The Lucidity is white. It is not bright, nor cloudy; there is no
texture or shade. It is simply white, everywhere you look, and aperturesLocations where two realms are joined in such a way that you may slip between them. They appear as uncanny distortions through which passage can be disorienting and dangerous.Turn to chapter to uncharted regions open only to a
directionless void. The Precepts who reside here however—wiry and
nearly-featureless petitionersSouls of the dead that have re-manifested on the most well-suited lamina, where they perfect and reshape themselves while carrying out pursuits in accordance with that lamina's principles.Turn to chapter in black robes—have graced their void
with alabaster monasteries and halls of marble tile and pillars that
ascend out of sight, and on this solid ground they gather in eternal
contemplation and mental and physical training in pursuit of the
mantra “lucid body, spacious mind, empty heart”.
The Precepts’ most notable pursuit is their ritual of Erasure, in
which a number will congregate, silently and peacefully, in some
cardinalThe cardinal worlds make up our foundational, everyday reality over which the laminae are layered.Turn to chapter location, unseen by most but visible
to some through vergesThe thinning of the Ordial barrier between cardinal and laminal realities such that certain aspects of one may influence, be perceived, or be simultaneously present on the other.Turn to chapter. After a period of meditation ranging
from hours to weeks, the OrdialThe membrane that divides laminae from cardinal worlds, a membrane which can be forded by various means.Turn to chapter will pull taut again, hiding the
Precepts from view while at the same time the object of their
attention is erased from existence. When they gather it is never
clear what is going to be erased, and no one has
witnessed the actual moment of Erasure—it is said that this always
comes when the target is held in the attention of only the Precepts
and no others. In theory this suggests a possible counter: to have a
sufficient number of defenders holding the target continuously in
attention such that the moment of Erasure can never come. This of course is hampered by
the impossibility of ascertaining what a given target may be.
The Precepts claim no magical abilities, only complete control
over their faculties of consciousness and the flux between attention
(which focuses steady consciousness on a single object) and
awareness (which broadens consciousness to observe a wide range of
perceptions). The proposed mechanism for Erasure is that many
Precepts focus their attentions on the target and then, once they
have fully enveloped every minute aspect of it in their minds,
simultaneously snap their full consciousnesses away to an open
awareness of the entire multiverse—this transition is as if a
tremendous vacuum opens in an instant, annihilating the object.
Reasons for particular Erasures are unknown, and the Precepts
speak only cryptically with visitors. Some observers presume
benevolence: that there is a grand plan of balance that Precepts
enact through targeted adjustments, an explanation this visitor
finds unlikely. Others propose that this is an intellectual study,
for to understand how something is destroyed is to truly understand
the thing—every object breaks in a way that is unique to it. This
theory is supported by the sometimes artfully selected recipients of
Erasures, for example a natural landmark removed that drastically
alters the landscape and environment as a result, or a small yet key
mechanical component the disappearance of which causes a device to
be completely ruined upon its next use. Precepts have referred to
their endeavor as an art, and perhaps they mean this not in the
academic sense as a subject of study, but in the literal sense as
the application of skill for purposes of joy and fulfillment.
TODO have searched trinym and gone through quotes and demonyms, but
should go through all other elements and also names
- name
- demonym
- Incepts (begin, establishment or starting point)
- Knells (sound of bell)
- Precepts (a general rule)
- Rifts
- quotes
- Wind cannot blow the wind away, nor water wash away the water. ꧪဋဓ ꧪဋဗ
- When it gets ahead of itself, the wave breaks. (꧹ဥꧠ? ꧹ဋဗ? ꧪဋဗ?) used in ꧹ဋဗ but
hm
- Closing a door very gently, you pull with one hand, push with the
other. (꧹ဥဗ, ꧪဋဗ)
- Jordan Peterson quote about what you (choose to) pay attention to
determines everything you experience
- environment
- culture
- cardinal interaction
info gathering
- questions
- future research
- possible elements
- glitch: the only way to know something is by knowing how it breaks,
and everything breaks in a way that’s unique to the thing. ꧪဋဗ or ꩧဋဗ or ꩧ၇ဗ. - and then how it heals
- something about creating art using unconscious control? but
destruction art? see thing from kris (and can i name it after her or
something. or ask her for something that’ll be part of it)
- “express unconscious mind directly through art, unmediated
expression, uncover metaphysical truths by relinquishing conscious
control”
- https://www.guggenheim.org/audio/track/paul-jenkins-the-prophecy-1956
- what is destruction art?
- Some kind of super complex interlocking yoga that I can make IRL -
ꧪဋဗ or ꧪဋဓ
- https://twitter.com/chaosprime/status/1458552157179887621 -
grokking, you have to understand your enemy to defeat them, and when you
understand them you love them. also you need to love them to hate them.
ꧪဋဓ? ꧪဋဗ?
- the bell ringing hearing contest episode (dissimulation ꧪဋဗ)
- Deaf/mute (or everyone is missing one sense) - could be any D, maybe
ꧪဥဗ, ꧹ဥဗ, ꧪဋဗ, ꩧဋဗ, ꧪဋဓ, ꧹ဋဗ
- maybe some other perception issue
- the “three perfections” - a poet, a calligrapher, and a painter, for
chinese artwork. multiple sense-missing people get together to create
something
- Apophatic theology (“attempts to approach God, the Divine, by
negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the
perfect goodness that is God”) vs. cataphatic theology (the opposite,
using positive definitions) XXD ꧹ဋဗ ꧪဋဗ
- notes
- research notes
- audio
- shakuhachi music?
e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miUKO5g0ONk
In some places, harmonic vibrations resonate your bones and guts,
tremors starting fuzzy big and wide, then sharp and crack and divide,
split you apart from the inside.?
Different regions vibrate differently: some will destroy only certain
kinds of objects, some will destroy anything. Different Monks find
themselves at home and in comfort in different regions.?
White is the color when nothing is there; white is the color of
thoughts stripped bare White shows the mind the way it would be; white
brings to mind the nothing-to-see White has no form, no texture, no
grain; White clears the storm, the pleasure, the strain
They seek out (or hate?) actors and musicians and models—they’ve
soaked up so much attention.
Environment
~
Culture & Paradigm
Erasures
- TODO erasure term? slating? like blank slate
- something about an attention snap, like the transition i have from
focusing on breathing to “let you mind be free” (and be thoughtless),
that. these guys with their crazy power of attention that can wreak
havoc, they seem to “envelop” the thing in their attention, and when
they all simultaneously stop thinking, the thing stops existing. it’s
like things exist only by virtue of attention being paid to it, and the
strength (in individual and in numbers) of their attention swamps the
attention of bystanders, such that when they stop, it’s like the thing
stops existing.
- Many things have been proposed to explain the variance of numbers of
monks present for a disappearance. The most obvious was “size”, but
TODO/metaphysists find this an arbitrary quality, and a handful of
examples, such as a lone monk sighted on a rowboat off an uninhabited
island disappearing an entire coral reef, give the lie to this, unless
some monks are far more “powerful” than others. Another proposal is
“importance”, although this is hard to measure, and what is the
“importance” of TODO. The best candidate is “attention” from which a
plausible theory of a mechanism has been generated, and indeed the only
known successful defense against a disappearance attempt, along with the
only known apparent delay (but failed defense).
- TODO (how to merge this with the sight thing and the kid)
- TODO (maybe explain “attention” after the anecdotes)
- TODO (relative amounts of attention relative to
intelligence/consciousness)
- TODO (only successful defense, about 20 monks, about a thousand
sit-in visitors drishti-ing on the to-be-dissapeared thing, maybe number
of monks grew and number (and training) of defenders grew, was this HUGE
thing, and the monks gave up. TODO (BUT WAIT this violates the thing
where you never know what’s going to be disappeared, maybe it was some
isolated circumstance so it was obvious, but does this violate coolness
of “never can be guessed?”))
discuss difference between attention and awareness. They focus so
much attention on the object, to the exclusion of awareness, that when
the all simultaneously (how do they time it?) open up to a broad
awareness, it’s like a massive vacuum that sucks the thing into
nonexistence. This is why if anyone else is paying attention, it doesn’t
work.
The monks claim no magical abilities, but merely the ability to have
complete control over their attention. They say that beings waste vast
strength by the fact that most of their attention is not under their
control, that there is a constant background torrent of leaking
attention. Everything is superfluous to them. It’s not unknown for a
monk partaking in ritual to squeeze so much attention out of their
beings that the blood stops flowing in their veins, the skin stops
holding in the flesh, resulting in the petitioner’s structural form
failing, and their essence being unified with the obliterative strength
of the plane. Sometimes during Erasure ceremonies, monks are known to
vanish while outside of their home, their essence presumably
dispersing.
Ritualistic. Rarely, a cadre will coalesce for an Erasure, where they
go en masse to some location and erase something—a building, a city, a
lake, an artifact. The Monks will be seen congregating, silently and
peacefully, in an area. They defend themselves with deadly and precise
psychic force when threatened, but otherwise their techniques seem more
subtle. Vibrations and noises, sometimes blurring or fuzzy muffling of
sounds, will be evident, at a range corresponding to the size of the
object being erased and the number of Monks participating. The
to-be-erased object eventually vanishes. It happens suddenly, and the
monks vanish simultaneously.
When the monks gather,
No one witnesses the actual moment of Erasure—it always happens
during a blink or when glancing away from something. It’s said that
staring at a thing, holding eyelids open so as not to blink, can prevent
the monks from erasing it. However, since it is never clear what the
monks will erase or exactly when it will happen, it’s impossible to
purposefully employ this tactic. Even beings of immense clairvoyance
whose physiology allow flawless unblinking, omnidirectional gaze, do not
consume all the available information at any given time, and move their
attention from time to time. During these times, an object will be
erased. Erasures are rare TODO(example using some civilization), though
a handful of beings are known to be have been the presence of more than
one. Infamously, mighty wizard TODO/name(haughty wizard) who deemed
every speck of dust in his dwelling to be in absolute focus in his mind
at all times, found after several days of a half dozen monks that his
TODO(important wizard belonging) vanished while he was in the same room
having just used it. Maybe happened twice, first time was further
away.
Academic observers have attempted to identify a system to what they
erase, and the dominant narrative is that the monks maintain a
multiversal balance by erasing TODO stuff at extremes. However, far too
many observed erasures have seemingly no connection to this. The
TODO/organization, a group of mostly gnomes who TODO, have made it a
pastime and competition of documenting erasures, the most successful of
which, TODO/name (winning gnome), has personally witnessed an astounding
seven monk gatherings (a record), though in only 4 of those was the
erased object identified (TODO/name (runner up gnome) holds the record
for identified erasures, having traced 5, though first gnome maintains
that the 5th is wrong and so they’re tied for it.) TODO how do the
gnomes find them?
It’s unknown whether monks ever gather outside their plane for
purposes other than erasure, though many gatherings have resulted in no
erasure found.
TODO what do they do during ritual? Nothing much, but something.
TODO what tone/frame/form should next paragraph take? Could be “I
once met a guy…” but narration should be more authoritative and not have
“I”. Could be a blockquoted thing, like a journal entry. What else?
One report of a being who had a hunch about what would be erased
TODO/building (but not a religious shrine, what) and resolved to stare
at it as the monks swirled around. He held his eyelids open, drying,
TODO describe, for days. Eventually it happened. He could still see the
structure, but his vision became surreal and uncomfortable to witness
TODO describe. Indeed the structure had not been erased in his vision,
but it seemed to be an after image, or another existence superimposed
upon his normal one. He could see passersby react as if the structure
were gone (in shock, etc), but the structure still stood. And though the
final moment of erasure is accompanied by the monks vanishing, in his
vision, the monks remained. And they were busy. But his vision
bubbled and blurred. They were disassembling the structure perhaps, or
re-building it, or arranging something inside it or modifying it
somehow. TODO more interesting, maybe they’re panicked that the watcher
will fuck everything up. The after-image became stranger and stranger.
Suddenly, a sneeze shook him, and though he swore his managed to keep
his eyes open, it was no use—his attention was diverted for a fraction
of a second. The monks and the structure were gone, and so was his
vision: he was blind for the rest of his life
Visiting
~
Locations
Festivals & Traditions
History
Rumors & Mysteries
unknown