Difference between revisions of "Way of the Warrior Saints/Saint Issik"
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"If a man looks into an empty jug, does not the jug peer also into an empty soul? Or has a man some fullness, even when the jug is empty? It is only when the jug is empty we should know it; only the sober man shall perceive intoxication." (Meditations on the Jug, Med.17, Resp.) | "If a man looks into an empty jug, does not the jug peer also into an empty soul? Or has a man some fullness, even when the jug is empty? It is only when the jug is empty we should know it; only the sober man shall perceive intoxication." (Meditations on the Jug, Med.17, Resp.) | ||
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| + | "Is a man wealthy who may lose his wealth suddenly? No; he is a man in a place of weakness, and weakness is not a form of wealth. Thus he who is wealthiest is he whose wealth cannot be taken from him. Now a man's life may be taken from him, and his goods, and his freedoms; but the wealth of a man's soul is such that even his death shall not rend it from him; and even the jug, though he forget his mind, shall not deprive him. So he that is wealthiest is he who has nothing which can be taken from him, but has everything which can never be taken. The wealthy man is the man of outward destitution, and inward abundance." (Meditations on the Jug, Med. 30, Resp.) | ||
Revision as of 07:15, 17 October 2010
Life
Issik was a peaceful man, who preached poverty and humility. He carried a jug that was empty, as a symbol of his commitment to destitution.
To test him, he was put to the rack, and tortured for many days, before he died.
In later days, a priest of Issek acquired a Northerner Warrior as a follower....
Rites and Rituals
The adherents of Saint Issik invariably take vows of poverty, devoting themselves to lowliness and subjection. As such, they have no material possessions of their own, and forsake all ties of land and lord. For this reason, they are outcasts.
Moreover, each morning, the adherents of Saint Issik roll themselves four times in the dust, to symbolize the four quarters of the body in mortification, as when Issek was stretched on the rack by his four limbs.
Notable Scripture
"A man may feast in peace, or fight in conflict, and be an animal for it: yet a man alone may refuse his drink, and still be jovial; a man alone may fight without conflict. For in this we find the Sleeping Father: that even our wildness is an ordered thing. We who are aware of the Sleeping Father ourselves meditate on his rest, and in so doing forget all things of the world, and, in that forgetfulness, become like to the Father himself." (Meditations on the Jug, Med. 4, Reply to Obj. 3)
"If a man looks into an empty jug, does not the jug peer also into an empty soul? Or has a man some fullness, even when the jug is empty? It is only when the jug is empty we should know it; only the sober man shall perceive intoxication." (Meditations on the Jug, Med.17, Resp.)
"Is a man wealthy who may lose his wealth suddenly? No; he is a man in a place of weakness, and weakness is not a form of wealth. Thus he who is wealthiest is he whose wealth cannot be taken from him. Now a man's life may be taken from him, and his goods, and his freedoms; but the wealth of a man's soul is such that even his death shall not rend it from him; and even the jug, though he forget his mind, shall not deprive him. So he that is wealthiest is he who has nothing which can be taken from him, but has everything which can never be taken. The wealthy man is the man of outward destitution, and inward abundance." (Meditations on the Jug, Med. 30, Resp.)
