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Eight Will Tarry, Two From Each Age, Twins, Lovers, Enemies, And They Shall Know the True Death of Eternity Without God
The players represent Those Who Tarry at the Door, eight bodhisattvas who have chosen to remain behind in the world of suffering. The cusp of the Age-To-Come, the Fifth Age, is at hand and all souls who have already realized their buddha-nature have proceeded to the Pure Land in preparation for the Great Blossoming. Even the other bodhisattvas -- Avalokiteśvara, Ksitigarbha, Mahasthamaprapta, and the rest -- have all proceeded on, as all souls that will attain the Bodhi have done so.
However, hidden within the past world, the world of suffering, are eight souls that have been there from the very beginning. These eight souls are known as Those Who Come in the Night and the eight bodhisattvas have returned to unmask them. These eight masked souls will eventually come forward, step through the door, and close it behind them. And then the Age-To-Come will have come. But Those Who Tarry at the Door will not be there to see it. They will perish with the rest of the imperfect world. However, without the sacrifice made by Those Who Tarry at the Door, Those Who Come in the Night will never step forward, and the Age-To-Come will not come.
Each of Those Who Tarry embodies two elements whose dynamic tension is the core of their being and their purpose. It is these elements which lead them to the souls they seek, for their fate is irrevocably bound together with Those Who Come. The eight bodhisattvas will recognize their successors by the essential similarity between their own experiences and that of the souls they are looking for. The elements of Those Who Tarry at the Door are:
- Wind & Horse (The Traveler)
- Blade & Flesh (The Butcher)
- Temperance & Fire (The Blacksmith)
- Vine & Flower (The Gardener)
- Heart & Ribbon (The Dancer)
- Throat & Music (The Songbird)
- Death & Ocean (The Corsair)
- Light & Paper (The Lamplighter)
Each of Those Who Tarry, and their experiences, are a product of the Age during which they attained full awareness and made the Bodhissatva Vow. While they have reincarned many times since then, all bodhisattva retain a strong familiarity with their last unintentional incarnation. Each Age produced two souls who would go on to become Those Who Tarry, as follows:
- The Traveler (Dreams)
- The Butcher (Stories)
- The Blacksmith (Histories)
- The Gardener (Memories)
- The Dancer (Dreams)
- The Songbird (Stories)
- The Corsair (Histories)
- The Lamplighter (Memories)
On the Mandala of Possibilities, the bodhisattvas are numbered from 1-4 (representing the Four Ages) in the Kannada alphabet of Southern India. One is the yoke, two is the wave, three is the wind, and four is the cow.
Entry: When The Forms Exhaust Their Variety
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• Page 4 of 4 • 1, 2, 3, 4
by jwalton » Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:30 pm
More. I'm still trying to overcome being sick, but I'll do my best to make sure this is finished on time:
Let Us Not Hear of Misdirection and Vain Searching, But Only of the Path to the Truth and the Future
For certain, Those Who Tarry at the Door are not perfect or infallible. Being enlightened does not prevent them from spending much of their time chasing souls who will not end up being relevant to their search. However, those futile attempts are not what this game is about. Like a good police drama, if a piece of evidence emerges in play, you can be certain that it will somehow matter to the final outcome, even if it is in a way that few would expect. This is not a game about how the bodhisattvas overcome failure after failure to find Those Who Come in the Night. Instead, it is a game about the true results of their searching, about how they will, in the end, find who they were looking for.
Not Only the Night Visitors, But Demons Shall Also Come, Jackals Dressed as Goats, And the Chosen Shall Unmask Them Before the End
Because this game tells of the bodhisattvas' successes, this does not mean that it ignores the many traps laid for them by the evil powers of the world. The Asuras and some misguided Devas do not wish to be left behind when the present age ends. In an effort to earn themselves a place in the Pure Land and the Age-To-Come, several of them have worked for centuries to disguise their supernatural nature. By placing themselves in the path of Those Who Tarry at the Door, these treacherous creatures hope to be appointed to the ranks of the Those Who Come in the Night.
Of course, their attempt is doomed to failure, for Those Who Tarry will indeed uncover their treachery before the final eight step forward from the ranks of likely candidates. But the efforts of the bodhisattvas to uncover the Asuras' falsehood is part of the story of their success and, therefore, it is only proper that these events are part of the game.
Let Us Not Hear of Misdirection and Vain Searching, But Only of the Path to the Truth and the Future
For certain, Those Who Tarry at the Door are not perfect or infallible. Being enlightened does not prevent them from spending much of their time chasing souls who will not end up being relevant to their search. However, those futile attempts are not what this game is about. Like a good police drama, if a piece of evidence emerges in play, you can be certain that it will somehow matter to the final outcome, even if it is in a way that few would expect. This is not a game about how the bodhisattvas overcome failure after failure to find Those Who Come in the Night. Instead, it is a game about the true results of their searching, about how they will, in the end, find who they were looking for.
Not Only the Night Visitors, But Demons Shall Also Come, Jackals Dressed as Goats, And the Chosen Shall Unmask Them Before the End
Because this game tells of the bodhisattvas' successes, this does not mean that it ignores the many traps laid for them by the evil powers of the world. The Asuras and some misguided Devas do not wish to be left behind when the present age ends. In an effort to earn themselves a place in the Pure Land and the Age-To-Come, several of them have worked for centuries to disguise their supernatural nature. By placing themselves in the path of Those Who Tarry at the Door, these treacherous creatures hope to be appointed to the ranks of the Those Who Come in the Night.
Of course, their attempt is doomed to failure, for Those Who Tarry will indeed uncover their treachery before the final eight step forward from the ranks of likely candidates. But the efforts of the bodhisattvas to uncover the Asuras' falsehood is part of the story of their success and, therefore, it is only proper that these events are part of the game.
- jwalton
- Tamarin
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Sat May 07, 2005 7:17 am
- Location: Raleigh, NC
by jwalton » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:53 pm
The record sheet for Those Who Tarry is posted .
It's 10pm EST now and my body is too sick and tired to continue. I don't think the game which might emerge in the next two hours would be a worthy realization of the original concept and I feel I need more time to work on it and that the game, in its current unfinished state, would not compete well or, more importantly, benefit very much from the feedback process.
The other Calvino quotes that I was planning on using are as follows:
"While, at a sign from you, sire, the unique and final city raises its stainless walls, I am collecting the ashes of the other possible cities that vanish to make room for it, cities that can never be rebuilt or remembered." (60)
Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. "But which is the stone that supports the bridge?" Kublai asks. "The bridge is not supported by one stone or another," Marco answers, "but by the line of the arch that they form." (82)
The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins. (139)
I wish the best to my fellow competitors and hope to eventually return to this design project. Thanks to everyone for your support. It just wasn't meant to be this year, unfortunately, with three days spent in Florida and being sick all this weekend.
It's 10pm EST now and my body is too sick and tired to continue. I don't think the game which might emerge in the next two hours would be a worthy realization of the original concept and I feel I need more time to work on it and that the game, in its current unfinished state, would not compete well or, more importantly, benefit very much from the feedback process.
The other Calvino quotes that I was planning on using are as follows:
"While, at a sign from you, sire, the unique and final city raises its stainless walls, I am collecting the ashes of the other possible cities that vanish to make room for it, cities that can never be rebuilt or remembered." (60)
Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. "But which is the stone that supports the bridge?" Kublai asks. "The bridge is not supported by one stone or another," Marco answers, "but by the line of the arch that they form." (82)
The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins. (139)
I wish the best to my fellow competitors and hope to eventually return to this design project. Thanks to everyone for your support. It just wasn't meant to be this year, unfortunately, with three days spent in Florida and being sick all this weekend.
- jwalton
- Tamarin
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Sat May 07, 2005 7:17 am
- Location: Raleigh, NC
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