"If you were to be like me, then I would have to be like someone else, right?" The master states as he examines his pupil's reaction after asking the rhetorically humorous question. "Why master?" the student responds, uncertain of the response his master expects and ignorant of the intended humor. "Because if what I have taught you is to copy someone else, then I should practice what I preach, right?" The master's words now resonating with the student. "So I should not strive to be like you? Shouldn't I want to learn so that I can be a master like you?" The student's sincerity clear within his tone. "Yes Denny, but you should be learning to become your true self, your own master. If you continue to see me as someone who you hope to become one day, then that perception will interfere with your ability to understand the Tao or attain zen. When you eventually awaken your true inner being, you will resent me for having ...

"Let's discuss the air around us Denny. Can you see the air when my arms channel it's current?" Zen Chen offers his student a simple start to their next conversation. "No master, I feel the air, and there is always a difference when you change your tone from leisure to seriousness and back. I see the trees and other objects move, so I know I am seeing you change the air," the student flatters his master with a sincere attempt to avoid sounding patronizing. "You feel what you feel. That is your right. I feel nothing. That is also your right. I feel everything. That is for me alone. I have already begun translating the I Ching properly into English, but such power should not be wielded but any dumb local citizen proud to stand on a waiting list all night in the cold to be the first to vote on the next sheriff of his district." "Yes," Denny agrees. "No! Stop blindly agreeing with someone because you falsely believe there are ot...

"Well, let's examine both cases," the master jests, inviting an air of lightheartedness into the intensity forming around them. "If you were to be me, then I would have to be someone else," the zen master expresses with sincerity, despite the apparent silliness in his flawed logic. "Do you agree with me?" Denny, unclear if he should laugh or learn, responds earnestly, "I do not agree master. A student needs someone to look up to as a leader or idol or someone to follow." "Who then should I follow?" the master inquires. The student shakes his head in response. Zen Chen continues, "I am a student, and I always will be. I never thought of myself as a great teacher nor a master of existence. I simply am and constantly remind myself of that to ensure that I am never more than just what I am." "I don't understand master. Aren't you teaching me the knowledge that you have?" The student expresses apparent ...

Hidden Chapter 1: Sheriff Cashgrow  Once upon a time, and that time is now! "My good people, may I present sheriff Edwin Cashgrow, one of the few elected officers of my court. Most officials in my court are appointed by me or one of my representatives. The sheriff, however, is elected by the people using a voting process. The voting process may seem out of place in a kingdom, but when I first ascended the throne, I wanted the citizens to know that they would have a say in political decisions, such as electing a sheriff," the queen addresses the audience in her royal court from her throne above the desks of the court officials.  "Thank yew, yew'er majesty," the sheriff humbly replies as he removes his official headdress and bows before the queen. "Sheriff Cashgrow," the queen addresses the sheriff directly, attempting to gain his attention as his focus continually shifts from the whispers throughout the courtroom, including the officials atte...

Denny is Confident "Great! Let's continue to address the logic behind repeating our mistakes in the hopes of justifying our errors and failures. If I try something once and, I fail, perhaps the second time, there may be some minute difference I didn't account for. If I try again to double check, that's okay, but a third time without any change, then a fourth attempt without adjusting your approach or technique, might just be a waste of time. To try and fail is the path to success. To fail and fail continually while performing the exact same attempt in some vane hopeless act of desperation to turn day into night will eventually succeed in bringing foolishness into your mind and those that you affect with such ignorance." The student nods in silence, his attention focused on learning the master's intended lesson. "When was the last time I lectured the students on the book of change?" "I've never heard you speak it master," the st...

Denny Doubted Himself "There is nothing wrong with your math young student," The master ensures the student surprisingly, shifting his approach, calming his tone, and energizing his young student's innocent curiosity. "I don't understand?" The student focuses directly at the master's eyes, curious if he is serious or joking at the student's easily manipulated naivete. "Do not allow others, even me, to convince you to doubt what you know already to be true, or even how you think. There is no reason to limit your imagination with the input, influence, opinion, or pressure of others whose words may confuse you into doubting yourself," Zen Chen instructs his student Denny. "You seem confused. Isn't it possible the words I use to provide instruction are an obstacle to your learning process?" The student eyes pop open as he shakes his head in disagreement as clearly as he can to ensure the master does not misinterpret his...

Hoblin vs Goblin - Chapter 3 Within each of us, there is a peaceful warrior, who is prepared to defend their beliefs in how to best achieve universal peace among all living beings. Though peace and war are opposites, neither is good or bad. The peaceful side is necessary to find harmony and balance among neighbors and countrymen. The war side is necessary to defend your home, family, and country against wild animals and natural disasters. By setting peaceful examples, we hope others will follow our lead and find peace as well. By preparing for war, we hope to deter, or scare away, our natural enemies. This battle is inside of us. We are constantly struggling to understand how to sustain a perfect balance between the two opposites within us. The idea of there being two opposites does not mean that one is good and one is bad. There are many opposites in nature that are both equally good; for example, we breath oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Trees and plants breath carbon dioxide...

A Chen Dushek Production The path of Denny "Master, how can I bend the space around me to my will?" the young student asks Zen Chen. Zen Chen replies, "Why would you want to be able to bend space?" "So I can be like you master," the student responds with admiration. "Well, what have you tried so far?" the master inquires of his student Denny. "I've tried everything I could think of and then repeated each of them three times just to be sure," the student eagerly responds, sensing the master is ready to offer the student true wisdom. "Well how many different things did you try?" the master asks. "I tried four different ways to bend space master," the student responds. "So how many total attempts is that?" Zen Chen inquires. "Well master, I tried each of the four different ways three times, so that would be a total of twelve times, because if I had tried four different ways and th...

Hoblin vs Goblin: Chapter 2 A peaceful path requires hard training and discipline so that you can defend the cause of justice and virtue. Many people have their own beliefs in what is just and right. You will be presented with many circumstances in life where you will have to choose for yourself what is right and what cause to defend. Sometimes the choices will be difficult, but training in both the meditation studio and the martial arts studio should help prepare you for those moments in life. Both of the two training studios--which are located in Weehawk, a district of the kingdom east of the royal marketplace--is where I train young hopefuls to attain inner peace by training in secret shaolin techniques or to realize the warrior within by learning self-defense styles from the wutang schools. They have both been passed down to me from my master before me, the evil and dreaded Bob Goblin, who studied under his master before him, the peaceful and beloved grandmaster Gob Hoblin. ...

"Den whad diddy say?" the sheriff asks. "Well sheriff. As far as I know, the Great Buddha did not answer that question at all. He simply sat there in silence and let one of his disciples answer for him," the queen responds. "So whad didda diss hype L's say?" the sheriff asks. "The disciple said that from meditation, he was able to achieve peace, calm, tranquility, and a true sense of the self. He was able to realize the three meridian channels flowing throughout his body and harness his chi energy to cycle the flow through the universal loop atop his head down to the base of his spine." "Dat sounds com play Kate did," the sheriff responds. "It's really not that complicated," the queen corrected, "and what's beautiful about it, is that anybody can do it." "You mean aye can do id?" he asks. "Anybody can, yes even you can," the queen answered, "to achieve Buddha mind, one h...

"He sed ta me dat when the Great Buddha was axed whad he hoped ta gain from da meditation, and den da Buddha said to him 'nothing!.' So's I says okay, dat done make sense. and so dis guy says ta me, 'of course not to a commoner such as yourself, for the Buddha gained nothin bud was able ta remove all his hate, and greed, and anger, and negativity by meditating." "I'm so relieved sheriff that you spoken in this manner, was this one of my student's? do you know his name?" "Yah, he colds himself 'Dareel Zendeele' but I tolds him you'd ged mad and he sed you are harmless, so I kicked him out back to his district an told him not to come back for a month." the sheriff apologetically relays to me with a slight hint of concern that I might not believe his story. "I am aware of this man-child that is preaching and professing throughout the kingdom, claiming to be my master." "Well whad should we do Master Che...

"hmm...." I offer him verbally, as if proof of my ability to objectively mentally digest what was about to be revealed. "dat sheriff," he continues, "found himself answerin ta da edge of one of da Queen's royal guard swords," he concludes. "Sounds like the deputies used him as a scapegoat," I suggest in lieu of the knowledge of the reasoning behind the decision. "Da ways I heard it was dat da crowds were demanding da queen return da monies or offer some sort of vigilante justice foe dey losses, and they gathered outside da court ready ta revolt cause ub dey said id was his fault foe being da supervisor ub his depudees." "I see my friend. You are troubled by the responsibilities set upon you by the queen?" I inquire as an offer of my understanding of the troubling thoughts tinkering in his head. "Huh? Nah masta, I can do ma job, whadaya mean?" he replies. This is why I have always appreciated my friendship ...

"Well masta, ebentially, all da foreign property imported widdout paying foe da newly formed import taxes was confiscated by da deputies. Da rumors had spread dat da deputies were selling or habbing someone sell foe dem da contraband on da dark market, an da funds were used ta acquire more resources ta furtha persist da deputies' efforts ta collect more contraband." "The dark market?" I interrupt him, informing him of my ignorance, "I'm afraid that's a new term to me." "Yeah, you neva heard ub da dark market?" he questions me in disbelief. "I may have heard of it by a different name," I suggest, "but please continue." "Maybe zen master, but I'll tell you about dat after dis, cuz dat's important too, ya know?" "Yes, that would be interesting to learn about, please continue," I offer. "Where was I now..." he mumbles passed his lips as he stumbles in his thoughts. "Y...

I offer my version of a diplomatic response, "Well sheriff, unfortunately, it failed to stimulate the proper macroeconomic development across multiple kingdoms because of unfair trading practices, you are correct," I reassure him, "the pricing differences were due to the poor foresight of the instability in market fluctuations among the varied kingdoms throughout all the lands and the arbitrage in pricing presented an advantage that allowed traders to realize profits at the expense other citizen's income losses. As other kingdoms established their own import and export regulations, the arbitrary fluctuations provided greater arbitrage, which provided even more opportunities for investors to realize huge gains in economies of scale, which then led to a repeal of the law by the Queen, if I understand it correctly," ending my statement with as little condescension as possible. "Wow master," he interjects, "I'm not so sure if any of dat is tru...

Though the sheriff understood that he could collect a separate tax from certain households, he did not fully grasp the mathematical equations that calculated the amounts to be collected from individual income-earning households. We discussed last week some theories on net versus gross income, but since I was not privy to the stipulations of the new legislation, his ambiguous questions were unclear and seemed irrelevant to the nature of the new posting he had just announced. Though the new law does specify details applicable to the enforcement, proper regression analysis against the previously existing laws was performed hastily under pressure from the advocates of the law, specifically the wealthy citizens living in the Brahman district, and now a loophole exists that the rich Brahman residents intended, and the sheriff seems to have some insight into, regarding the ability to collect higher percentages from certain demographics, obviously those demographics do not include the Bra...

"Tell me sheriff Cashgrow," the queen beseeches him, "you were only recently elected, have my advisors advised me of the correct fact?" "Yes ma queen," the sheriff responds. "Yet you have gained great admiration among your people in that short time," the queen passively offering her own admiration with her tone. "Well, ma queen, I juss make sure everybody duz everything fayer," the sheriff elevates his voice, almost shouting, but the queen understands his passion on the subject. He continues, "if two guys starts a fight, well den who really started it? Trowing dem both in jail would have ta be if it happened a second time. Tha first time, somebody started it, after that, a segund time? No! they both go to jail. Haaahaa," the sheriff blares a loud roar as he laughs. "And what if the guilty man is stalking the innocent one, leading to a second altercation?" the queen inquires. The sheriff stops his laughte...

"First Sheriff, you must understand the rules," Queen Halvah advises the sheriff. "Yes'ya majesty," the sheriff acknowledges his attention is focused on her words. "Very well," the queen condones as she begins explaining her reasoning behind her laws. "If an issue arises that cannot be resolved peacefully, and a non-peaceful solution would lead to more problems, then a constituent, that is any citizen with the right to vote, may ask that the issue be escalated for resolution to the queen's court, in an attempt to appeal a sheriff's decision in administering a resolution. I and my court's staff take great consideration when accepting an appeal, knowing the risk it poses to a sheriff's reputation, the only true voice of the people throughout the kingdom." "So's I can punish people fa performing poorly" the sheriff humbly interjects. "Yes sheriff," the queen confirms. "Where was I? An issue ...

The Queen and da Sharift Sheriff Edwin Cashgrow is one of the few elected officers of the court, commissioned by the queen and elected by the people of his district to enforce the laws within the queen's kingdom. He is bound by duty to uphold the spirit of the socialist equality upon which the kingdom is founded. He has ruled justly so far within the district of the constituents who elected him with no complaints from any of the those people. Most other law enforcement of the queen's kingdom are appointed to their respective offices by the queen herself, such as the royal guards, or a representative of the queen's court, such as palace and marketplace officers. The queen's palace and the royal marketplace are governed under her direct order. If anything happens at either of those locations that leads to a dispute between two people, two businesses, or any other types of entities, then the queen is given total autonomy for deciding a fair and reasonable resolution...