Seeking to calm the waves [D1, EE, Open]

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

Kayou nods. "So very true, it is hard to guess what the effect will be from the ripples of a thrown stone. But we must try to shape the lapping waters to do good." She was not entirely happy with that metaphor.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"We can be sure at least that water flows from high places to low," Myo-en says, thinking of the watery imagery saturating certain passages of the Tao. "But what are you about this evening, Kayou-sensei? Am I interrupting a task?"

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

"This one is just trying to catch the mood of the people and spread some calm," Kayou answers. "She has a feeling that things will get worse before they get better."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Hexagram Eighteen would agree with you. A thing can't be repaired unless it's damaged. It also advises care, and attention." Myo-en's expression shifts in a way familiar among monks and priests, the look of a person calling a much-studied text to active memory. "'Before crossing to the far shore, consider the move for three days. After crossing, devote three days of hard labor to damage control.'"

After another moment's thought, she adds, "Shall I help you spread calm, a little? You are more skilled at it. Consider it teaching, maybe."

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

Kayou nods. "Well, you have half of it down already, Myo-en-san," she says. "At least half of spreading calm is projecting calm.

Remember the Tao:
'Keep your feet on the ground.
Remember what is important.
Be there when people need you.
Say what you mean.
Be prepared for anything.
Do whatever you can,
whenever it needs doing.'"

Putting actions to words, she moves to help a woodgatherer who has dropped some of his load.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

Myo-en follows suit in her own way, giving a helpful shove to a peddler's handcart whose wheel has gotten stuck in an icy rut. The peddler, startled by his cart suddenly jolting forward when a moment ago she'd been straining at the handles, almost falls forward on his face before recovering his balance, and looks perplexed when his backward-searching gaze lands on the strange shaven-headed woman.

Myo-en smiles politely, the hint of tattoos visible at the neckline of her coat seeming to shift and shimmer a little.

The peddler moves on, shaking his head in continued perplexity.

"The difficult part is knowing what needs doing. For me, anyway." She rolls her shoulders under the thick padded fabric.

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

Kayou helped two children over to their mother. "Let the Tao guide you, Myo-en-san. The world flows, flow with it."

She steps over to catch an old woman who had tripped over a stone. Kayou rights her and sends her on her way with a blessing.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

Sometimes what needs doing is just... getting out of the way. Myo-en is reminded of this as a small herd of preteen children come stampeding past, chattering and gesticulating, presumably headed for homes in the commoner residences nearby. She steps aside to let them pass.

"Although that works best when one is alone in nature, and not surrounded by people with their own ideas about swimming upstream." She chuckles ruefully.

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

Kayou laughs. "Sometimes. People are often more unpredictable than nature which is more in harmony with the Tao."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"If only more people would study the Tao, it would be easier for all to master." Myo-en shakes her head, her chiding, slightly ironic smile directed more at herself than anyone else.

A true master of the Changes must be able to understand people as well as Heaven--and people and Heaven were often at odds. That was one lesson she'd begun to learn in Ryoko Owari.

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

"People just need to be open to what is around them," she said, chiding a chicken back into the cage it had escaped from. "But it is easy to be caught up in one's problems and ignore the whole."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Especially with an army at the gates." Myo-en's mouth flattens into a grim line. "Soon to be, at least. Still."

She pounces and seizes the faster of the two escaped chickens before it can scoot out of reach into the crowd, pinning its wings firmly so it can't flap about. The physical maneuvering this entails seems to brighten her mood a bit; the line of her mouth softens as she gently wrestles the squirming chicken back inside the wicker cage with its colleague. Overhead, the big crow has appeared again--perched on the awning of a vendor's stall, seeming to laugh raucously at the frustrated chickens.

"One can do both. See the pattern, and also the small problems. It... I could wish it were easier. But then perhaps it wouldn't be worth the effort."

((should we move toward wrapping this up?)

Kayou · **Joined:** Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:51 pm **Posts:** 419

Kayou nods. "As the Tao says:

'Without opening your door,
you can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
you can see the essence of the Tao.

The more you know,
the less you understand.

The Master arrives without leaving,
sees the light without looking,
achieves without doing a thing.'"

She smiles and shifts just in time to avoid being splashed by a passing cart.

"Together we will find the Tao, Myo-en-san, it is waiting for us."

OOC: We can end here if you wish.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

((I think that's a really nice end point!))

Seeking to calm the waves [D1, EE, Open]

Who is online