are told by shaman to remind the community that all life is a manifestation of a greater Reality. They remind people that they are interdependent and filled with the capacity to know Reality directly. They guide the community in the ethic of universal justice and compassion toward all beings. Both King Arthur and King Gesar manifested what it is to be fully human; fully awakened, compassionate beings.

I am exploring these two legends because I feel it is important that we maintain contact with the spiritual insights of the ancients. The legend of Gesar, and most likely the early oral accounts of Arthur, carry values and wisdom teachings that go back over 50,000 years into our past and, as the protagonists in Windhorse Warrior discover, the Legend of King Gesar holds a key to helping us establish an ‘enlightened society’ and overcome our current environmental and social crises.

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Quotes from:’ The Old Religion of Britain, Weird Tales from the Middle Ages,’ Richard Scott-Robinson: http://www.eleusinianm.co.uk/Arthur/wt1arthur.html

Other resource: The Epic of Gesar of Ling: Gesar’s Magical Birth, Early Years, and Coronation as King, translated by Robin Kornman, Sangye Khandro, and Lama Chonam, 2015

*If ‘mythic truth’ strikes you as an oxymoron you have clearly been duped by the current cultural system that is out of touch with ancient wisdom. A ‘myth’ is not a fantasy nor is it a false belief. Used in the sense of this article, it refers to archetypal stories that communicate universal facts about our selves and our world.

The main female character in “Windhorse Warrior,” the historical novel to be released in 2018, is a Tibetan woman named Dechen.  The name means ‘great happiness’ and, of course, she brings great happiness to all the people who know her.

Educated outside of Tibet in Darjeeling, India at a Catholic school and going on to study in America, she returns to her home town in Kham to discover she no longer fits in.  Among her troubles when she returns is her father’s wish for her to marry a local young man.  She finds few people she can relate to and eventually returns to Kalimpong, near where she went to school, where her uncle, Palden Rinpoche, is a much loved spiritual teacher.  With her uncle’s encouragement, Dechen begins to study her spiritual heritage, something she had neglected during her many years as a scholar in Western schools.

You will have to read the novel to find out the rest of the story but I wanted to introduce you to someone who inspired the character of Dechen.  Below are two short videos that feature Dolma, a Tibetan woman who runs a motel in Bamei, Kham.

The first video is about our visit there to see her:

Below Dolma sings a song called “White Crane, Lend Me Your Wings.”  It is from a poem written by the Sixth Dalai Lama to say where he would be reincarnated.  It goes “White crane, white crane; lend me your wings.  I won’t fly far. I’ll return from Lithang.”

Dechen’s singing is an important part of the story.  She becomes a ‘drungma’ or shamanic bard who sings and recites from the epic poem about King Gesar of Ling.

For a synopsis of Windhorse Warrior see the previous post.

We arrived in Kathmandu on Wednesday night, May 7, just before 9:00 local time. It was 11:30 before we got our baggage and walked out of Tribhuvan International Airport. We were met by CRI and taken to a Christian guest house for the night. All of us slept in the same room. Beds were comfortable and it was wonderful to stretch out after more than 20 hours in three different aircraft. The fan rattled badly but David found a way to fix it. It was very hot; we needed that fan! The Internet didn’t work but we wanted sleep!

In the morning we were told we were being deployed to Sindhupalchowk. There was no discussion, no suggestion that we might have an idea where our skills would be most useful. As a group we decided to see where this might lead and proceeded to load a couple pickup trucks with our stuff along with some bags of rice and instant noodles (Wai Wai). We went shopping in Patan for more supplies. First stop happened to be near Patan Darbar Square where several ancient structures had colpased. The clean up had begun and we were not allowed in the area. Nearby we were able to buy plastic buckets with lids for the Swayer water filter kits, a couple cooking pots and bowls for ourselves, snacks, oatmeal and coffee. Later we stopped to pick up several more bags of rice. Both trucks were quite full. The last stop before heading out of the Kathmandu valley was to buy SIM cards for our phones that would work in Nepal.

Hannah, a Nepali Christian girl, came with us as a translator for CRI personnel in Sindhupalchowk.  There were also two hired drivers with trucks that belonged to a church in Kathmandu. One truck had “Jesuse Love You” in English across the front windscreen.

David’s Nepali was coming back. It is quite amazing how the mind digs up the words when you’re in context. He did a lot of the negotiating in the shops. It was fun to watch!

As we drove around Kathmandu we noticed that the city was very much back to normal. We saw evidence of collapsed walls along streets, but most had been cleared away. Traffic seemed light. We speculated that many vehicles were outside the valley either taking people out of the valley or were being used to transport relief supplies. Shops were open and many people seemed to be living inside again. People were going to work. As Robert Frost said ‘Life goes on’.

Outside the city, as we drove east, we didn’t see much damage initially. We travelled down to the Sun Kosi River and then north along this river toward Kodari, at the Chinese border. The farther we travelled up the river, the steeper the sides of the valley became and we saw more damage to houses, landslides and boulders hanging precariously.

Ghost town along the road

At 3:00 we reached our destination – Chaku, a series of houses along the road. When we got out of the trucks we had no idea where we were supposed to go or who would meet us. As we stood waiting for phone contact, we noticed that it was basically a ghost town.

Soon a small group of foreigners came up a side road from the rest of the village. They welcomed us as part of the CRI team and showed us where to park the trucks. The houses along the road, they said, had been abandoned. Their owners had returned to villages high up in the mountains because they felt safer up their away from the possibility of landslides in the steep slopes by the river. What many of them found on returning to their villages, however, was that their village homes had collapsed. But on higher ground they could, at least, set up temporary shelter in open ground and they could take care of their animals and fields. Many villagers rented or build houses for shops of some kind along the roads where members of the family could generate cash income. Those who stay back in the villages continued farming and raising animals.

The lower part of Chaku village where the original residents live.

The CRI team of three women and four men had been in the village 5 days. Among them was a nurse, two young EMTs from Texas, a volunteer firefighter from Virginia, and three who called themselves CRI co-leaders. Soon after we unloaded the trucks we had a meeting at the local church, one of the only buildings in reasonably good condition since it had recently been build of concrete and rebar. We heard that they had re-established a water supply for the remaining villagers, the original settlers of the area who had lived here before the motor road had been built. Their settlement was below the road on an extended ridge between two streams.

It soon became clear that the CRI team had not done much and the primary focus of the co-leaders was to work with the pastor of local churches in this and surrounding villages. They were waiting for the pastor of the local church to return from visiting other churches so they could assess needs. We were told we would not be able to visit any other villages unless we were invited by its local church, that the pastor of that church accompanied us and one of the CRI co-leaders also accompanied us. We took this information in silently but we each realized it was going to be difficult finding a way to use the energy we had brought to this place.

After this meeting we newcomers were invited to set up camp in a field next to the one the others were camped in. It was well away from any houses and also away from the danger of landslides and falling boulders. After pitching the tents we walked around the village to assess damaged houses. David and I talked with several local people. Because of our language ability, we immediately established a rapport and learned that the primary need was for a clinic. Even though seriously injured people had been transported out to hospitals by road, others needed dressings changed or had various “routine” complaints. We discovered there was a local pharmacy but no villagers had cash to buy needed medicines. There were no real medical emergencies here any longer. The people would need continuing medical attention the longer they stayed in temporary shelters.

After an aftershock that evening the top corner was even more precarious.

There were several houses posing a critical danger along the street. Walls could collapse at any time. We debated the risks of brining them down completely. We spoke to the owners who were eager for us to do what we could. Standing as they were was of no use to them; they were too dangerous to enter and posed a danger to everyone until they collapsed completely.

We thought we could bring one house down relatively safely. There were no buildings below it but on a closer look we noticed a row of houses was leaning against it. We could not speak with the owners of these building because they had left the village. We could not proceed without their permission.

One thing we were able to do was distribute five Sawyer water filters to family groups camped in open spaces away from the broken buildings. We put a hole in the side of five buckets and fit the filters. When we set them up we made be sure the women knew how to use and clean them.

Demonstrating a Sawyer water filter.

That evening after a meal prepared for us by the local church, the three CRI co-leaders called a meeting. This consisted of twenty minutes of singing songs, praying and then sharing what we had done that day. It became clear to us that the leadership really had no idea of what to do; they were completely reliant on the local pastor who was away. During that meeting we were not consulted nor were we encouraged to present any ideas we might have had. We felt frustrated. Later that evening, after discussing amongst ourselves, we met with the co-leaders to ask directly what we would be able to do. We suggested visiting other villages and setting up a medical clinic but these ideas were not encouraged. We were told that since the following day was a Saturday, the day of rest and worship for the local church, we would be required to respect this situation. We would be expected to attend the church service and stay in the village. We would have to wait for the pastor to return. The ineffective leadership frustrated us and we decided to discontinue our relationship with CRI and go with our original intention to work in Gorkha district. We realized CRI really had no track record in Nepal and no real understanding of the culture or situation of the people.

Loaded for the return journey.

The next morning we packed and loaded up a truck. Our exodus sparked three others to leave, too. The two Texans and the Virginian who had come with the CRI team were as frustrated as we were. Besides setting up the water supply system and helping people remove belongings out of the rubble of their houses, these young people had done nothing for five days. They wanted to join our group.

I called Tulsi Gyawali, my travel agent friend in Kathmandu with Nepal Sanctuary Treks, to send a van to meet us in Barabese, about an hour’s drive down the valley. There were too many of us to go in the pick up truck so it made two trips to Barabese. Our original group went first then it returned for the Texans and Virginian.

We all arrived in Kathmandu in the late afternoon. David and I went to our friend’s place while the rest went to an Air B&B that Heather Knight arranged. Ron Hess and Cheryl Groff, our friends from my childhood at Woodstock School in India, live in a very nice, strong house that had survived every earthquake and tremor so far without a crack. We felt safe and they fed us a great meal. After showing David around our old neighborhood in Sanepa, Ron showed me the UN coordination website that list every village area in the effected areas. Each cluster group oversees health or shelter or food distribution. NGOs are assigned to operate in different districts. In effect, it showed that the UN had taken over the job of coordinating relief and rebuilding efforts by working with the Government of Nepal. We later had first hand experience of this process.

What we learned from this experience was that working with NGOs that had little or not track record in the country was both ineffective and inappropriate. It is important to connect with established NGOs such as World Vision, Mercy Corps, Save the Children. Making contact with the government also gives legitimacy at the local level to your presence in rural areas. From what we observed, CRI wanted to work only through the Nepali Church.

It is now a week after the 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal. The Indian subcontinent is said to have moved 10 feet northward. Parts of Nepal rose 3 feet while Mt. Everest is 1 inch lower. Kathmandu moved 10 feet south and rose 3 feet. The Indian subcontinent continues to collide with Eurasia. It is sliding under and raising up the Tibetan plateau. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake was a related event.  A 9 on the Ritcher scale had/has been predicted. The last ‘big one’ in Nepal was 1934. There is an 80 cycle; a blink of an eye for Gaia.

That’s the geophysics. In the biosphere, though the loss of life and property is colossal, it could have been much worse. Taking place at midday on a Saturday was most fortunate. People were not in offices and schools. Most people were able to get out of their homes and shops in the cities and towns. Christians, however, were crowded in churches. There are reports of congregations trapped in collapsed buildings. In the countryside, it is a different story. Like the epicenter at Barpak, Gorkha District, most villages effected are on the sides of high mountains. Many an entire village was whipped away by landslides; roads were taken out or covered over, streams dammed. Grazing cattle were killed by falling rocks or collapsing makeshift shelters of stone. Spring rains have brought misery at night, muddy roads, and more danger of landslides and swollen rivers but there is a positive side to the extra heavy rains this year. It is usually very dry, dusty and hot in May and early June. Temperatures are lower, water tanks are not empty and reservoirs have not dried up. This year the planting season has been extended.

Though the situation is not as bleak as originally expected, there are still many people suffering. They are sleeping without proper shelter, many are injured and food is scarce. In situations like this it is the poor who are affected most. The homes of the rich are stronger and still standing. Many people in Nepal recognize this and have begun sharing what they have with their neighbors and are organizing teams to take temporary shelter and food to villages outside Kathmandu. It is wonderful to see this happening.

I will be going to Nepal this Tuesday, May 5, with four firefighters from Portland, OR.  Our son, David, is one of them. He has a heart for Nepal, as I do. He lived there as a child from age 4 until he was 14. Suzanne and I went to Nepal in 1981. David was 4 years old, his brother Ethan was just 2. A year later our daughter Elizabeth was born in Pokhara. We lived in Pokhara for six years and for four years in Kathmandu until 1991.

In Pokhara, 1983 – Elizabeth 1, Ethan 4, David 6.

I have a much longer history with Nepal. I first went there in 1954. I was seven. My father, Dr. Carl Friedericks, started a hospital in Tansen, Palpa District to the south of Pokhara, at the invitation of the Governor of Palpa and the Government of Nepal. The hospital is still running and is very busy now as one of the destinations for helicopters to take the most seriously injured people from remote villages. It is crowded with hundreds of patients. Please see Dr. Rebecca MacAteer’s blog about her involvement. She is currently one of the doctors in Tansen.

My work in Nepal between 1981 and 1991 was to create health education media of all kinds to raise awareness about medical treatment for leprosy and a variety of community health and development issues. Since 2009, as a media teacher at Hong Kong International School, I have taken groups of high school students to Pokhara yearly to build awareness of Nepal and it’s needs. In this way I have kept up my involvement with Nepali people and my language skills.

The goal of our small group of firefighters and me, the Nepali language interpreter, is to take relief supplies and go to Pokhara. Once there we will connect with the Rotary Club of Pokhara Annapurna through my friend Kiran Lal Shrestha. The club is organizing 1500 “bucket packs” to send to villagers in need. They have also arranged for Kolkata Rotary in India to supply 1500 “shelter boxes” which the Indian Army is delivering to the Nepal border. Then the Nepal Army is transporting them from the border to villages in the high mountains. Kiran will help us connect with groups going into the mountains with these supplies. We will offer help in setting up shelters, distributing food, and treating injuries.

We are being sponsored by Crisis Relief International (CRI) and we have been raising funds through Firefighters For Nepal Fund. Please donate to either of these groups.

I will do my best, given access to the Internet, power for charging devices, and time, to keep you aware of what is happening while we are in Nepal.

This story is from Richard Smoley’s The Dice Game of Shiva:

One day the embraces of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort, Parvati, who have spent eternity rapt in lovemaking, are interrupted by a sinister yogi named Narada. Narada says he can show them something that is even more delightful than love. It is a game of dice – an ancestor of today’s Parcheesi.

Intrigued by his offer, the divine couple begin to play. Each of them cheats as much as possible, but no matter how long they play, the outcome is always the same: Shiva loses and Parvati wins. Shiva may have the advantage for a round or two, but he can never win a game.

At one point Shiva is ahead; he has won a couple of Parvati’s jewels, enraging her to the point of refusing to play. Noticing that the angrier she grows, the more beautiful she becomes, he coaxes her into continuing. Parvati agrees to play if Shiva will wager his chief attributes: his trident, the crescent moon, and a pair of earrings.

Of course Shiva plays and loses. He refuses to accept this fact; after all, he is Shiva, the lord of the universe. “No living being can overcome me,” he tells her. She replies, “No living being can overcome you, it’s true – except me.” Out of spite she leaves him. She takes not only the trident and the crescent moon and the earrings but the pair of snakes that encircled his neck. She even takes his last item of clothing – his loincloth – leaving him completely naked.

Shiva is not troubled by this outcome. He withdraws to the wilderness and leads the life of an ascetic, free from the preoccupations of the world, meditating in solitary peace. Parvati, on the other hand, suddenly feels lonely and frustrated without him. Intent on winning him back, she takes the form of a lovely tribeswoman (an untouchable in the Hindu caste system) with red lips, a graceful neck, and magnificent full breasts. She is so beautiful that even the bees in the forest are overcome with desire.

Shiva, roused from his meditation by the noise of the bees, sees Parvati in the guise of the tribeswoman and is overcome with desire for her. Coquettishly she says, “I am looking for a husband who is omniscient, who is free and fulfills all needs, who is free of mutations and is the lord of the worlds.”

Shiva says, “I am that one.”

Parvati replies, “You shouldn’t talk to me that way. I happen to know that you have a wife who won your devotion by many austerities, and you left her in a flash. Besides, you are an ascetic, living free of duality.”

“Even so, I want you.”

Parvati says that he must ask permission of her father, Himalaya, the lord of the mountain range. Shiva approaches him, but Himalaya says, “This is not right. You should not be asking me. You are the one who gives everything in all the worlds.”

At this point Narada reappears and tells Shiva, “Listen. Infatuation with women always leads to mockery.”

“You’re right,” Shiva replies. “I have been a fool.” And Shiva withdraws to a remote part of the the universe where even yogis cannot go.

At this point Narada convinces Parvati and Himalaya to implore Shiva to return, and they do so by praising him lavishly. Mollified, Shiva comes back, and he and Parvati resume their reign in unity.

Rather than a morality tale about avoiding greed and lust, it is necessary to dig deeper than conventional thinking to discover the meaning of this story about Shiva and Parvati. As Smoley explains in the rest of the book, Shiva represents purusha, the Hindu term for the cosmic, universal Self, and represents that part of our being which is the constant observer, witness to all that we experience. His lover and partner is Parvati, the goddess who represents all that is experienced. She is prakriti or samsara; she is also the shakti or energy of the universe in all its dualistic aspects.

Myths are an anthropomorphic way of explaining truths about reality. The story begins with Shiva and Parvati rapt in everlasting, oblivious unity. Their unity represents the eternal unity of all Being before, during, and after the existence of all universes. The sudden introduction of Narada into their sphere seems odd at first but this makes sense if Narada represents something like the first hint of objective awareness, an awareness of each other as separate beings and the flickering of desire of Lover for Beloved.

Narada proceeds to separate them further by introducing a game of dice, a game that represents the game of life itself. The desire between Shiva and Parvati continues, of course, but it is playful while they both cheat as much as they can. Eventually Shiva manages to win a few of Parvati’s jewels. This angers Parvati but the more angry she gets, the more beautiful she becomes and Shiva’s desire for her increases. She wants to quit the game but Shiva coaxes her to continue.

Parvati agrees to keep playing if Shiva will wager his trident, the crescent moon he wears in his hair and a pair of earrings. This is where some can be led astray in their interpretation of the story. These are Shiva’s attributes rather than his material possessions. Parvati is completely caught up in the game and manages to literally strip Shiva of everything. All Shiva is left with is himself, his pure being. Now the complete separation of Shiva from Parvati, of purusha and prakriti is achieved; they are caught up a dualistic worldview and regard themselves as separated. This separation is represented by Shiva going off, unconcernedly, to the wilderness. Free of prakriti, he is able to meditate without distraction. This is the image we have of the traditional hermetic yogi; to escape the world and meditate in a cave high in the mountains somewhere. This is the classic image of Shiva, the ascetic yogi who meditates blissfully awareness only of his own being. He turns away from Parvati, prakriti – the entire created universe.

But Parvati is not enjoying her own freedom. She realizes too late what has happened; she had focused her attention on what she could win rather than on Shiva himself. Suddenly she finds no joy in life without Shiva. She is depressed, distraught. This is our own condition. We are creatures caught up in the dice game of existence. We are unhappy even though we win the game and enjoy the spoils.

In a desperate attempt to regain Shiva’s loving attention, Parvati takes the form of a beguiling tribeswoman who is so beautiful the bees of the forest are aroused. Shiva is distracted from his meditation by the buzzing of the bees. He opens his eyes and sees the beautiful woman and immediately wants her.  Because Shiva sits in a cave in the wilderness, he is not entirely removed from the world. The world can still distract him as indicated by the bees and the beautiful tribeswoman. Separation from Parvati is actually incomplete; escape from duality is not fully achieved.

Shiva cannot disagree with the tribeswoman’s description of his true nature. When Shiva acknowledges her flattery, she chides him and tells him he’s a liar and a cheat since he has a wife whom he left to live as an ascetic. But Shiva is not dissuaded; he still wants her. Parvati, as the tribeswoman, tells Shiva he must ask her father, Himalaya, for permission to marry her.

When Shiva, filled with desire for the tribeswoman, approaches Himalaya, the man of the mountain ranges reminds Shiva who he is. Shiva is Lord of the Universe, after all, and can do as he pleases.

At this point Narada, perhaps realizing the trouble he’s caused, enters the story once again. What he says does indeed sound very moralistic. “Infatuation with women always leads to mockery.” In the context of the rest of the story it serves to remind Shiva that he’s been distracted from the state of non-duality. And Shiva’s response is exactly to this point. He agrees with Narada and withdraws once again. This time he doesn’t go to a cave in the wilderness but “to a remote part of the the universe where even yogis cannot go.” It must be a place far removed from any hint of duality; a place where he successfully achieves true non-duality.

The rest of the story is very short but it is key. It is important to understand it clearly because it indicates the way to true happiness. Narada convinces Parvati and Himalaya to praise Shiva “lavishly.” Parvati and Himalaya, representing the entire created universe, turn their undivided attention toward Shiva in an outpouring of positive thoughts, activities, longings and desire. This corresponds with the Hindu form of religious devotion called bhakti yoga. It is the anthropomorphic way of saying that all of creation, prakriti, lovingly acknowledges the source and center, purusha; of saying that duality emerges from and is sustained in non-duality.

Shiva acknowledges this inseparability of source and creation and returns to Parvati. They reign again in unity but this time they are not rapt in oblivion. Now they are seated side by side representing the enlightened state of being. The game of dice is over, each of them accepts the other, needs the other. Shiva takes his rightful place in the universe with Parvati while Shiva is her within-ness, the aware-ness of every part of the universe from the smallest quantum particle to the largest galaxy. She is finally fulfilled and happy because she accepts and enjoys his sustaining love. Shiva likewise does not remove himself from her devoted adorations. There is no more seeking because there is no separation, no distancing. Lover and Beloved are one. Observer and observed are one. Experiencer and experienced are one. Awareness and object of awareness are one in constant bliss.

She is an ever-changing, all-powerful vortex of energy. He is her center point, her lover and beholder within every vortex spinning the illusion we call matter; he is the conscious center of every vortex! Our own happiness, our enlightenment, depends of a clear understanding and experience of this dynamic. We find fulfillment when we experience the fluctuations of duality from the perspective of permanent non-dual awareness.