MANKIND'S SEARCH FOR
TRUTH
Da Shan,
Mythical Mountain of Seeking and Finding
THE INFANTRY SOLDIER
OVERTONE
In the book A
Guide to Awareness and Tranquility, I wrote briefly of
my time in warfare and one of the grand lessons about
judgmentalism it afforded me. Over the years people have
said how much that story meant to them, perhaps more than
all the stories I have written.
To the Western set of
mind there is a certain incongruity about an old soldier
being one to whom a measure of Light has been revealed. I
can understand that. Many singular events that I have never
written about occurred during those days. I was, after all,
a captain of infantry in two long wars. I lived with Chinese
infantry troops in the field for nearly three
years---subsisting with them, nearly starving with them. The
few American soldiers in China had very little support from
the United States during World War II. We were at the end of
the world's longest supply line, and anything that reached
us from home had been flown over Japanese occupied
countries, over the great Himalayan Mountains into Kunming,
thence to be trucked and packed in by animals to us,
wherever we might be.
I didn't live very well
during those years. My last year in China, as the great war
came to an end, I joined Chinese troops who were actively
engaged against the Japanese and fought in the battles that
recaptured Ishan, Liuchow and Kwelin.
In Korea, less than ten
years later, I commanded King Company, 279th Infantry
Regiment. Things were much harder for me in Korea's combat
than in the long, strange war in China. Being older didn't
help me in Korea, nor did I have wise old Mr. Shieh
(William's Chinese interpreter, Taoist Master and teacher)
at Korea's great Sandbag Castle or at Vulture's Roost on the
38th Parallel.
It is interesting that
I've never written about those days,even though I've told of
the learning events to seekers who have come to visit here
in Alabama. I especially relished telling such tales to the
metaphysical "absolutists" or to the young zealot idealists
who arrived expecting only gentle words of peace from a
Godly teacher. Since stories of strife, warfare and
suffering are the last thing those people expect to hear
from a "metaphysician," that's often what they got.
Show me a revelation
and I'll show you a traumatic event from which that Light
emerged. Show me a true vision of heaven and I'll show you a
descent into the anguish of hell wherein that vision was
tried, tested and found faithful. "Prove me now herewith,
saith the Lord...." "Put all things to the test," Paul
echoed. And now, having written nearly everything necessary
for the final book, I sit me down on yet another Memorial
Day to remember my soldiers who fought with me in many
battles.
Let me write a Glimpse
or two from those days. First, harking back to China, Mr.
Shieh and I, with five American teammates, were being
pursued by a Japanese combat patrol. We were "retrograding,"
bringing up the rear of our little patrol, trying to get
back to the safety of friendly lines. We were close to being
captured. In those days, neither the Japanese nor Chinese
"gave quarter." That is we took no prisoners. I knew that if
I were taken by the pursuing Japanese, it meant certain
death. On the other hand, Mr.Shieh might successfully pass
himself off as a Chinese peasant. Oh, I cannot write this
story! At this minute it is enough to remember Mr. Shieh
seeing and pointing out the beauty of those purple blooms on
the distant mountain we had yet to climb. I marveled at a
man who could see beauty under such oppressive
circumstances. I marvel more that he helped me learn to do
it.
During the Korean War,
an artillery round burst among my men on the left flank.
Several bodies were hurled about and I ran to see the extent
of the damage and whether the platoon leader was still
effective. Sick to my stomach at the sight, I sat down among
three of the bodies sprawled along the slope. I became aware
of a visual "Presence" hovering beside them. A misty,
blue-white light of sorts. A different kind of light,
primal, persuasive and powerful. I could not explain what I
saw then, nor can I now, but with the sight, and because of
the sight, I was absolutely certain within myself I was
being shown evidence of the deathlessness of Life--the
survival of the Child, the Soul of men. I felt a marvelous
sense of relief, almost gratitude, concerning those men and
everything happening that day. Within a few minutes of that
incident, my regiment, and my part of the line in
particular, was hit by an enormous wave of shell fire and
oncoming Chinese troops. Hell erupted in a manner that no
one can sufficiently describe or picture for another.One
simply must experience something like that to fully
understand.
But, to the ongoing
Glimpse I'd like to write here if I can. In the early
moments of that terrible onslaught wherein everything that
moved was slaughtered ten times over--advancing troops, men,
women, children, dogs and chickens, and every moving
creature caught at that place at that time--I was suddenly
unable to hear. My world went silent and I was enveloped in
an immeasurable calm. In the midst of that horrendous din of
exploding bodies and shells, I could hear nothing but my own
voice. In some marvelous way, I was caught up in a quiet,
tranquil dimension, separate, but attached to the carnage at
hand. I had not been wounded. I felt as well as one could be
expected to feel under such circumstances. I could hear my
own voice and even my breathing quite clearly. I went from
gun position to gun position and heard myself giving calm
encouragement to my troops. I could see their mouths move in
reply and gratitude--and terror--but I couldn't hear them. I
heard myself but couldn't hear the shells bursting in my
face. I was beset with a wonderful enwrapping calm that let
me move fearlessly to do whatever the moment asked me to do,
as hideous as those moments were.
Perhaps a man can so
detest a situation that his body produces the chemicals
which, in turn, erect a barricade between himself and the
galling situation. But as this was happening for me on the
long day in Korea, there was a clear perception that a
superlative Reality stood just behind the events; that there
is another Scene just above this one, surrounding it; that
Reality was bursting through that corridor of chaos into my
own conscious recognition. I walked with a detached courage,
as if the mortal body couldn't and wouldn't be hurt. I ran
from soldier to soldier, gun to gun. I was knocked down,spun
around and stung with rocks and earth, feeling nothing but a
calm, clear sense of Life's dominion over the sights and
sounds of the world; as though, with the Presence I had
sensed and seen moments earlier among the first bodies
felled, I was SEEING and FEELING Life's eternal Nature, even
in the face of death. Perhaps this was the beneficent calm
Mr. Shieh had felt those years earlier when he saw the
blossoms on the distant mountain.
That particular
hellfire and damnation in Korea lasted four nights and three
days, without sleep for my troops and me. I have never
forgotten the different time frame and the enwrapping inner
peace nor how I was held and supported during that time--or
non-time.
More significant, that
Peace has not forsaken me since those days, at least not
when I was mindful of It nor when the chips were down and I
called for It. How do I call for It? I bring forth the Child
of Me.
Why I write this now
after all these years, I really don't know, but on this
Memorial Day when I feel everything necessary for the book
has been written, I sit me down and write something that
might tell others, like Janice and Bill, that there are
times when the anguish of the lesson is absolutely
necessary--that leaving the anguish may not be the answer.
Now, with absolute
assurance, I can tell people, old and young, their lessons
can be learned under the most difficult and trying
circumstances. Better that we leave our nets after we've
learned their lessons. Better that we call on the Child
because the Child knows what to do. The Child and the
Presence are the same one Presence and It is right here
where we are, transcending this world's time and space.
The final tone in this
Overtone: The day I moved King Company onto line in Korea, I
was given the Order of Battle of the "enemy" opposing me
just across the valley on the next mountain. Facing my
regiment, and me in particular, was the Chinese 60th Army,
the same troops I had lived with and trained for two years
in China. We met again, eight years later, in a terrible and
senseless slaughter.
In the apparent
world, our friends and enemies are the same--and, sometimes,
needlessly, insanely, we try to destroy one another, thence
to find that Life is eternal. Like Arjuna, in awful combat,
I was instructed in certain of the Mysteries and learned the
sense of senselessness. Memorial Day 1985
To read more
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