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Yung sat on a boulder atop a cliff. To describe the spot in which he preferred to take his daily meals to another would make it sound incredibly dangerous and call his judgement into question, but in reality it was quite safe.The boulder appeared to be a large, loose stone, but Yung believed that it connected to the spine of the mountain upon which it sat. The cliff itself could fall away, but the stone would remain, and there would Koru be, sitting atop it eating a rice ball. The thought entertained him, although he was not entirely sure why. Perhaps there was something of enlightenment found in such a simple notion. He would meditate upon it later in the afternoon, as time permitted.
Someone approached from the path behind him. The pattern and timbre of his footfals identified him at once. “Hello, Koru,” Yung said brightly. “How are you this fine afternoon? The Jade Sun blesses us all.”
There was a moment of hesitation as Koru stopped, clearly flummoxed by Yung’s identification of him. Koru was a younger monk, still trapped in the ways of the world in many respects, and he struggled with some of the greater notions of the Brotherhood. But he would learn, in time. Yung knew this as surely as he knew that the sun would rise the following day. It was the way of things.
Koru appeared at Yung’s side. “I see your guest finally departed.”
“Guest?” Yung said.
“The tattooed monk who was here all morning,” Koru explained.
“Oh yes, he was here,” Yung agreed. “He was hardly my guest, though. This is nature. We are all at home here.”
Koru frowned. “You sit here every morning.”
“Only because no one else sits here first.”
The young monk was clearly flummoxed, but he let the matter drop after a moment of fidgeting. “Was he a member of the Togashi order, then?”
“He walks the path of the Dragon, yes,” Yung said. “We must all walk a path.”
“Odd to find a Togashi here,” Koru noted.
“I should think no,” Yung said. “Hizumi and I share a morning discussion once a month. The first of the month, to be precise. We have for many years.”
“Oh. May I ask what you discuss?”
“Predominantly we discuss Hizumi-san’s unique opinion on the philosophy of the world,” Yung said. “It is most fascinating, even if I do not share his outlook.”
“What is the nature of his philosophy?”
Yung smiled. “He believes that destruction is the ultimate creative force.”
Koru’s mouth hung open for a moment, “What…what does that even mean?” he demanded. “That is preposterous!”
“I agreed, once,” Yung said. “I no longer do.”
“How can you say that?”
Yung gestured to the desolate rock plain below them. “Watch and understand.”
Koru looked down on the field of stone, pitted here and there with craters and other fissures. Squinting, he mare out the form of a lone monk walking among the stones. The monk walked around for a time, seemingly at random, before stopping in a particular spot. The two Brotherhood monks watched from a distance as the monk performed a series of complex kata. Toward the end, the monk began leaping into the air and coming down with a fierce kiai and a strike that shattered the stone where he was standing.
Koru was aghast. “He is destroying the field! For no reason! This is wrong!”
“Is it?” Yung asked. “Look again?”
Koru stared at the older monk for a while, but grudgingly turned back to the vista before him. The dust from the monk’s strikes, which appeared to be finished, was blowing away on the light breeze, and Koru’s breath caught in his throat.
From this distance, it was now obvious that the strikes had completed some form of sculpture, conducted on an unprecedented scale. The slight adjustments made to the landscape, the changes in depth and shading, gave it now the image of a beautiful sunset. From any other perspective, it would be completely lost, but here and here along, it revealed the majesty hidden in the monk’s work. “By the Fortunes,” Koru whispered.
“His work, it seems, is complete,” Yung said. “I am honored to witness it, but I will miss our conversations.”
“What will he do now?” Koru asked.
“Who can say? The Togashi go where they choose and do what they wish. He will begin his work again somewhere else, I imagine. Perhaps find other souls he can convert to his philosophy.”
“I…am not sure I find that a comforting thought.”
Yung smiled. “Only unenlightened thoughts bring comfort. The difficult thoughts are what guide us on our paths.”
