The Pathway

For five good years, she had been watching the growing up of her son. Even now, the cruel time was still fleeing from her. Their beautiful moments together seemed to be accelerating away at an exceedingly fast pace. This made her grimaced in sadness.

"Jufeng, it"s now time for you to practice your meditation."

More time, was all she wanted but knew that, more time, she wouldn"t get. She would have to make the best of the present time.

"Yes, that is good. Raise your feet a bit more like this... You now need to continue breathing in and out the way I taught you. Very good. Continue like that until I tell you to stop."

Reena continued watching her son who was sitting down in a lotus position. Eyes closed while breathing in and out like an unborn foetus. He was practicing the astral primal breathing technique. This made her heart to be filled with abundant joy and a bit of sadness. Sadness of the pa.s.sage of time. Oh, how quickly the days pa.s.sed by.

Jufeng was already five. Five!

And he almost looked twice his age which even added to his growing up. He was growing up fast and strong and probably too fast. The amount of Chi in his dantian and his strength level were truly alarming for his age. With this rate of development, his mind would need to be properly nurtured.

For an astrayed mind was a sickness to the body and a danger to the sorroundings.

Due to all these, the whole family made a decision. For the mean time, they would only teach him meditation, basic Chi sensing and farming. They would wait until he was six before teaching him martial arts, mystical arts and cultivation technique. They believed his mind needed to be tempered from a very young age to balance his Chi and strength levels.

The power of the mind could not simply be described. It held the power of imagination, recognition, appreciation and the responsibility for our feelings and emotions which led to our att.i.tudes and actions. The mind was what we truly were while the body was merely the tool.

Thus, tempering the heart would attune it to the way of the universe. A true oneness with the universe, was to stimulate and adjust the mind to embrace its truth. The Dao of the universe, the very dharma of the cosmos, had one simple yet complex truth. And, only a truly enlightened mind could grasp it.

A heart tempered with humility.

A demeanor of humility was exactly what was needed to live in oneness and harmony with oneself and all ent.i.ties. The apprehension of a soul that it had nothing special that made it better than the others.That it was nothing but a grain in an ocean of sand.

The knowledge of the simple fact that it was not even a speck in the universe. This would greatly help the soul towards being one with the universe in the true way.

"With the way he"s growing fast in strength, his heart needs to be framed to be free of pride and arrogance. These two attributes are destructive distractions to all cultivators."

Reena closed her eyes and continued practicing her meditation. As an Asura, she could see what was happening around their hill-cave and the village though not vividly. She could see her son still closing his eyes and breathing in and out in utter concentration. Hence, she decided to leave him for a while to avoid causing any more distractions.

Moments later, they left the cultivation chamber and headed towards the living area.

Aodh was preparing to go to the farm when he saw his daughter and grandson. He was a grandfather. Yes! A grandfather. If he had been asked about being a father, a thousand years ago, he would have answered otherwise. But now, it was a different story. How could he not be happy?

"How"s my grandson doing? Good?"

"Grandpa! Yes, good. I was meditating."

"Brilliant."

Aodh picked up his grandson in a swirl.

"I can"t even stand properly carrying you. Very soon, you will be the one carrying me."

"Grandpa!"

"Hehehe."

Aodh with his head thrown backward, laughed heartily. Afterwards, he turned to his daughter who was also grinning widely.

"How"s my daughter too? "

"I"m well, father. You look great yourself, especially in those old farm clothes."

"What"s better than the joys of a simpler, farming lifestyle?"

He asked smilingly while putting down his grandson.

"The joys of your daughter and grandson?"

"I was only talking about lifestyle Reena, and not my daughter and son."

Aodh answered with a long suffering sigh and shook his head at Reena"s broad happy smile.

"Do you want to follow me to the farm today, Jufeng?"

"Yes, grandpa. I want to go. See you later, mother."

Jufeng happily followed his grandfather outside in the direction of the farm.

"See you too."

She looked at their back and shook her head.

"Time is really moving too fast and he"s growing up even faster. He spends less and less time with me, his mother. He"s no longer his mother"s child alone. Sooner or later, he will have to leave to explore the big world. Oh, life. I need to spend more time with him before then."

Reena looked around the quiet place and went looking for her mother.

Meanwhile.

On the farm, Aodh and his grandson were putting straws over the millet.

"Out here in the farm, I gain more enlightenment into the nature of the universe. Everytime I"m here, I view same thing from different perspective. When you achieve different perspective, you can arrive at a true perspective."

"Jufeng, look at these millet. What do you see?"

"I see crops, grandfather.

"Anything else? I want you to look closely."

"Grains?"

"Mhm. Crops, grains, when you look at their appearance. Now, if you look pa.s.s their appearances, what do you see?"

"Hmmmm, I"m not really sure about that, grandpa."

"Life, Jufeng, life. These crops you see, are living things. When they are planted and nurtured, they grow. After a time, they are harvested to serve as food. Source of life. They live to serve as source of life to the living. When you walk through them, you feel the peace coming from them. But, they never raised their heads towards creation to beat their chests. What do you see from this?"

"Ahh, yes grandpa. I think I understand now. They are lowly?"

"Aha. You are wiser than your age. Yes, humility. It takes an humble mind to open itself to the universe and accept the knowledge of the universe. Yes, we eat the crops but does that mean we are more significant than them? We are all part of one universe and no life is greater than the other. Many things like pride, arrogance, and greed are only diseases to the mind making their clouds shroud the mind from the true nature of the universe."

He beamed inside and continued.

"I am truly blessed to have you as my grandson. Always remember that although this universe is infinite, it values an humble mind."

"Grandpa, I promise, I will always remember."

Aodh stopped mulching the millet, regarded his grandson and smiled.

"Good, that"s my grandson. Now let"s wrap up the work here and check the goats."

They finished doing the remaining work for the day as the sun was disappearing below the horizon and they made their way in the direction of the cave.

After refreshing themselves, they joined Euanthe and Reena for dinner. They surely had enough to eat and plenty goat milk to drink.

"How is your day in the farm with your grandpa?"

Asked Reena as she glanced at her son.

"It was great mother and grandpa taught me many things."

"I trust him to do that. Your grandfather is the wisest man I"ve ever seen. His words are heavenly treasures so don"t ever forget what he taught you. They will surely make you wise in your dealings. Okay, anything you might want to teach me too?"

Reena stared at her son with a wide smile.

"Mother. What can I teach you that you don"t know already? But, I can repeat what grandpa taught me and that"s to be humble."

"Oh yes, you need to be. Before you start thinking you are the primordial king of the universe."

Euanthe laughingly joked as she clutched her chest.

They all laughed heartily

After they had all had their fills of the food and the table had been tidied.

"Jufeng come with me."

"Yes, grandma."

Jufeng walked with her grandmother to the outside of the cave. Euanthe held Jufeng"s hand and with two steps arrived at the top of the knoll. It was a flat top knoll. There were four stone stools placed here. Sometimes, the family would gather here to spend their time together in the grace of nature.

To the front right part of the land was the millet farm, to the front left part was the goat farm, to the small rear right part was the practice area and to the other was the pond.

"I know you"ve been here many times, Jufeng and you have seen the landscape many times. Today I want you to enjoy the scenery in a different way. Your grandfather already taught you about humility. The farms showed you to claim nothing about your talents or any other benefits you have above others but rather consider them to be the grace and gifts of creation."

Euanthe looked at her grandson compa.s.sionately

"There are three things I want you to keep in your mind, Jufeng. Humility, courage and discipline. It takes courage to show humility. Courage to know when you are wrong, courage to ask for help, courage to seek advice, courage to open your heart to learn. Courage to know when, how and why to stand up for yourself and for others. Courage to help you respect the lives of others."

Pointing her finger towards the right side, she continued.
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"Look at the practice area, that is where we train in martial arts and mystical arts. We practice them to be able to defend ourselves and people we care about, still, they are arts that can take lives. It takes courage to NOT take lives of people even your enemies. All lives are precious. Discipline will let you keep these in your mind. You have to discipline your mind not to forget all these, Jufeng."

"Thank you grandma, I won"t forget them, that, I promise."

Moving towards one of the stone stools, Euanthe glanced at her grandson and gestured towards the stools.

"Come and have a seat."

She took out a mug of milk and two cups from her spatial sac. The mug was inscribed with runes to prevent milk from getting spoilt. She filled the two cups and gave one to him.

"Thank you grandma, that"s why I love you."

Said Jufeng with eyes and nose crinkling.

"Aha."

Euanthe grinned widely, her eyes set on her grandson.

"I have a gift for you, Jufeng. I bought it for you in advance before you were born."

She took out the crystal paG.o.da and gave it to her grandson.

"This is beautiful grandma, what is it called?"

Jufeng asked curiously.

"A paG.o.da. PaG.o.das are used for meditation. They calm the mind and frame it for meditation. But, this one is different or told so, anyway. It"s said to be a gate to seven realms. They are filled with different amazing treasures. All you need to do, is to continue meditating in the prescence of the paG.o.da, anywhere you are. And the gate to the seven realms with treasures will open to you."

Jufeng was jawed. He was staring with raised eyebrows at the paG.o.da. He couldn"t believe what he was hearing. Seven realms! Treasures! He was only five years old, but his grandma already placed a huge responsibility on him. He set his jaws tight and with a grimly determined face, he gleamed at his grandmother and fell to his knees with his head bowed.

"Thank you grandma, I won"t disappoint you. I promise to work hard."

"I know. A step at a time. I"m already very happy with you."

Time flew fast.

Before they knew it, they had spent two hours on the knoll top. It was time to back. They left the top and arrived at the cave entrance in a blink. Jufeng went to his room, sat in a lotus position, crunched a blue crystalline in his mouth and started meditating with the crystal paG.o.da placed in his front.

Euanthe went to look for the others. They had laid a foundation for a recieving heart that they hoped would help him to discern for himself in the future. When a child was growing up, many other things would snake their ways into the young heart. Only a good foundation could probably help. From now on, they could only hope his mind stayed unyielding to negativity.

She found the others in the cultivation chamber.

"He is now ready."

Euanthe nodded her head as looked at them.

"His mind is truly remarkable. He has a very patient and recieving heart. It"s the perfect time to commence his training."

Aodh smilingly agreed.

"You are my parents. If you agreed then I agreed too. His body is so full of energy and the Chi energy in his dantian is much already. Yes, we should commence his training."

They all agreed to start his training the following day.

That night, Jufeng dreamt of lights. Aetherel lights of many colours

The following morning, he woke up with his hand holding the crystal paG.o.da firmly to his chest. He couldn"t remember when he fell asleep and how he was still holding the paG.o.da in his hands.

He cleaned his mouth with a willow twig soaked in salt water, washed his face and dressed up.

"Good morning mother, grandma, grandpa."

"Good morning son."

"Good morning to our grandson."

His grandparents responded in unison.

"Did you sleep well?"

Asked Reena with a raised brow and amused look

"I slept well, i even dreamt of light, beautiful lights."

"That was a peaceful mind, a clear mind."

"Meditation unlocks the mind. It"s truly like beautiful lights. Very peaceful indeed."

"We have something important to tell you, your training will be starting today."

Voiced Aodh with a bright smile.

"We will be taking turn to train you on Chi cutivation, martial art and mystical art."

Euanthe quipped in.

"After eating your breakfast, you will follow your grandpa for your martial art training. After your martial training, you will follow your grandma for your mystical art training. And when you are through with your grandma, you will come with me for your Chi cultivation."

Jufeng felt like his heart would explode. He looked at his mother and grandparents with teary eyes. He tilted back his head with a yell.

"YES!"

Then fell to his knees. He too would one day be like his grandpa, flying on a sword. He would be like his grandma, walking on air. And he would be like his mother with flowers of feathers.

"I will work very hard. I won"t disappoint you."