Epistle Of The Disciple: On The Self

[MRCHENN 3682]

 

 

EPISTLE OF 

The Disciple

 

ON THE SELF

 

 

Spoiler

Poem inspiration taken from Kahlil Gibran.

 

A pupil approached a monastery, querying his master in front of a crowd. “How must I gain knowledge of my self?”

 

The monastic laughs. “The day and night passes as our heart tethers to the truths of the world, listening silently.”

 

“Then what is knowledge of me? How must I find what my heart bears.”

 

“An apple changes skin, but does it change composition? No! You have known these truths in thought, but not by word. The sun rises and greets the land. Similarly, the jubilation of your soul rises to walk a path. When you find self, the treasures of infinite will glimmer before your eyes. But it will have no weight, no value, nothing."

 

“Then why?” The student complained.

 

“If this treasure has no weight, then your knowledge must have no doubt. Seek not depth of knowledge - the self is the infinite bound just as the sea does not end. It cannot be measured. The soul walks on all. is not constrained to one. It does not grow straight, nor walk forward. If the soul is the self, then it grows as a blossom.”

 

“So what have you understood? The teacher asks the student.

 

“Nothing at all, sir.” He whines.

 

“Good. For there is no answer.”

 

WHAT IS SELF?

 

The prince amongst lords queried this to me, but so did Helinathe, the fallen. When she imposed this to me, I had no answer. She sunk my head into the water every time, and since then, I have found contemplation ever since.

 

From the beginning of Man, we have been cursed by this question of ridicule. It pervades our thought, trailing us relentlessly as does a shadow. Who are we? What is our meaning?

 

When a man changes a robe, does that robe characterize him, or change his self: who he is? Of course not -- then similarly, are we constrained to our mortal descriptors? What are we if merely beyond them. If I renamed myself, and altered my features, does that change my self? Is there is something…. Beyond these things? We are the amalgam of our descriptions, and our experiences.

 

Yet, we are each born with a name, endowed with a legacy upon our shoulders. Even if I am changed, will this identity not always influence me? My students, I have given you both truth and a lie. I ask of you an answer, but there is none. Nonetheless, how can we construe an abstract matter as the self to a mere definition? We cannot. Whether you act as if these mortal descriptors fail to define you, or be it they do, that is for you to find. Beauty lies in nothingness, there is no answer.

 

If Creation is our bliss, then ascension is our elation. We are crafted not as replications, but ordained as innate beings each with our own self. When God endowed the King of the Mountain, the Firstborn, with this tract -- lied within it was the creation of self. This self does not cease upon ascension, it is warped. It is constant. It is beautiful.