This is the first short story after the Overture to Masquerade of the Cycle of Existence. It is an abstract story, in fact it has no real act, i.e. it is not significant. The whole short story is intertwined around a Chinese vase: an excursus and an adventure in the world of ideas and fantasy, which is triggered by the pattern of the vase. The subject in the short story is not identical with me. I recommend this story to those who like abstract things, stories, mysticism. The translation was made recently, and the work itself was written in 2007. Only those short stories from the volume that I consider interesting or worth for publishing, not all of them, are included here.

And then let's see the story of the vase! I wish you a good reading and contemplation!

Everything started with that Chinese vase. And yet it was not a real Chinese vase. And however, ...

First of all, among the many kitsch with a tawdry pattern, a strange black pattern with a green leaf cover caught my attention. I knew as soon as I looked at it that this black-green pattern was only apparently a flower: in reality, it was a gate.

I knew at that moment that this was my vase.

As a prelude, when I was four or five years old, we once visited someone who had a slender, miraculously patterned fragile Chinese porcelain vase in the corner of the room. Of course, there was no question of us children even going near it: that rare precious treasure would still be broken!

I looked longingly at it from afar, and suddenly I knew: once I would have a Chinese vase that someone would make only for me. And so, it happened. I had only to wait about forty flying years for it...

And now here is the vase. The golden-brown coating is breathtaking, with its reddish, white-glowing, pink-lit floral arrangements, the pairs of birds looking around with their bodies snuggling together, the lines reminiscent of Egyptian pharaoh sarcophagi, slightly cohesive downwards, which invite in golden tint... I immediately sensed the careful work, the profound activity with which the unknown painter worked MY CHINESE VASE. And I sensed his spirit: it was a kindred spirit. Although we do not meet now, he knew that he was making these seemingly colourful floral motifs for only one person, which in reality take on completely different contents...

Indeed: the red heads of the two birds change to the two berry-eyes of a face, their bodies change to its cheeks, the line of their black legs leaning on flower stalks turns into the mouth; and the flower running up among the birds is transformed into a forehead and hair: this face looked at me multiplied in an infinite row below and above each other. This was the first thing that emerged for me in the pattern. But there was something else that preceded it: the intuition that there was SOMEONE in the vase: a being I knew, but I could not figure out his identity. Yet I feel him: he is here, smiling at me, warming me, although his vase body is marble-cold, and his presence provides the certainty that everything will turn out well. It's time for good changes. But who is he? I know him, since I exist, I have belonged to him, yet I do not know who he is. It does not matter. The important thing is that he is here again, he has arrived.

Then comes another surprise: the vase is the sarcophagus of the Egyptian pharaohs, the gateway to eternity. It is the knower of secrets, a silent witness. Is it really silent? Instead of its mouth, a series of symbols appearing one after another shouts: the sarcophagus warns of eternity, the blackness is enclosed in green leaves with golden leaves above, and a green-black loop forms a human being below: this is the Gate of the Dimension of Changes, which is closely related to the principle of plasticity. This law works on the Planet of the Dolphins, but this planet itself is only part of that dimension. And the gateway is the human being himself, and the enabler of it – among other things – the key to it is the Book of Changes, the Yi Qing! I am astonished: that's why the face made up of red-headed birds is Chinese! This is the second one that has emerged for me.

But even more surprising is the third: if I look attentatively at the vase, the Gate of the Dimension of Changes is bordered by a sliced line of gold leaves running on a black thread, from which the ancient deity of the Tibetan belief system looks at me. This, too, like the Chinese face, ran around – multiplied.

But why is it Chinese? And then I am reminded of my dream of the warriors of ancient Chinese legends who come to Earth again and again every ten thousand years to fight their renewed battle with Evil... The Warriors of Dragon Legends who guard the Earth. This was the third.

What about the Tibetan deity?

The Tibetan deity's five-petaled red flower eye is as encouraging as possible: be perfect! Cross the Gate! Be fulfilled! And if you succeed in all this: you will become who you are in reality. This is the aim... So now I had the fourth.

Meanwhile, the hairline paint rolls downwards: small white spots dot the gold and pattern of the vase: as if they wanted to draw my attention to the fact that I should not set store by appearances... Before the tricky painting peels off, I must decipher the message! It is true, I KNOW: the vase is NOT REAL, yet all the signs and processes around it are real. And the most real is the BEING, the SPIRIT OF THE VASE, with whom we have known each other and belong together since time immemorial, since the beginning of BEING, but I do not know who he is yet. I do not know his name. I know his essence.

And I feel the happiness of a homeless wanderer when he sees that he has come home...

On the morning of the second day, the vase rose slightly, and its golden paint sparkled: the golden sparks melted into a flame, and the vase blazed in an unearthly light, in burst of golden flame. It was the fifth in the order, but it could have been the second, it does not matter. The essential thing was the tongue of the gold flames licking the Chinese vase around, and the scattering gold spray.

And this morning I saw the Chinese dragon in the thick of the faces. It looked at me with warning, understanding, and protecting, with its burgundy flower-eyes, its grim face, on which a black gate bordered by green leaves darkened gloomily on either side. The line of its eyebrows was drawn from the center of its face, by two winding black threads starting from a golden lotus, on which sliced paired gold leaves were lining. And the drooping, slightly frightening outline of the mouth was given by a similar motif: the dragon looked at me, and I looked back at it, and meanwhile I saw the Tibetan deity, the Chinese face, everything... This was the sixth in a series of strange phenomena.

Then the vase called me close to itself, and my attention was caught by the ornamental pattern that ran around its bottom and neck. A red semicircle enclosed in a golden embellishment at the top, three red vertical ones below it – framed in gold – ran around it at the bottom. The same was on the neck, except that while the curve of the semicircle at the bottom was curved from bottom to top, at the top it curved upward. It opened downward below, upwards at the top... The lower arch reminded me of a gate, the upper one of a cradle... This was the seventh.

So, if I enter the gate, I am reborn again... Indeed? Would this be the reincarnation on the vase that started in India? Is this the message of the phenomena that have been revealed so far? Or is there something else?

I do not know, but in any case, I will wait until all the secrets that this special vase hides are revealed one by one...

And I knew from the beginning that the motifs were not only symbols, but also some kind of spiritual characters: they were adorned with a kind of fairy writing. And not only on the bottom and on the slender neck, but the fairy writing weaves through the vase around the faces. But if I look closely, it is a mere ornament. Then what does it want to tell me? I always knew that the power of fairies was magical. I have been convinced of this since I saw the fairy's magic veil. But what does their writing mean? Surely, I must become a fairy to read it discerning. So, behold, I found the eighth one.

The top of the vase is opened by a wonderfully symmetrical wavy line when it is viewed from above; and closes it if I look at it from below. The wave is part of the Dimension of Changes: the wave nature, united with the principle of plasticity, allows the beings existing in the dimension to transform continuously and effortlessly. This is essential there. But what am I to do with it here? I hope it will turn out. With this the ninth is found either.

Whether is there a new one? I examine the wonderful vase carefully, because we are entitled to call it that, even if it is not a real Chinese. But for now, no new plane or phenomenon is revealed to my eyes. The vase seems to have revealed its secrets.

Something hits the nail on my head: how can a single object collect so many different things of different origins? And in my mind I take a look at the symbols with which it surprised me: the Chinese face, the SOMEONE in the vase, the sarcophagus, the Gate of the Dimension of Changes, the face of the ancient Tibetan benevolent deity, the golden flames, the Chinese dragon, the decoration of the gates and cradles, the fairy writing, the wave – if I do not have more, or if my faulty eyesight and handicapped human intellect cannot just detect more phenomena in it.

Still, I discover something: among so many spiritual messages, the pairs of birds send a message of union, to which the path leads only through enlightenment – the sign of this is the lotus flower that rises between the two birds and unfolds above their heads. As well as there is no lack of a symbol of ultimate perfection – this is the vase itself, the chalice, which is the key to the last and the final change that culminates in the others. Many people call this the Grail. It is not important. What is important is the content: the exit from the cycle of the Wheel of Being. And I can already connect this long line: all this could have been put in the form of a single vase because together they represent the TOTALITY of BEING, the realization of PERFECTION, and their intermediate stations. And so, this vase symbolizes the Land of Perfection that once existed, now lost in the mist: the lost Atlantis. And with it all that it meant or had the purpose of BEING: the realization of PERFECTION. Behold, the king!

But I am imperfect. How can I get to the state that the vase represents?

I know now: I remember the long line of lives I have lived so far. As soon as I become aware of them, they happen again, as they were. Thus, their essence is summed up, and I enter the Gate of Changes, to be reborn as PERFECT, bursting out in full life-size and armor, like Pallas Athena from the head of Zeus. For this strange birth in Greek legend has this meaning: being born in PERFECTION.

And in order to achieve this, I live these key lives one after the other, which allow me to achieve the ultimate aim. As soon as I reach this and enter the green-black gate, I leave this world and never return. This is the message of the fairy writing. So, I solved the enigmas, I revealed the mysteries of the vase: the great adventure could come, the one that could not have been more exciting in the imagination of any man: let us enter the gate of Atlantis!

Will you go with me? Get ready for a miracle...

The writing is interrupted here. As painful as it is, we must let readers know that the adventure is dangerous: the author of this article has disappeared. No investigation was successful, no trace of him could be found... No one knows anything, except that after the author disappeared, the pattern of the mysterious Chinese vase in the writing was peeled off, in particular, with stormy rapidity: it was the work of moments, and now in its place stands an ordinary, though taller than usual white vase.

Does this tell you anything? Those who do are lucky people...

Everything started with that Chinese vase. And yet it was not a real Chinese vase. And however, ...

Written: 20-21 / 12. 2007., by J. W. Cassandra
Translated: 21-22 / 05. 2025., by J. W. Cassandra

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