The Story: A Song of Silver Crow
Excerpts From the book Page 3
The waning moon diminishes with each night and finally vanishes completely… a night when only the constellations and Venus, Mercury, and Mars shine down on the small lake.
The boy has felt a new stirring within growing with each night's passage. He has visions of a vast prairie unfolding before him… and as he approaches the far western regions, a ridge of towering blue mountains beckons him.
Jacob dreamed of a ladder to heaven here, a symbol of intercourse between God and his creation… while Muhammad was swept up into Paradise at this very spot after having initiated the youngest of the three Abrahamic traditions. Arab children are playing soccer on one side of the compound, making the site seem almost like a school yard. Silver Crow wonders how that happens in such a place, sacred for Jews and Arabs alike.
4:55pm: They ascend the stairs and enter the Mugrabim Gate to the Temple Mount shortly after al-Asr, the evening call to prayer. Late afternoon sunlight caresses the golden Dome atop the structure that envelopes the altar where Abraham sought to obey a god who felt a need to test his “friend’s” loyalty.
" Palmyra: The Bride of the Desert"
... it seems to the Indian that a blanket of solemn dignity covers the area; almost as if Solomon, in his wisdom, were somewhere nearby awaiting the return of his kingdom.
Resigned to some small frustration at not having time for a visit to actually examine the ruins, Charles does manage to persuade Simcha to stop for a few minutes while he takes dozens of photographs of the ancient walls and columns. He notices a scruffy-looking Raven that follows him about as he takes the shots. Then, it departs, as though off to tell David’s son about the curious visitor to the ruins.
“That sounds like a person can’t attain enlightenment on his own. The way you presented the concept is that God is ultimately the One Who does the work. I’ve worked with A Course in Miracles for years now and the same theme is consistently reiterated there also. In the final instance, an absolute surrender to God through Christ, or in other cultures Buddha or what one would call the Logos, is the only way one can arrive at true illumination,” I observe.
“That’s definitely the temperament of the dialogue. It appears throughout the parts I’ve read,” David agrees.
4:55 am: The dream ends abruptly. This time, as he awakens, disorientation is not an issue. He’s lucid, completely aware of where he is and what the last few days have consisted of. It’s the interval between night’s darkest moment and the coming dawn, and he absorbs the blackness around him, ingests it, and observes how his mind reflects calm darkness back to him. “I am not my mind… I have a mind, but that’s not the totality of who I am.”
He observes his body... separate, apart, and comes to a similar conclusion, “Odd, I am not this body… I’ve never noticed that before, either.”
He floats somewhere inside himself, confused but not alarmed. "I seem to be observing myself observe myself. I wonder if this is what Charlie's talking about when he speaks about meditation and the void? I think it might be."
