Chapter Forty-six

The walk was long and arduous, but their hearts had been strengthened by both faith and hope. They weren’t alone in their quest; the recent miracles had proven that.

The three mules were ridden by Angeline, Suna and Leuters. Toby and Noah walked beside them on foot. They ate what food they could scrounge, drank what little water they could find. It had been a four-day journey, but they were close to their destination.

Suna had explored these canyons as a girl, and she knew them well. Her teenage years had been spent in a nearby off-grid community created by her mentor.

“How did you meet K’ete-t?” Angeline asked.

“When I was fifteen, both of my parents died. It was a difficult time in South Korea; we were a third-world country.”

“Did you meet him in Korea?” Noah asked.

“No,” she said. “I had a distant cousin in America. After my parents died, she offered to bring me here to provide me with the opportunity for a greater education. But when I got here, instead of sending me to school, as she had promised, she sent me to work as a seamstress. The hours were long, and the conditions were,” she paused to consider, “intense,” she finished. Her voice dropped. “She collected my pay every week and told me that I had to earn my keep, which was a small room in her house, no bigger than a closet. I’d never met her before coming to America, and soon discovered that she wasn’t a very noble person.”

Angeline hummed sympathetically.

“It wasn’t all bad,” Suna said. “In many ways, she granted me the ultimate gift, which was meeting K’ete-t. When I met him, everything changed.”

“Meeting destined,” Leuters huffed. “Two souls take any road, endure much hardship, to get together as quick as possible.”

“Yeah.” Suna smiled. “Meeting him was such a homecoming that it was easy to let go of the pain of my past.”

“What happened next?” Toby asked.

“After two years of working in the glorified sweat shop, I put my shoes on one morning and headed to work, but something inside wouldn’t let me open the door to the factory,” Suna said. “I walked the town all day, knowing that if I returned home, having not gone to work, I would be badly beaten. It was the late seventies, and hitchhiking was quite popular. So I stuck out my thumb and let fate decide where I would land. Fate, as it turned out, would put me into K’ete-t’s passenger seat. Meeting him was a revelation. He brimmed with such enthusiasm, such hope for the world. I had never heard anyone talk about humanity in the way that he did. I never considered that things could be better, but listening to him opened new horizons in my heart. He made the impossible seem possible. We became fast friends, and he invited me to become a student at his school.”

“What type of school was it?” Toby asked.

“I think rather than explaining it, I should perhaps let you experience for yourself. Let’s just say that I could have never imagined something so . . . well, life affirming.”

“And this is where we’re going now?” Toby said, holding the mane of the donkey to keep pace as he walked beside her.

“Yes,” Suna said. “I am excited for all of you to

meet him.”

“What’s he like?” Toby asked.

Suna considered. “True,” she answered in one word.

“You’re not going to give me more?” Toby raised

an eyebrow.

“I suppose each person experiences him differently because he’s a clear mirror.”

“What does that mean?” Toby asked, remembering the tiny bronze mirror in his pocket.

“In him, you see your own nature, favorable or not. He reflects the truth, whatever it may be.”

“I’m confused,” Toby said.

“Some people describe him as a grandfather, some as a teddy bear, some as an enlightened master, some as a tree-hugging hippie,” Suna laughed. “But he is none of those things. Those are just labels. He simply holds space and reflects what’s in front of him, so that the person may witness themselves without filter and grow from that experience. Because of this, people have a varied reaction to him. Some love him intensely; some hate him intensely. But it is only the reflection of themselves that they love or hate.”

“What does he reflect to you?” Toby furrowed his brow, trying to grasp the nature of her mentor.

“I find him to be the most considerate, selfless human being on the planet. And not because that is my nature reflected back, but because I have witnessed years of him reflecting the truth, no matter how unpopular it may be. In every moment he gives himself up, letting go of his ego, in order to help people grow. He is not fixed. He moves through each and every moment with fluidity and truth. He is a Seuseungnim.”

“What’s a Seuseungnim?”

“It means a guide.”

“Guide to what?”

“A guide out of the illusion.” Suna smiled. “Those little stories that wrap around us and keep us from expressing our true spirit. The more tightly you are wrapped in your illusion, the stronger he has to pull. But he doesn’t force this awareness on anyone. He just holds space, creating the perfect conditions for the recognition of what is and the growth into what can be.”

Suna stopped her mule. Turning around to address the group, she said, “This is the entrance of the canyon. It will be difficult to take the mules. I am afraid that we’ll need to take the remaining terrain on foot.”

“But Leuters . . .” Noah said.

“I’ll help him,” Toby offered. He stepped to Leuters’s side, assisting him as he slid off the mule onto his remaining leg. Leuters patted Toby on the back. He was grateful.

“I’ll help too,” Noah said. “Let me know if you get

tired.”

“I will, brother,” Toby replied.

Suna and Angeline dismounted from their mules. Suna took a moment to walk from mule to mule, thanking them by holding her forehead against theirs and kissing their nose. She patted each on the backside and sent them into the forest.

Leuters leaned his weight on Toby’s shoulders, and they hobbled down the rocky terrain. Toby was a changed man. He had completely abandoned his ego and bloomed into the noble warrior that he was born to be. The hard experiences of his life had been forgotten, his sins forgiven. Not by an external savior, but by his own soul. He felt like he had been reborn, become the person that he would have been if life hadn’t gotten in the way. He had touched his true nature and felt like the hero that he always wished to be.

They walked the steep trail. Suna was in the lead, followed by Angeline, then Toby and Leuters, with Noah bringing up the rear. Their bodies moved without thought; only their physical energy carried them now.

When they rounded the last corner in the dark, they saw an iron-gated entrance with a little sign

illuminated by a solar bulb that read, Earth Citizen

School.

Suna almost cried with relief.

At long last, she was home.