Za Rinpoche - The Backdoor to Enlightenment: Eight Steps to Living Your Dreams and Changing Your World

Contents

As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.

NATIVE AMERICAN ADVICE

INTRODUCTION | Enlightenment Now

Achieve what was never lost, Otto Mackenzie read the sign above the massive door. He had worked at the Philosophical Study Center Library for years now, but only just noticed these faded words carved into the stone lintel. I will, Otto promised the sign as he juggled a stack of lecture bulletins in his long arms. Just as soon as I achieve all this work that Im supposed to have finished by three. He looked at his watch; it was five-thirty. He closed his blue eyes, opened the door, and took a deep breath through his prominent nose.

It was this smell, he decided, that kept him here, despite all the hassles with the director and his wife. He was poorly paid, never praised, and sometimes had to work weekends, but each time he opened the door he was enveloped by what Otto imagined was the saddest, most beautiful aroma in all the world: thousands of centuries-old books, ancient leather bindings and handmade paper, slowly decaying on the shelves. The only light poured in from the skylight, illuminating dust as it floated and settled on the great oak study table in the center of the room.

Emma? Otto pronounced hesitatingly to the dim corners of the library, hoping that the lack of fluorescent lights and her closed office door meant that his boss had gone. She would be furious that he had missed his deadlinethe bulletins would have to go out a day lateand even angrier that the new librarian had left early and forgotten to lock up. Before Otto could flick the lights on to look for the spare key hidden in the mahogany paneling, a rustling in the darkness startled him.

Hello? a small voice called out to him.

Otto walked up the spiral staircase to the second floor, where the young librarian sat at the foot of a tall glass bookcase. Its Hannah, right?

She pushed her long auburn hair away from her pleasant face and nodded. Clearly, she had been crying. Otto usually didnt have the patience for these types of displays, but seeing her sitting there so forlorn, he suddenly realized he was exhausted. He sat down beside her and slapped his stack of overdue bulletins onto the hardwood floor. I thought you went home, he said to her.

A librarian never abandons her post, she sniffed.

Did something happen with Emma, that mean old cow? Otto guessed.

Hannah nodded. I think she sold the Drer engravings I found in the attic last week to a private collector. She clutched the stack of books she had been re-shelving to her chest, apparently for strength.

Well, the library must need the money, Otto said.

Thats what I figured when I gave her the illuminated manuscript I found behind the Francis Bacon books, so she could put it in the vault, Hannah said. These books are supposed to be available to everyone. Thats why Robert Drake opened this library.

Well, who knows, if you hadnt come along, those books might never have been found.

Maybe Robert Drake hid his treasures because he didnt want people to sell them off when he wasnt around anymore. Did that thought ever occur to you? Hannah said.

Yes it has, on more than one occasion, Otto said.

I heard he disappeared right after the Wycombes came to assist him, and now theyre selling off his stuff?

Otto smiled at her attempts at conspiracy theory. I never got to meet him, but I think he was pretty oldhe opened this place in the fortiesand sick. The important thing now is to keep his library open. I know he would have wanted that. Okay?

Hannah nodded vigorously and shook off what remained of her self-pity. Otto gave her a hand to her feet and, no longer blinded by her emotion, she thought about her muddled appearance in the presence of the young man. His average, freckly looks were boosted by a Scottish accent. That coupled with a quiet reserve gave him an air of authority and made him nearly attractive.

He took a few of the books from her hands. Its after five. What do you say I help you put these stragglers away and we get out of this place?

Those go in cabinet thirty-two. Bottom shelf. Some guys been in here researching the Freemasons. Hes had me up and down these stairs all day. Nearly emptied these two cabinets.

Hannah slipped the key ring, jangling, from her wrist and opened the bottom of cabinet for Otto and cabinet beside it.

Are those the bulletins you brought up? Hannah asked, kneeling to replace the books in their proper homes.

Otto stared into the open cabinet for a second. The books didnt seem to be in any order. He was eager to be done with his task and on his way home, so he just quietly jammed the books in wherever he could fit them.

Yeah. Well, if Emma hadnt ordered so many last-minute changes, they would have been done yesterday.

That was my fault, Hannah admitted, having to apply an unusual amount of pressure to one thin volume to fit it into the crowded cabinet. She asked me to look it over and I found some mistakeOh! To her surprise the book passed beyond the other books and disappeared into a dark place between the others. She sat back on her heels and peered into the cabinet, confused. It seemed to her that the book had dropped off into some other world, and then recovering she remembered where she was. She had probably stumbled onto another one of Drakes hiding places. Between the well-known ones and the ones she found daily, the whole building seemed to her riddled with them.

What happened? Otto asked.

Nothing, she said, disappointed that her tone was not more convincing.

Come on, what just happened?

She studied his face and the openness she found there led her to do something she vowed only minutes earlier shed never do again, to share the secrets of Robert Drake. I think I found something, Otto.

When they finished removing all the books from the bottom cabinet of case , Otto pointed out how the back panel of the bookcase slid over and pivoted just enough to swallow the thin volume of Saint-Germains Trinosophia. He gingerly fished out the old book and handed it to her.

Is there anything else in there? Hannah asked.

I dont have a flashlight, Otto said, meaning to convey that he did not intend to stick his hand back into that dark hole. He moved aside in the way of an invitation to her to take her chances. She didnt hesitate and after a moment feeling around elbow-deep in the darkness she brought to light a thin old package carefully wrapped in brown paper. Across the front the words The Backdoor to Enlightenment were written in a neat hand. She handed it to Otto.

If its as old as it looks, we could damage it by opening it, he said. But Emma will open it and if its valuable shell put it in the vault along with the Gutenberg and everything else we arent allowed to see.

Or shell just sell it without telling anyone, Hannah said. Either way, well never see whats inside.

And you did find it, Otto rationalized. The Backdoor to Enlightenment, huh?

Open it, Hannah said. And well give it to her in the morning.

Otto untied the old twine and folded back the outer wrappings. Inside were a few beautifully painted stacked panels about four inches wide and twenty inches long. The gold lettering on the black background was foreign, possibly Tibetan or Sanskrit, Hannah surmised from her education in art history. At the top of each were careful depictions of a nomad, a lotus, and, on the last one, a golden wheel.