Read Online Kingdom of the Golden Dragon by Isabel Allende - Free Book Online
Authors: Isabel Allende
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replaced his mother, his father, and the rest of his family; he became his best friend, his master, his Tao-shu instructor, his spiritual guide. From Tensing he learned nearly everything he knew.
Tensing led the prince step by step along the path of Buddhism, tutored him in history and philosophy, introduced him to nature, animals, and the curative powers of plants, developed the youthâs intuition and imagination, and taught him the skills of war while teaching him the value of peace. He initiated Dil Bahadur into the secrets of the lamas and helped him discover the mental and physical equilibrium he would need in order to govern. One of the exercises the prince had to practice was shooting his bow while standing on tiptoe with raw eggs beneath his heels, or crouched with eggs tucked behind his knees.
âHitting the target with your arrow is not enough, Dil Bahadur; you must also develop strength, stability, and muscle control,â the lama repeated patiently.
âPerhaps it would be more productive for us to eat the eggs, honorable master,â the prince would sigh when he broke them.
Dil Bahadurâs spiritual apprenticeship was even more intense. When he was ten, the boy could enter a state of trance and rise to a higher level of consciousness; at eleven he could communicate telepathically and move objects without touching them; at thirteen, he made astral journeys. On his fourteenth birthday his master opened an orifice in his forehead to enable him to see auras. The operation actually perforated the bone and left a circular scar the size of a pea.
âAll organic matter radiates energy, or an aura, a halo of light invisible to the human eye except in the case of certain persons with psychicpowers. You may learn many things from the color and shape of an aura,â Tensing explained.
During three consecutive summers, the lama traveled with the boy to cities in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, to train him in reading the auras of the people and animals he saw there. He did not, however, take him to the beautiful valleys and cultivated terraces in the mountains of his own country, the Forbidden Kingdom. He would return there only when his education was complete.
Dil Bahadur learned to use the eye in his forehead with such precision that by now, at the age of eighteen, he could identify the medicinal properties of a plant, the ferocity of an animal, or the emotional state of a person, just from viewing the aura.
In only two years the prince would be twenty, and his masterâs work would be done. Then Dil Bahadur would return for the first time to the affection of his family, and would go to study in Europe, because there was crucial knowledge to be learned in the modern world, information Tensing could not teach him but he would need if he was to govern his nation.
Tensing was devoting all his energies to preparing the prince to be a good king and to be able to decipher the messages of the Golden Dragon. Dil Bahadurâs course of studies was intense and complex, so that sometimes he lost patience, but Tensing, unyielding, prodded him to keep working until both were exhausted.
âI do not want to be king, master,â Dil Bahadur said one day.
âPossibly my student would rather renounce his throne and not have to study,â smiled Tensing.
âI want to live a life of meditation, master. How shall I achieve enlightenment amid the temptations of the world?â
âNot everyone can be a hermit like me. It is your karma to be a ruler. Your illumination mustcome as you travel a path much more difficult than that of meditation. You will have to achieve that while serving your people.â
âI do not want to leave you, master,â said the prince, his voice breaking.
The lama pretended not to see the tears in the youthâs eyes.
âWishes and fears are illusions, Dil Bahadur, not realities. You must practice detachment.â
âMust I also detach myself from
Tensing led the prince step by step along the path of Buddhism, tutored him in history and philosophy, introduced him to nature, animals, and the curative powers of plants, developed the youthâs intuition and imagination, and taught him the skills of war while teaching him the value of peace. He initiated Dil Bahadur into the secrets of the lamas and helped him discover the mental and physical equilibrium he would need in order to govern. One of the exercises the prince had to practice was shooting his bow while standing on tiptoe with raw eggs beneath his heels, or crouched with eggs tucked behind his knees.
âHitting the target with your arrow is not enough, Dil Bahadur; you must also develop strength, stability, and muscle control,â the lama repeated patiently.
âPerhaps it would be more productive for us to eat the eggs, honorable master,â the prince would sigh when he broke them.
Dil Bahadurâs spiritual apprenticeship was even more intense. When he was ten, the boy could enter a state of trance and rise to a higher level of consciousness; at eleven he could communicate telepathically and move objects without touching them; at thirteen, he made astral journeys. On his fourteenth birthday his master opened an orifice in his forehead to enable him to see auras. The operation actually perforated the bone and left a circular scar the size of a pea.
âAll organic matter radiates energy, or an aura, a halo of light invisible to the human eye except in the case of certain persons with psychicpowers. You may learn many things from the color and shape of an aura,â Tensing explained.
During three consecutive summers, the lama traveled with the boy to cities in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, to train him in reading the auras of the people and animals he saw there. He did not, however, take him to the beautiful valleys and cultivated terraces in the mountains of his own country, the Forbidden Kingdom. He would return there only when his education was complete.
Dil Bahadur learned to use the eye in his forehead with such precision that by now, at the age of eighteen, he could identify the medicinal properties of a plant, the ferocity of an animal, or the emotional state of a person, just from viewing the aura.
In only two years the prince would be twenty, and his masterâs work would be done. Then Dil Bahadur would return for the first time to the affection of his family, and would go to study in Europe, because there was crucial knowledge to be learned in the modern world, information Tensing could not teach him but he would need if he was to govern his nation.
Tensing was devoting all his energies to preparing the prince to be a good king and to be able to decipher the messages of the Golden Dragon. Dil Bahadurâs course of studies was intense and complex, so that sometimes he lost patience, but Tensing, unyielding, prodded him to keep working until both were exhausted.
âI do not want to be king, master,â Dil Bahadur said one day.
âPossibly my student would rather renounce his throne and not have to study,â smiled Tensing.
âI want to live a life of meditation, master. How shall I achieve enlightenment amid the temptations of the world?â
âNot everyone can be a hermit like me. It is your karma to be a ruler. Your illumination mustcome as you travel a path much more difficult than that of meditation. You will have to achieve that while serving your people.â
âI do not want to leave you, master,â said the prince, his voice breaking.
The lama pretended not to see the tears in the youthâs eyes.
âWishes and fears are illusions, Dil Bahadur, not realities. You must practice detachment.â
âMust I also detach myself from
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