The Devil’s Teaching

Be afraid of what is difficult to obtain; be wary of what is desired. Give thanks for your hardships, for Loshaxh is the harsh teacher and fearsome messenger of all the winds, the waters, and the lands. Running from the flames of the blazing house into the open air, one enters into the vastness of Maranlhin-jawe, gentle teacher and giver of all gifts.

To see the Fearsome One as an adversary, is to not yet be of true wisdom. Without this perfection of wisdom—the ultimate friendliness of all good and bad—one will go on without learning either way.

Everyone wishes for Maranlhin to teach them the easy way. But when they don’t listen, the Devil pesters them with harsh teaching. And then when they say, “The Devil is evil”, they are at that moment beyond hope. So the foolish and the clever alike have said, and so their wisdom was never perfected.

It is as if all the hosts of the world
were throwing bullets and cannonballs—
yet, to the one knowing truly,
they transform
into a shower of flowers,
fragrant, of many kinds.
A crown of thorns has
blossomed and borne fruit.