THE KOANS OF THE SILVER MASTER I: On Balance Two novices were discussing which should guide the enlightened more in their interactions with others, Ashla or Boghan. The Master heard their discussion. To them the Master said, "Learn balance before you teach balance." A novice asked of the Master, "Is it right for us to kill?" And the Master said, "Who would you seek to kill? Who is your enemy? What have they done? Why would you kill them? If you know the answers to these questions, then, no, it is not right." The novice pressed further, asking, "Is it permissible to kill to survive?" The Master replied, "Sustenance, safety, friends: these are what you need to survive in the universe." The novice asked, "Is it permissible to kill to bring about balance?" The Master answered, "Revenge is not balance." The Master and his novice were walking along a road when they espied a darksider about to slay a peasant woman. The Master defeated the darksider and killed him. The novice asked, "In the grand scheme of things, with the Light being so strong in the Galaxy, would it not have served to balance things more if he was allowed to continue?" The Master replied, "Her universe was not being balanced." A novice was on a narrow bench, cleaning a wall, when he bemoaned that he was not learning balance. The Master overheard, and kicked one set of legs from the bench. The bench toppled, but the student remained standing and was enlightened. A Senator was visiting the place where the Master was, and the novices were open in their greetings of her, welcoming her and offering her food and drink after her journey. They entreated the Master to help them entertain their guest. The Master replied, "Balance must come from within, not without." The Master once said, "Ashla is Boghan and Boghan is Ashla. Do not get the two confused." The Master also said, "Fire burns. Night chills. And you are never really comfortable in either." The Master said further, "We all walk the Sabre's Edge." II: On the Dark Side A novice asked the Master, "What role do darksiders play?" to which the Master replied, "Destruction, chaos, confusion, fear; and growth from overcoming same. These do not exist in a vacuum." The novice then asked: "Why should we tolerate darksiders if they cause pain and death?" And the Master replied: "Who said we tolerate them?" Once again, the novice pressed the Master, asking, "Should we suffer what darksiders do without struggling to overcome their works?" The Master replied: "Balance is always a struggle." The Master was asked, "Is there too much light in the universe?" The reply was, "There is too much darkness, as well." A novice approached the Master one day. "Master," she asked, "are we to be embodiments of the Dark Side if the Light threatens to overwhelm?" The Master replied, "Night does not balance day. Twilight balances each of them." A darksider approached the Master once, seeking understanding. "Is the only difference between you and I a matter of motivation?" Thus replied the Master: "Isn't that enough?" The darksider posited a scenario to the Master: "If the Jedi come to you and say you are a heretic and are to be arrested, would you surrender to them, or would you fight them?" The Master replied: "I would not be there for them to arrest me or to fight." The darksider asked of the Master, "Would you destroy something or someone that was causing great harm?" The Master replied: "I do not destroy. I preserve." The darksider exclaimed, "What arrogance you have to say that you are above your own desires!" The Master laughed and said, "I am above nothing about myself." The darksider questioned the Master further, asking, "You do not deny that the darkside causes needed conflict for the lightside, allowing growth?" The Master replied: "This is growth: to gain understanding of one's self towards the goal of becoming balanced, thence to aid others in likewise becoming balanced." The darksider asked, "Do you admit that the dark is as neccessary as the light?" The Master said, "You fail to understand me; I said that struggle against the dark is as neccessary as the light." III: On the Light Side A novice wailed, "Master, the Jedi are so strong, the Light Side is so powerful! How can we bring balance to the galaxy?" The Master smiled and said nothing. "Tell us, Master," a novice said, "if we are to always be kind and considerate to others, does that not make us servants of Ashla, and like unto the Jedi?" The Master replied, "We are who we need to be, when we need to." The novices approached the Master, and asked what they should do now that the Jedi were dominant. The Master replied, "You do not try to fight fire with ice." A novice proclaimed once, "We are viewed with suspicion and distrust. I will go out into the galaxy and do good works and show that we are good people." The Master replied, "Be a mirror, not a beacon." In a city once, the Master and his novice witnessed a Jedi speaking to a crowd, extolling the virtues of the Light. The Master snorted and walked away. The novice asked, "Why did you leave? The Jedi was not lying in any of his words." The Master replied, "But part of the Truth is no Truth at all." The Master was once asked why the Light must be so dominant in the galaxy. The Master replied thusly: "Fire gives us warmth, cooks our food, and staves off the encroaching night. We cleave to the fire for these reasons. We cleave so closely we are either burned or cannot imagine a life without it." A Jedi once approached the Master, entreating his aid against a darksider who was terrorizing the lands. The Master readily agreed. The novices came to the Master, saying, "Master, Master, why are you helping the Jedi?" "I am not helping the Jedi; I am helping those who are being denied their futures." A darksider later approached the Master, asking for his aid in destroying a Jedi master who had wronged him. The Master refused and turned away the darksider. The novices approached the Master, saying, "Master, Master, would it not have balanced the universe to have destroyed the Jedi?" "It would have served no purpose than to feed that fool darksider's thirst for revenge. Balance was not his goal." A Jedi approached the Master once, seeking understanding. "How can you justify deeds which cause pain and suffering in others?" The Master replied, "We do not grow without suffering." The Jedi asked of the Master, "Where is the line between neccessary and needless suffering?" In answer, the Master said, "We do not learn if we are dead. Neither do we learn if we are deaf to the words being spoken to us." The Jedi said, "What is balance for me as a servant of the Light?" "Balance is not what you seek. For you it is accepting that destruction is a part of the universe." The Jedi exclaimed, "Why must there be destruction, endless destruction?" The Master replied: "Imagine if there was creation, endless creation!" IV: On the Gray Path A novice asked if the Master would become sublimated into the Force upon their death, as Jedi masters sometimes did. The Master gnashed their teeth and said, "Is it not enough that I do the work I can in the waking world?" "Why must we be persecuted for our beliefs? Is not the Gray Path alone difficult enough?" The Master said, "Persecution is not a part of the Gray Path. It is a part of the paths that others walk." A novice once asked the Master, "What does it mean to be balanced in the Force?" The Master replied, "To be in balance is to know yourself thoroughly and without shame." The Master was asked, "Can we not find anything to be proud of on the Gray Path?" Thus replied the Master: "You are not looking hard enough." Two novices were arguing about what a traveler upon the Gray Path could do to bring balance to the universe, and could not agree. They approached the Master. "Which is the proper role for a walker of the Gray Path, Master?" they asked. "Teacher, or soldier, or leader?" "Yes." The Master said, "Teach by your motivations. If you cannot teach by your motivations, teach by your deeds. If you cannot teach by your deeds, teach by your hopes." V: On Preservation as the Gray Path The Master once said to a novice, "Destroy what needs destroying. Create what needs creating. Preserve what needs preserving. Of these, preservation requires the most thought." A novice asked of the Master once, "What does it mean to preserve?" The Master replied, "A beam of rotten wood can support only so much weight before it collapses and brings the house down with it." Another novice asked of the Master the same question. The Master replied, "If no children are born, how is the colony to grow?" A third novice asked the Master why the novices had been given two different answers to the same question. The Master replied, "I gave the same answer. You only heard two different answers." "Master, when are we to know when to create and when to destroy in pursuit of preservation?" The Master looked askance at the novice, and said, "You do neither; you preserve." The Master once said, "The sick body does not last long without treatment." A seeker of knowledge sought out the Master, and asked, "How am I to know when preservation calls for destruction, and when preservation calls for creation?" The Master shook his head. "Preservation is preservation. It is neither creation nor destruction. It is something special." The Master lamented, "Who lives? Who dies? Ask yourself first what within you should live and what within you should die, before you take up the shard-sword against another." A novice sat in meditation for a day and a night, but could find no answer to his question. He approached the Master, and said, "I am lost, Master. I wish to go forth and stymie the bright dominance of the Light, promote the nighttime conflict of the Dark. And yet how can I take away the warmth of the light from others who have done no crime? How can I visit pain and chaos upon those who have done no wrong?" The Master smiled. "You do not cast aside a crown if one jewel is flawed. You seek to have the jewel replaced by a flawless one." The Master once mused, "Wondrous it would be if the Light learned how to destroy, or the Dark how to create. Surely on that day they would both learn balance, as well." A novice crept up to the Master once and asked, "Must we kill to preserve something good?" The Master replied, "There are always options. One may as well ask, 'Must we procreate to annul something bad?'"