DEAR MASTER ….

DEAR MASTER ….

By Carolina Oquendo

It was early afternoon in the heart of downtown. The streets hummed with the usual rhythm of the city—cars honking, pedestrians weaving through crosswalks, a stray dog barking in the distance. Above the chaos, skyscrapers reached for the sky, their glass facades reflecting clouds that seemed impossibly high, distant, and serene. I pulled my jacket tighter around me as I walked into our usual spot, a little café tucked between a pharmacy and a stationery shop. The bell above the door jingled as I stepped inside, and the noise of the city was immediately muffled, replaced by the low murmur of voices and the clink of mugs on saucers.

The café was dim, with dark wood paneling and soft lighting casting long shadows on the floor. The barista nodded at me as I made my way to the back corner where he always sat. The same spot. Every time. It had a perfect view of the street outside and the bookshelves lining the back wall. Today, he was already there, seated comfortably, his long fingers drumming idly on the table, a half-smile on his lips as if he were amused by some private joke.

The Master was not what you would call imposing. He didn’t wear robes or speak in cryptic riddles. He looked like a regular guy you’d pass on the street without a second thought—mid-forties, graying at the temples, dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt. But there was something about him, something that drew your eye, something in the way he seemed so still, even when the world around him spun.

He didn’t look up immediately when I sat down, just continued to gaze out the window as if waiting for me to settle in, to let the rush of the city and my thoughts quiet down. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. My decaf latté arrived, steam curling into the air, but I didn’t touch it. Not yet. There was too much buzzing in my mind.

I had come to him with a problem that felt so urgent, so all-consuming, and now, in the quiet of this place, it felt… different. Smaller, somehow. But not less important—just less suffocating. Maybe it was the way he looked at me, or maybe it was something shifting inside of me.

I took a deep breath, my eyes narrowing slightly in thought. This wasn’t just about a stomach issue anymore, was it?

“Master, I’ve been having some digestive issues. I know, not exactly a spiritual crisis, but it’s been bothering me for a while now. I’ve tried modern medicine, watched some YouTube videos, and tried various remedies, but nothing has helped much. Can you give me some clues as to what I might be missing here?”

The Master tilted his head slightly, finally turning his gaze toward me. His eyes, dark and unreadable, locked onto mine, but he said nothing. Just waited.

I took a breath. “I know … no scratch that. I feel there is something else, that there are more layers that I can’t see. But in practice…” I paused, biting my lip. “I can’t seem to get over it. I mean, I’ve tried. I’ve become more aware of my thoughts, my body, but even when I get some clarity, it’s like something’s always dragging me back.”

The Master leaned back in his chair, his expression softening, but there was a glint in his eyes—a hint of impatience, maybe? Or was it amusement? He scratched his chin thoughtfully, then picked up his coffee and took a slow, deliberate sip before setting it back down. “You want the solution to come gift-wrapped, don’t you?” His voice was calm, but there was a playful edge to it.

I dropped my gaze to the table, tracing patterns in the wood grain with my finger. My chest felt tight, like I was holding onto something that needed to break free but didn’t know how. What was it?

The Master let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. “You think you need to do something to fix it,” he said, his eyebrows rising slightly. “That’s your first mistake.”

I looked up, confused. “What do you mean?”

He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of intensity in his gaze. “You’re living too much up here,” he said, tapping his temple lightly. “Trying to control everything. To fix everything. But the mind isn’t where the answers are, and it’s not where they’ll ever be.”

I blinked, caught off guard. I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out. 

“Quit trying to make the problem go away,” he said after a long pause, “When you get focused on the problem, whether it’s aging, whether it’s getting physically sick or money, you forget about ‘AND.’ In everything in life there is an ‘AND.’ Everything. No exceptions.”

✨AI Generated

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. His words hit something deep inside me, something I didn’t want to face. My fingers tightened around my coffee cup, still waiting for me to pick it up. 

It took me a while to find the words, but I finally said “So, it’s not the pain itself or feeling uncomfortable that’s the real problem, is it? It’s the fear of letting it go. I’ve been so focused on getting rid of it or clinging to it to prevent me from going back to my old habits, that I’ve forgotten how to be with it, to go beyond it.” 

Saying those words out loud felt like a release, but also like opening a door I’d kept locked for too long. I dropped my eyes to the table, feeling the weight of my confession. My stomach tightened again, not from the pain this time, but from the rawness of vulnerability. 

The Master gave a short laugh, shaking his head in amusement. He leaned forward again, his voice low but filled with warmth.

“Ah,” he said softly, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “There it is.”

“There what is?”

“The real problem,” he said, gesturing loosely with his hand, “is that you create these problems so you can solve them. And then, when you’re not feeling so alive again because you’re just focused on the singular boring life, you forget about ‘AND’.”

I sat back, letting out a slow breath as the tension on my shoulders eased. It made sense. It made too much sense. “Yes, I know I’ve been living too much in the mind. I’ve been trying to analyze, control, fix whatever I don’t like in my life.”

“And not only that,” the Master continued. “You’ve been looking at it from only one perspective, one slice. But there are many, many other perspectives that you’re not looking at. There are also beautiful huge releases and resolutions, answers and new perspectives that you would have never considered. 

“When you live in that little box that doesn’t have these three letters – a-n-d – in it, you feel trapped.”

I nodded slowly, my mind racing to keep up with the flood of new understanding. I looked out the window, watching the world outside, the wind moving the trees and creating dancing shadows on the sidewalk. And then it hit me.

I turned back, my voice stronger now, more certain. “Instead of forcing a change, to fix whatever it’s bothering me, I just need to shift my awareness and open myself to everything there is. Then solutions will come. But,” I hesitated, “am I just supposed to sit here with all these problems and… wait for a miracle?”

He raised an eyebrow, a teasing smile playing on his lips. “No, that’s not quite it. You shift your awareness. You stop looking at things as problems that need solving and start seeing them as… Potentials. Things to be explored, experienced, not fixed. 

“But don’t try to imagine that the potentials are the solutions to your problem. Move yourself out of that consciousness and go to the higher potentials. Not trying to seek or search for anything, but just being in that consciousness, in that energy dynamic.

“You don’t have to imagine yourself as being young, healthy or wealthy or anything like that. The imaginations are more feeling into things like joy, fulfillment, breaking out of old ruts and limitations. And as you feel into it and imagine, then it starts shaping into reality at some point.”

For a moment, I just sat there, staring down at my coffee cup. His words swirled around in my mind, but something was starting to click. Slowly, tentatively. It wasn’t about controlling things around me to achieve a certain outcome; it was about opening myself up to everything there is. About seeing the “and.” The possibilities. The layers.

I felt a chill run down my spine—not out of fear, but from the clarity of it. I’d been looking at it from the wrong angle. I thought about other issues in my life that had been lingering there, how I’d been using my mind to figure them out, to fix them, to achieve goals, and whatnot. And clearly, that wasn’t working anymore.

I sat back, closing my eyes for a moment. I tried to still my thoughts, to stop the constant analyzing, the relentless need to solve something, to get somewhere. I breathed in deeply, feeling the tightness in my body, the anxiety in my gut, but this time, I wasn’t trying to push it away. I wasn’t trying to fix it. I was just… letting it be, allowing myself to also feel what was beyond. 

When I opened my eyes, I spoke more quietly, but with a deeper sense of understanding. “I understand now. It’s not a matter of me saying ’I have this AND I don’t have it,’ nor trying to feel healthy, abundant or whatever. Instead, I simply let go of focusing on my problem and its solution, and without a specific goal in mind, I just remain open to all there is.”

He smiled, but there was something in it that made my heart race. “And, start feeling into things on multiple levels all the time. All the time. And I know you are going to kind of resist that. The human part of yourself doesn’t really like it. It likes the singular, flat.

“But the ‘AND’ illuminates potentials that are always there. 

“When you’re in that linear human mode they’re not illuminated. You don’t even know they’re there. So, when you feel you’re going to start spiraling around anything you don’t like, stop and go into the ‘AND’. There are many more potentials, and you don’t even have to be mentally aware of them.

“You don’t, because it’s going to come to you intuitively, not mentally. You will know there are so many more potentials for this situation, and on top of that, your Master will be there automatically wisdomizing. You go into the ‘AND’ and just allowing that, changes everything. Even if you don’t suddenly have ten solutions to the problem, it’s suddenly illuminated.

“You just need to quiet yourself for a moment and open to the potentials – it’s the ‘AND’ – those that you may not see right now because you are going to be coming aware of so many more potentials. 

“And you don’t have to fill in the details. You don’t have to start imagining that your car is working or imagining that your house is okay, or that you are suddenly healed. You don’t have to do that. That’s where energy comes in and takes care of it. But imagining the very kind of life – feeling into the very kind of life you want – and then living it and being it.”

I laughed nervously, shaking my head. “Okay, so now you’re telling me I can just change reality by thinking about it differently? That I can, what, reshape the world if I’m aware enough?”

The Master’s gaze didn’t waver. “Not by thinking, no. By being. By stepping out of the limited consciousness you’ve been trapped in. The one that tells you life has to be a certain way, that problems need to be solved, that you need to achieve certain goals. When you let go of that, when you truly feel into the ‘AND,’ you’ll start to see that the very fabric of reality is yours to shape.

“You take a deep breath and, if anything, you just remember the simple word ‘AND.’ And it’s not the only reality.”

I paused for a moment, letting his words settle. He was right. Beneath the confusion, there was a strange calm, a sense of alignment, like something fundamental had shifted inside me. “Yeah,” I said. “It’s like… something deeper is clicking into place. But it’s scary. I don’t know how to live from that place.”

Master gave a thoughtful nod, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. “It is scary. It’s disorienting because you’re used to relying on your mind to navigate life. But when you shift into this space of ‘AND,’ the mind has to take a backseat. It doesn’t mean you lose control—it means you gain access to more. More perspectives, more realities, more wisdom.”

We didn’t need to say anything more. There was a quiet understanding between us. As I looked out the window at the fading light, I realized that even though I still had to integrate what we’d discussed, that was okay. The wisdom wasn’t in figuring life out. It was in the willingness to be aware, even when I didn’t have all the answers, and open up to whatever came my way. I took a deep breath, feeling the calm settle into my bones. Here, in the stillness of the café, in the messy ‘AND’ of life, I was exactly where I needed to be.

The words of the Master in this story are based on Adamus’ channels from:

Illumination Series, Shoud 7

Kharisma Series, Shoud 3

Emergence Series, Shoud 7 

Art of Benching Series, Shoud 6