Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 1, 2025
We inquired what he could possibly know of this matter, whereon Kou-en replied calmly "In those days when the faith of the Holy One was still young, I dwelt as a humble brother in this very monastery, which was one of the first built, and I saw the army pass, that is all. Here Leo began a great laugh, but I managed to kick him beneath the table and he turned it into a sneeze.
What she had done was done because irresistible impulse, born of knowledge, or at least of memories, drove her on, though mayhap the knowledge was imperfect and the memories were undefined. Who save Ayesha could have known anything of Leo in the past? None who lived upon the earth to-day. And yet, why not, if what Kou-en the abbot and tens of millions of his fellow-worshippers believed were true?
When it had gone, not too willingly for our faithful friend disliked parting from us and distrusted this new guide the abbot, who was named Kou-en, led us into the living room or rather the kitchen of the monastery, for it served both purposes.
We asked if there really was any country beyond the mountains, and Kou-en answered wearily that he believed so. Either in this or in a previous life he had heard that people lived there who worshipped fire.
"Have you grown hungry there that you return to this poor place?" "Aye, most excellent Kou-en," I answered, "hungry for rest." "It shall be yours for all the days of this incarnation. But say, where is the other brother?" "Dead," I answered. "And therefore re-born elsewhere or perhaps, dreaming in Devachan for a while. Well, doubtless we shall meet him later on.
It was obvious, therefore, that until these conditions changed, or death released us, we must abide where we were upon the crest of the hillock. So there we sat, foodless and frightened, wondering what our old friend Kou-en would say if he could see us now. By degrees hunger mastered all our other sensations and we began to turn longing eyes upon the headless body of the yak.
Ah! you do not believe me now; you shake your heads and smile; yet a day will dawn, it may be after many incarnations, when you shall bow them in the dust and weep, saying to me, 'Brother Kou-en, yours were the words of wisdom, ours the deeds of foolishness;" and with a deep sigh the old man turned and left us.
On the morning of the second day from that night the sunrise found us already on our path across the desert. There, nearly a mile behind us, we could see the ruined statue of Buddha seated in front of the ancient monastery, and in that clear atmosphere could even distinguish the bent form of our friend, the old abbot, Kou-en, leaning against it until we were quite lost to sight.
At this Leo made a sound that resembled a whistle. In a very agony of apprehension, beating back the criticisms and certain recollections of the strange tale of the old abbot, Kou-en, which would rise within me, I asked quickly "And dost thou, Ayesha, remember well all that befell thee in this former life?"
"If the old Buddhist monk Kou-en could remember his past, as thousands of them swear that they do, and be sure of his identity continued from that past, why should not this woman, with so much at stake, helped as she is by the wizardry of the Shaman, her uncle, faintly remember hers?
Word Of The Day
Others Looking