THE TWO FACES:
Diana was going to be a terrifying goddess--that's all she ever wanted to be as she played on that playground, beginning to create her worlds as a small child. Sodol-kai had passed by and caught sight of her delicious creativity. Yet he was saddened that she would reign with terror. Sodol-kai knew that one day she would grow up, and he remembered her face.
Inevitably, in eons of time, Diana grew better at creating her worlds, worlds where she ruled inspired by terror. Worlds of domination. Worlds of woe.
One day Diana reached the pinnacle of her goddess success. She created a world where all the faces looked up at her in pure terror. Divine and omnipotent was she, to be worshiped, but always feared.
Sodol-kai took a look at her world and was saddened by it, so he played a buddha trick on her to teach her a lesson in compassion. It would change their lives forever.
Sodol-kai entered Diana's world, born as an infant, and smiled upon birth. He smiled into the sky, where she sat on her throne of terror. She saw his face born on her world, a face that dared smile at her from out of the womb. This enraged her, as she had ensured that childbirth and infancy was a painful process on her world. Her babies were supposed to cry. Sodol-kai laughed.
This pissed her off.
"Oh, a wise guy, huh?" Diana said, knowing he must have come from beyond the stars and invaded her world. An alien. She decided to fix him, and teach him a lesson he'd never forget.
She decided to turn the tables.
In a flash, she snapped her fingers and they traded places. Sodol-kai flew into her sky, where he now saw all the faces of terror below. And she, now below, looked up at Sodol-kai in the sky and leered a sinister smile. Then she changed her face back to terror, the same face Sodol-kai saw on everyone else. For they were made in her image, just the way she liked it.
"How 'bout that one?" Diana yelled up at Sodol-kai. "Zing! Tit for tat."
Up in the sky, Sodol-kai looked away in sadness, and Diana laughed to herself, never realizing Sodol-kai was planning a trick. She was about to snap her fingers and throw him back from her sky down to her world, putting him in his place. She so wanted to see his smile turn to terror.
Ah, but Sodol-kai, a wise teacher, tricked his new student Diana. Before she snapped her fingers, he snapped his! He turned the tables on her! He threw her back into her sky and took his place again below. She looked back down at him, and he was still smiling, defying her taste for terror.
"Zing!" Sodol-kai yelled, stealing her line. "Tit for tat."
She was at first terrified by his power in her world, but he kept smiling. He didn't want power. He simply wanted to teach her.
But in those crucial moments, she fell in love with her teacher, for his smile now seemed so beautiful to her--something so very unique. The consequences of her falling in love would be enormous for them both, though little did they realize this at the time.
"Touche'," Diana said, now smiling back.
For you see, he had changed her life forever. For he turned from her taste of terror and softened the way she saw. She had wanted to screw him over, but all he had showed was compassion. She had wanted to hate him, but he had loved her. And this would bind them together through time.
...
THE MOON PARABLE; OR
IF YOU REACH FOR THE MOON, YOU HURT THE STARS, AND THE STARS,
THEY WILL RESPOND...
We think we can take the moon. We lust for it, and decide to challenge it and take it. Dare there be a limit? We think not. We will conquer it, as we conquer all else. So we reach for that moon. We decide to colonize it in our quest for the stars. We make this plan to take the moon known to God.
God says, "I don't think so. I put the moon there with my thumb. You gotta have limits."
"But God, you put the stars there," we cry. "As if to challenge us to take 'em!"
God says, "If you reach for the moon, you hurt the stars. And the stars, they will respond."
And then we say, "But we put a god-damned flag on that moon!"
God says, "Back it. I don't see one there."
...
...There was only one last thing Sodol-kai could say, through his tears:
"I will never be able to let her go."
...
Such is the way of things, when a buddha falls in love with a god.