Anastasia Novykh. Ezoosmos

   “Yes, the world is much richer in life than we think,” Nikolai Andreevich uttered, “and we are far from having perceived it.”
   “Of course, it is far from being perceived,” Sensei agreed. “Humanity, say, is only starting to graduate from the kindergarten and to open the school door a little. How many time has passed since sciences began developing? Little more than 160 years have passed since transformer and electromagnetic induction were invented; nearly 60 years passed since the atomic nucleus was split; just 30 years ago computers with bubble-forming memory appeared... These all are elementary knowledge… and the time terms are minimal, given the humanity age! These are only the first steps in perception of the manifold world…
   “Forms of life are really numerous! If people have time, they will be able to study the parallel paradox, too. There’s nothing complicated in it. It is necessary only to… Let’s not go into details though. To cut a long story short, there’s nothing complicated. With the modern technology development, it’s perfectly real to move to a parallel world and to find there a fully rational life with a corresponding intellect. Why searching for this life somewhere on Mars with its dangerous microbes, if it’s right beside us? There’s plenty of life everywhere. In the largest accounts, the Universe is the life itself, the life in the most extensive manifestation and diversity.”
   The night coolness had fallen long ago, and so the warmth of the campfire was becoming further more perceptible and pleasant.
   “In that case, what is the exit to Nirvana?” Stas asked. “Is it an exit outside our time cycle? An exit to another parallel?”
   “Not at all. It’s the exist outside all parallels, outside time and space. It’s the exit from material Universes... If we look deeper into it, what is life inside a human form? It’s a temporal residence of the spiritual substance in alternate forms of high-molecular conglomerations of the matter. Say, it’s a shell for ripening of an internal fruit which is actually the soul. In such time-space-limited shell the fruit only changes its bodies. Once a human being becomes spiritually mature, he or she simply leaves.
   “A person experiencing spiritual unfolding realizes who he or she is, and where he or she has come to. Our Universe is only one of material parallels. There are several parallels inside it, too. All of them are interesting, and all are inhabited. And it’s perfectly normal and natural. Any parallel inside the Universe is material and exists in its own time, with its own speeds, with its own sort of the matter. Yet, the exit outside the matter boundaries to the spiritual level… is much more significant. It is the exit to God’s reality. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to tell or to explain more precisely, because we are restricted by our material mind with its associative perception... In principle, there is much more interesting outside the material world.
   “Any person may move to God’s reality, for we have a part of that reality inside us, that is the soul. However, the paradox is that people are too absorbed in the matter, therefore they mistakenly believe that the soul is only a fiction and the moments of their illusive body existence is the real life.”
   “I don’t quite understand… How can this body be an illusion, if I can fully feel it?” Valera asked perplexedly.
   “Your body is a mere focused wave which receives a short impulse in the form of prana, the vital energy. What you call “life” is a time period from the moment of this wave appearance after the impulse, including the time of its speed race all the way to its total fade. It’s a too transient term. You don’t even have time to notice when your life’s already over. So, the main question is how you will use your lifetime during its race, how you will spend the power of the inner impulse which you’ve been given?”
   “But how could I rationally use it, if all events happening in my life do not depend on me? Every day is filled with some new troubles, with continuous pressure of problems.”
   “Remember: everything is inside you! Once you change from the inside, the world around you will change as well. Material problems are only a temporary occurrence, a certain trial to test you… You don’t imagine how material your thoughts are, and how they utilize the power of your attention. If you keep giving priority to your negative thoughts – to cacodemon, it’s totally your fault that your troubles have become chronic. Whereas, should you be giving priority to positive thoughts, i.e. should you be daily stimulating your agathodemon center of positive thinking, you’d be surprised with your inner transformation and with the way the world would be changing around you as if God Himself had turned His eyes on you and started helping you. You’d experience indescribable internal sensations of the Presence. When you reside in boundless Love to everything you are surrounded with, when you give this Love to God, your soul, being His part, is awakening. When your soul awakes, the one who will change in the first place will be you. And, when you change, you’ll reveal a completely different reality along with such opportunities which you’ve never dreamt of…”
   This conversation which had automatically quieted our entire company, was interrupted as suddenly as it had begun. Once Sensei stopped speaking, the silence ensued being disturbed only by the crackle of burning-out coals. Everyone was sitting tacitly, submerged in the secret world of his or her thoughts. The campfire flame was going out leaving a reminder of its bygone existence in reddish cracks of the scorching coals, while the latter were gradually getting cold and turning into a pile of ashes.
   It was already around two a.m. The light breeze had long ago fallen. Fish wasn’t biting as before, and so the bells wouldn’t emit a single sound. Sensei glanced at his watch with a highlighted bar and said, “Well, while there’s such a silence, I propose to take a little nap before the morning fishing session.”
   Victor hesitated, “I guess if people go to sleep now, anybody will hardly be able to wake up at five a.m. Not so much time is remaining…”
   “Don’t worry. I guarantee nobody will oversleep,” Father John assured him with a cunning smile. “I have an excellent alarm which will arouse our entire fishing camp with its jingling.”
   Sensei looked at his friend and grinned, “I hope your alarm won’t scare away the remaining fish.”
   “Well, this is what I cannot guarantee at all,” Father John uttered ironically.
   The company started breaking up one by one, putting away their fishing accessories.
   Sensei was reeling on somebody’s rod carelessly left near the beam on which they were sitting, when suddenly Valera approached him. He began helping him to untangle the fishing-line, using the torch for highlighting. It was obvious that the guy wanted to ask something, but wouldn’t dare. Seeing his hesitation, Sensei said genially, “Is there anything you’d like to ask?”
   Valera got a little shy and said after a short pause, “Yes… Does God really exist?”
   Sensei looked at him attentively.
   “Are you sure you’re ready to hear the answer? It might change your entire life,” and, having been silent for a while, he added, “If you’re simply interested in this subject, there are plenty of books published, just get them and read. Here, there is the priest sitting who’s a good interlocutor as well.”
   Valera looked straight into Sensei’s eyes.
   “It’s not a mere interest for me. I’m ready to hear the answer from you.”
   “Yes,” Sensei responded affirmatively. “God does exist.”

* * *

   The night was slowly turning over its position, giving away to the dawn. Darkness was replaced with dampness which, like an apprentice practicing painting, first drew a slipshod sketch of a general plan of the nature contours, and then thoroughly set to draw every smallest detail with is “pencil”. The picture was gradually becoming more distinct, the shades were turning further more contrasting. Soon, the dawn itself as the main artist got down to work, painting the ready sketch with a manifold scale of colors. Birds started to perform their usual morning ritual, filling everything around with their harmonious singing. And, all of a sudden, in the middle of that wonderful melody, there rang out such a chaotic sound resembling the roar of a bear awakened in winter that the frightened birds lapsed into silence all at once.
   Everything happened as follows… Eugene got cold-bitten in his sleeping-bag and woke up of an unusual feeling as if his body was in an uncomfortable position. He tried to open his eyes, but surprisingly saw only impenetrable darkness. Drowsy, not being aware of anything, he decided to turn over to another side, believing he was having a dream. Instead, however, he only managed to make some strange budging, as if something was firmly holding him. At that moment, his panic-struck consciousness started working towards complete awakening. The guy suddenly understood that his hands were tied in front of him, a mask was covering his eyes, and the sleeping-bag was tightly corded to his ankles. Yet, the main thing was that his legs were handing up while his head and the upper part of his back were resting against something soft.
   Eugene’s sleepiness immediately vanished. He started wriggling strongly, attempting to free himself of the unexpected captivity. With each movement the “pillow” under his head was becoming further lower as if it was sinking. Moreover, something little and tickling started to creep all over Eugene’s face and neck, and to bite his body parts aggressively without distinction. As soon as the guy, with his hands tied, managed to tear off the mask which had appeared on his eyes during his sweet sleep no one knew from where, and to unzip his sleeping-bag, he saw the total horror of the situation. The sleeping-bag in the foot area was corded with a rope tied in such an intricate knot which was got further more tightened with each movement of the body. The rope itself was attached to a thick bough of “the best tree on the forest meadow”, while his head appeared to be leaning against a big ant hill. Endeavoring to free himself, Eugene had involuntarily scattered the upper part of the hill, and hordes of tiny warriors immediately rushed to attack the offender of their house. The guy started to wave his tied hands, trying to flap away his “yesterday’s allies”, but thus he only worsened his “tickling state”.
   In silence of the dormant nature there resounded round oaths assigned for those who had hit upon such a joke. The voice of a “roaring bear” alarmed the entire camp like a sudden banshee. Drowsy guys with eyes crazy of the unexpected interruption of their sleep leaped out of their tents and cars. Meanwhile Eugene was attempting to unshackle himself, showing fair slipping-out mastery and demonstrating the power of his pumped abdomen. His thoughts were strenuously oriented to the special operations group members whom he suspected of the trick. Who else could fasten such wrecker knots so professionally? It surely couldn’t be the priest. And it could hardly be anyone of Sensei’s disciples, because there were completely different people and totally different relations among them.
   Oddly so say, the special operations group was the first to come to Eugene’s rescue. His liberation was accompanied with such wild emotions from both sides that all other campers gathered on the meadow. Nikolai Andreevich and Sensei came up as well. Later Vano joined, strangely having a much fresher appearance than everybody other. For Sensei it was quite enough to glance at his childhood friend to clearly see what had happened. He smiled, gravely sighed, shook his head reproachfully and turned his eyes away. While Eugene like a koala bear was taken down the tree, and Volodya was jestingly convincing that his guys had nothing to do with the trick, everybody completely woke up. Most interestingly, it was five a.m. sharp, i.e. exactly the “getting-up time” promised by Father John the day before. Vano hurried to laugh off with a joke that it’s a mere random coincidence.
   When the general fuss had abated, and everyone got occupied with one’s morning toilet, to his great surprise, in addition to all the “pleasures” of his awakening, Eugene discovered granulated sugar in his “sweet drowse” (his sleeping-bag). And, all of a sudden, it dawned upon him who had been the author and the performer of the cruel plan, of the abrupt impingement upon his precious person. Not hesitating for even a minute, with his arms put akimbo, Eugene resolutely approached Vano who was squatting down on the river bank at that moment, adjusting his fishing tackle. Remembering his last day’s flight well enough, to be on the safe side, Eugene stopped at a certain distance from the priest.
   “So, it’s you?! It’s been you who has arranged a “sweet morning” for me!” Eugene shouted accusatorily as if he was a public prosecutor.
   “I listen to you attentively, son,” Father John uttered with his inimitable smile.
   “How could you?! I’ve recognized my guilt, I’ve honestly and industriously washed off my “sins”, where as you!.. These are ants, man! They are predators! What if they’d wormed into my ears or my nose?! They could.., they could…” Eugene wasn’t able to find appropriate words to express his indignation. “Eat my brain!”
   “Brain?!” Father John wondered and genially added, “Don’t grieve, my son, nothing like this may threaten you. And, as for the sins washing-off…” a merry zest gleamed in Vano’s eyes. “Well, if you insist…”
   “Me?! I…”
   Eugene didn’t even have time to blather in response when Father John adroitly caught the guy’s waving hand and easily threw him over in the air, applying fighting aikido elements. At that, he managed to flip Eugene’s body in such a way that it flew off to the water couple meters from the bank. The guy fell down into the river heavily like a weighty sack, accompanying his drop not only splashes, but with whole fluvial “tsunami”. When Eugene emerged in horror, his first exclamation was, “What for?!”
   Father John grinned and answered as of nothing had happened, “You see, son, I’ve returned the favor, too. I’ve washed you clean with the holy water from feet to head.”
   “Inquisitor! Souls’ oppressor! But the water is so cold. It’s like in hell here…”
   “In hell?! It is such a trifle compared to the real hell. You cannot even imagine what some of such floundering “waterfowls” will face there…” Father John started frightening the company with his black humor.
   The entire scene made all spectators laugh, while Sensei was looking at the stirred water from the steep bank and shaking his head, “These saboteurs have scared away the very last fish. Apology for such fishermen…”

* * *

   The morning turned out to be marvelous. The weather was nice and quiet. Everything would have been perfect, except for the fact big fish wasn’t biting as before. Oddly to say, Father John sat on the bank to fish together with Eugene, although they kept teasing each other all the time. To put it more precisely, Father John set to fish while Eugene started assisting him, pinning fishing “delicacies” onto the fish-hook. The guy got so imbued with this occupation that he even showed a remarkable creativeness in it, having brought dozens of various beetles, little spiders and slippery grubs from the forest. They used everything possible to lure the fish, lavishly throwing the bait into the water, however the result remained unchanged. Only small fish was biting. Willy-nilly, they indeed arranged a whole eating festival for the fish, having overfed it with the most exquisite forest dainties. In the end, Eugene and Father John performed a ceremonial “absolution” for all the caught little fish. They delivered an edifying speech to the fish on how not get caught in the future, in case the fish would come across hooks filled with free bait, as well as on how the fish was supposed to earn its living through hard work. Then, accompanied by Eugene’s festive piping of some merry song, they set the little fish free, having thrown them back into the river.
   Having lost interest in fishing, Eugene and Father John began to make up practical jokes to be played on other the fishermen and totally worn out the entire company. Once they got bothered with this as well, they started chaffing each other, practicing composing of new jests. Naturally, Father John particularly excelled in inventiveness. Owing to his efforts, Eugene was finding ants in his sandwiches and other food during the entire day. In general, despite their “interpersonal opposition”, they completely supplemented each other. Sensei even jokingly nicknamed them “the two halves of Aesop’s soul”. The ancient Greek cracked slave fabulist would have probably been ineffably surprised in his VI century B.C., if somebody had told him about such an unexpected reincarnation of his soul in the distant future.
   The day flew past in an eyewink. As early as at the lunch time, following Valera’s example, the entire company simultaneously began gathering brushwood for the campfire and thus cleaned the forest territory adjoining their meadow without even noticing it. As a result, they brought a whole hill of dry branches and logs. After the lunch, the camp turned somewhat deserted. The special operations group headed by Volodya decided to examine the area along the river in a quest of good fishing places and promised to return not that soon, whereas Valera desired to stay.
   Evidently, Volodya’s guys got very much carried away with the fishing “hunt”, for when the company was already finishing their supper, there still hadn’t come back. Valera even decided to walk along the bank to look for Volodya in the same direction as the special operations group had walked away, and also to check the remote fishing spots for biting. He reported this to Sensei. After Valera had left, Eugene proudly stated concerning the entire “squadron” disappearance, “See! They haven’t taken me with them, that’s why they have got lost.”
   In response to his words Vano promptly remarked, “Without you, they definitely have more chances to get back.”
   Eugene made a comical face, and the guys burst out laughing of his clownery over again.
   By the way, as early as during the supper Eugene had made everyone laugh again with a scrupulous inspection of his food, checking each centimeter of it like a customs officer. Fortunately for him, there appeared no “enemy saboteurs” there. So, by the tea time he already somewhat relaxed. The guy was victoriously looking at Vano who was sitting opposite to him, demonstrating his total control of the situation. When Eugene was handed over a glass of tea, he decided to drink it even without adding sugar so as not to swallow another Father John’s bait. Having taken the glass from Nastia with an aromatic hot drink, he noticed floating tea-leaves in the glass and mildly cooed with a smile, “Hey, girls, who has made the tea? You should have taken the boiling water. See, the tea leaves are all on the surface.”
   “What do you mean, Eugene?” Tatyana wondered. “The tea’s packed in bags.”
   After her words Eugene immediately stopped smiling. He started scrutinizing the “tea-leaves” in his mug. Stas curiously glanced into Eugene’s mug, too, and ascertained with a snicker, “Yes, these are the ants.”
   “Oh, my God! But how?!” he was totally positive the girls would have never made such a provocation. Eugene caught Vano’s cunning look and only now noticed the teapot next to him. “How dare you! The Green Peace will pursue you! You’re the violator of the international convention! It’s a shocking! I’ll complain to the United Nations! I’ll send a letter to Pope!”
   Eugene kept funnily expressing his indignation for another half an hour, announcing aloud an approximate list of his “complaints” each of which was certainly followed with Vano’s hilarious comments. Some of the present eventually got abdomen aches of interminable laughter caused by the couple’s jokes. Luckily, the process of “official letters” composing was timely interrupted by Nikolai Andreevich who decided to spend the time more rationally using it for talking with Sensei, especially since it was possible to discuss some vital topics openly, when no “unauthorized persons” were present. Although there was Vano with them, he didn’t ask any superfluous questions, and Sensei himself didn’t hesitate to tell about everything freely in his presence. Nikolai Andreevich waited a little while until the company stopped laughing after another jest and tactfully started to turn the conversation to a different direction.
   “Yet, indeed, where is our special operations group?”
   “Probably, they have found a splendid place, given they’ve given up the supper,” Victor surmised, swallowing up cookies one by one.
   “Yeah, when fish bites, you forget everything in the world. An entire prostration in time,” Nikolai Andreevich jested. “Speaking about time, by the way. I wanted to question you about it in detail long ago,” he addressed Sensei. “I often experience such periods, particularly after meditations, when a subjective notion of time nearly disappears. I’d say, there ensues an effect of some crystal clear consciousness. Work capacity increases tremendously. When you work with documents after meditating, there’s such an impression as if you possess and entire library in your head, and all the necessary information easily rises to the consciousness surface.
   “Generally speaking, the time phenomenon has interested me as such long ago. And I have so many questions. Well, everything’s quite understood with the official part: in science time is used as a unit to measure certain periodical processes. Obviously, in philosophy time is a state of matter, a form of successive change of events. Clearly, it’s connected with space. And, while the universal characteristics of time are duration, inimitableness and irreversibility, the characteristics of space are extension and the unity of discontinuity and continuity. This all seems to be clear enough… However, in the highest accounts... In my opinion, there exists a tremendous difference between how we measure time and how we actually live it. I’ve got such an impression as if there are several kinds of time perception in our consciousness simultaneously fighting for suffrage. One perception is scientific endeavoring to substantiate precision and quantitative expression of time rules. The other perception is social which aspires after violating these rules. The third one relates to the effect of subjective time perception, for instance, during meditations. The fourth one strikes with its phenomenal occurrences in stress situations. In this connection, I have a whole series of questions to ask you. But, first of all, I’d like to know what is time in reality?”
   “Time?” Sensei shook his head and said. “You’re initiating a big subject… In principle, you’ve noted correctly that time is quite a relative concept. Judging about time significantly depends on who, from which reference system and for what purpose is observing this phenomenon. Considering its manifestation in reality, time may be subdivided into:
   1) veritable time which straightly depends on the power of Allat; if you remember, everything in this world (whether it’s matter or energy) including time exists only thanks to Allat which I’ve already told you about;
   2) global time (or absolute time) is the time period passing from appearance to complete disappearance of the matter on a scale of the Absolute;
   3) objective time is our habitual time-calculation in seconds, hours, months, years which are conditional to the time of the Earth’s revolution on its axis and around the Sun, i.e. to physical processes steadily recurring in equal time intervals;
   4) subjective time is an individual perception of time by each person.
   “But, for you to realize these processes better, I shall, perhaps, explain these time concepts on a figurative demonstration. – Sensei asked the guys to give him a box of matches and took one match out of it. – Here, look. Let’s assume that this match burning from the moment the fire appears until the moment the shaft completely burns down is a process from rise to destruction of entire matter. Thus, the moment of movement when I take this match, carry it to the box, apply force to strike fire, when the match lights up and until its full combustion – all this figuratively is the flow of the veritable time on the global scale, i.e. the moment of rise, action and disappearance of Allat power in the process of creation and destruction of the matter. For our human understanding, in this time there’s no present, but only past and future.
   “The global time is the time movement from the moment the first spark blazes up until complete combustion of this match. At that, it would be more correct to characterize the entire process during combustion of the match not with its head placed in an upright position, but rather with its head directed downward. Now, note the difference in the flame movement speed.”
   Sensei stroke the match, demonstrated the even slow flame movement when the sulphuric head was upright and promptly turned the match over to place its head downright. Moving upward, the flame quickly enveloped the match shaft. Sensei promptly put out the fire in order not to burn his fingers.
   “Let’s stop this moment,” he uttered with a smile. “Please, draw attention to the sections which the fire has already enveloped in the upturned position of the match.” Sensei circled the match. “So, roughly speaking, on the global scale the same process takes place. The Universe enlarging at a progressing speed inevitably accelerates the global time, however it by no means affects the veritable time. In modern physics, there is an axiom relating to time: events which are identical in all respects occur over the equal periods of time. The global time is relative for human understanding, because logical assessment of the process takes place by means of material structures of the brain. Consequently, the current science believes there’s no actual physical process in nature with the aid of which the global (the absolute) time could be measured. That’s why there exists such a postulate that the time flow depends on the velocity of a reference system movement.”
   “How come?” Andrew did not get it.
   “Well, like I’ve already said, opinions on the time flow much depend on what point of a reference system the process is being observed. For example, imagine this experimental match to be of a giant size, say, of a kilometer length, while you are an observer (i.e. in our case, you are a point of the reference system). And, in order to study the burning process, you have settled yourself on an elevator or on a gigantic lifting crane installed parallel to the match.”
   “Aha-а-а!” Eugene “caught” the idea and uttered wistfully, “I imagine myself in a special helmet, dressed in fireman’s clothes, with a fire extinguisher in my hands.”
   The guys grinned, and Stas jokingly complained to Sensei, “Oh, Lord! It’s totally impossible to run mental experiments with him! I’ve just imagined myself in a white laboratory gown of a scientist, with a young female assistant next to me, when this grubby character with a fire extinguisher in his hands has wedged himself into my bright association!”
   “Exactly!” Kostya echoed.
   The group grinned.
   “Well, this is already a matter of individual quality of perception,” Sensei said half in jest. “So, imagine that the burning process has started, and the flame (which in our comparison represents the born Universe beginning to enlarge) has gone upwards. If the velocity of your movement on the elevator equals to the speed of fire movement, you will perceive time as relatively still. If you start moving faster than the flame, you’ll get an impression that the burning time is slowing down. And, once you move slower than the flame, you’ll see the time has accelerated.”
   “How is it possible?!” Kostya wondered. “And why would I guess relying on my personal perception, if I can use a seconds counter, for instance?”
   “What an earthed-minded dimwit you are!” Eugene grinned genially. “Using a seconds counter for cosmic measurements!” at that, the guy expressively beckoned to the earth and then to the sky.
   The company burst out laughing over again, while Sensei responded, “It may be funny, but Eugene is right in a sense. What is a seconds counter? A device to measure time intervals in, say, seconds. Yet, what is a second? It’s only a relative unit. Its definition repeatedly changed along with scientific knowledge growth in this issue. The current definition of a second was adopted in 1967. Now, people apply the “second” name to a time interval which contains a certain number of periods of emanation of cesium atom wave having a certain length. As of today, it’s considered to be the most accurate of all major SI unit standards. What further could be said here?!” Sensei pronounced the last sentence with a double meaning. He was silent for a while and then continued, “The objective time in our match burning example is the moment of physical and chemical processes taking place during combustion. Well, and the subjective time means individual time perception of a part of the process.
   “However, since the global time constantly accelerates, the objective time accelerates accordingly, though from the perspective of human subjective perception the objective time does not change, i.e. we still have 24 hours a day. Thus, we face a time paradox: on one hand, time accelerates, and a person feels it. As the saying goes, I have hardly had time to wake up on Monday when Saturday has already come. Yet, on the other hand, from the perspective of physics, the objective time seems to remain stable, I mean years, months, days, hours, seconds. And the entire time phenomenon is conditional, in the first place, to the fact that time and also space are the concurrent characteristics of the matter. Should there be no matter, there would not be neither time nor space. Besides, time and space are closely related to gravitation.”
   “Gravitation?” Nikolai Andreevich asked to repeat in astonishment.
   “Yes. Time, space and gravitation are the properties of Allat which reveal themselves in the energy of the Po particle. Allat is the first cause of rise and existence of the material world. And it was exactly the inner impulse forward of the Po particle energy which generated time. Nowadays, time can be defined as a tremendous energy under a tremendous density... Time, gravitation and space are all inherent in the material world. In non-material or spiritual world, in God’s reality or no matter how you otherwise call that world beyond the verge, no concepts of time, space and gravitation exist at all.”
   “But what does exist there?” Victor wondered.