“D-Damn you!“ he yelled.

Hikaru crouched and leaned to face the boy’s daggery eyes.

“Kailu was your name?”

“Yes, it is. What? Does it sound funny?”

But Hikaru’s expression remained calm in spite of Kailu's cold stare. Hikaru paused for a moment and spoke in an elegant tone: 

“Kailu. Observe your own desires. Observe your feelings I know it is hard. If your soulnature is making you do this. It will be…alluring. But please, observe. Know the distinct difference between the observer and the observed”

Kailu looked into Hikaru’s blank eyes with bafflement.

“Wha- what are you talking about?”

“Trust me, Kailu. This is the only way. The only way to be freed from the desires that are running within your body and mind. Observation. Because looking is not thinking. It is not feeling.  It is not desiring something of the future. It is the simple process of waking up and having the inner eyes to burn all the lies and see the truth”

“What the hell are you talking about? Isn’t my desires, my will, my hunger. Isn’t this all me?” grumbled Kailu.

“No, my son. If you wish to believe in this illusion, you will continue to suffer. You simply observe. That is the only way it would go away”

“H-how? How is that going to help? I tried to fight it. Push it down. I know what I did was wrong and it…it’s impossible” yelled Kailu in a desperate voice.   

“That is because you had been repressing. You had been judging.  Do not judge your own greed, your own lust. If you judge, that means you will suppress it. If you suppress your desires, you will be simply building it all up inside yourself. And soon everything that you have collected will erupt like a volcano. Do not do that. Be friendly to your desires yet be aware enough to observe them. Please do that. It will bring peace to you and everyone around here” said Hikaru with a gentle tone.

“I-is it true?” asked Jessica.

But no one answered. Aletha was silently rubbing her chin with her fingers and soon spoke:

“Repression and suppression. I know about those. But observation, I didn’t know about that”. 

“Shut up. How the hell is that going to fix anything. I don’t like to observe” mumbled Kailu.

“My son, it is impossible for you to dislike observing. Because observation, awareness is your true nature. You are simply identified with your mind. And your desiring mind does not want to let you see the truth”  

He looked at Hikaru with scornful eyes and spoke:

“B-but it feels really good when I suck the life of those puny little souls. I-I want to enjoy…more” said Kailu with a tone that could only be described as an edgelord’s.                         

“Pain and pleasure are just two sides of the same coin. Your desires for the pleasures of the future are burning up your body and making it tense. But you lack the eyes to see that this is pain…not pleasure” said Hikaru.

Kailu looked at the man’s eyes and sighed.

“If I don’t suck on their souls…I’ll grow weak. I don’t have any choice!” he grunted.

“Yes, but it’s okay being weak. The strength of the strong blinds them to their own death and demise. A weak one is forced to being alert and aware. Their own weakness and disadvantages help them to be in the present moment. Existence accounts for everything. If you have the courage to be weak, then existence will surely grant something of equal value in return”.  

Kailu looked at the monk with a despaired and desperate look. Hikaru gave him an innocent smile and raised up his body back onto the bed. After doing that Hikaru talked slowly and clearly:

“Do not forget the observer. You are not your mind, you are not your feelings you aren’t even your body. Now observe. Observe your body,mind and emotions.  Do not judge. What is impure will be burned in the flames of observation. What is true, what is authentic will stay and it will grow. Because truth does not need proof. It does not need to be defended. You can only discover the truth by burning away the lies. And observation is the key to burn all lies. Identification to those lies is the barrier to truth.”

Sweat poured down from Kailu’s forehead. He clenched his fists tight and pursed his lips. Hikaru sat and looked at the boy’s expression patiently. Aletha looked at them silently, trying to make heads and tails of what the monk had just said.

It wasn’t long before Kailu’s face relaxed. They all sat there and continued to watch his behavior. But Kailu did not move. Minutes passed. Jessica became impatient and went outside to stroll around in the evening air. Aletha shifted his gaze from Kailu to Hikaru. After fourty or so minutes passed in total Kailu started to snore. He was asleep. It made Hikaru smile happily like a child.

“Thank goodness” said Jessica with a pant.

“Yeah. Honestly thought it wouldn’t work” said Aletha.

“Let us go outside. It would be quite unfortunate if we end up waking him” said Hikaru.

The three of them headed out of the hut. Hikaru jumped and hopped on the grass joyfully.

“What are you doing?” said Aletha.

“Rejoicing! Your friend was strong enough to look into his lust. He did not suppress it. He did not get seduced by it. He observed it and he went to sleep. Such a mad and angry lad. Yet he has the humbleness to listen to strangers. Ahh, what a lucky boy. I can’t help but pray and celebrate for him!”