Chungu - The less unseen.

A transfer of thoughts from the past to the present.

Some time ago, I learned this story.  Now I am telling you.

Chungu was a person that was born of woman and man.
Chungu grew up at home and did not travel far.

Chungu's mother and father taught about home and about the place where they lived.

Chungu's mother explained about the earth.
Chungu touched the earth and understood.

Chungu's father explained about the sky.
Chungu looked at the sky and understood.

Chungu's mother explained about the water.
Chungu drank the water and understood.

Chungu's father explained about the fire.
Chungu experienced the fire and understood.

Chungu learned about this place and about people too, but people were not as easy to understand as the earth, the sky, water or fire.

It was easier for Chungu to understand about home than people.

People are like smoke from the fire, thought Chungu.
People are like drops of rain from the sky that strike the ground and fade away, thought Chungu.
People are like the bending and twisting of grass in the wind, moving yet going nowhere, thought Chungu.

Chungu's mother and father also explained about things that could not be seen, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled but yet existed too.
They called these things the unseen and explained that happiness and sadness are connected to the unseen.
Chungu did not understand how this could be so yet tried to accept it nonetheless.

As Chungu lived, Chungu watched the world and thought of many things.
Chungu reacted to the things in the world.  Some things brought joy, others things unhappiness.
Chungu did not like the unhappiness and wondered why it was connected to the unseen.

One day Chungu sat looking down at the ground, watching an ant journey about, searching for food.

The ant was moving quickly over the light brown earth, a black spot on a dusty background; but then it stopped and was still.

Chungu thought to not harm the ant and, in so doing, gain the favor of the unseen; so that there might be more joy and less unhappiness.  In that moment, as Chungu watched the ant, it suddenly vanished and was not there.

Chungu thought the ant was hiding and looked carefully but there was no place for the ant to hide.

Chungu was amazed. 
Chungu had seen many things move very quickly.
Chungu had never seen anything be there one moment and then gone the next.

Chungu tried to understand how this could be so and yet could not.  After much thought, Chungu decided the ant must have traveled to the place of the unseen.

Chungu was amazed and believed that the unseen had caused the ant to disappear from this world so that Chungu could better understand the unseen.

Chungu reasoned that if thinking of the unseen was followed by improbable events then it must follow that the unseen really exists.  It could also mean that the world is much stranger than what the eyes can observe.  In that moment Chungu thought about this and other things too.

As Chungu thought and stared at the place where the ant had been only moments before, the ant suddenly appeared again; in exactly the place it had been when it disappeared.  Chungu looked at the ant and did not think any more until the ant walked away.

Chungu lived a while longer, died, and then was unseen.

Author's Note

Rediscovered by CryingKate... from the collection @ http://tamwarink.wordpress.com/

Reviews

[Mikael Malmberg]

This is an interesting read. The ending reads as if you are trying to leave the reader a blank slate; no moral to the story, no final judgement or rule to glean, but simply a meaning that you can try to find in your own head. The meaning of the word "unseen" surely plays a great part in this. In hindsight, it feels obvious that this is an allusion to religion, and to its various afterlives. And yet I think by replacing something more distinct and clear with 'unseen', it (again) leaves that blank slate for the reader to fill. Is that a merit of the story, or detrimental to it? I don't know, really. I suppose that just comes down to preference. Myself, I can appreciate a blank slate if it leaves me satisfied - and, oddly, this did. Nice writing.

[Tam Warink]

Aha! The plot unfolds... it seems that at both you, Mikael and D'Wolf, have discovered much the same thing. The moons are viewed from many angles but the light is reflected upon all, in their own time and place. Thank you for the perceptive commentary!

[Pryde Foltz]

It could also mean that the world is much stranger than what the eyes can observe.

A point that both buddhists and physicists agree … and there are the storytellers who try to make of sense of things with allegory and then there are the realists who don't understand not everything is real. Now … how to put that on twitter. LOL

100 unseen points.

[Tam Warink]

I am impressed with the quality of your review. Your meditations are thoroughly spot-on. Thank you, Pryde. If "that" can be put on twitter it will most certainly need to be in the form of one of your special, succinct forms. :)

[Pryde Foltz]

I had help from the Dao … or maybe it was Deepak Chopra. LOL. Anyway … you know I love this stuff:)