"I resort to Gem's story at times of inner unrest,
when I need some peace of mind,
or when I need to commune with people I really care about."

Renuka Ramesh
India

(Fourth excerpt)
 

Winter, First Moon, all fingers' day

"Master, I would like so much to learn meditation."
I thought my teacher would say 'no', or 'later', like before, but he had just come back from his evening meditation on a nearby hilltop and his eyes sparkled and his face radiated deep bliss.

"Certainly Gem, I'll be happy to teach you," he answered kindly. "But you know that it is a serious thing, to learn meditation?"

"I'll be very serious, Master."
Oh, how I longed to be like him, blissful, peaceful, balanced. I was ready to do anything for that. Getting up early, sitting an hour in the cold, remaining hungry until I finish meditation, anything.

My teacher looked at me for a while without speaking. His gaze was probing now, grave. But behind it I felt the beginning of a smile.

***

"The most powerful, uplifting, and spiritual book
I have ever had the pleasure of reading!"

Kathy Williams, publisher;
author of
I Survived / Thorns of two Roses

(Fifth excerpt)

Winter, First Moon, Four hands and four fingers' day

Our meditations are wonderful. Such peace I feel, such happiness...

Sometimes we meditate for more than an hour. Sometimes I continue after my teacher has stopped. My back aches, my feet sleep and my knees hurt so much that afterwards I can't walk for a while. But it's worth it!

The first time that we did meditation together I will always remember. I was lifted up beyond the sky, beyond the stars, to a place where there was only love. For the first time in ten, fifteen harvests, I stopped criticising myself all the time.

My feeling of relief was indescribable. The rest of the day I didn't say a word. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I drifted in bliss. I stared into the distance all the time and just smiled.

My Master told me later that he, too, smiled the whole day.

***