A Step Further [FMR 8]

[The Shadout Mapes]

"There was a man who sat each day looking out through a slit in the rock. Each day a kulon, a wild ass of the desert, was passing through it - first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the long brown back, the hindlegs, and lastly the tail. One day, the man leaped to his feet happy and he shouted for all who could hear him: "It is obvious! The nose causes the tail!" Mapes chuckled at the old Zensunni story.

"So it must be with you, the nose is the reason of the tail." She mocked Cuyler gently. "You are here because God has willed you here. All you can do is doing."

[Cuyler Gray]

"So, I will do." she shrugged. "And, I will learn."

[The Shadout Mapes]

To this, Mapes agreed. "God created Dune to train the faithful. You will do and you will learn."

There were certainly at least a few reasons for people of this planet to not give what could be considered elsewhere a straight answer. At this point, Cuyler could see at least two. First, they held their secrets close to their chests and occluded the access to their truths in ways that made them hard to acquire, and only in increments. Second, their culture was built on paradoxes as ways to coax awareness into humble learning. Those two were actually intertwined. In such culture, hubris, or a sense of grandeur, was unlikely to emerge. The necessities of life were largely impersonal, not tied to a single man's ambition. Perhaps the desert of Arrakis was a world of servants unto God. And that had some terrifying implications.

[Cuyler Gray]

"I hope I find good teachers."

[The Shadout Mapes]

"Start with muad'dib. Muad'dib is wise in the ways of the desert." Mapes chuckled. "We call muad'dib the instructor of youth. Whenever you look at the shade on the Second Moon, think of the lessons of muad'dib."