Western Monasticism

from Tales For a Boy, the Writings of Kanishk of the Open Soul

The impossibly old man stared at the boy with impossibly young eyes, ice blue, before in a blur of motion he leapt the table to stand before him, then slowly sat, cross-legged, and motioned for the boy to sit before him. “All our lives are a cycle. All of this has passed before us. All of this will pass us again.”
“In the beginning were the Gods, great flaring pyres of divinity, who walked the earth and where they trod, motes of their divinity fell to the earth and caused all the living of the world to flower.”
“Then the time of great war came and mortals rose up in the service of those Gods and were slaughtered. But the divine cannot die. It cannot be unmade, only changed. And those souls passed from this place, to the next, where the Gods waited for them, and then they passed again to the next, and then again, back to here, to be reborn into this world, to begin anew.”
“This is why the Gods crave followers. They hope to regain what they have lost in the creation of this world.”
“I remember the time that Yabu came to the steppe, who proclaimed himself Makh. I was not alive then, but the memories are given to me. His Makhan of horse warriors united the steppes. He hated the Gods. Those who worshipped were put to the sword and to the flame. The few who remained were driven into hiding and in time, worship of the Gods was lost, but worship of the divine remained. The divine within ourselves.”
“He Who Found the Key, Eradhna, was the first of our order. He meditated for a year on the meaning of divinity, without food or drink, sustained alone by the divinity within, until he harnessed that energy, which he called Ki.”
“Yabu Makh killed all who he thought might rebel against him. The sword was forbidden to all but his warriors, so Eradhna taught us to bide our time, to fight with the instruments of peace, with plowshare and staff, sickle and chain, to worship not in temples or churches, to draw not on the divine without, but the divine within.”
“It is said that Yabu Makh came to Eradhna three times throughout his life to ask him a question and put him to death. Three times, Yabu Makh asked. Three times Eradhna answered. Three times Yabu Makh stilled his blade.”
“Yabu Makh created an empire that spanned a thousand miles. He united the steppes and developed agriculture, science, and philosophy. And then he died, and his empire fractured and fell to ruin.”
“Eradhna created a Way. And then he died, and then he was reborn. And his Way continues to this day.”