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<blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4924343" data-attributes="member: 19675">I'm not saying that a religion or belief may not have a chaotic element- even a strong one.&nbsp; I'm just not agreeing with you that Zen is one of them.What I'm saying is that while the story that teaches a particular lesson, it may not be indicative of the actual RW practice of zen buddhism, which, by the accounts of their daily lives has a very strong Lawful aspect through that D&amp;D lens.&nbsp; They may use Chaos to teach or to gain an advantage over an opponent, but it isn't necessarily embraced as the basis for their ethical viewpoint.&nbsp; Chaos is just a tool for them, not a path.A person of either of those ethoi could act as the elder monk did...or as the younger one (who could, as you pointed out, also be LN) did.Consider the multiple stories from Christianity in which Jesus bucks the rules of Judaism.&nbsp; He associates with the unclean...then eats without ritual purification.&nbsp; He accepts water from foreign women.&nbsp; He heals people on the Sabbath.Yet most people would say he and the religion founded in his name would be a good representation of a LG belief system.Just because someone bucks a single rule- in your story, the admonition against letting the flesh of women touch the flesh of a monk- doesn't make a person Chaotic, especially if obeying the rule lets Evil or injustice flourish.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dannyalcatraz, post: 4924343, member: 19675"] I'm not saying that a religion or belief may not have a chaotic element- even a strong one. I'm just not agreeing with you that Zen is one of them. What I'm saying is that while the story that teaches a particular lesson, it may not be indicative of the actual RW practice of zen buddhism, which, by the accounts of their daily lives has a [I]very [/I]strong Lawful aspect through that D&D lens. They may use Chaos to teach or to gain an advantage over an opponent, but it isn't necessarily embraced as the basis for their ethical viewpoint. Chaos is just a tool for them, not a path. A person of either of those ethoi could act as the elder monk did...or as the younger one (who could, as you pointed out, also be LN) did. Consider the multiple stories from Christianity in which Jesus bucks the rules of Judaism. He associates with the unclean...then eats without ritual purification. He accepts water from foreign women. He heals people on the Sabbath. Yet most people would say he and the religion founded in his name would be a good representation of a LG belief system. Just because someone bucks [I]a single[/I] rule- in your story, the admonition against letting the flesh of women touch the flesh of a monk- doesn't make a person Chaotic, especially if obeying the rule lets Evil or injustice flourish. [/QUOTE]

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