EVE Fiction

Disclaimer: this is my hobby. I am not a properly-trained philosopher, monk, or religious scholar of any faith. My understanding is limited, and what I say here, particularly comparison of my little creation with real-world faiths, is subject to change in the event that I am astoundingly wrong.

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Introduction

Achura Shuijing, or "Crystal," is an Achur sect, one of a great many. The "Shuijing" aspect comes from a Chinese word, meaning a crystal suitable for jewelry. The sect is unsentimental in its view of the supernatural, and openly regards stories about gods, spirits, and similar religiously-significant beings as teaching tools containing no literal truth. Its focus is set firmly on the "real": that is, the universe itself.

This focus on the universe, or a universal consciousness, is common to many Achur sects, but the Crystal sect takes this to an extreme, proclaiming that the universe, or Totality, is not only the central feature of existence, but is the only "thing" that really exists at all. It offers freedom from suffering through learning to perceive, and to accept unity with, the Totality.


Basic Precepts

The "Crystal" sect looks on all of reality, defined as broadly as possible, as a single, seamless whole. Initiates are taught that the "self" is an illusion, as are all borders and divisions: artifacts of the mind. The sect looks on death as the ending of the illusion of "self" (the artificial construct that is "self" simply dissolves back into the Totality), and consequently lacks belief in an afterlife.

This puts an interesting spin on the sect's understanding of the soul. According to Shuijing doctrine, there is no separate "soul" as a spirit or similar entity inhabiting a higher plane of being. However, the soul is nevertheless very important to the sect: the "soul" is defined as a person's higher self-- not the illusory "self" people think of themselves as being, but the holistic total of all that a person is. That includes the physical presence and the mind behind it, but also any and all influences that person has on the surrounding universe.

Yes, all influences, physical, mental, social, emotional, legal, and so on. If you can name a category where one person has acted on another (or an animal, or a plant, or a rock; the sect's teachings don't see any difference), it is part of that person's soul.

On the highest level, the soul is all you are, have been, or will ever be. To perceive your own soul is to see the Totality, and your place in it.

Most Shuijing practices are aimed at revealing illusions and breaking past them to reveal the underlying holistic reality. Any practitioner will happily admit that actually doing so is amazingly difficult, and many complain of the ever-increasing difficulty of trying to get disciples' minds focused on ultimate reality when the number of illusory "things" to distract them only seems to grow.

Practices used to "pierce the veils" include:

* Meditation - altered states of mind are almost universally used by lay practitioners and monks alike. The "self" is not easy to get past, but it can be made to go away for a while, leading to remarkable clarity (and clarity is what the sect is all about).

* Martial arts - commonly used, especially by monks, to attempt unity of mind, body, and soul. The goal is to develop action not only to the point where body and will function as one, but where action occurs without the slightest thought.

* Koans - Zen riddles. These are used, among other things, to point up the absurdity of taking the worlds of language and symbol-driven understanding as "real." I will discuss the distinction between Zen and Shuijing below.

* Storytelling - as in most faiths, the Crystal sect hath its scriptures. An interesting twist (which Shuijing does have in common with Zen) is that agreeing directly with the scriptures, or quoting them for truth, is a major faux pas for a monk (though it is acceptable for lay practitioners, whose lesser understanding is accepted). The truths that the Crystal sect seeks to reveal cannot be communicated fully through words, cannot be written down, and consequently are not found in the scriptures (though they might possibly be found near them).


The Crystal and the Tao

Taoism, as a faith, puts forth the idea that, at its base, the universe is made up of a single force or energy, the Tao. The Tao, then, is divided into yin and yang, which, in turn, subdivide into the basic components of all that is. It is important to note that this duality is not "good and evil;" it's closer to "light and heavy": Taoism is morally relativistic, agnostic as to whether even death is "bad."

Achura Shuijing owes a lot to Taoist thought, but there's one major distinction: Taoism accepts this division of the Tao into the people and objects of the universe as we know it as real. The Crystal sect considers these divisions to be purely illusory: there are no "things"; there is only the single, seamless Tao, or, as the Crystal sect would put it, the Totality.


The Crystal and Zen

My design for Achura Shuijing owes a lot to Zen, particularly the bits dealing with illusion (which is an awful, awful lot). However, there is one major distinction.

Zen Buddhism, though strongly flavored with Taoism, remains a Buddhist faith: it views the world as fundamentally illusory. Achura Shuijing accepts that the world is real, but proclaims that nothing else is.

Thus, while Zen is Buddhism influenced by Taoism, Achura Shuijing is more like Taoism influenced by Zen.

I thought I'd contribute by writing some IC fiction utilising some of your ideas. A sort of RP related segue near and at a monastery on Achura done through a set of personal holovid recordings. Still getting used to the PF so point out any mistakes :)

Images from a ship's camera drone glide through an endless stream of rolling clouds as a woman softly narrates, wrapped in a cultivated melancholy;

"Achura." She pauses, "Home. A sanctuary, a refuge."

The cloud cover is broken through to reveal a lush mountainous region through droplets snared by the lens. An intricate collection of colourful, yet simply built religious buildings dot the landscape. Some are cut into the rockface, conglomerations of training rooms, temples and foodhalls; some are strewn across the valley of Kresh trees, simple shrines intended for pilgrims and solitary meditation.

From the air, rows of monks are seen practicing martial arts in the forums with perfect synchronicity. The recording hard cuts to a very still Achur woman in her late 20s staring somberly into the lens, behind her a bright morning, overexposed through an open window.

She starts suddenly, "I'm on the outskirts of the Vihara, still in Suohon province away from..." she glances away as the sound of children playing in the streets comes ringing through the sunshine and a murmur of clattering pots and pans from elsewhere, "the city." A sudden burst of determinism comes across her face as she fires up a series of weightless biometrics; electroencephalograms like bolts fizzling through the air, neuroimaging like the tendrils of galaxies casting firelight in her eyes,

"Coming up to ten thousand days, PNS, motor neuron stabilisation succeeding through sim'n'stim; all dopaminergic pathways still unresponsive to treatment, associated foci negative point two percent by density since," she wills a table of values and chemical compounds into ephemeral being, "dosage doubled," a disappointed sigh, "double again, Kuvakai procurement funding... cancel clone insurance." She pauses staring through a slowly spinning brain straight into the lens, one eyelid waning through insomnia.

A wind chime faintly responds to the world.

"Come down to the kitchen, " a woman's voice lilts from off camera, "we've got so much to make before the festival -" the voice fades away complaining amongst a hubbub of activity.

After a moment's pause the recording cuts again. This time the camera drone can be heard protesting against someone's grip as a shaky view of a kitchen and a forest of legs in a frenzy of activity. Juicy sizzling, oozed popping from massive pots boiling over, rhythmic taps of fleshy vegetables being cut like a master gunner, the clattering of metallic utensils and the military-like organisation of shouted orders coats a din of giddy conversation between a hive of excited voices.

"Put that away, and make yourself useful." a pair of legs and apron chastises.

A little girl protests in a whine of disappointment, mimicking the camera drone straining against her grip. She shakes the camera away from the dominant figure and runs to look up at a friendlier adult busy chopping ingredients, "Can I make my film now, aunty Telsa?"

She doesn't look away from her culinary duties, sniffing and eye's burning, she simply nods. Immediately, with an excited huff and a barely contained squeal, the camera darts through the waist high throng only to be stopped by the apron, "Then go find that lazy Raatha, tell'm to leave those implants alone..." The little girl takes her chance and darts past the imposing figure, "... and tell him to get back to work or I'm coming round to clobber him myself!"

Racing through modest, and ancient streets, weathered but proudly maintained buildings charged with droves of busy people flash by. Garlands of yellow and red, flourishes of intricately patterned walls and streets, quietly buzzing carts levitate mounted by a smorgasbord of foodstuffs, an almost chain-gang of workers washing and drying linen of pure white. Breathlessly, the intrepid film maker shoots towards an open forum of mechanical junk and piles of boxes labelled Kaalakiota. A group of boys are playing a bat and ball game in a makeshift pitch lined with strategically placed junk. "I got the camera!" screeches the young girl as she sails past them interrupting a pitch.

The boys stop their game, complaining of the interruption. She jumps atop a hull part and looks back at them from the vantage point.

"So what Yona?" says one of the boys, obviously playing it cool. Another approaches, "Let me see that."

"No. I'm the director." She zooms into the first boy, "Aiko, I sent you the script. You read it, right?"

Aiko, swings his bat around, "Whatever," his eyes flash towards someone else, obviously peacocking.

"You promised!" exclaimed Yona whilst another of the boys hurls a ball knocking over an engine part to the cheers of half the gang.

"Oi! Raatha's gonna kill me if you break that," the camera pans to a teenage girl sat cross-legged on another platform, "get out of my face!"

Yona scrambles the camera off to one side as a gruff male voice responds off camera, "Break what?"

The camera points towards one of the boys as Yona's distracted, "Ma says to get to work, and leave the implants alone and..." The boy eyes the drone as he creeps up slowly, "she says she's going to clobber ya!"

Snatch! A flurry of blurred faces and excited shouting ensues before the recording cuts again;

"Jaak steps up to the mark," Aiko commentates over a batsman of no more than 13 readying his swing, "playing for a six, the tension mounts as he knows this is going to either lose us the match or take us to glory!"

"Shut up," hisses the batsman. Aiko pans over a sour faced Yona with her arms crossed towards the pitcher lining himself up for a precision strike, "Ma'ik, the record breaker for girliest throws" he comments in a hush.
CONTINUED.