Motherheart Dragon Priest

Chapter 10h - Port in a Storm

From the depth of dream awareness Laughing Moon roused himself rising through his images like a swimmer coming slowly to the surface of a deep pool, to find himself back in the present. An ochre clad figure wet from the spray of the boat.

His Dragon Pearl meditation had been so intense that whenever he immersed himself in the memories of it all other thoughts and memories seemed to cease and oft the whole daydream and memory occurred within seconds of his waking time.

The boat was being drawn up alongside the dock.

White Bear yelled instructions and the boat’s crew shipped their oars with cheers and laughter. The sails were furled and they made ready to have their cargo of spices, cloth and trade goods inspected by the harbour masters. The crew would then haul the ship up onto the slips, have her inspected and clean off the accumulated sea growths; then they could procedd onto Draognharbour and its markets.

Many of the crew had been at sea for months on this journey which had not only dropped Moon off and picked him up from Acolyte Island, but taken the crew north to the home islands of Jomon. He’d heard their tales and boasting of outrunning Javan pirates, of swindling Han merchants, and of the wimyn they had met in every port.

Moon shook his head and looked at the other end of the ship to where the two priestesses were readying their baskets for unloading. The change in them was as miraculous as it always was after an acolyte’s realisation of true self. Once committed to the Temple one was always committed.

Some though resisted more, and the resistance was all the stronger the closer they came to the final dissolution of their old selves and the birth of the new acolyte living in the full flow of their Dao. These two priestesses though had shaken the Temple to its foundation, so to speak. They had learnt everything given to them and excelled in it all.

Yet the more they learnt the greater their resistance to the ultimate, the final step. As always, it is not till you have entered the Doorless Halls of the Enlightened that you see the utter futility of your resistance. Moon’s resistance had been nearly as great as these two, which is why he was now so skilled at assisting others in their process of dissolving their walls to the Doorless Hall.

Laughing Moon shrugged at the thought for the Doorless Hall of Enlightened Being as the ultimate in unanswerable questions. The question which can never be understood, only experienced; and in the experiencing comes the opening of enlightenment. Each acolyte can come to the walls of the castle of being only in their own time and only in their own way. Some as warriors, some as crafters, some as healers.

Some on their own, some in pairs and on this occasion as three. Moon had experienced his first enlightenment years before in a solitary form. Assistance had been there for him if required but he had entered the Doorless Hall of Enlightenment through his own preparedness to surrender completely. For these two acolytes though, they had laid siege to the Doorless Hall and closed their minds to all advice.

And so Moon had arrived in their camp and slowly sabotaged their siege. When the two Poisoned Dragon acolytes finally realised and moved to overcome the saboteur it was too late and their altered focus left them prepared for the dissolving of their walls. Moon had only then to direct their attention to what had happened and their realisation was instantaneous.

Moon smiled softly to himself, hoisted his baskets and made his way aft to where the two Priestesses waited. He did not need to meet their eyes, he felt their presence and they fell in behind him. He was now their Sifu, their immediate teacher of the path, and naturally was so because of his presence and assistance.

The old Jomon captain, White Bear, scratched his head. He had taken all of them to the island and now returned them for their journey to the Naked Heart of the Mother. He could see the change wrought in each of them. Little wonder that the island was known as the Furnace of the Soul. For there the raw material was wrought into the sacred metal.

“A true Dragon Master this one”, he said to himself and then called out as the three set foot on the dock, “Laughing Moon, this boat is yours, when will you need us again?”

Moon stopped and turned, and he gave the Warrior’s reply, “White Bear, my arm is yours, when will you need me?”

The Jomon roared with laughter, “I stay till after this season’s rains have ceased, then I’ll see what cargo comes my way. I have family in the mountains there, a few weeks will see us tire of each other’s company. With all these vessels in port a cargo will be easy.”

“Then I will see you here at the first full moon of the dry season, we shall see which way the winds carry us.” White Bear placed his right hand over his heart in salute to him and as Moon turned he saw Shining Eyes and Joyous Laugh as they now called themselves, glance at each other.

Eyes spoke first, “If all is well with us and the Temple, could we share your journeying, Master?”

“And I thought you two shunned attachment”, he laughed. “If our Dao is still shared then far be it for me to stand between two priestesses and their Dao!”

They laughed together good naturedly and, hoisting their respective loads, walked down the dock through the crowds towards the lodgings maintained at Dragonharbour Temple.