The Devoted by Blair Hurley

Author:Blair Hurley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2018-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

We are all in the great god Indra’s magnificent net, her Master tells her, seven years into her training. You move and I feel it. You grow, you change, and you tug on the strings of the net. Try to tear free, and you snarl things even tighter. The people all around you are affected.

She nods; she can understand that. But the confines of the net are becoming more constraining every day. She meditates with her Master’s shadow stretching over her shoulders and imagines herself growing, her neck straining, her limbs restless, struggling to open, to move. Tell me the answer to the koan, he says. Show me your original face, before your parents were born.

She says, I have always had this face. A true master never asks to see something that isn’t already there.

But even when she gives the right answer, her Master seems angry. Being self-satisfied with your own progress, he says, leaning over her, is a barrier to enlightenment.

But I’m not, she says. Satisfied is not what she is.

I know. I know. His hands cup her shoulders, slide downward, claim each part of her piece by piece. In truth, she loves the way he touches her into being, as though each piece of her body, her life, has no meaning until he has gotten his hands on it, shaped it a little. He is going to make her excellent. And there is so much work to do.

You are on a journey to discover the origins of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, her Master tells her. Let’s figure these out one at a time. Go to the source, as they say. Let’s start with pleasure. Let’s see how it begins.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.