An Essay on Malkavian Madness and its Relation to Zen Concepts of Enlightenment
		by BlueAcorn@aol.com

	Too many people (vampires, mortals and those little fuzzy things
that... oops, I've said too much already) take what they call madness as
an excuse for shirking responsibility and buffoonery.  Quite the contrary. 
True madness is debilitating and tragic and, thankfully, is present in the
Malkavian population in only slightly greater numbers than any other
sample of the kindred population.  What the true gift of Malkav is a
weakening of established mental configurations.  The preconceived notions
and fixed view of the world are, sometimes more violently than others,
softened or dropped.  The purpose is to open up the mind to allow a
clearer perception of the world and come closer to a greater truth.
	In Zen particularly, although present in other
philosophies/religions, the goal is to achieve a clarity of understanding
about the true nature of existence by defeating the ego and dropping your
rigid mental structure.  The mind may be separated into who you are and
who you think you are.  The part that defines who you think you are is
considered the ego and is responsible for the many pre- and mis-
conceptions and we possess.  The ego is sensitive to slights and takes
offense easily.  The other part or the wu wei (chinese: no mind) simply
is.  Is sees things as they are and forms no opinion about them.  As an
example, if an artist walks into a cathedral, picks himself back up and
goes in through the door, he may look around and be filled with passion
and lust.  Such beauty! he exclaims.  The time it must take, the vision
required!  Then a devout catholic enters.  Perhaps she feels a glorious
elation coupled with shame for her sins.  The Lord is eternal! she
proclaims with conviction and kneels to pray.  Afterwards, a Jewish man
enters and is overcome with anger.  He looks around and sees the centuries
of persecution his people had to endure at the hands of The Catholic
Church. 
 All of this from a single building!  The building is simple stone and wood
and does nothing to these people, they do it to themselves.
	These mental configurations bind us and limit our vision.  The
actions of the enlightened masters would most certainly seem mad to those
how don't quite get it.  A story was told were a master was sitting with
some students and passing around a hand fan.  The master asked each of
them What is this?. 
 One student said A fan, another abstained from words and simple opened the
fan and waved it before his face.  The last student closed the fan and
scratched his back with it and then opened it, placed a piece of cake on it
and offered the cake to the master.  This was considered the best answer
because the student perceived beyond the normal boundaries of what a fan is.
 By using it as a backscratcher and then as a plate, he demonstrated that the
fan simply is but it also happens to be useful for cooling oneself on a hot
day.  It is people that tend to confine the fan to cooling purposes.
	For Malkavians, it can be expected that some confusion may arise
both from the vampire and from those witnessing it.  To see what was
thought to be rock hard fact melt away into simple opinion can be painful
and frightening. 
 Where the true illness stems from is the inability to let go.  The Tao Te
Ching states:
The five colors blind the eye
The five tones deafen the ear
The five flavors dull the taste
Racing and hunting madden the mind
Precious things lead one astray
 So it is the clinging that causes the problems.  Therefore, the letting
go is the solution.  But how many people out there are truly strong enough
to let go of your perception of the world?  As a Malkavian, it isn't much
of a choice.  The perceptions are made to be seen as the illusions that
they are but it is up to the vampire to treat them as such.  Now which is
more made: letting go of old, cumbersome and limiting beliefs or holding
firm to what you know to be false?
	The Malkavian tradition of pranking is reminiscent to certain Zen
training techniques.  A traditional Zen scenario involves the student
asking the master, Master, what is Zen? whereby the master abruptly slaps
the student as the reply.  Zen is a vehicle used to achieve enlightenment
and the slap was used to shock the student out of his mental complacency
of expecting an articulate answer.  To is analogous to a mountain climber
and his student climbing a mountain (well, because thats what mountain
climbers do...) At a dangerous point in the climb, the student suffers a
panic attack and the mountain climber slaps the student to bring his to
his senses.  The Malkavian pranks, if used as they should, are to provide
similar shocks to the recipient to shake them out of their complacency or
give them sudden insight (satori) that brings them closer to the truth. 
But then there is the question: what is the truth?
	The truth is the truth.  It cannot be articulated but can be felt
and known. 
 In the Tao Te Ching, the first line reads, The Tao (or true path) that
can be told is not the true Tao.  There is only one truth but infinite
ways to see, interpret and reach that one truth.  A Zen master once said,
If a man wants to taste the sea, he need only to walk in a single
direction.  Eventually, he will come to the ocean and there upon dipping
his finger in the water, he knows the taste of all seven seas.
	But, these are the ideals.  Over the years, weak and irresponsible
Malkavians have been made and sired their own taking the clan and all
kindred further from enlightenment (Samedi, Satori, Golconda, Nirvana,
etc...). 
 Maybe there is hope, maybe there isn't.  I'm not telling.  I'll just leave
with parting words from Master Rinzai: All I am talking about is only
medicine appropriate for curing specific ailments.  In my talks there is
nothing absolutely real.