Chapter 9

Sun watched as the sun set behind the rocky promontories of the Himalayas eastern slopes. When possible he always made the time to capture these moments, those moments of transition, where neither light nor dark held sway, the gap's that were the fulcrum of the balance between both.

Closing his eyes he concentrated on the gap, on the power and emptiness of the space ... between.

Few could understand what Sun found in the gap. He had tried to describe it to others off and on for the past 30 years but it always turned out ... lacking.

At the age of nine Sun Cho Ling had walked up to the giant doors of the Buddhist temple.

The scope of them had him standing motionless before the ancient doors for at least an hour before a kindly old monk used the small access door and came out to stand next to the young man the initiates had told him about.

"What do you see?" Hong asked the young man at his side, not looking at him but regarding the large doors with him.

"A beginning ... and an ending" was the reply.

The next 9 years passed quickly, Sun was adopted by the monastery and lived a life of solitude and learning. It was during this time that he found the gap.

During his studies, he found one of the overriding principles and truths of life; that to live life to the fullest one must search and strive for balance in all things.

The teachers and scrolls went through thousands of examples in the natural world, day and night, predator and prey, air and earth, fire and water ... everything created lives in a precarious balance with something else. And together, all of those positives and negatives create a universal balance that helps to maintain the universe in its ongoing quest to become ... more.

Sun was captured by this ideal of balance, and it played out in a small sense in the large courtyard everyday at high noon.

As important as training the mind and spirit were to the monks, it was also only natural that their physical form be balanced in the same way.

So everyday when the sun reached its highest point everyone would gather in the great courtyard and exercise. The preferred vehicle for this aspect of their journey for balance was Tai Chi and for others more martial arts.

As he did with his studies of mathematics, reading and philosophy, Sun took to the physical side of the monasteries training with deep commitment and purpose.

Sun was always the first to enter the courtyard, always the last to leave it. Even though he was very young the other monks understood that in this as in everything the young man set his mind too he was ... unique.

And so nine years passed for Sun, he learned English, French, German and Japanese, he conversed fluently with the many tourists who made the trek to the top of the world to see the great mountain, visit the monasteries in hopes of learning great mysteries.

Through these visitors he learned of the world outside the gates, learned that so many people were ... searching, that few ever came close to glimpsing or even understanding what it was they were searching for.

Sun often sat and meditated on top of the large wall that surrounded the monastery. It had become his custom soon after his life here started. From the earliest days he had been drawn to dawn and dusk, times of transition and balance, long before he learned of their divine concepts.

Sitting there, watching the sun slowly make it's fall, giving up the sky to its brother the night, he was shocked to be aware of a growing ... presence.

It seemed, intelligent and it seemed to be ... searching. Sun was not overly frightened by this new manifestation, he surmised that it was simply something he had not encountered before and reserved judgment until something other than a simple feeling manifest.

This presence ebbed and flowed around him, feeling to him like the water of the large communal bath in the monastery as monks entered and left, a soft undulation, a simple feeling that something was there, something had entered, something had moved away.

The presence was at it's strongest for an instant that seemed to pause ... to stretch out, to hold within it some unseen acknowledgement of great power ... and then the moment ended. The ebb and flow returned, quietly and softly providing the simple acknowledgement that it was there for a few more moments and that too ... ended.

Opening his eyes Sun was surprised to see stars where when he last looked the sun had been.

"Why have we not studied dusk and dawn" Sun asked the next day to one of his teachers.

"Surely you have covered the heavens and the earth with Master Fong?" his teacher responded, sure that master Fong would have covered the stars and the earth and its rotation, etc ... during his teachings.

"Yes master we have, my question is why have we not studied what lives in the gap?" Sun responded, to the utter amazement of his teacher.

Hong looked at the young man, he had grown over the last 3 years since he stood with him looking at the gate on the day of his arrival. He was both surprised and not that Sun had discovered the gap and the energies at play there so soon.

As Sun poured tea for both of them he began.

"As you know the universe continues and grows because of the balance between all things, the push and pull, the black and white the yin and yang ... all these things provide the energy of life. The gap is simply a very powerful expression of that principal made manifest in the moment between day and night. The power and energy of the transition between the sun, the earth, the moon, the celestial ceiling, all of these things in that perfect instant are in balance, harmony. What you feel is the energy that this harmony creates" Hong finished, sipping his tea looking at the young man, wishing for an instant he could perceive what was going through Sun's mind.

"But that moment is constant Master, that moment is always occurring someplace on earth, all the time, so it is not a simple fleeting thing but an energy that continues, infinitely" Sun said thinking that this was an interesting conversation, and very good tea.

"You are correct Sun, you should meditate on this" Master Hong said as he had no answer to the boys statement, as it was one of the great fundamental questions that all of the masters down through the ages had pondered, what was possible ... in the eternal gap.

Sun lived a happy childhood at the monastery, helping anyone who needed it, learning all that he could, honing his intellect, his body and his spirit in concert.

9 years to the day he arrived in front of the gates of the monastery he found himself there again, this time looking at them from the other side, gazing on them with a reverent look that caused several of the initiates to get Master Hong.

Walking up next him Master Hong once again stood at his side before the gates.

"What do you see" he asked now as he had then

And again, the answer was the same "A beginning ... and an ending" Sun responded, understanding that it was time for his evolution to continue somewhere else.

Master Hong made arrangements for Sun to travel to Japan, there was a monastery there outside of Tokyo, which would provide a safe place for him to continue his studies and begin to integrate into the modern world.

The trip from the monastery to Japan was a unique experience, Sun had lived a fairly sheltered life, limited to a few miles around the monastery.

Riding in the old truck heading for the city of Lhasa Sun was amazed by the variations in the countryside. From the mountainous cliffs where the monastery was perched to the lower plains that seemed to go on forever, Sun was awestruck by a scale and diversity that he had never encountered.

Sun found the city of Lhasa to be ... chaotic, use to the slow pace and easy to find solitude of the monastery he was unprepared for the crush of humanity that surrounded him as he carried his small bag into the plane terminal.

"Can I help you" the young woman behind the counter asked an obviously flustered Sun.

"I am" Sun began, pausing as a passerby jostled him, making him drop his bag. "I am looking for flight 919 to Tokyo" he said, exasperated by the un-natural speed of this place. 'How does anyone find quiet in such a place' he wondered as he moved through the terminal to his gate.

In contrast to the heavy crush of people and activity in the terminal, Sun was awestruck by the calm serenity flying seemed to provide.

The din of the engines and quiet talking of the other passengers was easy for him to tune out, and then it was just him ... in the clouds. It was a rich, fulfilling experience, flying in the cool air high above the world, looking at the backside of the clouds as they made their slow endless march across the world. It would be a place of quiet joy and wonder that he would revisit with much energy on every flight he took in the future.

Landing in Tokyo he stepped off the plane into a different world.

Where the terminal in Lhasa had been dirty, rundown and chaotic, this place was clean, bright and above all ordered.

There were people of course, thousands of them, but as if by some unwritten understanding the whole of the mass was ordered, the energy was there, almost palpable but everyone in this space understood where they were going and was getting there in the most direct manner, he was amazed at the shared focus of these people.

Sun was surprised to see a monk holding a card with his name on it as he walked into the main terminal after retrieving his one bag.

Walking over to the man he bowed deeply and said "I am Sun Co Ling"

Returning the bow the middle aged monk replied " Ah, I am happy to meet you, I am Aki, please follow me, I have been sent to take you to the monastery."

The drive to the monastery only continued Sun's culture shock. Arriving in the small hours of morning before dawn he was treated to a view of downtown Tokyo filled with light and motion, buildings of a scale not experienced and a new perspective on the daily life of others in this "modern" world.

As dawn began to break and they moved out of the city proper, the lush greens struck Sun, 'so much variation' he thought to himself, for the first time understanding how ... compact his world view had been.

The monastery itself was of a much smaller scale than the one Sun had grown up in.

Nestled at the end of a small valley it was a simple compound made up of 9 buildings reflecting the style of the Kamakura period, large open patios, low pagoda style roofs with the structures connected by covered walkways. A traditional 9ft high fence surrounded the monastery with a large freeform pond at its center, fed by a natural creek that came down from the mountains.