"As a general rule, at least. The which I am not, obviously… though if the world would leave me and mine at peace, sure, I'd oblige them gladly. But if a warrior's presence offends against your faith. .."
"Obviously it does not," Dorje said.
"And I'm afraid that grateful as I am for your help, and your wisdom, you're unlikely to convert me!"
Dorje took the younger man's hand in both of his, turning it over so that the sword calluses showed:
"I have been assured by those wiser than I that a brave man, though he slay, and though he slay his many, is as a god in contrast to the men and women who are restrained from slaying only by cowardice. If the one who will not take life for any reason is higher on the Way than a warrior, then they are lower; just as he who fights for justice and to shield the weak is higher than he who fights for plunder or for pride."
He patted Rudi's hand before he released it. "I do not judge the necessities of your life or the karma you have chosen. But here, at least, you may be at peace for a little time."
It is peaceful here, Rudi mused. It's nice to have time to stop and think for a bit, with all the… external things stripped away!
As he did the sound of a bronze bell came through the cold air, still sounding a little strange; he knew now that it was because it was rung by a log hung beside it in rope slings, rather than by a clapper.
"I was raised to be a warrior, but I've seen enough of war lately that it disgusts me, so. Not so much the fighting, but the… waste of it, the things that are broken that should not be."
"You have chosen a hard path, my son," the monk said. "One that will test your courage; and the risk of pain to yourself and the death of your body are the least of its trials. But be sure, if you have courage it shall certainly be tested; because no quality in this universe goes unused. Walk the Way you have chosen in its fullness; when you have reached its end, you will find that it is the beginning of another path."
"You don't think killing is the worst of sins, then?" he said curiously.
Dorje sighed. "No; but considered rightly, it is… foolish. It is easy to kill. It is equally easy to destroy glass windows. Any fool can do either. Why is it only the wise who perceive that it is wisdom to let live, when even lunatics can sometimes understand that it is better to open a window than to smash the glass? But this world is mired in illusion, which is folly. As followers of the Way, we deplore the taking of life…"
Then he chuckled, slapping his knees. "Including our own! And more important, we deplore greedy or evil men taking the lives of those who look to us for instruction. There are few surviving pacifists in the world twenty-two years after the Change. A desire for peace does not imply submission to those who chose to be violent as their first resort."
He sighed again. "Yet if men were truly wise… Within our valley here, at least, there is little bloodshed."
"You rule here, then?"
Dorje's eyes sought the heights. "We were here-many monks, from many countries-for a… conference, they called it."
His voice turned dry: "If I remember correctly, the subject was to be Buddhism on the World Wide Web, with many learned panels on how the Internet might be used to transmit the Noble Eightfold Path. The hotel here gave us a reduced rate because the season for winter sports was nearly past. Then we experienced the… as one of our hosts put it
… the 'mother of all service interruptions.' "
He chuckled again, though Rudi couldn't see why; but the young clansman knew a man in touch with the Otherworld when he saw one, he who'd grown up in Juniper Mackenzie's household. It took some this way, a bubbling current of joy.
"And the people here turned to you for wisdom after the Change?" Rudi said.
Certainly the ones I've seen are happy with their arrangements, the which would be unlikely if you were a bad man, to be sure. Also I still have some confidence in my judgment, despite Picabo.
"That most of us grew up scratching a living out of highland farms was more useful at first!" Dorje said. "And that hardship was nothing new to us. There were even yaks here! The Ranchers found our help useful, when their machines died, and many of the people here were tourists from the cities, or those who made their livings by serving them, and they were utterly lost. We helped as we could, and one thing led to another."
Rudi nodded. He'd seen before that… unusual folk had often had an advantage after the Change; his mother and her coven and friends not least.
"I have heard a little of your mother, the Juniper Lady," Dorje said. "Before the Change I studied your Old Religion somewhat. It, ah, borrowed much from ours, and from the Hindus in the land where the Way was first preached."
"Meaning Gardner stole your doctrines like a bandit loose in a treasure house," Rudi said cheerfully; Juniper Mackenzie tended to shock her co-religionists with her frank assessment of the origins of their faith. "And from many others!"
Dorje made a tsk sound. "To say that you stole would imply that we owned the truths of the Way!" he said. "But the reverse is the case, if anything. Let the truths that Gautama Buddha first sought go forth and lead those who hear them towards the Buddha nature that all carry within, however they call it."
Rudi nodded; that was enough like his own faith's teaching of many paths to the same goal that he was easy with it. Then he smiled wryly, thinking of things he'd heard from Matti and her countrymen.
"You'll find Christians a little more proprietary about their doctrines, I think."
Dorje laughed. "Your Father Ignatius has been extremely polite," he said. "There is a young man earnest in his search for virtue, I think. Indeed, the greatest threat he will face is his own virtue, lest he become too much in love with it. He and the others have told me much of your journey and its purpose, and its enemies. We here have been troubled by the Cutter cult as well."
He looked up towards the eastern peaks. "That something extraordinary occurred on Nantucket has long been rumored. Fascinating!"
"It's more than that," Rudi said grimly. "The gods are taking a hand in these matters. Ah… I'm not sure how to put that-"
Dorje shrugged, in a manner that showed he'd been raised in the East.
"Are you familiar with the word Bodhisattva? No? These are beings who have achieved enlightenment, and with it great powers, but who from compassion for those still mired in illusion return to help them."
He indicated the statue. "That is an image of Chenrezi, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Who may be viewed as a god, an aspect of the Buddha nature, a personified idea, or a focus for meditation… and all these are true. This"-he pointed to a painting on the wall behind them, of a man with one hand held up in the stop gesture and the other bestowing a blessing-"is Amitabha, the Buddha of Pure Light, who dwells in the West and is of the element of Fire, and assists in overcoming fear."
"Ah… immortal, powerful beings who concern themselves with humanity, and I suppose the other kindreds… animals, the world in general… well, sure, and that sounds a good deal like a god to me!"
Dorje nodded. "We should not split hairs over definitions and forms of words."
Then he chanted, in a high reedy voice:
"If the causes are fully ripened,
Buddhas will appear there and then
In accordance with the needs of the disciples.
The place and the time."
Then he laughed, gleeful as a boy, and clapped his hands together: "But we do split hairs! We do! We split hairs so finely that often there is no hair, only the split! It is… what was the expression
… a professional deformation of monks."
Rudi nodded, gathering his strength. I'm as weak as a child, he thought. Worse! I had energy enough for two as a child, or so they tell me. Now I'm tired just from thinking.
"Then what of devils?" he said aloud. "For I've met… things, forces… on this journey which I'd call by that name, sure."