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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
It’s tantric!
It’s electric!>> In transit, so to speak
Lily Ah Sun was right. When the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa and Bodhicita Guzman, his eternal consort, returned from just 10 minutes together downstairs at Kamasami Khan's home, she'd whispered to her husband: "My god, Quinn, look at them. They're glowing!"
And they were, both of them, bathed in cosmic light.
In particular, the young lama's head was glowing again, even through three days' growth of dark stubble. And so for the ride to town, in his final clandestine act, the lama again wore the blond surfer boy wig, with a black East Side Boyz T-shirt, green Quicksilver board shorts and the T-Macs.
Lily couldn't help asking about their glow as she drove the young lama, accompanied by her maid/friend Rosalita Resurreccion and Rosalita's 9-year-old daughter Elizabeth, who moments ago had attained her Buddhahood on the accelerated path virtual reality program the lama and his brother Joe Kharma created. And Bodhicita couldn't help talking as she rode on the back of Quinn's motorcycle.
"It's tantric," the lama and Bodhicita explained separately.
"It's electric," she added. "But no, you know, like sex. It's better than that. Hard to believe ... "
Indeed.
Quinn was a Buddhist. Not always a good one -- as a cop you simply couldn't turn the other cheek sometimes -- but a serious one. And adept enough that he had learned a meditation technique in which he would place an idea, a concern, a question on an alabaster lotus blossom that rose from placid water in a gilded room. There his unconscious would examine it in all of its aspects, like a master gemologist.
From the moment they saw Elizabeth emerge from the VR scenario as an enlightened Buddha ... well, that was Quinn's ultimate wish for himself. So on the lotus blossom he'd placed the opportunity to accelerate his path toward Buddhahood. He could do that or he could stay here, in and of this world, as this self. The basic teaching of Buddha is that life is suffering, caused by our own attachment to self, ego, consciousness, and the choices we make to seek pleasure or avoid displeasure. It's true, life was suffering, and more suffering would come his way as long as he chose to love this life.
It wasn't so much life itself to which Quinn was attached, although pleasures of the world such as surfing, OK, he was attached to the waves, no question, and to sunsets and a good steak. But more than that, Lily. Now that he'd found her after 21 years apart, and found as close to a soul mate as he could ever imagine ... Now he'd promised 'til death do them part ...
If Buddhahood was in his future, it could wait another lifetime. Right now, he wouldn't trade his life with Lily for anything.
Unfortunately, he knew, too often death played the trader.
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com