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Long ago I had the opportunity to associate with a wonderful older
fellow who took it in his heart
to introduce to me those ideas which he thought would assist in
my development.
His name was Milton. He was a retired industrial pharmaceupalist
and,
as well as being partly from Chinese heritage, was a scholar
of China.
He would quite often use the old form of Chinese writing to uncover
for me the direction towards a contemplation.
One day when we were walking in the foothills of Southern California,
he used his walking stick to draw a Chinese character in the earth.
"This," he said, " is the oldest known written word for prayer.
It is more than five thousand years old."
He drew three horizontal lines in the earth.
"The upper line, he said, represents Heaven.
The middle line represents the people.
The lower line represents earth."
He drew a perpendicular line uniting all of the horizontal lines.
"The perpendicular line represents the union of the three."
"This dash hereî Milton splashed a dash in the lower right
corner, ì is the Jade Ring of the Emperor.
The union of Heaven, the People and Earth is the Dharma, the Law,
And this is now the character for the Emperor.
The true ruler fulfills a function, not a place. He upholds
the Union of Heaven, the people and Earth."
"But this is not the character of prayer"
And Milton erased the Jade Ring.
"Here," Milton continued, "we have the union of the Earth and the
People"
He drew several lines to unite the middle and bottom line.
"And with this the union becomes their gardens and fields."
He drew several more lines that looked like little mouths and feet
within each of the ëfieldsí.
"And with these little figures we have the people, the farmers,
out singing and dancing in their fields."
He drew a few pointed ovals and a few L~shaped squiggles in the
boxes that had come to represent the farmers' fields.
"And, lastly,"
Milton drew a number of tiny lines suspended from the top
line, the line representing Heaven.
"we have the rain they seek.
And there you have it, the oldest known written word for prayer
in the world.
A little shoddy for the drawing utensil, perhaps.
Farmers out singing and dancing in their fields for rain."
Note that the line for the fulfillment of the Law, Dharma, is still
present.
A side note,
Quite frequently during our conversations I would begin to speak
philosophically
and beyond my experience as a young man.
Milton would ever scowl and, shaking his finger at me say,
"Presume not the Heavens to scan.
The proper study for Mankinde is Man."
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