Tattoo Scrolls: Beggar

The Beggar Scroll is the first of the five Tattoo Scrolls, written by Grandmaster Zhang the Burdened during the events of the War of Shadows. In it, teachings of inner fortune are distilled that are available only to the initiated disciple.

Like the other Scrolls, the Beggar Scroll has several properties that mean only great training and preparation allow one to safely read it directly. Most notably, the Scroll seems to cause items and concepts of value to leave the reader's possession. Only by truly understanding the Scroll's teachings can the student find infinite fortune within themself to forever subdue this phenomenon.

Provided below is a mere transcription of the Scroll, which is understood to not possibly convey the nature of the Scroll in its entirety.

Transcription
The student, young and with ignorance, arrives to the blind-Master-that-sees for his first trial.

The Master smiles. "Your first trial is simple: here I have two bowls. One is filled with rice, the other with none." And it was so.

"Please move the rice from the first bowl to the next, using these chopsticks."

The student moves each grain from the first bowl to the next.

One grain of rice.

Two grains of rice.

Three grains of rice.

And so the rice was all but moved, with but one grain left.

The Master stops the student. "Do you see now?"

The student does not.

"I have asked you to move 'the rice'. The one. The union. The whole."

The Master takes the final grain in his hand.

"But you have, one at a time, moved the many. The separate. The disjoint."

The Master, blind but seeing, imparts the trial's lesson. "In our carelessness we may define the general, ignoring the individual's variety and identity.

It is with patience and finesse that we may distinguish one from another, as no two grains are alike."

With patience and finesse, the Master lifts the grain from his hand with the chopsticks.

"So we must not see them to be so."

And the student learns the Wealth of Identity.

---

The student, young and with greed, returns to the Master the next morning for his next trial.

The Master presents him with rags.

"Today, you shall feed us both. And you shall beg for the money to do this."

The student is unsettled; he has never been in need.

Yet he accepts the trial.

The student sits on the street side. He holds out his hands and pleads for the wealth of survival.

A world of wealth, standing above him, walks past.

It has too much to do.

The student is not worth their time.

The student feels a great loss in his heart. He feels worthless. Alone. Hopeless.

A mere few coins fall into the student's hands. The student gives some to others who beg, and keeps some to himself.

One beggar, thankful, sits by the student's side.

The student turns to him. The beggar smiles.

"How can you be happy with so little?", the student asks. "You have but one coin, and yet you are at peace."

The beggar smiles wider. "I am at peace, as I have enough. I may afford Life for another day. I have not little, but plenty."

He gestures to the world of wealth that walks past them. "They - and you - are those with little. For you pay a hefty price."

The student is confused.

"You suffer the price of excess."

He gestures to a man of fine clothing. "His clothes are not truly his. For they were received from another before, and will be given to another after. So, he owns nothing. Only borrows."

"You, he, and those like him shall never own anything. Only borrow. And by defining oneself through what they borrow, one also borrows who they are."

The student, looking up at the beggar, sees the Master's face smiling.

"I borrow nothing. So I own myself. I am of wealth, whereas you are the one of true poverty."

The Master takes the student's begged coins and hands them to other beggars. "Come. We shall dine on the rice you have moved for me."

And the student learns the Price of Excess.

---

The student, young and with foes, returns to the Master for his final trial.

The Master hands him a bowl of rice.

"Your foe of your past is in need. Go to his cell and provide for him."

The student feels an anger welling. But he accepts his trial.

The student arrives at his enemy's cell. They are cold and starving.

The student walks to his enemy. He sits down.

"You are hungry. So you should eat."

His enemy does not hesitate. They take the bowl and lick it clean.

"You are cold. So you should be clothed."

His enemy does not falter. They take the cloak he offers and cover their shivering body.

"You are lonely. So you should be listened to."

His enemy stops. They look up and meet his eyes.

"You are my enemy. We should not speak as friends."

"Why is this?"

His enemy growls. "We are in conflict, you fool. You are wrong, and I am right. Why should I speak to those who defy me?"

The student feels anger in his heart. He puts it in its place.

"One can only climb if there is a mountain. And so, we may only grow when we face strife.

Your enemies are your strifes. And so, they are also your growth.

You must accept and forgive them, if you are to grow from them."

His enemy sneers. "What growth is it to forgive my enemies, and not conquer them?"

The student smiles with the radiance of his Master.

"To love what you reject the most is to surpass rejection itself. To accept and forgive your enemies is to accept everything.

And so those who do this shall grow to envelop the universe."

Seeing the Master's eyes before them, his enemy accepts his wisdom, and becomes his friend.

And the student learns the Fortune of Forgiveness.

---

The blind-but-seeing Master smiles at the student.

"You have completed your first trials. You may now beg for wealth from the world, and that wealth shall be within you."

The student now sees his new Fortunes: Identity, Contentedness, Forgiveness.

And so the student learns the Way of the Beggar.

These lessons were imparted by Master Lien Ming, the Blind Beggar of the House of Fortunes.