Listening by Dave Mckay Mckay (best summer books .TXT) 📕

"I don't want you to even mention me," Chaim said. "It's not a problem now, but I think it will be later. You do know what happened with Vaishnu, don't you?"

"You mean when they had to hide? Yeah... heard about it. I just finished an update on what's happening there now, and I didn't bring Vaishnu into it at all. I can do the same for you if that's the way you want to go."

"You can get all the information you need from Molly and Bess," Chaim assured him.

"But where are all these people coming from? And how are you finding them?"

"I don't know if you can appreciate this, but I think it's just happening," Chaim said. "It's not like any movement I've ever heard of before. People are sort of being brought together miraculously, often before they even know about the free work. But Molly and Bess are the ones you need to talk to," he added, gesturing toward the two women.

"They're puttin' the soil in the wrong place!" exclaimed Molly, who had been looking out the window. "Bess, you go tell 'em to put it over there by the back fence. See there? Where the rains washed the old soil away."

"Sorry about that," Molly said to the two men, as Bess left the room.

"Is it connected with a church?" Baum asked, still directing his question toward Chaim.

"There's a meeting house up in Newcastle where people gather on a Sunday and just sit in silence," Chaim explained. Something happened there, and so now people are coming from other places to see for themselves. But mostly it's just people meeting up in other ways.

"Bess attends in Newcastle, Geoffrey, not me. She can tell you about it when she gets back. Molly and Bess meet over at Molly's place too. But then, you must already know that," Chaim added, "if you've had enough contact to be here now."

"Yeah, I've got that," Baum said. "What I want is the bigger picture. Who or what is behind it? I want to hear your story."

"Look, I'll talk to you, but no cameras, and you must promise to keep my name out of it?" Chaim bartered.

"Agreed," said Baum, reaching out to shake Chaim's hands. "Can we sit down?"

They had been standing while Chaim wrestled with his chances of getting out of this without his name being broadcast.

"Sure. Over here on the couch will be fine. Molly, come and join us," Chaim added.

"First, I'm not the leader. You should know that. Vaishnu was doing this long before I ever came along. But it's bigger than him too."

Baum nodded his head. Chaim was talking now, and he was listening intently.

"The whole thing seems to be a spontaneous spiritual awakening."

"Are there Hindus involved here... locally?"

"Not that I know of. Yet. But even with Vaishnu it's not just Hindus anymore. It's bigger than that."

"I picked that up from Vaishnu," said Baum.

"Well, it's that way here too. The meeting house is Quaker, but our own people aren't running it. The truth is, only a few Quakers have joined. But I don't think any church would have been able to tolerate it the way Friends have."

"Are you getting opposition?" Baum asked.

"Surprisingly little. At the moment we're making friends faster than we're making enemies. Free work helps," he said, nodding toward the window.

"So why the secrecy?"

"Geoffrey, I'm saying this to you as a friend, and not as a journalist, okay?" Chaim was looking deep into the big man's soul, and he felt that he could see a spark of faith there.

"I have what you might call premonitions about some hard times ahead. At some point, people are going to start feeling that we expect them to do the same thing that we're doing, and then they're going to react."

"So do you expect others to do the same?"

"If you found the cure for cancer, wouldn't you expect others to use it too?" Chaim asked. "But I don't think any of us is really preaching. We just seem to be led to people who like what we're saying. There's nothing to sell."

"So tell me about the free work. If they're all working for nothing, who pays the bills?"

"You've been to India, Geoffrey. You must know how rich we are here by comparison, even without paid jobs. Molly and Bess are teaching us to live more simply. Many of us own houses. We're selling them and moving in with others in rented accommodation. There's more than enough money, for ourselves as well as for brothers and sisters in some of the poorer countries."

"So you're saying it just happened. What's your take on free will?"

"It's not theological. There's no doctrine... yet. What we have in common is just that we're all trying to follow our inner voices."

"But what about you personally? Do you think you were predestined to be part of this?"

"I don't feel that way. But I do feel a wonderful peace about everything, like what's gonna happen is gonna happen and there's nothing I could do to stop it. Things keep coming up that are so different to the way I've always thought, but then I just step outside of myself and kind of observe what's going on. It's great entertainment!" he laughed.

"What I'm experiencing now is like being tossed around inside a washing machine. What might be torture to some is like a joy ride if you just relax and go with it.

"Your turning up here today is an example. I felt panic at first, because I really do want to keep my face out of this. But then I figured, you must be here for a reason. Why worry? Go with the flow."

"And what do you think is the reason?" Baum was not asking as a journalist now. He was genuinely curious.

"I think you're trying to trick me into selling!" Chaim explained, with a laugh and a slap on the back of the big man. "You're the only one who knows the answer to that one."

"Do you think I'm meant to be part of this movement?"

Chaim gave no answer. He just raised his eyebrows and smiled.

(Table of Contents)

Chapter Eighteen--Listening to Whom?

As quickly as Chaim learned anything, either from his times of meditation, from studies of the Bible, or through information he was picking up from the movement in England, he passed it on to the six teams he had sent out.

Previously, the message had been free of dogmas or creeds. Everyone had been swept along by an exhilarating move of the spirit. Each person was left to work out their own ideas about right and wrong and about where this was all leading. The message being passed from convert to convert was just to follow their heart. But now that was changing. Chaim and Rayford Strait, a retired airline pilot who was spear-heading the movement in England, were trying to explain what was happening; and they were drawing heavily from the Bible to do it.

Sheree had a problem with this, and she wrote to Chaim about it:

Dear Brother Chaim, I am writing because I feel you are in danger of destroying something wonderful that is happening under the guidance of the Spirit. Bobbi and I have seen thousands of people drawn together, in Korea, and here in Japan, as a result of our ministry. We are not trying to control it, but we are the instruments through which this is happening. As you know, I have had to adjust my own ideas to conform with what you and others are sharing... about working for love and about listening to the voice of the Spirit. This I could do, because it did not contradict what I believe.

But now this man from England is trying to move in and make this a Christian movement. Here in Japan and in Korea we are working with people who consider themselves to be Buddhists, worshippers of their ancestors, or followers of other religions that are much older than Christianity. They're not going to convert if that's what you expect. If you continue with what you're doing, it could destroy everything we've started.

Chaim had been planning a tour through Asia, and so he responded by email:

Dear Sheree and Bobbi, I agree that we should not do anything that will damage what the two of you have started there. Please do not act rashly. I have heard your concerns, and I will be coming over to share with you both next week. I'll be arriving at Tokyo International on China West flight 017 from Sydney at 6:30am on Friday the tenth.

Chaim was uncharacteristically worried about the implications of Sheree's letter ... not for himself or even for the thousands of people following her, but for Sheree herself. She had become his favorite amongst the six judges, mainly because of her own special brand of confidence. Outwardly Sheree evidenced a carefree faith in her voices. But privately she had confided in him about the struggle that she went through constantly, trying to discern between the "good" voices and the "bad" ones.

"Yes, I have schizophrenia," she had confessed to Chaim. "But I see it as a blessing as well as a curse. I can hear the goddess guiding me in a way that others do not. It's so clear and easy if I just trust her. But there are other voices too. I have to block them out."

Chaim arrived in Tokyo feeling surprisingly alert despite getting little sleep on the overnight flight. He was keen to share with the two women.

"How are you? You're looking great!" he said as he hugged Sheree with deep emotion in the arrivals lounge. Sheree was just so naturally huggable, but there was a tension this time that ended the hug abruptly.

"And how about you?" Chaim said as he turned to give Bobbi a hug. "How is your Japanese coming along?"

"Sukoshi sukoshi," she said in Japanese, and they all laughed... slightly.

They drove to a park near the airport and moved to a picnic table to talk. Chaim sat on one side, and the two women sat facing him.

Bobbi and Sheree did all of their business through the Internet, using the laptop modem in an old Hi-Ace campervan. A solar panel on the roof gave them power to run the computer during the day, and so they had no need of an office. The Hi-Ace was both their home and their office.

"Before we say anything about our differences, can we have a little listening time?" Chaim said when they were seated. The women agreed and they each closed their eyes to listen.

Five minutes went by without anyone saying anything. Then Chaim spoke.

"Hate."

It was all he said. There was a pause while the others either reflected on what it could mean, or waited for him to say more. Then Sheree spoke.

"That doesn't sound very good," she said. "I think it's a warning... about where this Christian stuff is leading."

Chaim did not think it was a warning, but he had no better interpretation. When it appeared that Sheree was through listening, and when he saw Bobbi waiting for an answer, he responded.

"I don't know what it means," he confessed. "What do you think we should do about it?"

"We should go back to what we were doing before Rayford came along," said Sheree. "Just let each person follow their own path. It's far more loving."

Bobbi was not saying anything, but she was listening intently.

"Fair enough," Chaim answered. But what about my path? That's what led me to what I'm doing now. Where do I go with that?"

"Rewind back to where you started listening to Rayford," Sheree said.

Chaim found himself wanting to use terms like 'Sheree honey' or 'darling' to convey his deep feelings, and the agony he was going through just to disagree with Sheree like this. "But if I did that, then I'd be listening to you," he said.

He leaned across the table and placed one hand on Sheree's and one on Bobbi's. "You see," he said softly, "I have an inner voice too, and my inner voice is telling me to go with Rayford. I love you, both of you." (It was Sheree that he was looking at.) "And