Kundalini and the Art of Being ... 1already been exhausted. But the effects of those few hours of burning
had left a charred, though still standing, forest in its wake.
There were a number of people with chainsaws roaring, cutting
down dangerously hanging limbs and trees, as well as people hauling
smoking logs and branches from the greener part of the forest, back
into the part that had mostly burned. Some had shovels and were
digging into the smoking ground to expose and douse burning roots.
People were yelling back and forth through the trees for more water,
shovels, and people to help. Upon someone’s suggestion I started
taking buckets of water back into the green part of the forest looking
for smoke coming up through the ground. This indicated root fires
that had the potential to start the forest fire all over again.
The bucket brigades went on for hours and hours, through the rest
of the day and into the evening. I eventually discovered that there
were other lines of people passing buckets, coming up from another
creek in a different part of the forest and decided to follow it down to
the beginning to see if they needed more help. In the process I hap-
pened across Jeffrey there, filling buckets in the creek.
“Hey, welcome to the party!” he said, as he looked up and saw me.
I had actually known that he was going to be at the gathering and
had seen him there earlier but hadn’t had the chance to hang out and
talk with him at all. I joined in the line next to him, happy to see a
familiar face, and continued helping get the filled buckets out of the
creek, then handing them up to the next person in line.
Evening was descending into darkness, and we were all beginning
to slow down considerably, our arms, bodies and minds way be-
yond exhaustion. Finally, we heard the news making its way down
the line: the fire was out, and we could stop. But we continued, not
wanting to stop until we were absolutely sure. A few minutes later,
we heard someone yell down with an air of certainty from the top
of the hill:
“Stop! Stop filling buckets! The fire is completely out!!”
A huge wave of relief and exhaustion passed through us all—as
well as amazement that we had actually succeeded in putting out the