…As far as the other side of the world, in a remote area untroubled by western civilization, stands a village hidden in a sacred valley. It is an ancient village. A village that has surpassed the test of time and progress, protected by distance and a cultural inheritance bathed in religious zeal. To this village nega was borne, and in it he was raised.

            One evening during sunset, at a time when nega was becoming of age, he decided to walk alone to a nearby mountain so that he could think undisturbed upon what was coming his way. You see, since nega was becoming a man, and in accordance to the old customs of his people, his parents had taken upon themselves to devise and arrange all the necessary plans for his place and social future in the village.

Nega was nervous for he was expected to soon marry a stranger and begin his own family. He was expected to perpetuate the customs of his ancestors in this way. And lately he had been dreaming compulsively about flying with the birds, which upset him greatly for whenever his dreams were recurring he took it as a sign, and nega knew all too well that these kinds of signs had always brought with them inevitable changes upon his life.

 

            And so they did this time. Not long passed before nega no longer lived in that village. He had forsaken his position as a villager, had renounced his work and the prospects of beginning his own family and had thus walked away from the life he had known until then. His parents who did not take his choice kindly disowned him, telling him that if he could not abide by the rules of their society then he could not be one of them. Nega could do nothing more than agree, for he was surely not like them, nor had he ever been like them. He told his parents that he did love them very much but that he had always felt like a distant stranger that did not belong there in the village. He told them that no one himself in that village could help him find who he really was and where he really belonged, and that was why he had decided to walk the path until he found his real self and his destined place, so that he would finally know.

 

            He walked for a long time, each step taking him away from his old self and experience, and with each new step a greater calmness of mind began to come over him. He ate whatever the land had to offer along his way and slept wherever there was haven.

            One day long after he had begun and even forgotten that he was on a search nega came upon an open fruit field. He decided to sit under the shade of a large and low fruit tree and there, under that majestic tree, he found the most beautiful plant he had ever seen. So impressed was he that he sat there by the plant for the whole rest of the day admiring its beauty, and when darkness came, nega stood up and picked fire wood so he could lighten the area and admire the plant throughout the night. He sat there throughout the night in a trance-like state, undergoing a deep sense of peace and tranquility that this new found beauty had called forth from him.

           

            Nega so discovered that his calling in life was simple, to observe the beautiful plant and grow with it in spirit. And so with this great and worthy decision, he dedicated his life to the plant. Nega had given himself.

Living around the plant he tended and focused on it with a fiery and intense intent. This dedication led him to the halting, conquering and altering of his old preconceptions about life, and the shedding of all the harmful or unnecessary habits he had acquired during his lifetime so far. In this way he achieved the awareness of self that he had been searching for since little. With time nega came to feel perfectly in tune with the plant. He became wholly natural.

           

            The seasons flowed on and nega continued with his fervent devotion, and he was happy this way, until one day, as he lay asleep on the ground beside the plant he had a dream that shook the foundations of what he knew to be his life. He dreamt that an elephant had casually strolled by and had stepped on and killed the plant. In his dream nega had ran after the elephant still in awe and disbelief that such a thing could have happened and had amidst tears asked the elephant how could he have done such a thing. And the elephant had answered with a melancholy and detachment inherent in all animals that it was only a plant. Only a plant. Teary-eyed nega then stated to the elephant that the plant had been everything to him and now that it was gone, he was left with nothing but emptyness.

            At witnessing such great sadness at the loss, the elephant stopped in his tracks and spoke in a deep and mysterious voice. ‘If this plant was everything to you because had given yourself to it, then I will give myself to you in payment for my wrongdoing, to do whatever is at your bidding, natural or not to my animal instinct. This is all I can do for you.’       

            Not desiring any other thing but his plant back, the disheartened nega turned away from the elephant and lay on the ground. And in his dream he went to sleep.

           

            Surely enough, as nega awoke to the material world and looked around towards the plant, the elephant was laying where the plant had formerly lived. Nega sighed with a melancholic acceptance.

It was destined, as it is always destined to change. So he walked towards the elephant and sat on its neck.

And thus nega acknowledged his position.

To become the head of the elephant.

The elephant then rose to its feet and began its walk, and for the last time nega closed his eyes in grief and mourning for the beloved plant, vowing to never open them again, for he knew that he could never again witness beauty without being reminded of his beautiful plant.

           

            And so it was, the elephant guided and nega went with, now blind to the world. When nega was hungry the elephant would pick plants and fruit with its trunk and hand them to nega. When nega was tired the elephant would stop somewhere in a quiet shade so that he could rest. And life so took a new form for them. Nega’s hearing began to develop acutely and he soon began to hear the music that permeates all life mixed in the sounds of the outer world. The songs of the souls. This music began to become more audible as nega and the elephant continued on their path until eventually that was all that could be heard. Soon enough the music had opened nega’s mind’s eye to witness for himself an amazing new world, and he could again see.

But this time he saw beyond. The music was the elephant’s body moving along life, it was the movement of life, and he was the elephants head, the illumined mind that could perceive the music. The listener, for higher purposes…

 

(taken from the book of yoayar)