The Plans of the Order of the White Lotus

Ah, we come to it at last, our plans for changing the world. The world is quite a large place, full of many people, each one different and following his or her own special life. It is quite a task to change such a vast thing! And I now intend to change not only the four nations of my own world, but I hope to change your world as well. In fact, I have begun to harbor somewhat higher hopes for your world; I fear that my own may not be as prepared yet. But your world, with its remarkable devices that connect you with one another, your glowing boxes and all your marvelous machines that I have read about, such a lively world will perhaps be better soil for our plans! Yet I shall work as hard as I can to change both our worlds, and let the results yield what they will.

The ancient Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden demonstrated to our Order that human nature itself may be changed. In fact, it does change all the time, without our noticing! My world, and it seems your world as well, is one in which the flighty two-petal lotuses reign supreme, with great influence also from the honorable three-petal lotuses and the selfish one-petal lotuses. It has not always been this way, and there are apparently pockets of your world in which people enjoy a slightly higher, or sometimes lower, level of human nature. When we think of human nature, we tend to think of the behaviors of these one-, two-, and three-petal lotuses.

But for a moment, imagine a world in which the average person behaved more like a four-petal lotus! A world in which the average person had no stomach for prejudice of any kind, no time for pettiness, no wish to cling to narrow-mindedness. A world in which the average person would rather listen to those they disagree with instead of arguing with them. Imagine the political climate of such a world! Imagine the economic benefits of a world in which the average person was careful, thoughtful, and hungry to learn. How much would differing faiths learn to live in harmony in such a world of four-petal lotuses? How much would children grow up without being bullied by one-petal lotuses and two-petal lotuses? How much would grown adults respect their children and respect one another, if the average human nature was that of the open-hearted four-petal lotus?

I hear many complaints from your world and my own about crime, hunger, hatred, poverty, and a multitude of other shameful crises. What solution can last, unless the root cause of such woes is dealt with? Those problems will never be resolved from the outside, not even from the mightiest Fire Lord. No, only from the inside, from human nature itself, can such human tragedies be overcome!

The aim of the Order of the White Lotus is to change human nature, to break it out of its stagnant state and help it soar ever upward. For you see, a society of two-petal lotuses is quite content to stay as it is, and a society of three-petal lotuses is very proud to stay as three-petal lotuses. Yet once people make the vital breakthrough to become four-petal lotuses, they at last seek to improve themselves without limits. Our Order does not desire to see a world of merely four-petal lotuses; we dream of a world in which the average person is like a six-petal lotus, a nine-petal lotus, and beyond! Always seeking and living in higher, nobler, happier ways! But we must begin by helping people grow to become four-petal lotuses; once we help people grow to be four-petal lotuses, then they will do the rest of the growth all on their own, ha ha! They will be happy to, they will reach ever higher, always improving their own personal selves, always developing their own hearts and minds, and so benefiting everyone around them.

But how do we bring about these aims?

The human heart, human nature, cannot be changed by force. Mere blind passion will not work either; a fanatic craze only serves to stir people into a blind froth, heh, and no one can achieve real personal change in such a frenzy. I suppose my friends and I could lecture at you until we are blue in the face, ha ha ha, but that will likely do very little good to anyone. What then is to be done?

The plan of the Order of the White Lotus involves many phases, and the first major phase is already nearly complete. That first phase required my friends and I to ready ourselves, so that we might become equal to the great task that lay before us. In the Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden, no one was able to permanently change the Garden until the eight-petal lotuses arrived. Many four- and seven-petal lotuses had wrought great and helpful changes in the world, but they had never succeeded in changing the overall nature of the Garden. They had never been able to change human nature itself. Whenever any six- or seven-petal lotus tried, they would soon be stopped by the three-, two-, and one-petal lotuses, and their work would be twisted from its original purpose. But the eight-petal lotuses could not be stopped. Once the Garden was ready, once the eight-petal lotuses arrived, only then was such sweeping, unbreakable change possible.

So, the first phase of our plan soon became quite obvious: My friends and I had to become eight-petal lotuses ourselves, or else see our works eventually undone. The ancient Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden told us what kind of human nature an eight-petal lotus enjoyed, but it seemed to us to be unattainable! When we first learned about all this, less than three years ago, we were barely six-petal lotuses, heh heh, and we had spent all our long lives getting that far! We had never guessed that human nature could be changed, we had simply grown into six-petal lotuses as a result of our careful, desperate attempts at wisdom. But now, armed with the precious information hidden in the ancient Tale, the pathway ahead of us was made clear to our understanding. We now knew exactly how to bloom out as fully fledged six-petal lotuses, and we knew how to grow into seven-petal lotuses after that. Now, after these few short but wild years, we have followed the path that was illuminated before us, and have grown into promising new eight-petal lotuses. Now, we are ready. Now it is time for the next phase.

As unstoppable eight-petal lotuses, it is the responsibility of the Order of the White Lotus to act as a sort of arrowhead for you, to clear the way ahead of you so that you may grow to become as great a lotus as you wish, if you wish. We have trod the unfamiliar path of growing to become four-, five-, and eventually eight-petal lotuses, with no guide other than this ancient Tale, but now we can show you the path so that you may grow so much more easily than we did!

And to begin, we first must find as many people as we can who already are four-petal lotuses. We must start with four-petal lotuses. A three-petal lotus will not listen to such unfamiliar nonsense as this; it would be too strange for him, too different from his rigid personal code. We must find those rare four-petal lotuses, and teach them all we can, so that they may use it themselves and see the results! Only after a sufficient number of four-petal lotuses benefit from changing their own human nature, only after the results of that growth are plain to see in many people, only then will three-petal lotuses be compelled to admit that here is something worth investigating. They must see the results for themselves before they will honestly investigate such an unfamiliar thing. So we must first seek four-petal lotuses, so that they may shine for all the world to see.

There are many four-petal lotuses in this world, but when they are separate from one another they are much less able to do great things. Yet if many four-petal lotuses come together, they are able to help one another perform marvelous deeds! Rather than being torn down by three-petal lotuses, they can rise high upon the wings of their friends, each four-petal lotus helping every other to reach his or her greatest potential. We must find four-petal lotuses, and bring them together in the respect-filled friendship that all four-petal lotuses seem to develop with each other, heh heh.

And so we have been developing many different methods by which to bring together four-petal lotuses, and to teach them. It is usually a sound strategy to attack from many different sides whenever possible, and that is our plan here. We have even begun working closely with a few good lotuses on your world, to carry out our plans there. I wonder if they will be more successful on your world than I will be on mine. On our world, many of our Order travel from town to town, from village to village, spending time getting to know the local residents and to see if there are any four-petal lotuses to be found there. Whenever they are found, they are invited to learn more about how to improve their deepest nature. If they remain interested, then they are furnished with information whereby they may contact other four-petal lotuses throughout the four nations. And Piandao is welcoming any four-petal people who wish to meet together at his estate, and Jeong Jeong has begun setting up a few camps for them to gather to if they choose, and of course everyone is welcome at the Jasmine Dragon!

On your world, however, the magic of your glowing boxes gives us a great deal more options! I have met many charming people here by "tweeting," heh heh heh. Perhaps some of you are indeed four-petal lotuses? I described the behavior, attitudes, and nature of a true four-petal lotus earlier; does that sound like you? We need all the four-petal lotuses we can find, and we need to connect them with each other, so they all may inspire and encourage and help one another. We need your ideas, your prayers, and your friendship! I hear that there are some friends of mine on your world who are seeking to create places of refuge where four-petal lotuses may retreat to find help for their lives. Their plans are quite ingenious, seeking to teach merely by assisting and encouraging all who want their help, assisting each four-petal lotus to reach his or her dreams, but perhaps I should describe that another time, heh.

Another of my dearest friends on your world has put together a very fun story, meant to teach as well as to entertain! It is crafted to teach the very principles I have been discussing, to help people become full four-petal lotuses, and then grow to be five-petal lotuses and more. When he first wrote it he was a daring little five-petal lotus, ha ha ha ha, but now that he too has grown into an eight-petal lotus, he is seeking to rewrite the story in a more effective manner. He has made it available to be read freely on your glowing boxes. Jeong Jeong read the story and quite enjoyed it, but he pointed out that no one with fewer petals than a four-petal lotus is likely to be interested in such a story. That may or may not be the case, we shall have to wait and see, but I think that the story is simply a marvelous tool for teaching, encouraging, and training new four-petal lotuses. And it is quite fun, too! Ha ha.

Overall, we are seeking to use the great power of your glowing boxes to bring together four-petal lotuses in any way we can. We are always searching for new ways, new directions by which we may attack this problem. We must seek out sensible four-petal lotuses, and help them all connect with one another so that they all may help each other soar. As we members of the Order of the White Lotus show the path to four-petal lotuses, and as they freely choose to try out that path, their deepest natures will change in a way that will affect every part of their lives! That is what happens when your human nature changes.

So, to summarize, heh heh:

Phase One: The chief members of the Order of the White Lotus must grow to become eight-petal lotuses. Without this, all our plans will fail sooner or later. This phase is quite nearly completed in every way.
Phase Two: Seek out four-petal lotuses, help them connect with each other, and begin to teach them how to improve their deepest nature.
Phase Three: Establish venues where four-petal lotuses may more easily help one another to soar higher, and where new five- and six-petal lotuses may do great good while being protected from the anger of three-, two-, and one-petal lotuses.
Phase Four: As the four-petal lotuses and the new five- and six-petal lotuses prosper by each other's help, three-petal lotuses will at last begin to see the immensely wonderful results of being a four-petal lotus. As more three-petal lotuses investigate, even two-petal lotuses will begin to become intrigued.
Phase Five: Average human nature throughout the whole culture begins improving, as even one-petal lotuses see the benefit of growing into two-petal lotuses and beyond. The world will never be the same again.

As you can see, we are now beginning the second phase of our plan. A great weak point, however, is our limited ability to find four-petal lotuses. We have had a very slow start finding you. The good news is that four-petal lotuses often band together! So if we can find one, then that one is rather likely to have a few four-petal friends as well, ha ha ha.

You four-petal lotuses, we are depending on you. We cannot succeed without you, that is plain to see. I plead with you to investigate what I have said so far. Consider what you think of the Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden, what you now think of human nature, and see whether you want to lend me your aid. What sort of aid do I need? Ha ha, well above all, I just need to hear your voices! I need to know you are there. I could use your encouragement, for even running the world's finest teashop and playing Pai Sho does become rather lonely at times, heh. I need your encouragement. And if I may simply teach you what I have learned, if I may show you the path I have trod so that you may improve yourselves more and more at your deepest heart, then we all will be well on our way.

The ways of five-petal lotuses are precious, and I do not wish to simply tell them to anyone. But you four-petal lotuses, if you desire it, I am desperate and willing to teach you everything I know! And I really do recommend the little story, heh heh heh. It is something quite different, that is certain, ha ha! I think it is excellent. It will teach you quite a lot about becoming a better four-petal lotus, and it will teach you even more about becoming a five-petal lotus, with even a few six-petal lessons, I believe.

That is a broad overview of the plans of the Order of the White Lotus. That is what I have been working on, day and night. When I make tea, my thoughts are on this great endeavor. When I play Pai Sho, every move makes me think of these schemes. There is much detail to be explained, but I would like to save such detail for the sensible ears of four-petal lotuses, if I may do so.

The Happy Ending!

It has come to my attention that there are some of you who have been waiting for me to share more of my thoughts here. That makes me very happy, for I had feared that none of you were interested in hearing about what I have been working on. Every day, I serve tea to friendly customers, but it seems that even though they enjoy my teamaking, they do not much care to invest their minds or hearts into anything larger. A nearby tinsmith comes by every week, but he wishes to think only of his trade while he drinks. A few merchants come to my teashop every time they come to Ba Sing Se, but their hearts are on their merchandise. And the children who dash through my doors every morning love to tell me all about their latest games, but they have little patience for listening to my latest real-world strategems, heh.

But if even one of you still cares to hear of the schemes of the Order of the White Lotus, then I will share! I have been quite busy seeking the means to carry out our plans, and so I must always choose carefully how I will spend my limited energy, heh heh. But if you are interested in these matters, then it is quite worth my time to oblige you!

So, I told you all a little about the old Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden, and then I waited to see how it would be received. As often happens when one moves a tile in Pai Sho, the immediate effects were rather limited, heh. But that is okay. That is how the game goes, sometimes. As some of you know, I am quite fond of the Lotus Tile; though its short-range influence usually takes quite a while to have an effect on the rest of the board, those effects are nearly impossible to counteract. This is how I hope it will be now: we will start slowly, but we will be unstoppable.

And now I have waited for the right moment, and I believe it is time for me to move the Lotus Tile once again! Now, I will venture to tell you the happy ending of the Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden. You have all been very worried about the little lotuses, haven't you? I know I am, every day, heh heh heh.


When Longshot suggested that I stop telling the story, I was describing how cruelly the little lotuses treated the five-petal, six-petal, and seven-petal lotuses. They revered three petals as the most petals any lotus could ever have; any lotus with a number of petals that was so different from three must have very few petals indeed, and so must be quite a contemptible little lotus. This was not so, of course. The five-petal lotuses were far nobler than the three-petal lotuses, but not in a way that the other lotuses were yet prepared to understand. And so the little lotuses cursed the five-petal lotuses, and the six-petal lotuses and the seven-petal lotuses. They rejected them, imprisoned them, and even executed them.

The four-petal lotuses, if you were wondering, tended to stay out of this debate altogether. They did not approve of the cruel treatment that the other lotuses gave to the five-petal lotuses, but they were not quite sure what to make of the five-petal lotuses either. Whenever a four-petal lotus did decide to stand with the five-, six-, or seven-petal lotuses, they would suffer the same treatment. They would be rejected, lied about, or even killed. Some four-petal lotuses heroically stood by their five-, six-, or seven-petal friends to the bitter end, but most four-petal lotuses were simply unsure what to make of the whole business.

This went on for thousands of years. In some centuries, there would be more one-petal lotuses than any other. At other times, two-petal lotuses would be the majority. And at other times or in other parts of the Garden, there would be more three-petal lotuses than any other; at those times, the Garden truly flourished because of the honorable goodness of the three-petal lotuses. Remember, the three-petal lotuses were indeed good and noble. But three was not the greatest number of petals that a lotus could bear.

In these times of prosperity under the three-petal lotuses, the one-petal lotuses and two-petal lotuses would begin to grow in numbers once more, feeding off of the wealth brought about by the diligence of the three-petal leaders. And before long the one-petal lotuses would become the majority once again, and the Garden would swing back to decay. This unfortunate cycle continued for thousands of years. Nations rose and fell in the Garden, wealth was gained and lost, wisdom was found and forgotten. The good or bad fortune of the little lotuses ebbed and flowed depending on which sort of lotuses were the majority.

From time to time, a great four-petal lotus would defy the rigidity of the three-petal leaders, and speak forth a bold new idea. Most of these were silenced in brutal fashion, but many of their ideas nonetheless changed the Garden. And from time to time, the Gardeners would place a five-petal lotus amongst the others, or even a six-petal lotus or a seven-petal lotus. These lotuses did magnificent things that changed the face of the Garden in ways that the other lotuses thought were impossible...but these shining lotuses almost always met their end violently and abruptly. And the marvelous changes wrought by the five-, six-, or seven-petal lotuses would soon be hijacked by the three-, two-, and one-petal lotuses, and as time passed, the work of the great lotuses would be undone.

But then one day, something new happened, as it always does sooner or later.

One day, new lotuses were seen in the Garden, lotuses with eight petals, and even a few with nine! The other lotuses did not like these new lotuses at all. These new lotuses were so very different from the noble three-petal lotuses, so very different that it simply could not be tolerated. But as the three-petal lotuses, and the two-petal lotuses, and the one-petal lotuses came to rid the Garden of the eight- and nine-petal lotuses, they were surprised by the quick and wise words of these strange new lotuses.

The eight- and nine-petal lotuses did not speak like any lotuses they had heard. Their words were not overly polished by talent or skill, but they carried a wisdom unlike that of even the wisest four-petal lotuses. The eight-petal lotuses were able to reach the root of every issue, explaining it in a way that even the one-petal lotuses could not refute. They unfolded mysteries that had never before been revealed, all in the simplest fashion. They could not be stumped by even the most difficult of questions.

Soon, however, the three-, two-, and one-petal lotuses had enough of this, and they tried to silence to eight- and nine-petal lotuses. But nothing seemed to work. No matter what they tried, be it slander, imprisonment or even violence, the eight-petal lotuses would always somehow find a way out. The three-petal lotuses tried to take away the food and shelter of the eight-petal lotuses, but still the eight-petal lotuses would cheerfully find some new food and shelter without the slightest worry. The three-petal lotuses tried to condemn the eight-petal lotuses, rising up in their righteous three-petal wrath, condemning the shameful ways of the non-rigid eight-petal miscreants. But the eight-petal lotuses would go on without concern. And whenever the three-petal condemnation went too far, the eight-petal lotuses simply and effortlessly explained precisely how mistaken the three-petal lotuses were. And then they would go on again, unhindered by all the three-petal lotuses' designs.

During all this, the eight- and nine-petal lotuses were explaining what I think is the best part of this whole tale: They explained that they had not always had eight or nine petals. They had started with far fewer, and had grown, had learned to open more of their lovely petals. And they explained that every lotus, every single one, could likewise grow to open more and more of their own petals to the world around them. It didn't matter if a lotus had one petal, or three, or four; every single lotus could grow to have a completely different and higher number of petals.

The eight-petal lotuses explained that every lotus had already experienced this change, even though they did not realize it. For example, when a lotus was first born, crying and screaming, they would begin life as a zero-petal lotus. Ready to riot one moment and then lounge about the next, baby lotuses operated according to a very different sort of nature than most adult lotuses did. Then, as they grew, they learned to open one little petal to the world: they learned to have calculated desires, to seek their own good, to say "Mine!" Their entire deepest drive changed, evolving into something higher, something more effective than mere raging instinct. They would sometimes cheat or take things from other lotuses, but many of them eventually grew to know better than that sort of behavior. They transitioned into becoming two-petal lotuses, seeking the approval of their friends and of the adult lotuses. Not all of them changed into two-petal lotuses, but many of them did. Their deepest drive changed, seeking friendship, love, and the joy of other lotuses, rather than simple selfishness.

But the problem was that many of the lotuses would stop there. They would stop changing, stop going through the metamorphosis of opening new petals to the world. They remained as two-petal lotuses for the rest of their adult lives. Some of them even turned around and reverted to being selfish one-petal lotuses, or even wild zero-petal lotuses. Only a few lotuses continued changing, growing up to be honorable, noble three-petal lotuses. And yet, almost every single lotus who reached three petals stopped there, because after all, three petals was the highest number of petals that a lotus could bear. Wasn't it?

Well, the eight- and nine-petal lotuses explained that they had once been three-petal lotuses themselves. They had been born as zero-petal lotuses, the way all lotuses were, then had grown to be one-petal lotuses, and then two-petal lotuses, and finally three-petal lotuses. But all lotuses can change their petals. And the eight- and nine-petal lotuses had kept changing, had kept growing. They worked through the immense difficulties of becoming four-petal lotuses, and then grew over time to have five petals, and then six petals, and then seven petals. And now they had grown to have eight petals, and some of them even had nine. And they were still growing and changing. They told the other lotuses that there was no highest number of petals that a lotus could bear. There was no upper limit. Every lotus could continue revolutionizing his or her whole life, ever rising to higher, better, brighter ways.

These higher ways were not just BIG three-petal ways. They were not just more of the same. Each new petal changed everything, simply everything, petal by petal. The eight- and nine-petal lotuses were quite personable and cheerful, but they were not BIG three-petal lotuses; they were eight- and nine-petal lotuses. And they were able to show the path to all the other lotuses, able to show them how to gain more petals, explaining it in clear and detailed ways that even the seven-petal lotuses had been unable to do. For the first time in the history of the Garden, the unfamiliar path was being shown to all, so that all could gain petals without limit!

The eight-petal lotuses said that the three-petal lotuses would have to change. Their day of probation was ending, and now they would have to choose: they would have to decide to grow or fall. Three was certainly not the highest number of petals that a lotus could bear.

Many of the other lotuses did not like to hear this, and they tried even harder to fight the eight- and nine-petal lotuses. But it was too late: The eight-petal lotuses were already growing again to become nine-petal lotuses, and the nine-petal lotuses were growing into ten-petal lotuses, bristling with greater power than the other lotuses could believe. In centuries past, the seven-petal lotuses had been silenced, but the eight-, nine-, and ten-petal lotuses could not be stopped. And for the first time, more and more lotuses began slowly to open more of their own petals on purpose.

The whole Garden began to change as brand-new four-, five-, and six-petal lotuses bloomed everywhere. By the time the nine- and ten-petal lotuses finished their work, the Garden would never be the same ever again...


Hooray! So, that is my summary of the ancient Tale of the Blooming Lotus Garden. But of what use is it to us? Heh heh, well, next I will tell you a bit of the actual plans of the Order of the White Lotus. We aim to change the whole Garden, forever. When I tell you our plan, we will see if you think we are up to the challenge...