Dougong - The Journey to Chang An

I graduated from Bowdoin College in 1967 and spent most of the next 30 years as a real estate developer. In 1998, I moved to China. and over the next 25 years, traveled throughout the country and studied the history, culture, and philosophies of China, India, and other regions of the world (the Middle East, Christian lands, etc.). I have had a life-long burning desire to understand the mysteries of life. This quest has led me on many pathways … from acquiring and reading thousands of books, to trips to ancient temples, to solitary meditations on mountaintops and even visiting an ashram in India … and finally, one day, after all the many years, I found my answers. Then, in 2020-22, during the pandemic lockdown in China, I was invited to translate several Chinese historical books to be published in China. I enjoyed the endeavor so much that I embarked on writing about my search for the hidden meanings of the universe - hidden within the ancient texts … but set in an adventure novel story during Song Dynasty China. Fortunately, from my readings, I had a large database of ancient wisdom. During the epidemic, I wrote three books, The Enso Trilogy, which are the culmination of my life's golden thread. Each book in the trilogy focuses on a critical aspect of a spiritual life: enlightenment, fulfillment, and the afterlife. In Jan. 2023, while I was finishing the 3rd book, I contracted COVID. A few months later, a heart specialist told me I had a major problem in my heart valve which would require surgery to fix. I told her that I had done everything in my life and with the completion of these three books, I was ready for the next life (Socrates said it better). I read the other day, ‘Sometimes we're afraid of something, because we’re afraid of something else’. I think death is like that … people are afraid they won’t finish something, but this fear is just a creation of our mind. I'm now working on Book IV which delves into the backside of the universe’s tapestry, to understand the divine purpose in it all. In this book, which I hope I can finish, I write a lot about possibilities becoming probabilities and then becoming reality.  Thank you for reading my books.