"True chaos comes from preparation and training."
"Little good comes from impatience" said the old man "Time to cause chaos, comes in good time."
"Master Shu!" asked the young apprentice "Is it not true that chaos comes from impatience?"
The Master looks into the distance "Yes, yes. But true chaos comes from preparation and training." he stands up and looks into the sunset "Only through the Principles of the Rrat, shall you succeed."
The master walks over and grabs a wooden stick. "Cao, do you know the tale of the lost Owl army?"
"No, master." said the young apprentice.
The old man sits back down next to the boy and starts "150 long suns ago, the mighty army of the Republic of Owl tried to invade our fair land. The preachers of enlightenment and virtue, they are, but a warlike people they are also. 250,000 strong, they marched up into our lands. They sent a messenger to our fair King Lu Wang, telling him that they had conquered thousands of tribes and that we would fall before them like a blade of grass to a scythe. They told him to submit, and they would treat him fairly, but Lu Wang would do no such thing. He sent back three words. 'It's too late.' This greatly confused the Hoomen, but it was very much true! For in the great Shangdong pass, the Hoomen were surrounded."
He takes a pipe and smokes the Opium from it before continuing "For 40 days, the Hoomen tried to break from Lu Wang's trap, and for 40 days they failed. On the 41st, he decided the time had come to cause true chaos." smokes again, the apprentice watches with great anticipation. "He sent down hogs covered in flaming pitch, had his cannons fire chemical weapons, blasted great horns to drive the Hoomen mad. That, my apprentice, is true chaos embodied. There was no Hooman army the next day, they all had died during the madness of the day before, and many of them killed each other before our army crushed them at night fall."
He stands up and looks off into the mountains "Let this teach you of true chaos, apprentice. For true chaos, as this story shows, comes from preparation and training.
"True Enlightenment comes through chaos.
It was another day Xù monastery. The Master once again rose early in bitter cold and sat himself per usual out on the snow covered balcony as the wind pieced his skin and snow covered him. For three hours each morning, he would sit her in silence, something which bemused his apprentice. When he was finished, his apprentice prepared for him cheese and tea, as was custom and joined his master at the table to share.
The boy, seeking as to why the old man would put himself in such danger, asked "Master, pray tell why you go out onto the balcony for hours at a time in the worst of weather? What enlightenment is there to be gained there?"
Sipping from his hot tea, the master puts down his cup and replies with his monotone voice "Cao, that is a wise question and from it... a wise response will come." sips more tea "...True enlightenment comes through chaos... for to understand life itself is to understand chaos."
The old man and his riddles! Cao enthusiastically asked him "But Master, where is the chaos in subjecting yourself to nature?"
The old man smiles "My dear apprentice, I appreciate your attitude, for this attitude leads to the path of enlightenment itself... but I cannot give you the answer to this question, you must find it out yourself."
Cao nodded and realized what his master meant. The next day, he would arise and do the same.
Cao quickly awoke the next morning and made his way to the frigid air of the balcony. He assumed the same pose as his master and waited for him in the blistering cold, only for the old man to not show up. Indeed, he waited silently for 30 minutes and the old man did not come. Instead, the cold was making his skin rough and truly he could not concentrate as the howling wind belted him with snow. But Cao was determined, he endured the pain he was undergoing and was determined to see it through. But 30 minutes later, Cao was succumbing to the elements and nearly at deaths door. He passed out, surely this was his end.
He woke up 8 hours later to find him in bed being served tea by his master. The old man had an expressionless face and when Cao opened his eyes he said "Apprentice... You did well... Pushing yourself to the very limits of your body is part of the Principles of the Rrat and true enlightenment comes from it... But if you learned from this experience, then you will know the answer to the question you asked yesterday, my son."
Cao laid in silence for hours pondering this question as he was nursed back to life by his master, what enlightenment did he feel during those hours. Could that be it?
Finally Cao spoke up "Master, I know the answer."
Raising his eyebrow, the old man said "Tell me then."
"The chaos of nature itself, as shown by the brittleness of the wind and the cold, have shown me that True Enlightenment is living and abiding in this chaotic world itself. coughs For I was unable to truly think about anything other than my own condition in the perils that faced me and eventually, i could not think at all. My mind was at peace because I could not even labor to think!"
Smiling the Old man replies "You are correct my apprentice. The time I spend out in the cold is not to torment my own body but to reach the Zen of the peace that comes with the chaos around me. Such is true enlightenment; all the world's chaos pieces your skin, but you remain in peace. You have done well, my son. I invite you to start joining me each morning, but do not push yourself to death's door. I will train you to endure the conditions more and more until you become like myself."
Cao coughs and replies "Thank you, Master. I await this training more and more."
From henceforth, the Master would train Cao in enduring the conditions, showing him both physical and mental ways to stay out longer. It would be a process, as it all was, but Cao was growing more and more each day into the Way of the Rrat.