Shambhala by Brian E. Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

door opens as a small, white-furred monkey with a black face softly waves them in. Bahi crawls through the miniature gap that opens up into a large room dimly lit by beams of golden sunlight. Squinting into the far corner of the room, he strains to make out what’s there, blinded by hazy smoke that dances in the soft, late-afternoon light that seeps in from outside. They are instructed to sit at a raised lip on the floor, which separates the rest of the room from the smoky space ahead of them. The smell of incense infuses the air as they sit quietly. The small, white monkey leaves, closing the door behind him. They can hear the soft settling of beads as a shadowed figure seems to stand up in front of them. Bahi again strains his eyes as the shadow comes out of the mist and into the light of the sun, closer to where they sit. Bahi knows instantly that this is Kavi. White fur wraps his charcoal face, melting into a beard at his chin. Taller than the previous monkey and taller than any of Bandar’s clan, he languidly moves toward them, slightly hunched with age. Shells and bone jingle from his necklace as he slowly reveals himself. His dark, complacent face looks wise with age, and they can feel the energy that pours off him like the dry mist that flows around behind him.
    “I am told you can speak with the jungle,” Kavi’s soft, warm tone is inviting.
    “Yes sir, I can,” Bahi says in an almost trance state.
    “What is it you wish to know?” Kavi asks, not wasting any time.
    “Well sir, I seem to have been cursed with forgetfulness. I don’t remember who I am. I hit my head quite hard and haven’t remembered since. I come to you to ask if you can help me with this question.”
    The wise monkey stares in contemplation, and softly blinking his eyes, he begins to speak, “You do not wish to know who you once thought you were, however you seek to know the truth of who you are, am I correct?”
    “Yes, I mean I think so, it’s confusing to me as of now. Bandar had taken me into town to seek out who I was, yet I felt the answers weren’t going to be there for me. Was I wrong?”
    Kavi looks at Bahi with a humble smile, “Let me begin explaining who we all are.”
    Walking closer to the seated inquirers, Kavi slowly steps with his staff, which runs upward from the ground, curving like a question mark above his small, black hand, topped off with an iridescent crystal that sets firm at the head of the staff. His light brown eyes glisten as he sits in the lotus position, each foot softly placed on either thigh. “On this planet,” he begins, “we share a brotherhood that excludes no one and no thing.” Bahi smiles at Bandar, having heard this before, as Kavi goes on, “Those of us that live and breathe have the fire of creation more active in us. Therefore we must eat feeding the fire, enabling us to sustain our lives by keeping the fire active to run our vessels. Starting with the smallest plant on this wonderful planet, plants absorb nutrients from the fertile soil of our mother and drink the sweet waters given often by the Earth’s selfless bounty. So we have water, Earth, and fire. We eat the plants, which convert these nutrients and give us proteins to build our muscles and so forth, or we eat animals that eat plants and we get a secondary source of this protein. Either way, whether we are going directly to the source of nutrition or eating the leftovers in the meat of animals, all living animals such as you and I get our nutrition from the plant, which comes from the Earth and is fortified from the heavens above with sun. Our bodies are composed of the food we eat, and whatever it is we eat can be traced back to the plants and vegetation of the Earth.”
    Bandar and Bahi sit captivated by Kavi’s words as he goes on. “You are the Earth, you are a reflection of the Earth, and the Earth is a reflection of you. If you check with your science you will find this to be true,” he says as he tosses a biology