pt.3: ON PHILOSOPHY (TRAINING FOR DEATH)

THE PLAYERS AND THEIR ARGUMENTS

Together we arrive at this vast void

that is both dark and light

of the living and undead

whereupon we came to a great chamber

like a royal hall, the walls could not be seen

and for as far as the eye could see of the unending expanse

bare empty nothing across the ground, met the horizon

so sat giant, luminous beings, opposing one another

with voices that seemed to be deistic in themselves.

So, we approach, hand in hand, yours in mine

until upon these great beings, souls with no sex or gender

unburdened by their mortal coils

yet shackled by their mental troubles.

And so, Confucius said: Your life is what your thoughts make it

for life is but a simple thing That we insist on making complicated

And so, we all have two lives With the second only beginning

when we come to realize that we only ever have one

It is in this way that everything has beauty

but not everyone sees it Just as real wisdom

comes not from knowledge But by knowing the extent of

one’s own ignorance

Thus, it can be said that our greatest glory is not in never failing

but in rising every time we fall Just as beauty is power

and a smile is its sword For it is easy to hate

and it is difficult to love This is how the whole scheme

of life works All good things are difficult to achieve

and bad things are contrarily very easy to get

Therefore, I recommend you skim those you party with

as silence is a true friend that never betrays

while man is fickle, foolish, and frail

Just as the man who says he can

and the man he says he can’t Are both correct

and the man who asks a question is a fool for a minute

While the man who does not ask is a fool for life

For Heaven sends down its good or evil symbols

and wise men act accordingly

of all that Heaven produces or nourishes

there is none so great as man Who is bound

by life and death Death and life have

their determined appointments Riches and honours

depend on Heaven and Heaven, means to be one with God

but always remember: I am a transmitter who invented nothing