Sins of the Past
Chapter 6
A monk must do what is right, and never stray from the path of light. It is his motto, his code of honor. Above all, he must detach himself from worldly problems. When he finds himself in a life or death situation, he must do the right thing, however.
A monk must strive to be devoid of anger, sadness, greed, lust, and violence. To commit one is to break the Mandarin Tenets, and dishonor himself and his monk brothers.
To regain their honor, the monk must enter a meditation period of one week, one month, or one year, depending on the severity of the sin. He had broken the lust tenet, though since he had not partaken in the forbidden fruit, he need only meditate for one week.
Only a few items were required for a meditation: five candles to represent the five great sins, five candles to represent the five great virtues, and the monk himself.
All ten candles symbolized the wheel of life. On the left side was anger, sadness, greed, lust, and violence. And on the other was honor, integrity, selflessness, abstinence, and loyalty.
To restrain from the left and partake of the right, is what makes a Mandarin monk pure and righteous.
Yet no one can be perfect, as Sin had learned. Upon meeting the first woman he had ever seen, he'd fallen right into lust. Some would call it love, even love at first sight, but that is a misconception.
Love is a strong emotion, an emotion no one should take or use lightly. Humans do not simply fall into love. It is more likely that they stumble into it. When meeting a beautiful woman, Sin did not take into account her personality, her interests, her beliefs; her outward appearance was the only first impression he got.
Thus it wasn't true love at all; it was faux love.
Monks never love a woman because of one of the five great virtues: abstinence. 'Do not indulge in the flesh or of any earthly thing; I am all you need.'
Sin had been so caught up in the pursuit of his father, of Devyn, and of Artus, he had failed to notice that he had broken one of the great virtues. 'Do not indulge in the flesh or of ANY earthly thing.'
He had blindly hunted his father. He had blindly fallen into lust with Devyn. He had involved himself in the petty matters of humans. Sin had failed as a monk and must meditate to regain his lost honor.
One week would be all he needed to do just that. A place of holiness must first be found, however. The church located in Valor, the town he currently resided in, would do. Part of regaining his honor was to perform an act of honor, integrity, selflessness, abstinence, and loyalty.
He had performed honor, integrity, selflessness, and loyalty when he had traveled to the wastelands north of Valor to stop an army of zombies from invading Valor. The cause was of no concern of his; he must not involve himself in the affairs of ordinary humans.
Meditating for an exact week would provide his abstinence requirement: to go one week without searching for his father.
While Valor Church had no Mandarin members, the clergyman had honored his request to use the church as his place of meditation. The clergyman had shown him a supply closet that Sin could use for the duration of his stay.
Sin assured his host that the accommodations would be fine. And then Sin had entered the trance of meditation known to the monks as spirit-healing.
To those who knew nothing of the Mandarin monks, what happened during a meditation period was a mystery. Some believed that one simply sat there, ignoring the surroundings. It was not so. When entering the meditation period, the monk's spirit traveled to spirigo, just like spirit-walking.
The difference was that the monk in question was restricted to a certain part of spirigo, and could not leave the area until the meditation was over. Nothing could awaken a monk while he was meditating, not even death. For when a Mandarin monk meditated, he was above the laws and rules of nature. A blow that would kill an ordinary man would have absolutely no effect on the monk, who would simply heal from the wound.
Thus some monks entered meditation to protect their lives when endangered. This was not common in the current age, since the monks had all retreated to the island of Mandar at the end of the Second Age.
Spirigo was organized into seven distinct regions, not unlike the human world. The region meditation was restricted to was meditigo. The other six regions were argo, cartago, fugo, salgo, sugoi,and zenago.
Argo was the region where those of no faith dwelled for eternity. They had limitations to which regions they could visit; for example, they could not visit zenago where those of faith lived. Those from zenago, however, could visit any place.
While any spirit could visit fugo, land of the evil spirits, none would go there willingly. As such, the spirits of fugo could not travel to the other six regions. The evil spirits could travel to the human world, though.
The land of the lost, cartago, was where spirits awaited their assigned region. Sometimes it would take 100 years for a decision to be made.
Salgo was home to the elder spirits, those who existed before the creation of the universe. Not many spirits visited, due to the elder spirits being very supercilious.
The last region was sugoi, home to the gods. All spirits, excluding those from meditigo and fugo, were required to visit this region once a year to pay homage to the creators.
He placed the candles in a complete circle in the middle of the room. He entered the circle and began to light the candles, saying a mantra for each candle lit.
He lit the anger candle. "'Holy is he who remains calm.'"
Preceding to sadness, he lit it and said, "'Rejoice! For I have brought you out of sorrow and into my love.'"
Greed was next. "'You shall not want for anything, for I will provide for you.'"
Lust was after that. He paused before it, to signify that this was one he had broken. He then lit it. "'Taste not of fleshly desires, for it is enough that I love you.'"
He then lit violence, saying, "'Strike not at others, for I will rebuke them for hurting you.'"
The candles of virtues were next.
"'Be like the knight who protects his lord's castle.'" He lit the honor candle.
"'Be as unmoving in your integrity as the mighty river.'" He struck the match upon the candle of integrity's wick. A tiny flame ignited into life.
"'Think not of yourself, but of others'" was said after igniting selflessness' candle.
Two more candles remained: loyalty and abstinence. He placed himself before the blue candle representing loyalty and lit the candle. "'Love your nation as you love me.'"
Finally he faced abstinence, a white, undecorated candle. It was the tallest candle of all of them, for one should strive for perfect abstinence in all things.
He paused before it, then lit the candle's wick carefully. At first, the small flame barely lived, so Sin blew into it, sparking life into it. "'Do not indulge in the flesh or of any earthly thing; I am all you need.'"
Now that all the candles had been lit, only one mantra remained to be said and one candle remained to be lit.
He was that candle.
Sin sat himself down amongst the candles and closed his eyes, willing his body to enter the dormant state needed to pass over into meditigo. Unlocking most of the chains that barred the way, he inserted the key, the mantra, that would release his spirit.
"'I am a child of Mandarin, my god and the only lover I shall ever need. If it pleases him, let me cleanse myself and partake of the fruit of joy.'"
His spirit burst forth from its mortal coils and fled to meditigo. The journey there was short. Soon he found himself resting on an orange, puffy cloud somewhere in the meditigo region.
Now began his weeklong meditation.
While his body rested back on earth, Sin could do almost anything his heart desired, for meditigo was not a place to punish those who had broken the tenets, but to provide a relaxing environment where the monks could reflect on their mistakes and correct them.
Sin took it upon himself to take it easy while he was staying here. Back on earth he had to worry about money, death, and everyday problems. Here, however, he could simply drift away on the wind, ignoring everything but inner tranquility.
This must be what awaits the Mandarin's children after death, Sin thought. How could he ever have gone against his god's laws? This place was absolutely perfect, so much so that he could stay here forever.
An hour later, Sin was floating along simply enjoying life, when he accidentally bumped into another spirit. The other spirit was currently using his nimbus cloud form, and wasn't expecting anyone to be in this part of meditigo.
"I'm so very sorry!" the spirit exclaimed.
Sin chuckled. "No need; it was my fault after all."
He introduced himself as Almodaeus, Almo for short. He was a monk turned explorer who was traveling the Eastern Lands at the moment. Witnessing several strange and horrifying things, he'd immediately initiated the meditation.
"Fascinating! So, the rulers of the Eastern Lands are called emperors?" Sin asked, fascinated.
"It was bizarre for me when I first landed, too," Almo admitted. "I got used to it eventually. The people there are much friendlier than ours seem to be and their currency is yin, not our copper, silver, and gold coins."
"Did you meet their ruler, the emperor?" asked Sin. Never having set foot off of Mandar in many years, and only just traveling through Gielinor, he was intrigued by the foreign Eastern Lands.
He wanted to know what the ruler was like, how they dressed, what they ate, what type of animals they had, and how they lived. Sin knew this was why he had to meditate, so he could meet Almo.
"Yes, after a few years of getting to know the locals, I was invited to have dinner with their emperor."
"What do they wear?" Sin asked impatiently.
Almo laughed at his companion's thirst for knowledge. "I will get to that, my friend. The dinner that was served, it was very lavish! I had never seen so much food in my entire life, let alone food I'd never heard of. My favorite was something called a rice ball. It is this tiny ball of rice packed tightly together. It very scrumptious, and very nutritious."
"To them, dinner is a formal event, so I was given special clothes to wear. They're called kimonos; think of them like robes. Another strange thing is that they don't sit on chairs, but cushions. When entering their houses, you must also remove your shoes and go barefoot."
"These Easterners seem very eccentric," Sin said truthfully. "Please, tell me more."
"Now let me share with you some of the exotic animals I met while traveling there. The first creature I came across resembled a bear, but shorter and tinier, like a cub. Its fur was black and white, and it mostly ate the leaves of trees. The locals call it a panda."
"One creature that we both have, but is strangely different, is the dragon. While Gielinor dragons are massive and stocky, the Eastern Land dragons are long and slender. I'm told they're known as komodo dragons."
"Intriguing," Sin interrupted. "Did many of these komodo dragons exist?"
"There are thousands compared to our local dragons. However, that was not the strangest animal I encountered on my journey. While crossing over some rough mountains, I happened upon a creature that looks just like a tiny monkey, but is actually called a Languar. I was so captivated by it I brought one with me when I returned to the coastal city of Monto."
Fascinated by Almo's tale of this other world, Sin listened enraptured for hours. Not like time meant anything in spirigo.
"And that's about it."
"Wow, I would love to see the Eastern Lands for myself one day," Sin said with amazement.
"I hope you do, because it is such a wonderful and beautiful place," Almo said. "Yet it has its dangers as well."
Intrigued, Sin said, "Tell me of these dangers, friend."
"You heard me speak of the emperor's hospitality, now listen as I warn you of his violent nature. While I was staying at his palace, a servant brought him tea. The tea, though, was not what the emperor had asked for. So, throwing the wildest tantrum I've ever witnessed, he commanded the guards to throw the man into the palace dungeons to be locked away for 80 years. For bringing him the wrong tea! I have heard of some short tempers, but the emperor's is the shortest."
"The next day the emperor discovered that the guards had been letting this man's family visit him. Well, as you can imagine, this did not sit right with the emperor. He had the guards hanged and the family was thrown into jail as well. The emperor had said, 'If you want to visit your husband so much, then it is better that you serve his sentence, too.'"
"By that time I was very angry with the emperor, so I confronted him and aired my grievances with him. Now, by now you should understand my mistake. The emperor was seething with rage and ordered the guards to burn me at the stake. My only option was to flee the land as fast as possible, back to neutral territory."
"The guards never stopped chasing me, however, and I was on the run for many months until I found an abandoned temple out in the Huangbo mountains. There I found hundreds of ancient scrolls which identified the temple as the Wanfu Temple."
"What did you do next, Almo?" Sin asked worriedly.
"The only thing I could," Almo said. "I read scrolls all day. Eventually I remembered the meditation technique that most monks know by heart, so I gathered up all the material I needed, and here I am."
Sin and Almo parted ways soon after. The latter needed to get back to his mortal body to find a way out of the Huangbo mountains and back to Gielinor.
They promised each other that one day they would meet in person.