Chapter Seven

He loved reading. He could read all day, if it were not for the need to make a living to feed his household. But, it was the reading of words that caused the ire of word-play to rise in him.

As he read you could feel the words taking their place inside. This one would squeeze in next to the pancreas, and that one would slide down behind the heart. They were in their spawning their offspring and at the same time being host to the molded growth of power and change.

And, there in is the principle of what Tierney had yearned after and learned. One thing can have an effect and cause change. The thing that allowed the change to take place was a willingness to have it take place.

Tierney wanted words to alter him. They did. Tierney wanted the heavens to grow out of his bowels. They did. Tierney wanted for flowers to grow forth from his very footsteps and they did. The power of purpose was in the desiring. The power of change was in the will.

"For it is exceedingly near to you."

Outer and inner lost their meaning to him. He had originally thought that that which was inside was far more important, far superior to that which was outside. But, as he moved in closer to the reality that was within, he began to lose his dichotomy of exterior inferiority. The implicit and explicit were different ways of viewing the same reality.

Martin Buber had said that the "mystery of an individual lies deep within him and cannot be viewed from without." What this statement calls forth in its processional growth away from the moment it was spoken into being is, "But, one who has gone deep within himself, can recognize the stirrings toward the long journey down in another who is about to take the plunge. In fact, the one who has fallen into his own self-discovery can aid the neophyte in ways that seem shattering, and simply just too close to magic to explain."

This is where Tierney had carried the tradition further on. He had picked up the golden thread that went straight into Jerusalem's wall, and continue the task of the sages: winding it into a ball. And, all the while as he wound the string, he muttered the tale of the ancients: "I am that. That am I."

Here we shall begin, again.

He woke early that day. It was before the sun had begun to rise, so the measured steps to the bathroom that his mind had recorded were helpfully played back — getting him there with no mishap. After toileting he made his way down the stairs, through the dark dining room and into the still dark kitchen.

Although the floor was clean, it did not have the feel of a newly shined floor. It was worn with wear in the same way a wall holds itself muted with a flat acrylic on its surface. There was not a roughness, but clearly no smooth left in its touch.

He thought that he had felt crumbs, perhaps from yesterday's toast. Perhaps they were the crumbs from Tuesday's toast, or Monday's. It is hard to know one day's crumbs from another, but if anyone could learn to feel the difference, it would be Tierney.

Over to the coffee machine - he leaned himself forward. Tired only in the heaviness of eyelid and limb. His heart had begun to awaken the moment his mind began to sort through the direction it wanted to think in — with thoughts beginning, he began to feel.

The coffee had been ground the night before. The water had been measured then too. All that was left for him to do before drinking the brew was to push the button and wait. He filled his waiting with toileting a second time. When he had finished, the coffee was ready.

This remainder of this daily play involved toasting some grained bread. Usually it was coarse-grained bread from the bakery. On occasion he would butter the toast — for contrast — more often it was plain.

Today, he buttered the toast.

Tierney took stock in these simple rhythms. He knew that sometimes they would change because of circumstance. There may be no bread in the drawer when he looked, so he would have an apple for breakfast. Or, sometimes they would change because of choice. He may smear the warm toast with lightly salted butter instead of eating it dry.

In either case, Tierney knew that the wrinkle in life's rhythms produced distinction. This distinction gave meaning to all of life that was not the wrinkle.

Tierney loved the simple rhythms.

Today, while eating his buttered toast, he would review his lecture notes. "Finding the Teacher."

"Good morning, class. As you will recall, we left off last time with the notion and value of the teacher on the path to discovery, on the path to enlightenment.

"You will recall that the teacher in the Zen tradition finds, rather defines the path for the student by a series of sharp eye openers. For some it may be a smack for others the sting of the impossible koan. It is the master's role to show the student — more often than not — what the path is not, rather than what the path is. The whole purpose of trying to undo the meaning of the koan (much like the Gordian knot) is to reveal what is not the way, not so much to reveal what is the way.

"This is the same in many of the wisdom traditions. The Eastern Orthodox way is so deeply entrenched in this way of negation that it has given a term to this kind of teaching. The Orthodox Believers call it the apophatic way.

"Any questions?"

"Yes. Dr. Tierney, is this way really negative? Is it a non-positive or a non-good way? And, if it is aren't religions and teachers supposed to be teaching positive values for their students so they can contribute positive things to society?"

"Wonderful question Mr. Jones; filled, as ever with many layers to unpack.

"First, let me say that the teachers of the way are not so much trying to teach a philosophy on how to live, although that is a by-product and is clearly a part of what they may offer a student. The greater or more underlying hope of the teacher is to impart a sense of being or a way to be.

Teachers hope to identify for us how to understand who we are. The belief is that when we can actually understand our being; that our existence — or how we should act or carry our being around through time and space — will naturally flow from that.

"You can be sure, however, that throughout the process of enlightenment, students will require a little nudging in the right direction. All of us need a touch of guidance or a bit of redirecting. In those instances the master will

direct. And, if the student approaches the teacher with a question of how to act or exist, the teacher will most surely respond with advice.

"But, make no mistake about it, the enlightened teacher knows that he or she is here to impart the GREAT WORK. The indicator of the Way knows that it is for them to be the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. It is part of who they are to transform the lead of the student into the gold of the master.

"In many traditions, it is not a prerequisite of enlightenment that you be holy, or good, or pure. Particularly in the ecstatic shamanic traditions, and the tantric traditions. The Christian models of Western Civilization have always taught that purity comes before enlightenment.

"The Jewish tradition tends to teach this as well; however there are some wildly behaved Hassidim from the Baal Shem Tov on that bespeak a sort of above the rules behavior. They did not violate people in the process of their brash spiritual growth, but they may have been perceived to have trampled down the minutiae or go against conventional interpretation of the law.

"The moral capability is not always an indicator of being in the know, so to speak. Buddhist Crazy Wisdom tradition is an example of how actions may not match up to conventional forms of religious teaching or faith, but the individual may be enlightened.

"I must re-digress to point out that all of the traditions stress the importance of purification. But, this purification does not always beget a more holy life once one has been purified. There are many degrees toward purification.

"Considering some of the things that people are capable of and do, it may be that some people will live more ideally after a purification process has taken place, but that way of life may be more or less holy in comparison to others. One man's purified life may be another man's hellish existence.

"OK, if there is nothing else, let's move on to "Finding the Teacher. " It may seem like an elaborate process to fmd the teacher that will help the student to move along the path, but it is no more elaborate than the rest of the universe and her rhythms and cycles.

"As with the motion of the planets, fmding a teacher depends on ever widening circles of possibility and probability. As a student begins to ingest more and more material on the enlightened life or the "Royal Road" he or she is then thrust into situations and locations that will ferret out the presence of more like minded people.

"At some point the student will meet the master because the student is about a process of refining and focusing his or her material on the search. Some have clearly taught that as you put yourself to the task, the entire universe begins to conspire with you toward the attainment of the goal. That additional help puts us where we need to be, when we need to be there.

"The more intensity and the more will power that is added into the process by the student, the more refinement attends the process. The master is found sooner than later.

"This is the principal of alchemy. The intense heating up and refining of elements produces purer elements. The notion that one super refined element called the Philosopher's Stone can super refine other metals into gold is a way of telling this tale.

"This does not meant that the idea of the Philosopher's Stone is not actual or real as you would say. It does however mean that the notion of the Philosopher's Stone is larger than the Stone itself. The Stone is the icon of the whole path itself. The Royal Road, or the Road to Enlightenment is about refining the mind until it may produce a way of holding all of life that is an awakened way.

"That is all that we have time for today. Chew on that, read the rest of The Alchemist and be prepared to discuss it next week.

Tierney never really engaged much with the students of his class unless they interrupted him. It appeared to be enough for him to arrive lecture and leave. All the while he lectured it felt as if he was spinning invisible webs that would act as barriers and walls to anyone who wished to enter his world. The sound of his own teaching seemed to alter his consciousness.

He could enter into this altered state easily because he had devoted so much of his life to the Royal Road, that merely to mention it began the process of putting him on it. He loved teaching because it allowed him two times the amount of time he might normally have to do the Great Work: once while studying and again while lecturing.