10
« on: July 15, 2020, 02:43:39 AM »
BEFORE UNIFICATION HALL
In recent days we have had the opportunity to mark one of the great moments of this Ring, though it was wreathed about in bloodshed and strife. At great cost in lives and suffering, the Copper Torc is laid low. The threat of the blood of innocent men, women, and children running through these very streets forestalled.
We stand before Unification Hall. A statement of a peace that may be made to last with care and Reasoned conduct. For this place has seen the coming of Lord Freward, we have seen the depredations of the Gwylherd, we have seen the opening of the planar maw by Needle's misuse, we have seen the dark works of Ib'javi the malevolent -- we have witnessed it and we have Endured.
Our capacity to Endure is the stuff of Renunciation. I say unto you: "Renounce Want," but that is another way of saying plainly that we must put aside base instinct to better understand the world.
For we are tormented constantly by a thousand needles, little pains about our person, that should drive us to undertake actions to fulfill them. Small things in the course of our daily lives, but they distract us from understanding, they cloud our consciousness. When they loom large, when hunger pangs strike our bellies in bitter earnest, when greed lashes our eyes to envy and jealousy, these Wants direct our very Wills.
This is a compulsion, make no mistake. Yet we defy it every day. When we spend time in service despite the pangs of hunger, when we bear up the bloody line for the salvation of those at our sides, when we struggle in this weary world to see a worthy path, we Endure the pains imposed by Want.
We Renounce with every sapient action, informing our Wills with Reason. The hungry child who gives half his bread to his sibling; the soldier who raises his shield to protect his comrade, knowing the blow shall fall upon him; the merchant who sees the poverty around him and lifts up the impoverished -- these souls Renounce.
From Reason we know Empathy, for we look unto our neighbor and recognize that there too is a Suffering soul, imprisoned as we are in imperfect forms. Those around us are caged to the same flesh and bitter Wants as we, bound up in this Razor Web. Their Suffering may be different in small ways, but it is of the same type, differing only in degree!
Renunciation is a path for ordering the consciousness toward a moral aim. Empathy, not Emptiness, stands at the heart of Renunciation, for by setting aside our concerns for being sated ourselves we come to know the pains of others.
Show Posts
