 Before
Christmas of 2000, I was traveling in transit through Turkey, where
I could not reach any fellow initiates, and the would-be initiates did
not come for initiation because something unexpected had happened. Thus,
my plans for holding an initiation during Christmas had to be called
off. Meanwhile, some fellow practitioners from a neighboring country
had invited me to join their Christmas retreat, but I could not make
it because of visa problems. So I ended up spending Christmas Eve alone
in Turkey. Being a total stranger in that country, I found temporary
lodging at a small, inexpensive inn behind the famous Blue Mosque in
Istanbul.
On
Christmas day, I suddenly felt an urge to check my e-mail to see whether
there was any news from headquarters, thinking that I might have received
a Christmas greeting. Actually, I had checked the day before, because
as a lonely traveler in a strange country, I relied on the Internet
as my only link to "home." Since it was a holiday, the streets
were deserted. The several nearby Internet caf‚s that I normally
patronized were closed, but after walking a long distance, I finally
found one that was open for business. It was still very early in the
morning, and the caf‚ had just opened. Most probably I was the
first customer. The place was very quiet and the young owner was getting
things ready for business as I sat down by the window. Then the hospitable
young man quickly came over and opened the window so that I could get
some fresh air. I did not notice it at first, but as I was preparing
to connect to the Internet I saw the young man standing dazed by the
window for a few seconds. Then he suddenly turned to me and asked: "Do
you hear a peculiar sound?" From his eyes, I could see that he
was both fascinated and puzzled. He described the sound, and then it
was my turn to be amazed. It was precisely the inner Sound Stream that
had been reverberating around my ears! How could he possibly have heard
it?
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