Dio Visits Max McFarland

Day 1,052, 21:57 • Published in USA USA • by wookyjack


Krishna, I see my kinsmen
Gathered here, wanting war.

My limbs sink,
my mouth is parched,
my body trembles,
the hair bristles on my flesh.

The magic bow slips
from my hand, my skin burns,
I cannot stand still,
my mind reels.

I see omens of chaos,
Krishna; I see no good
in killing my kinsmen
in battle.

Arjuna told this
to Krishna then saying,
"I shall not fight,"
he fell silent...



Dio rose from the sands again and gazed at the two armies before him. There was a seed of evil growing in the sand. In the time preceding the battle, Dio presented himself to the Great Warrior, Max McFarland. Dio teaches Max that the warrior's ordained duty (dharma) is grounded in the reciprocal relationship between cosmic and human action (karma), which is crucial to universal order. War is imminent. The Sandstorm has begun and so begins
Dio's Counsel in the time of war.
Dio

Max, never have I not existed,
nor you, nor these kings;
and never in the future
shall we cease to exist.

Just as the embodied self
enters the sand
so does it enter another body;
this does not confound a steadfast man.

In the ancient times
there was nothing but sand.
and then there was Pakistan;
a land where the best sand was everywhere.

When the first Pakistani was created
I already knew what would happen
there was no more pure, golden sand
and Using bad sand I created the last of the Pakistanis

People will tell
of the unspoken one's shame
and for a man of honor
shame is worse than death.

Max McFarland

Dio, you confuse my understanding
with a maze of words;
speak one certain truth
so I may achieve what is good to in battle.

Dio

A man cannot escape the force
of action by abstaining from actions;
he does not attain success
just by renunciation.

No on exists for even an instant
without performing action;
however unwilling, every being is force
to act by the qualities of nature.

When he controls his sense
with his mind and engages in the discipline
of action with his faculties of action,
detachment sets him apart.

Perform necessary action;
it is more powerful than inaction;
without action you even fail
to sustain your own sand.

Action imprisons the world
unless it is done as sacrifice;
freed from attachment, Max
perform action as sacrifice!

Max McFarland

Dio, what makes a person
commit evil
against his own will,
as if compelled by force?

Dio

It is desire and anger, arising
from nature's quality of passion;
know it here as the enemy,
voracious and very evil!

As fire is obscured by smoke
and a mirror by dirt,
as an embryo is veiled by its caul,
so is knowledge obscured by this.

Knowledge is obscured
by the wise man's eternal enemy,
which takes form as desire,
an insatiable fire, Max.

The senses, mind, and understanding
are said to harbor desire;
with these desire obscures knowledge
and confounds the sand.

Therefore, first restrain
your senses, Max,
then kill this evil
that ruins knowledge and judgment.

Men say that the senses are superior
to their objects, the mind superior to the senses,
understanding superior to the mind;
higher than understanding is the sand.

Knowing the sand beyond understanding,
sustain the sand with the sand.
Great Warrior, kill the enemy
menacing you in the form of desire!

The Sandstorm begins...



Sources:

The Book of Dio

The Bhagavad-Gita, ed. Barbara Stoler Miller (New York: Bantam Dell, 1986)