Part 9 – Eternal Return

Part 9 – Eternal Return

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandela (1918 - ), 'A Long Walk to Freedom'

Tashiki and Qindao met at the front gates for the School. They took a moment and sheepishly gave each other a big hug.

"It's been too long, my friend," started Tashiki.

Qindao felt the same. "It has."

They walked together through the gates back onto the grounds of the School. They were too late in the day for Morning Meditations. If they stayed late enough they may participate in the Evening Lesson, but they had not yet decided.

Together they walked through the Grounds. They greeted and were greeted by the other students whom they had not seen for so long. It felt home, it felt good. They both took into themselves a sense of place and satisfaction, wonder and humility, power and grace, that they had both lost since their last visit to the School.

They came to the Water Garden and found a place on a bench.

The Master had guided the Students well in the upkeep of the Garden. The bench had been made of a large Birch that fallen in the Garden some time ago. The students had to cut it into usable pieces, age and cure the wood, then finally figure out what to do with it. They chose a design that allowed for the natural flow of the wood to support itself and create a bench.

They had done well.

The Water Garden may be the most wild and seemingly unkempt portion of the Grounds. It wraps around above the Rock Garden and features a stream that flows from the Flower Garden above to the Koi Pond below. In the center it has its own pond. Ducks and other water birds gather there. The local animals feed and drink here.

The Master had installed a Deer Stick in this Garden. The traditional design is a hollowed out bamboo shoot that will collect water in itself until it overcomes the balance. It tips forward, empties all its water, and falls back on its sealed end again making a "thud" loud enough to scare off the deer.

The Students ask why the other animals were welcome, but not the deer. The Master, uncharacteristically ungracious, noted that the "damn deer" ate all the plants and damaged the trees.

"They can come back," he said, "when they are old enough not to be scared by the bamboo stick. That's when they know better than to eat everything in sight."

There are few deer in the Garden. But some.

"What brought you back, Tashiki?"

"Unfinished business."

Silence. Both. Mutual acknowledgment and understanding of the reasons they were both back.

One of the new students approached them. He called himself "Bento". He had not been with the school long enough yet for a better School Name to be found.

"We missed you," he said. "The Master told us you would be back when you are ready."

Tashiki and Qindao sheepishly grinned. They knew that was right, it always had been right, and always will be right.

"We had things we needed to do," Tashiki offered.

"That's kind of a bullshit answer, Tashiki-san, if I may say so."

Qindao burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I suppose it is."

Bento had taken a seat on the rocks in front of them. Tashiki and Qindao realized they had unwittingly placed themselves in the position of Teacher.

The three sat for a wile longer and listened to the running water. Students in the other Gardens laughed, argued, sang, made noises that floated up through the trees. All the sounds mix together into a babble that resembles the water flowing over the rocks out of the pond.

"Bento," Qindao started, "You will come to love the School as much as you know we do. But this is not reality. The Master demands a lot of us while we are in here with him. We tend the gardens, we participate in the Meditations and Lessons. You will have a time when he starts to press you on what you do outside of this place. He will, somehow, coerce a number of you to gather socially outside of the School. Then, he will FIND you out there. We still do not know how he does it.

"The Master did not tell us to go away. He barely acknowledged that we were gone, nor barely welcomed us back into the School. He knew, and so did we, that some time in the real world, and in the world that ultimately supports us with a living, a community, a source for our investigations, and a place to pursue our craft, is every bit as important as being in here."

"We go," finished Qindao, "because we must. We return because we desire."

Thus endeth the lesson, let us meditate upon it.

My Old School by Steely Dan
Songwriters: BECKER, WALTER CARL / FAGEN, DONALD JAY

I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes

When you put me on the Wolverine

Up to Annandale

It was still September

When your daddy was quite surprised

To find you with the working girls

In the county jail

I was smoking with the boys upstairs

When I heard about the whole affair

I said oh no

William and Mary won't do

Well I did not think the girl

Could be so cruel

And I'm never going back

To my old school

Oleanders growing outside her door

Soon they're gonna be in bloom

Up in Annandale

I can't stand her

Doing what she did before

Living like a gypsy queen

In a fairy tale

Well I hear the whistle but I can't go

I'm gonna take her down to Mexico

She said oh no

Guadalajara won't do

Well I did not think the girl

Could be so cruel

And I'm never going back

To my old school

California tumbles into the sea

That'll be the day I go

Back to Annandale

Tried to warn you

About Chino and Daddy Gee

But I can't seem to get to you

Through the U.S. Mail

Well I hear the whistle but I can't go

I'm gonna take her down to Mexico

She said oh no

Guadalajara won't do

Well I did not think the girl

Could be so cruel

And I'm never going back

To my old school