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"You rule here, then?"
Dorje's eyes sought the heights. "We were here-many monks, from many countries-for a… conference, they called it."
His voice turned dry: "If I remember correctly, the subject was to be Buddhism on the World Wide Web, with many learned panels on how the Internet might be used to transmit the Noble Eightfold Path. The hotel here gave us a reduced rate because the season for winter sports was nearly past. Then we experienced the… as one of our hosts put it
… the 'mother of all service interruptions.' "
He chuckled again, though Rudi couldn't see why; but the young clansman knew a man in touch with the Otherworld when he saw one, he who'd grown up in Juniper Mackenzie's household. It took some this way, a bubbling current of joy.
"And the people here turned to you for wisdom after the Change?" Rudi said.
Certainly the ones I've seen are happy with their arrangements, the which would be unlikely if you were a bad man, to be sure. Also I still have some confidence in my judgment, despite Picabo.
"That most of us grew up scratching a living out of highland farms was more useful at first!" Dorje said. "And that hardship was nothing new to us. There were even yaks here! The Ranchers found our help useful, when their machines died, and many of the people here were tourists from the cities, or those who made their livings by serving them, and they were utterly lost. We helped as we could, and one thing led to another."
Rudi nodded. He'd seen before that… unusual folk had often had an advantage after the Change; his mother and her coven and friends not least.
"I have heard a little of your mother, the Juniper Lady," Dorje said. "Before the Change I studied your Old Religion somewhat. It, ah, borrowed much from ours, and from the Hindus in the land where the Way was first preached."
"Meaning Gardner stole your doctrines like a bandit loose in a treasure house," Rudi said cheerfully; Juniper Mackenzie tended to shock her co-religionists with her frank assessment of the origins of their faith. "And from many others!"
Dorje made a tsk sound. "To say that you stole would imply that we owned the truths of the Way!" he said. "But the reverse is the case, if anything. Let the truths that Gautama Buddha first sought go forth and lead those who hear them towards the Buddha nature that all carry within, however they call it."
Rudi nodded; that was enough like his own faith's teaching of many paths to the same goal that he was easy with it. Then he smiled wryly, thinking of things he'd heard from Matti and her countrymen.
"You'll find Christians a little more proprietary about their doctrines, I think."
Dorje laughed. "Your Father Ignatius has been extremely polite," he said. "There is a young man earnest in his search for virtue, I think. Indeed, the greatest threat he will face is his own virtue, lest he become too much in love with it. He and the others have told me much of your journey and its purpose, and its enemies. We here have been troubled by the Cutter cult as well."
He looked up towards the eastern peaks. "That something extraordinary occurred on Nantucket has long been rumored. Fascinating!"
"It's more than that," Rudi said grimly. "The gods are taking a hand in these matters. Ah… I'm not sure how to put that-"
Dorje shrugged, in a ma
"Are you familiar with the word Bodhisattva? No? These are beings who have achieved enlightenment, and with it great powers, but who from compassion for those still mired in illusion return to help them."
He indicated the statue. "That is an image of Chenrezi, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Who may be viewed as a god, an aspect of the Buddha nature, a personified idea, or a focus for meditation… and all these are true. This"-he pointed to a painting on the wall behind them, of a man with one hand held up in the stop gesture and the other bestowing a blessing-"is Amitabha, the Buddha of Pure Light, who dwells in the West and is of the element of Fire, and assists in overcoming fear."
"Ah… immortal, powerful beings who concern themselves with humanity, and I suppose the other kindreds… animals, the world in general… well, sure, and that sounds a good deal like a god to me!"
Dorje nodded. "We should not split hairs over definitions and forms of words."
Then he chanted, in a high reedy voice:
"If the causes are fully ripened,
Buddhas will appear there and then
In accordance with the needs of the disciples.
The place and the time."
Then he laughed, gleeful as a boy, and clapped his hands together: "But we do split hairs! We do! We split hairs so finely that often there is no hair, only the split! It is… what was the expression
… a professional deformation of monks."
Rudi nodded, gathering his strength. I'm as weak as a child, he thought. Worse! I had energy enough for two as a child, or so they tell me. Now I'm tired just from thinking.
"Then what of devils?" he said aloud. "For I've met… things, forces… on this journey which I'd call by that name, sure."
"Oh, yes," the abbot said.
The glee leached out of his face, and he looked truly old for an instant.
"In the time of the Great Leap, when hunger turned good neighbors into worse than beasts, and later when the Red Guards came to burn our scrolls… then I saw how men could become devils and torment one another. If mere men can do such great evil, how much worse are those with greater powers and insight, when they turn to doing devil's work?"
The black eyes held his, and the monk's voice went on softly:
"And only he who has by hard work conquered the devil in himself knows what a devil is, and what a devil he himself might be, and what an army for the devils' use are those who think that devils are delusion."
"No!" Master Hao said.
Edain wheezed fury at him from the ground where his shoulders had struck. The monk was at least thirty years older than the Mackenzie clansman, but he looked perfectly comfortable in his loose trousers and singlet, and even more comfortable within his skin. Edain and he were both of medium height, but Hao lacked the younger man's thick shoulders and arms; he was like a stripped-down anatomical diagram of a fighting man, with every muscle showing like a flat band of living oak under his ivory-colored skin. It lacked the ruddy-brown tint of the Rimpoche 's face, and there was a subtle difference in the facial structure; Rudi had the impression they came from different countries.
"No, you are fighting from anger!" Hao barked at Edain.
"When I'm trying to kill someone, now wouldn't it be strange if I weren't angry with the bastard?"
Rudi had been doing a slow, gentle series of exercises with a light fighting staff; today was the first he'd been able to do even that. The indoor practice hall was very much like a barn-from the smell, he thought it probably did duty as one from time to time-but the board walls broke the force of the wind, and the dirt floor gave good footing and was passable for falling. His right shoulder twinged again, and he let the end of the quarterstaff fall so that he could lean on it, gripping with his left hand.
"If you wish to defeat your enemy, you must first defeat yourself. Defeat your anger, defeat your hate, defeat your self. Then your moves will be pure… and you will win. Direct your chi energy; it is more important than your fists or your feet. You already have good technique, you are strong and fearless and young, yet this ski
"Why didn't you say so, Master Hao? If that's what it takes to boot some head, sure and I'll do it."
He's saying he's so angry he'll overcome anger, Rudi thought. My friend, I think in this case my mother would say your head is not firmly wired to your arse!