Praedium Record
Translation from memory, source redacted.

Come, sister. A decision to seek enlightenment is the selfsame first step to achieving it. Your heart has learned that you wish this for yourself, and your mind carried you here. The heart is like the rushing of a river, the mind, the rudder of your skiff. Enlightenment is the culmination and quietus to a lifelong journey toward a perfect peace between every facet of your soul. We here at the Temple walk the road to achieving this glorious end in all events of our daily lives. It is not an easy journey, and there will be much pain. Humans, however, can achieve anything that they wish; that is what separates them from animals. Humans can overcome any obstacle because they have the power to silence their fear and their instinct and override them, taking a road that all of their senses tell them not to. For example, drink this. …Good. It is a poison to kill animals.

Shh, now! Do not panic! Your lungs and chest are now full of water. Your throat has collapsed to forbid expulsion. If you do not perform properly, you will drown. Do you understand? I said, do you understand? Good. Now, stop struggling. Stop struggling and breathe the water… Do not refuse me. Relax. Calm yourself. Inhale, feel your reflex to choke, and ignore it. Let it fill your lung, and gently push back out, and up your throat. Good…You lived because you were able to overcome the insanity of your weak inner beast.

What we are doing here does not concern animals who cannot master themselves. If we are ever to be more than we are, we must cease to be what we were. The Temple of Water is a place where humans can learn to be something more. We walk the diamond path toward an enlightenment that will elevate us above the common human condition to something farther, higher, more. Make no mistake. We are here to make a god. Until that time we are cautiously neutral. Why do I tell so much to an uninitiated aspirant such as yourself? Do not worry over that. Tell me, girl. Do you have the spiritual fortitude to endure such a quest? Do you have the breadth of mental acuity it will take to reshape the very perspective of your mind’s eye? We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Can you embrace this fundamental truth or can you not? Decide now whether you be beast or man. … Go home then.