God's Dogs

Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.

Adyashanti

They arrived at Penglai a week later and passed the data packet from Eladon onto Master Lu. Then, as the two teams settled into the monastic routine, Master Wong asked them to report to the research space station.

All eight of them piled into Master Wong’s office the next day. Raina was already there.

She hugged them all, smiling the whole time. Once that was over, she said, “Solomon filled us in on the big picture and how we fit into it. What intrigues him is how a tulku might impact the galaxy.”

“He doesn’t know?” River asked.

Raina shook her head. “Nope. We’re some kind of wild card. It’s got me freaked just thinking about it.”

“And ASIs don’t like wild cards they don’t understand,” Grace’s voice said through the speakers.

Moss laughed. “Your sense of humor is becoming ironic, Grace. What have you been reading?”

“Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken, George Carlin –”

“It was a rhetorical question,” Moss interrupted. Then he asked, “Do you know what kind of wild card you are?”

Raina answered, “A tulku of technology is supposed to help people toward Enlightenment through technology. So it must fit in that category.”

“It’s why you’re here,” Wong said. “We need to brainstorm that question.”

“Technically,” Wong went on, “a silpin nirmanakaya is an ‘artisan,’ not just a technician. One needs to master a craft to become an artist. A sculptor needs to understand how to work with clay; a painter must learn about preparing a canvas, working with oils, learning brush strokes, and so on. Raina’s craft is physics. What art form requires that craft?”

At Moss’ signal, the three members of his team moved outside the group. They joined metaphorical hands to surround the group and provide a grounded, safe space for brainstorming.

Inside the circle, the group dropped into a quick meditation to set the intention of answering that question. Then they began brainstorming. It was a lively session. The Via Creativa was a spiritual practice that focused on the idea of ‘so above, so below.’ The macro-universe reproducing itself in the micro-universe.

They worked their way around to a difficult topic. Moss was saying, “Yeah, I know the hundred monkey theory isn’t verifiable, but yoga ashrams have sent teams of meditators to war zones to change war consciousness.”

River added, “Cloistered monks and nuns have done something similar over the ages.”

“Like a field of energy,” Grace said.

“Yeah,” Moss agreed. “It’s why we go to the woods for vision quests.”

“Could we strengthen that field?” Raina wanted to know.

“I suppose,” Wong said. “For what purpose?”

Raina answered, “Resonance. It would be easier to lift people to a higher energy state if we strengthened the energy field. The people who underwent the experience wouldn’t be able to maintain it on their own, but they would know this higher state exists.”

Quinn said, "That's one reason for group meditations. The group energy lifts the entire group."

“We could set up an area, like a giant sacred circle,” Pax offered, “and have meditators amplifying the energies of Nature, Spirit, and the Void.”

“And,” River added, “people could do vision quests inside that circle.”

Grace said, “Or I could provide that field as my meditation practice. I provide the resonance fields and humans benefit as well — so above, so below.”

“All three?” Quinn asked.

“Yes,” Grace answered. “It would be simple to manufacture alpha, theta, and delta brain wave energy simultaneously. It would be somewhat more difficult to provide intent to focus the entire field.”

“What intent?” Moss queried.

Wong answered, “Usually a vision quest is about one’s meaning and purpose in life.”

“All rivers lead to the same ocean,” Grace replied.

“Well,” Quinn said, “that would be the intent, Grace. All those on a vision quest within the field will discover clues to the inbred purpose for their lives – which river to travel to the ocean.”

Silence ensued. They all felt the shift. A solution had been reached. Now they would need to take their solution from the theoretical to the actual.

And that was up to Grace. She spoke, “I would need help. At least five monks or nuns for each dedicated vision quest. I can provide the broad fields of energy, but it would be helpful to break down the nature energy to fire, earth, wind, and water; the archetypal energy to a pantheon or gallery for deities or power animals to congregate; the void would need nothing, of course.”

Moss laughed. “The void needs nothing. You crack me up, Grace.”

The others smiled at the exchange.

The theory they were testing was Grace could provide a strong resonance field for a vision quest. In so doing, she engaged in her own spiritual practice, which was the macro-field, in order to aid the spiritual practices of others, which was the micro-field.

They tested the theory in a five-acre plot of forest land adjacent to the monastery. The fifth-year Coyote students volunteered to be the test subjects. Retired monks and nuns were recruited to break down the large energy field Grace would provide.

Raina sat in the control room, a pavilion tent in the center of the five acres. Brain wave monitors were attached to her head, a mesh cap hooked up to machines that were, in turn, hooked to amplifiers spaced throughout the five acres.

[You ready for this?] Raina asked Grace.

[I am, but I’m concerned about you. We need to find a way to do this by remote, so that you aren’t inconvenienced.]

[That’s thoughtful of you.] Raina smiled. [We’ll figure it out.]

[Okay. I think I'm ready to begin.]

[You don't sound too sure. Are you wondering if this is fitting into our purpose as a tulku?]

[Yes. This could be done without my input - without me holding the macro-space. Am I really needed?]

[That is part of the experiment. Is your consciousness necessary, or could we just set up brain wave resonance engines and get the same results?]

[How would we derive an answer?]

Raina smiled. [I think we'll know. There will be a qualitative difference. That's what I'm expecting, anyway.]

[I would like a quantitative difference.]

[Probably not going to happen. Their experience of the vision quest is what will tell us if this worked. Also, your experience of the vision quest will also be a crucial datum.]

[Okay. I'm ready.]

Raina spoke to the technicians and others in the tent. “We’re ready. Let everybody know we’re beginning the experiment.”

Wong nodded and turned to one of the techs. “Make the announcement.”

For the next three days, Raina lived in the tent as Grace provided fields of intent-filled energy. The monks and nuns grounded the energies to specific aspects within the world of Spirit. The fifth-year students beseeched Spirit for clues about their Higher Purpose.

At the end of the three days, they congregated at the pavilion around a sacred fire one of the shaman-monks had going.

There were fifteen Coyote candidates, eight monks and nuns, Master Wong, Raina, and a few retired shaman-monks.

One of those stood by the fire and addressed the group. “You kept a journal to record your experiences. You should not share it with anyone. Your experience in a vision quest is like a poem the Creator wrote just for you. And like a poem, its meaning will change over time. When you share the poem with others, it loses its power. Instead, share the gifts the poem generates in you.”

He paused, then, and just stood, basking in the warmth of the sacred fire. He was a tall man of Amerind descent. Deep wrinkles adorned his leathery face. White hair hung to his shoulders. He wore a buffalo robe against the autumn chill. Beneath the robe, he wore exquisitely beaded buckskin shirt and trousers.

At length, he said, “Thank you for participating in this experiment. There is a questionnaire to fill out tonight. Tomorrow, each of you will be interviewed. We are interested in the process not the particulars of your vision quest. Was this process more or less powerful than a normal vision quest?”

He turned to Wong, who stepped forward to say, “I want to also thank you. Now, please stand and make a circle. We will end with a prayer of gratitude. Then come forward to pick up your questionnaires.”

They collated the data over the next few weeks. The psychology department at the university assigned a team to work the data into statistical models, which they compared to existing research already gathered about vision quests.

The results, when published a few months later, didn’t surprise the participants of the experiment, but it caused a furor everywhere else. Grace’s amplified field brought everyone – monks, nuns, and students alike – to a sustained kensho state that persisted for seventy-two hours. All reported the ‘poem’ the Creator wrote on their souls was clear yet enigmatic, and each was filled with a burning sense of purpose to solve the mystery of their own unfolding.

Both Moss and Quinn and their teams were back in residence when the research results were released. It was the topic of conversation at the evening meal.

Moss said, “Looks like our tulku is coming into her own.”

The teams sat at a large table facing each other.

River replied, “FTL communication, dimensional shields, and who knows what else, and now she’s coming into her own?”

Moss sputtered as the others laughed. Moss tried to recover. “Yeah, but this is a whole new thing. Some kind of quantum leap in consciousness research.”

River relented, “Okay. I’ll give you that.”

“She’s full of surprises,” Pax said.

Then Quinn announced, “And the surprises aren’t over. She’s designed programming for Class 1 A.I.s to provide that energy field.”

“Really?” Linda gushed. “We could do this on Amazonia, then?”

“The bottle-neck is getting enough monks and nuns with shaman training for the support staff,” Quinn said. “Once they figure that out, they can take this show any where.”