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Feeling Kolok's distress the Pathfinders' Guild had to respond; their envoy, Daasur, was assigned to Kolok. So had arrived Daasur to Kolok to investigate the conditions that were leading to the Gaia's distress. For such an envoy this meant that she travel throughout Kolok searching for any recognition of the path:-
Instead of the path's peace she felt much confusion, so much confusion around no wonder the gaia was in distress. At least she knew there would be hope if she could find Talaks who were not conditioned - Talaks without the conditioning that was being turned to confusion and distress; the Taj of course could not escape their conditioning, they were totally addicted .... unless they stopped being Taj. And for a sensoid like Daasur, in a Moment she could feel the pain of this confusion - it was her job; but the bonus - she could feel whether the core of compassion, insight and creativity existed on the gaia.
These assignments, how necessary they were but how much she hated them. No hate is an exaggeration - it wasn't hate because what she did was valuable; but there was trepidation of the anguish. Trepidation - being required to take Moments to determine the hopes of these gaias like Kolok and their life-forms, knowing there would be suffering in those Moments. At the instant of Moment she could feel all that the other being felt, if she chose one of the violent Talak she could feel all the terror that created that violence. Whatever quagmire existed in their minds she felt.
For her taking a Moment was just an extension of her own consciousness, at the instant of Moment her consciousness included all the consciousness and conditioning that was the life of the other being. For most Talaks consciousness was conditioned egos restricted to their bodies, emotions, memories/perceptions and thought processes; there was no relationship with their gaia. Typically sense-events arise and consciousness grasps what arises or not - for most Talaks their fear meant a grasping painful ego. When a sensoid takes a Moment s/he touches the consciousness of the other - much like touching Source without the bliss; when Daasur chooses a Talak, at that Moment her consciousness temporarily incorporates the other's consciousness and conditioning, feels and records it - this is what sensoids call taking a Moment (of consciousness). This non-invasive incorporation takes a brief second; that Moment records the good of the core path but also records all the attachments the rest of their consciousness clings to - recording the path and the other's egoic self in a Moment. For that Moment Daasur's consciousness feels all that is the other, and on Kolok that could be very distressing. At that Moment she would feel the fears, the grasping, the distress; she feels all the causes of conditioned violence. At the Moment the envoy became momentarily almost completely dominated by suffering.
It was an envoy's requirement (job description?) first of all to record a Moment of the elite - for the damned Council. And it was her skill as an envoy to choose Moments that demonstrated to the Council what was happening on the gaia; if she chose right she would only have to endure a few Moments of personal distress. To begin with there would have to be one of the required elite, on Kolok one Taj. As she expected this Taj was insane, addicted to their power and all the manifestations of that power on Kolok, lacking any compassion - submerging innate compassion with material hedonism and excess. It was distressing as she expected - a pain she had to suffer, feeling part of Kolok's distress that had brought her there as envoy.
With that Taj Moment done, the Council would see the imbalance in Kolok's path. But now she needed to feel the Moments of Talaks, to be able to report whether there was the possibility of hope, to determine if Talaks had any freedom or whether their consciousnesses were just so completely restricted to the conditioning. For the Council she only needed to know that there was some recognition of Kolok's path - that was sufficient; just 10 with some connection to the path. Their stupid quota of 10, she sneered! When she first started out as an envoy she thought filling this quota would be easy, just a matter of finding the required individuals amongst the leaders, religions etc. In her arrogance she breezed in, found the "nearest" political leader and that was her worst Moment ever - she felt the pain and ugliness for days; this puppet was soulless, heartless and self-serving. And she saw the leader immersed in the political quagmire where so many decisions that could have helped became suffering in the service of their elite. Not only was this individual heinous, but on that particular gaia they were creating hatred of others, and this puppet actually believed the hatred. Even now she recoils from the great pain in that Moment, a Moment that deeply worsened her experience on that gaia. Once in touch with that overriding pain her own consciousness could not detach because of the recoil - negative attachment, and she lurched from one bad Moment to another requiring nearly a 100 Moments before she reached Quota. There was a silver lining, she begrudged somewhat cynically; at least the Council were happy with the completeness of her report - they never seemed capable of understanding Moment-induced sensoid pain. Yet once she had given her report the Guild gave her time to recover, only then did she feel any empathy and in her recovery recalled how both Guild and Council had tried to warn the novice; however she still preferred the comfort she got from sneering at the Council.
Looking back at her arrogance she just wondered at her own egotistical stupidity - if the gaia was in distress how could any leader have embraced the gaia's path? Over the years she had found such paths in all the "wrong" places - in isolation or hiding was how many survived with their compassion. With the suffering on the gaia many couldn't avoid being recluses but care was still needed - some recluses were evil. The Guild trained her to seek out these recluses to determine what they called the engagement balance. Did all those seekers beginning their reconnection bypass to reclusion? Could the reconnectors maintain compassion in daily life on the gaia?
So she would then turn to these compassionates who were in healing and caring - and teaching obviously, but even in those obvious compassion arenas there was likely to be much corruption established by the elite. If all the healers, carers and teachers were allowed to fulfil these natural duties the gaia would not be in distress - the pathfinders' tautology. Amongst the political she stopped looking, after all the political sought power for themselves so were unlikely to be deeply compassionate; occasionally there were pathtivists in the grass roots movements, but on planets where the gaia was in distress the grass roots will have been intentionally divided. Obviously the creative were to be looked for but on distressed gaias the awakened creativity cannot be effective. There were always some creatives who were on the path, but judging the genuine creativity of another culture is difficult unless she took a Moment - with the potential pain; this was a Catch 22 decision as one creative had described somewhere. Over years she wisened up, her quotas were never just 10 Moments but she was able to judge sufficiently to avoid the grosser pains.
Because the Taj had created such confusion Kolok was not going to be an easy assignment. Simplistically analysis dictates that the Taj needed to exploit the Talaks to maintain their wealth, power and influence, but all the Talaks could not know this of the Taj - nor could those who knew have any power to make changes. There were always indicators such as the lack of Unity, usually the elites were sufficiently analytical of their own preservation that natural Unity was never possible. Kolok was no different as could be observed by the intended confusion.
Taj propagandists promoted confusion enabling Talak egos, promoting the grasping of instinctive conditioning rather than allowing these instincts to fall away as Talaks matured. Not all gaias used instinct in this way especially the more mature. For the younger gaias it seemed common sense to give their life-forms instincts for survival - for that time in their life when the young started to become adult and when compassion could not always be at the forefront because of other natural dictates. It was all wrapped up in the damned suffering conundrum. The pathfinders called this type of promoted conditioning - "reinforced conditioning"; suffering through natural conditioning could be a learning process but reinforced conditioning was socially-imposed ignorance - and far more painful.
Moments of this reinforced conditioning were particularly painful. For sensoids feeling any ego was a form of mental abrasiveness, but the natural conditioning of instinct could be tolerable. But reinforced conditioning heightened that abrasion – for some reason nature dictated that sensoid consciousness should experience ego as a grating pain in a Moment. Reinforced grating was an experience they wanted to forget but sadly it was part of their job. Being called in only when gaias were in distress, how could the beings on these gaias ever be free from ego? From that abrasion?
Of course the Talaks were no exception, so it was a sensoid hell as she navigated around Kolok. This required observation, and for sensoids restricting experience to the 5 senses was a great limitation but a necessary one. She remembered her debut envoy-mission, the Moment of pain with the politician, and quickly dismissed her sensual self-pity; no way did she want that again. As she observed a feeling grew as to what was happening on Kolok, and it felt positive for her; Kolok need not feel distress – at least no long-term distress; Daasur had identified the problem. Attachment - identifying too much with Talak pain was distressing Kolok. Although these Talaks were her "babies" Kolok had to learn that they were not who she was - she had to know to let them go if necessary.
But that letting-go "genocide" was a long way off - if at all. Although these Talaks were causing Kolok distress they were not in any way doomed - she had seen doomed beings on other gaias. Yes the Taj were exploiting the Talaks but there was clear evidence to Daasur that there was sufficient connection to Kolok's truth for the distress to be ended. How could Kolok know this, she was all alone. And that was the other part of the envoy's mission, to make the gaia sufficiently aware of herself to end the distress she was causing within and on Kolok.
Pathfinders' Report to the Council on Gaia Section 117 Planet 5/q/3
These reports were always verbal, the Council demanded it.
"Just to note I will refer to this gaia as Kolok - as does her highest path-seeking life-form," Daasur began.
"The Guild had noted a low level distress as previously reported to the Council on 3174/12/3. With the Council's consent I was dispatched as envoy to Kolok to determine the level of distress.
"I travelled Kolok the requisite time, please find on file Moments for the gaia, Kolok, one Taj, their name for the exploiting elite, and 15 Talaks as per quota. I would note here that well within that time I had recognised the source of the distress, and the additional time simply reinforced that view." The Council don’t care about the sensoid pain that additional time caused me, she muttered to herself, a quota of 3 Talaks would have been sufficient for her conclusions.
A council member asked “Is the 15 Talaks (is that the correct name?) significant as being 5 above quota?”
“Not in my opinion,” answered Daasur “my average is just under 14.”
"My assessment is that Kolok is a young gaia, and that the distress she was feeling was a youthful identification with her highest pathseekers. These pathseekers had slipped into an early stage exploiting model typical of the instinctual development the gaia was going through.
"As per protocol, after Moments with the Taj and Talaks, my Moment with Kolok was to some extent interventionist. I helped her observe the attachments to the Talaks (and Taj) which were causing the distress, and I noted the gaia experienced the awareness that her own distress was providing a feedback loop making the situation worse. This will obviously lessen her distress as well as affect the balance of the Talaks.
"Overall, I observed the instinctual development of a young gaia - too much attachment causing ego, and noted how much this was contributing to her own distress. There was nothing unusual in this instinctual distress, and that there is no need for the Council to be concerned. Appropriate monitoring (non-urgent) in order to observe that the gaia is maturing naturally is all that is necessary. I would note here that the Guild has observed an appropriate reduction in Kolok’s distress since my return, and they would like me to report that there is no need for concern in their view."
"That is the end of my report on Kolok," announced Daasur.
Council discussed the report briefly, and as there was no necessary feedback thanked her for her pain and effort.
"The variety of paths on Kolok makes it a good Gaia for apprenticeship. I suggested to the Guild that as part of the observer's reporting sensoid training also be included, and they have agreed that I will train whilst observing. Is this acceptable to the Council?" It was polite to ask, appeased the institutional part of Council nature.
They agreed and Daasur left.
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Public Domain Science Fiction Writer 
