34. Serenity Gardens

Prior to meeting with Ji Qong, all Zing Tao were encouraged to spend time with their Serenity Gardens. Papa Kyra, known to his mates as Zeke, embraced the opportunity. Ji had introduced the gardens as part of every initiates training. Known to aid in calming and clearing the mind, they were cultivated and used like training wheels in clear seeing.

Each initiate received one blue bamthem flower along with one pinkish purple flutrix. Bamthems and flutrices thrived on the level of surrounding serenity in their immediate environment. Yet, the relationship between the owner and flowers and flutrices was not one-way. Creatures of pure peace, bamthems and flutrices emitted a slightly sweet perfume with pollination and germination, almost unnoticeable, which interacted with Hynerian neocortexes in inducing the release of serenton, a rare chemical (similar to serotonin in humans) that relaxed the body and cleared the mind of wayward and random thought.

The garden’s owner, the bamthems and the flutrices worked together, almost symbiotically to promote a sense of peace, tranquility and serenity. The more accomplished the gardener, the more bamthems grew and the more the flutrices reproduced. The most accomplished Zing Taos had serenity gardens of many thousand of bamthems and flutrices, a sign they had reached superior levels of equanimity.

Zeke only had a handful of bamthems to go with his few flutrices. Yet, the sweet smell of serenity filled the air of his small abode. Troubles and worries quickly fell away like unbound shackles. A sense of freedom from illusion created an expansive clarity Zeke hoped to one day recreate without the aid of his garden. Today, however, was not that day. He was going to need all the help he could muster to not look like the blustering novice he felt himself to be. Of course, he knew, Ji would see right through him, but he also knew Ji would see his intent and heart and that had to count for something.