ART'S TREE 6: SPECTACULAR REDEMPTION Part 2

The Spectacular Redemption 

of the Beautifully Unseen

Part 2

August 2020

Young Richard’s Spirit Path Continues

After the war, Richard decided to remain in India. He became very fond of the rich spiritual life he discovered there and the deep sense of peace blossoming within him as he continued his practice. Núria took him under her proverbial wing and taught him the ways of fasting, meditating, and communing with nature. She introduced him to the Vedic sciences of mantra, yantra, and tantra as well as some of her own techniques for entering the worlds unseen. 

Richard was already twenty-one when his family became settled enough to invite him back to Austria. But by that time, he had renounced worldly life and become a monk in a small sect of Hindu swamis. To others it remained unclear whether this decision was based on a retaliatory rejection of his family, or on a pure desire and commitment to the path. He wrote his family a heartfelt letter to inform them of his decision to stay in India.  

For Estlin, he wrote a separate letter. In it, he wrote of the many wonders India had to offer, as well as some accounts of his adventures in this strange and magical land. He also included a small poem and a sacred gift. Richard sent Estlin a small Sri Yantra that he had carved out of wood from his favorite banyan tree. He had spent countless hours meditating on it, energizing it, and invoking protective spirits. 

Twins Rekindling  

Back in Europe, Estlin was worlds away. He got himself a job working for the local newspaper, which he loved because he got the news before anyone else. Estlin had seen and lived through the ravages of war. He wanted to understand, to know the ways of the world, to figure out how such a destructive thing as war came about. He wanted to know how to prevent it from ever destroying his world again. As ardently and one-pointedly as Richard sought answers through spiritual insight to the suffering of the human condition, so too did Estlin devour the news, and with such fervor did he develop his political powers. 

It had been many years since Estlin had heard from his brother. He wondered what sort of person Richard had become and felt a sadness bubble up within. He realized he was beginning to forget his dear twin. So much had happened; so much had been lost and endured. The world kept changing stormily and the years continued to rush on like a river, yet the current never brought Richard flowing in it. Estlin felt he was a completely different person now.

“Would he even recognize me?”

He received Richard's letter with a tender and precarious heart. It exuded a candor and vulnerability with which Estlin was quite unfamiliar. As he read his brother’s words, unnerving emotions stirred in his gut.  There was a deeper dimension inside of him, murmuring, re-awakening, tender and very soft. The pain was there, in that closet where he had stuffed his grief over losing his brother. That pain began to swell in him, pushing a single tear to the surface, only to river down his face. He lost himself in this deep feeling, while the yearning for his only brother reignited in him. He closed his eyes and the tear dove off his cheek. There he sat, engrossed fully in his experience, for some time. 

  "Traversing woods of bitter rain,

Once too gray in silver haze,

Stood two mountains proud and quivering,

At the haunting sound of howling wolves,

(Tame yet strong in winter’s breath)

And creaking pine of restful soul

Morning lazy though it rises

and does so bringing sun and praises

a restful soul one to the other,  

this steaming bowl of kind, warm soup.” 

        Richard’s poem echoed in his head. He lost track of time—a rare event for Estlin. He began bringing himself back to the room, into this solid world. He opened his eyes. Suddenly, a strange feeling came over him just as he noticed the wooden Sri Yantra enclosed in the envelope. He emptied the envelope over his bed. The Sri Yantra lay there, seemingly alive yet motionless. He turned his head, stared curiously at it, and studied it from different angles. Something about it seemed to cast a strange aura around it. It brought about an eerie feeling. Upon Estlin’s bewildered face, a rogue eyebrow raised itself, leaving the other behind, as he zoomed his head in closer, took a breath, scratched his head, and timidly began to reach towards the Sri Yantra. 

The moment he touched it, Estlin was immediately thrust into a deep meditative trance filled with the love of his brother. In that state, he felt and understood his brother’s decision to stay in India, He felt the bond between them reawaken like a great river during the heavy rains that follow a long and weary drought. The connection was strong beneath all that time and space, amid fears and concerns. 

   

Estlin Gets in With the Snakes

During this time Estlin was also attending law school. Within just ten years he worked diligently to become a successful politician of considerable influence and prestige. Through hard work and a little help from the family name, Estlin rose through the ranks and was finally able to return the family to their beloved mansion. In so doing, he restored the family’s dignity, and the Hofmmansthal name. 

Estlin had gained much esteem and popularity amongst the people of Austria. He ran a political party for peace and diplomacy during a time when the country was split—half demanding redemption through conquest and war, and the other half seeking to settle for the sake of peace. While Richard was uniting his Spirit in India, Estlin was uniting the people of Austria.

Estlin’s considerable influence and great progress led his country towards peace but threw him into a war of his own, for he had made dangerous enemies along the way. It was during an upcoming trip to London that Estlin’s political enemies planned to ambush him and his unsuspecting family. Estlin was going to meet with members of the British government to work out plans that would ensure peace in Europe for the next half-century. This was to be an unprecedented meeting of the nations that would change the course of history. The National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP-Nazi) in Germany, however, had gravely different plans. They had already begun to incite crowds against the Jews as well as the Allies of the United Nations. With little to no desire whatsoever for peace, they’d do whatever it took to redeem the German nation and take command of Europe once and for all. Needless to say, they did not take kindly to Estlin’s conciliatory efforts. Branding him a traitor, they plotted his demise within the political snake pits of Berlin.  

A Spooky Premonition

Deep in the jungles of Northern India, near a remote Punjabi town, Richard walked serenely alongside a pond. Locals now called him, Ramesh.  A name that means ‘one who saves others from problems.’  He tossed pebbles into the pond and watched as the concentric rings emerged and expanded on the silvery surface of the water. This was one of his favorite pastimes. He loved to observe the tapestry take form as shiny swelling circles interlaced with one another, as if worlds were weaving and merging, thus creating new worlds in the process. This fascinated him. It pacified him in the most pleasant manner, filled him with delight, and connected him intimately with the cosmos. 

On this particular day, within this particularly gorgeous afternoon, Richard noticed something in the ripples that caused him some alarm. There was something different emerging in the interference pattern created by the colliding waves—a great unsettling. A feeling of dread spread through his body. He immediately climbed up to the very top of a giant banyan tree and collected a few leaves from the highest branch of the tree’s crown. He then settled on some of the thin, high-reaching branches, which were just barely sturdy enough to support his weight. He distributed his weight evenly among them and maintained a most delicate balance. There he sat, swaying gently in the wind. He closed his eyes and went into a deep meditation. Thanks to his daily practice, he was able to quickly calm his senses and quiet his mind. Soon he had completely tuned out his everyday thinking mind and deeply tuned into the plane of the Akash via his heart.  He saw a vision of his twin brother. He saw Estlin and his family traveling in a car from the airport into the city of London. Four policemen stopped Estlin’s car. They took his family by force and in the midst of the altercation, he saw Estlin, lying in a pool of his own blood, having been shot and killed.        

Upon seeing this, Richard prepared a spiritual plant-medicine brew of secret herbs and vines, while the darkness of night spilled across the sky. He emptied his mind, awaited the effects of the brew, and slowly became aware of a buzzing electricity surging through and around his body. Gradually, he faded into the buzzing. He became pure energy, and he left his body and consulted the stars. He listened to their song, tuning into subtle vibrations that traveled by starlight, wholly imperceptible to the ordinary man. He studied their cycles, felt the pulse of their rhythms, and concluded that he must act fast, for this tragedy would befall his family in fewer than six days.  

Richard knew he would need Albert and Núria’s help, but Albert was two towns away and regrettably, time—stubborn as it is—did not lend itself to such a journey. By the time Richard reached Núria in the orphanage, she already knew that something was wrong; she could feel the uncharacteristic racing of Richard’s heart from half a mile away. She came out to meet him.

“It’s Estlin,” said Richard, between panting breaths. “He’s in trouble.” He leaned over and held his bent knees for support as he caught his breath. 

Núria looked deep and wide into Richard’s eyes. “When?”

Richard shook his head. “Not long.” 

Núria nodded and said, “Follow me.”

Núria’s Amulet

The two of them ran up to Núria’s meditation chamber in the private quarters of the orphanage. In it was a copper pyramid of about Núria’s height, beautifully embellished with various crystals and precious stones. Without exchanging words, they sat inside the pyramid, facing one another in lotus pose. Núria brought out a beautiful amulet from her pocket and placed it on the floor between Richard and herself. She confided to Richard that this was the one thing her mother had left her before departing hastily and quite tragically from this world.

“I never told you this, but my mother was actually a well-known saint in the village where I was conceived. This is no ordinary amulet; it has been passed down for generations from masterful Himalayan Rishis.”

 The deep purple amethyst in the amulet began to glow a beautiful violet light within the copper pyramid. Richard felt a strong pressure on his forehead and electric currents running up his body. He began to see geometric patterns which reminded him of that fateful night in the forest when he discovered the worlds unseen. 

There was a motion gaining momentum in his head. He was traveling alongside shooting stars of exaggerated geometric proportions, with orbs of light zooming past him and multi-colored symmetrical shapes of all kinds all around him. He could hear a high-pitched tone getting higher and higher as he accelerated through space. Geometric configurations around him became more and more complex, more and more elaborate, unfolding, expanding, and opening and closing behind him, until suddenly he came to a stop just shy of a lighted rectangle hovering in space. Slowly he glided closer to the luminous rectangle until he was almost inside of it, and there he began to make out what looked like a poshly decorated restroom of considerable sophistication. 

By Danny Fernandez

Richard could see a bedroom just beyond the restroom and in it, he saw himself. He was wearing strange clothes and had a beard. Richard wondered if he’d traveled to a parallel universe in which he wore fancy clothes and a thick burly beard. Then he realized: this was not himself he was looking at; this was Estlin. At just that moment, Estlin turned his head towards the restroom, looking puzzled as if he’d heard a strange sound. Estlin felt compelled to walk over to his bathroom as if being pulled by a powerful magnet. As he got closer, he noticed his reflection in the mirror was untrue. He swayed his head side to side, but the head in the mirror did not move. The hair stood up on the back of his neck, and he felt currents down his spine and goosebumps growing on his arms. Spooked, but unable to resist, he got closer to the mirror and looked into it to find a beardless version of himself. Richard knew instinctively that Estlin would not be able to hear him. His heart felt itself glowing at the sight of his estranged brother; he smiled gently and brought his hand to his heart. Estlin wasn’t sure what to do, but he recognized his brother and calmed down. He reached out and placed his hand on the mirror where Richard’s shoulder was. Richard closed his eyes, then Estlin closed his eyes, and the world went absolutely still and completely silent. It was a moment suspended between two thoughts, between twin brothers. Estlin and Richard were now floating above the Milky Way, facing each other, gently spinning in space, Estlin’s hand on Richard's shoulder.

“It is so good to see you, brother,” Estlin said.

“Yes it is; it’s wonderful. Sadly, this is not a joyous visit, for I bring you troubling news. There is danger heading your way. You must not go to London.” 

“But I must!” said Estlin. “You don’t know what’s at stake.” 

“I am sorry, but I fear it is you who doesn't realize what’s at stake here. You and your family would be in great danger.”

"Then I won’t bring them, and I will be careful. I will take precautions, but I must go.”

“Dear brother, there is so much I don’t understand about your world. But I do believe in you. You will do great things. Remember: There is a sublime and liberating truth to be found in every orchid, every breeze of the wind, every sound that water makes and every sight the sun reveals, if you will simply be still with it.”

    

Estlin opened his eyes to find himself lying in bed. He looked around pensively, testing his sight by touching everything he saw around him—the furniture, the walls, the lamp. Was it all a dream? He looked down and noticed a mark on the foot of his bed frame. He squinted his eyes.

“What is that?” he said aloud to himself as he bent over to get a closer look. It was the Sri Yantra, burned into the wood of his bed frame as if it had been branded with glowing red steel. He recognized it as the carving his brother Richard had sent him from India. His face softened, his heart bloomed, and he knew. He knew he had seen his dear brother. His brother was with him, watching him from a distance, supporting him, believing in him. He felt himself growing from within, becoming fuller, sturdier, for somewhere deep within him a wilted flower had just been showered in sacred water and sunlight. Estlin arranged for his family to be in a safe place and took steps to prepare himself as best he could for his perilous journey to London. 

 

Family

Richard opened his eyes to find Núria deep in a trance before him. He closed his eyes again and dove deep into the microcosm, the inner universe of which ours is a hologram. He scanned for the right frequency and tuned in when he could sense Núria’s presence. He knew instinctively that she was searching for Albert. He sensed her at a distance and began to get a picture. He was only able to pick up on a weak signal, but he could see faintly an image of Núria floating through the aether, extending her right arm, reaching towards Albert although Albert could not see her. Albert seemed blind and deaf on this astral plane. His mind was dense with the material world; he was preoccupied with something. Richard decided to tune in to his bloodline, summoning his ancestors for assistance. He thought about his grandparents and great-grandparents, and suddenly that spectacular generation of the bright-eyed Hofmmansthals appeared before him. They spoke to him silently through their eyes, bright as stars.

At that moment, all three of them, the twins and their uncle, stopped where they were and looked up simultaneously—Albert in the noisy village market, Richard in Núria’s study within the orphanage, and Estlin in a busy restaurant in Vienna. They each felt a resurgence of energy, as if an old dam had crumbled in their hearts and a stream of life-codes came rushing in. They felt inspired, cultured, dignified, and brave. All three of them looked up at the same moment, acknowledging something greater than themselves which coalesced the three into one superior phenomenal being--a Family. ‘Family’ in a greater, richer sense of the word--a sense of belongingness, confidence and togetherness, a sense of validation which ran deeper and stronger than any of them had ever felt. They each felt like they had been plugged back into a great source of love and trust, of wisdom and courage. 

Amongst the busy crowd of the village market, Albert suddenly knew exactly what he had to do. He dropped his bags and headed straight for the orphanage. When he arrived late in the day, the sun was still setting as it does in the spring. The sky was ablaze with the joy of the gods who watched with zealous hearts for the sake of peace, and their beloved devotees. For these they cared for with unbearable bliss and compassion. 

Birds of various species flew north in massive numbers, filling the peach-rose sky with a grand bouquet of flying feathers. There was a sea of every color imaginable drifting north across the luminous sky. And when Albert finally arrived, Núria and Richard were waiting. The three settled in the forest. With the night as their crown, bejeweled with stars and the full, pale, blue-silver moon as their crown jewel, the three set forth a plan of both grace and wrath, both compassion and resolve. All from a heart space. All with Divine Mother’s blessing. 

London

The next morning, the mystically anointed trio set out for the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. There, Núria, Albert, and Richard fed over 100 cows for protection. They recited poems for guidance and poured milk over the remote altars of sacred sites in preparation for the journey and the danger ahead of them. That very afternoon, they headed for London on a small plane, courtesy of Núria’s father. The sun set itself down slowly in the horizon before them, painting a beautiful landscape of lavender emotions across the blue-lit canvas of the open sky. Clouds hovered wistfully and the moon made an early, pearly appearance, hanging sweetly in the eastern horizon. Beneath them, the mountains ran across the panorama waves  groove across an ocean. The engine of the plane roared proudly, marching onward to its destiny.    

Upon their arrival in London, they were greeted by a smartly dressed man who handed Núria a set of keys to a shiny new Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton.  (i suggest some kind of descriptor that would allow people that dont now the car to have an idea of what you are talking baout)  Núria’s father had put in for a few discreet favors the night before. They headed towards the city, the black night now embracing them. Richard’s intuition guided them to the scene which had appeared before in his prophetic vision. Richard felt his heart begin to race. He took his mind by the reins using his breath to calm the tide of his pulse, and he visualized the wooden Sri Yantra that he had sent to Estlin. 

Estlin was in a cab with both a driver and a bodyguard called Mud, who was to his right. Now, Mud had been with Estlin from the get-go. The two of them had been through thick and thin together and had walked out of many perilous jams in their time. The driver, Jim, was not as dependable in a fight as he was trustworthy as an employee, but he was a damn good driver. Estlin and his two-man entourage drove from the airport into the city where they came upon a suspicious roadblock. There was an officer directing traffic, waving cars to either side, left or right. It seemed too calm and quiet for this traffic director, as if all the drivers were holding their breath. Estlin reached pensively for his gun, but nothing happened. The officer simply waved them to the right. Estlin let out a sigh of relief, put his hand on his lap and continued up the road. But this officer was an undercover Nazi. The officer reached in his car for the radio and informed his comrades that Estlin had come without his family but was accompanied by two other men. 

Estlin and company came to a narrow alley where two police officers signaled the car to stop. Estlin had a bad feeling aboutthis. He told the driver to keep going, but there were two uniformed men obstructing the path. The nervous driver hesitated, and just like that, it was too late. As the car slowed down to a crawl, Estlin could sense the danger he was in. This was what his brother had warned him about. He grabbed the driver by his shirt collar, shook him ruthlessly, and demanded that he keep going.

“Bang!”

A sharp loud noise, louder than anything deafened the scene. The driver had been shot; he took a bullet in the shoulder and drove the cab into a wall on the left side of the alley. Estlin’s bodyguard threw himself over Estlin as a human shield and shouted, “Stay down!” 

There were four Nazi ambushers surrounding the car with handguns. One of the Nazis kept his distance and barked orders at the other three from behind the open door of their car. They opened fire upon the vehicle. Miraculously, not a single shot hit Estlin and only two struck Mud—one on the shoulder and one in the rear. Finally, a moment of silence filled the air, like a parting of the clouds, and time froze as the ambushers reloaded their weapons. Estlin’s bodyguard opened fire and managed to hit one of them before taking cover again. Three of them were left. Mud was holding Estlin’s head down as he reloaded when he felt the barrel of a gun pressed against the side of his head.

 “Out!” Shouted the Nazi, pressing his sizzling gun harder against the bodyguard’s skull. Another Nazi walked up on the opposite side of the cab pointing his gun directly at Estlin. “Both of you, out! Now!”

The bodyguard opened the right door of the cab. They began moving reluctantly out of the car and…

 ...Crrrrrashshshshshsh!!! 

A loud crashing car trained right through the Nazi, taking the opened door off the vehicle with him. Núria slammed on the brakes and the Nazi flew off the Cord’s grill and into the street. He was lying motionless like an abandoned rag doll. The two remaining Nazis stood stunned and disoriented for a moment—one to the left of Estlin’s cab and the other towards the front at a distance, near their own car. Estlin quickly threw the left door open, knocking the gun out of that Nazi’s hand. Richard jumped out of the Cord and sprinted with superhuman-like speed towards the head Nazi, who held his position near his own car, but was now turning towards Estlin.  Richard knew there was no time. The head Nazi took aim steadily upon Estlin’s head while Estlin wrestled his would-be abductor to the ground. Richard closed his eyes and stopped.

“BANG!”

The shot backfired in the Nazi’s face. Estlin managed to overpower his assailant. Richard punched the head Nazi in his gun-powdered face for good measure, knocking him unconscious. Albert and Núria caught up to Richard and tied up the defeated lot. Estlin pointed his gun at his beaten enemy, instructing him to keep his hands up. Richard and Núria tied this one up as well while Albert checked on Estlin. 

“Christ!” yelled Estlin. “Is that you, Uncle?”

“Yes my boy, it's me. Are you alright? Are you hurt?” 

“I’m fine,” said Estlin, with a deep cough. “We must check on the others.”

Richard tended to the bodyguard, Mud, while Núria and Albert assessed the severity of Jim’s injuries. 

“This one is badly hurt,” said Núria. “We must rush him to a hospital immediately. Everybody get in.” 

They followed her to the Cord Phaeton. 

“Go on without me. I must report this to the police,” said Estlin.“We wouldn’t all fit in that car anyway.” 

“I’ll stay with Estlin,” said Richard. 

“Right, alright, we’ll be back soon.” There was a mighty and icy breeze through the alley as Núria and Albert drove away. 

The brothers looked at each other without words and both instantly raised their arms to embrace the other. After a long—and long overdue—hug, Richard turned to Estlin, looked into his eyes with a smile and said, “So, you’ve got a very important meeting tomorrow.”

The End 

Written by Mario Gonzalez-Lam

“Whence came these two radiant, celestial brothers, united for an instant as they crossed the stratosphere of our starry window? One from the East, and one from the West.”  

(from The Grand Budapest Hotel)