The following is the first of a series of posts I will be putting up on the Tao Te Ching, from the eyes of The Blue Orchid, a heorine in Paragon City (Triumph Server). Please enjoy!
"The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name."
"The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation."
"Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real."
"Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness."
"Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding."
My father was a descendant of a long line of Samurai and able to trace his lineage back over 1,000 years. His great grandfather was one of the last Samurai in Japan, and even though the Emperor no longer saw the need for Samurai, he saw that we should not forget who we are or where we come from. My great grandfather knew that we should not forget as well, and in his village he continued to be Samurai, even though there was no need. He raised my grandfather to be Samurai, and my grandfather used his knowledge as an honorable and respectable officer in the Japanese Navy during World War II.
After the navy, when it was time to rebuild, he taught my father the same ways. Japan, after the war, was not a country of shame even in loss of battle, but a people determined to rebuild and become even greater than before. The people knew they would now have to become part of the global community, and even became allies to former enemies. My grand father urged my father to go into the world, and thus he came to America along with my grand mother.
Grandfather also trained my father to be Samurai. He knew the old ways must not be lost to history, and father embraced the way whole heartedly. He learned the Budoshoshinshu and was able to quote The Book of Five Rings from memory. He lived his honor and used his knowledge to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.
He became a hero.
Father was not disappointed with my birth. Even though I was the first daughter to be born to his clan in over 500 years, he loved me regardless. It had always been that there were no women Samurai in Japan, but this did not stop my father from teaching me the way. He believed that women could be equals to men, and I did my best as his daughter to absorb his training. Sadly, before he could finish training me to become Samurai, he died in honorable combat.
Grandmother kept me training because it is what my father would have wanted. She couldn't teach me everything, but she taught me to be the best at whatever I did. In the days of my great grandfather, people would wake at sunrise and spend all day perfecting what the did, wether it was to make swords, cut wood, catch fish or make cloth. Grandmother remembered the old ways and made sure I remembered them too.
I never really became Samurai, but I have father's swords and his armor in a room of my home that I have turned into a shrine. I spend the beginning of every day there in meditation to prepare me for the day ahead, and end my day there, reflecting on what I have done, what I have accomplished and what I have failed to do.
I have no desire to be a superhero. I simply am. I have no ambition to save people's lives. It is what I do.
The following is the first of a series of posts I will be putting up on the Tao Te Ching, from the eyes of The Blue Orchid, a heorine in Paragon City (Triumph Server). Please enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------
"The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name."
"The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation."
"Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real."
"Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness."
"Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding."
My father was a descendant of a long line of Samurai and able to trace his lineage back over 1,000 years. His great grandfather was one of the last Samurai in Japan, and even though the Emperor no longer saw the need for Samurai, he saw that we should not forget who we are or where we come from. My great grandfather knew that we should not forget as well, and in his village he continued to be Samurai, even though there was no need. He raised my grandfather to be Samurai, and my grandfather used his knowledge as an honorable and respectable officer in the Japanese Navy during World War II.
After the navy, when it was time to rebuild, he taught my father the same ways. Japan, after the war, was not a country of shame even in loss of battle, but a people determined to rebuild and become even greater than before. The people knew they would now have to become part of the global community, and even became allies to former enemies. My grand father urged my father to go into the world, and thus he came to America along with my grand mother.
Grandfather also trained my father to be Samurai. He knew the old ways must not be lost to history, and father embraced the way whole heartedly. He learned the Budoshoshinshu and was able to quote The Book of Five Rings from memory. He lived his honor and used his knowledge to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.
He became a hero.
Father was not disappointed with my birth. Even though I was the first daughter to be born to his clan in over 500 years, he loved me regardless. It had always been that there were no women Samurai in Japan, but this did not stop my father from teaching me the way. He believed that women could be equals to men, and I did my best as his daughter to absorb his training. Sadly, before he could finish training me to become Samurai, he died in honorable combat.
Grandmother kept me training because it is what my father would have wanted. She couldn't teach me everything, but she taught me to be the best at whatever I did. In the days of my great grandfather, people would wake at sunrise and spend all day perfecting what the did, wether it was to make swords, cut wood, catch fish or make cloth. Grandmother remembered the old ways and made sure I remembered them too.
I never really became Samurai, but I have father's swords and his armor in a room of my home that I have turned into a shrine. I spend the beginning of every day there in meditation to prepare me for the day ahead, and end my day there, reflecting on what I have done, what I have accomplished and what I have failed to do.
I have no desire to be a superhero. I simply am. I have no ambition to save people's lives. It is what I do.