Copyright © 2010 by William R. Mistele. All rights reserved.

 

The Master and the Student

 

Student: Master, my soul is torn and my heart is at war with itself.

 

Master: Don’t tell me.  It involves some girl no doubt.

 

Yes, yes, exactly. 

 

And you think I have some sort of illumination to offer you? Some tip I can suggest that will make your conflict vanish?

 

Yes, I am absolutely certain that you possess such a tip.

 

Very well, then, tell me precisely what you want from me?

 

I don’t wish to become numb or without feeling.  I just want you to make the pain go away. 

 

(Singing a rehearsed song):

 

With a little help from you,

With just a tip or two

I want to feel love flowing.

I want to start glowing. 

I want the knowing

That comes

When my heart and another’s are one. 

I want love to shine like the sun in the sky above. 

I want to feel her body shivering and quivering in my embrace. 

I want her to let go and give me her soul

Because there is no place 

She would rather be than in my arms, lying by my side,

Holding me tight with all of he might.   

 

I’d work on the lyrics and the rhyme because that song as it is won’t make you a dime. 

 

But you get my drift? And you’ll give me a tip?

You’ll have to be specific because unless you say the right words I can’t shape a result to match your intent. 

 

Well, try this.  She is not really a human woman.  She is a mermaid type woman.  I mean, I like human women.  Some are very warm and cuddly.  They can bond and care about you so you know they are in love. 

   But it is impossible to not miss that human women are without depth when it comes to love. It is like they touch love for a moment and then it is all about social commitment and careers for them. 

  They just don’t feel in their souls how to let go and flow like a stream of water, or be cool like a pool beneath a falls, live wild in purity and outrageous in serenity like a frozen arctic bay, be deep like the sea with its dreams of being one and being free, or peaceful like a river that flows like a heart that loves forever. 

  Do you know what I mean?

 

She is all of that for you, is she?

 

Oh yes. Exactly like that.

 

We, that is, humanity, have reached that moment in history when women are free to unite with their opposite, to attain strength and to acquire all abilities.   They seek an inner strength previously denied to them and this usually is found by seeking a career in the world.  That is what is going on. 

  And so it must he that men too must undertake a journey, not outward into the world, for this they have already mastered.  No, men must turn inward and find within themselves the mysterious beauty of the feminine. 

  The girl you have met is nothing more than a magic mirror. True, she is about one among ten thousand women—her innocence and purity are that rare.  But notwithstanding, what you see and feel when you gaze upon her is nothing more than the treasure that is found at the end of your own spiritual journey.  Men must capture the beauty of women and bring it to life within their own hearts, just as they have already explored the depths, breath, and heights of the earth. 

 

This little speech of yours I have heard before.  The psychologists call it recapturing projection.  Spiritual anthropologists call it attaining transcendence.  King Udishtera called it uniting with one’s opposite.  The alchemists call it androgyny.  Taoists call it Wugi. 

  The mythologists call it following one’s bliss. The shamans call it walking upon a path of beauty.  The gnomes call it always being at home wherever one may roam.  The sylphs consider it to be the first light of dawn, but for the salamanders (and for the black knight who confronted King Arthur) it is absolute sovereignty.  And yet for the undines, like this woman, the vibration in water is an endless song of ecstasy. 

   The tip I want precisely and exactly from you is how to have and to share this ecstasy that is within this girl.  Can you do this or must I look elsewhere for an answer?

 

(slowly clapping his hands at the student’s exposition)

 

I can see you have put some thought into this--       

(misquoting the student) “Shivering and quivering in your arms,  

No place she would rather be than in your embrace, side by side, holding you tight with all of her might.”

 

How long does it take to get a passport?

 

Months.

 

And how about citizenship?

 

Something like five years with a green card.

 

Even so, you must go and become a citizen of the realm of mermaids. Five years seems about right.  After all, you are seeking membership in a spiritual realm and not just another nation.    

  The unique trait of mermaids is their empathy.  It is not “I feel what others’ feel.”  It is “I am one with the sea and with all water on earth.  And this magnetic field of energy that cloaks the earth in unfathomable beauty is itself unending love.”

   This vibration of love human women know nothing about.  They do not want it.  They have never tasted it. There is not a trace of it that has appeared within human history.  Like all human beings deep down, human women want to be free and to attain to their destiny. And at this time in history the power they seek is the power to shape, command, and to change the world.  To do this they must move among men and then ascend in their own unique way.  

  These mermaid women are altogether different.  They have always existed in history but they have had to disguise themselves in order to survive.  And so no one has ever seen them before until now.

    When I say the girl is a magic mirror for you I am not saying she is an illusion.  A real spirit appears in a real way in a magic mirror.  The spirit is really there in its full presence and power.

  Even so, you must make your mind empty, your heart clear, and  your soul absolutely receptive as you focus your attention upon her. 

    If you gaze in this way you will feel one with her.  But all the same as I say you must become a member of her kingdom, gaining duel citizenship, in effect turning yourself into a merman. 

  Because without this attainment even if you feel one with her and she loves you in return, the love you share will fade away as if it never existed.  Because her kingdom, instead of being a part of your heart, will vanish away like a mirage that fades with the setting sun.

  To be by her side, for your love to abide, you must be even as she is, one with the sea, feeling its ecstasy, a love that in every moment is everywhere forever free even as it is one with another in love.

   At this time in history, only men desire such love.  You must become this love before the two of you can be one.

 

Master, I would never argue, but there must be exceptions to your rule regarding human women. However, I understand the tip you are giving. 

 You are saying that even though she is here in human form she actually belongs to another kingdom.  And that even though she might shape and quiver and shiver in my arms, she would be no more than an actress playing a part unless ….

  Let me put it this way, can you marry a spirit? Can you love an image that appears in a magic mirror? Can those who dwell in separate realms ever really attain to love with each other?

 

You don’t remember all of my speeches, do you? Did I not point out that mermaid women are more human than we are? They know more about how to love, how to feel, and how to give and to receive.

   Except these separate realms are joined the human race will soon be extinct.  It has always been that men have a stronger survival instinct than women.  They are more alert to danger and perceive the nature and the power that defines boundaries. 

  The mermaid woman—her purity of soul, her innocence beyond the knowledge of humanity, the joy that shines in her aura like the Northern lights rippling across the sky at night—she is what you are meant to become. 

  Without such love ruling the hearts of those with great power, mankind has not one chance in a million of surviving this millennium.  

  And so this pain in your soul is a great gift, a gift you must strive to possess--

 

She is your magic mirror

To love without fear

Free to be one

With anyone far or near

This sea has no shores

Its taste is ecstasy

Its waves are bliss

And in every moment

Its beauty is endless.

 

The mermaid woman will love you when you are one with the sea even as is she.

 

Five years you say? Already I feel my pain has gone away.  Women are not the opposite of men.  Rather, it is the feminine in nature that we must make our friend.  As above, so below—to be one with another’s soul is to be one with the greater whole.  There are no sort cuts.  But true love will always be a celebration of the Divine Majesty and the guardian of history even if its path leads through the depths of the sea.