poised for their wild crusade across the universe Paul felt himself at the center, at the pivot where the whole structure turned, walking a thin wire of peace with a measure of happiness, Chani, at his side" Muad'Dib's relationship with Chani, like that of his fa- ther with Lady Jessica, was not one legally sanctioned, but he nevertheless regarded it as binding in the most ancient traditional sense His words of reassurance to Chani when they first encountered the beautiful Princess Irulan, "That which binds us cannot be loosed," go right back to Epistles and, beyond them, to Genesis Muad'Dib's years among the Fremen sharpened his understanding of the cruel ne cessities of life, an understanding not much mitigated by the deeper understanding he gained of the Zensunm religion which in their tradition was more purely Sunnite (Islamic) than Zensunnite because of, rather than in spite of, their wanderings as a race A more philosophical understanding of Zensunm tradition was derived by Muad Dib from his conversations with the ghola Hayt (Duncan Idaho) The ghola had been trained by the Tleilaxu as a Mental and philosopher of the Zensunm, in order to increase, if possible, his abilities with the sword (the legendary Samurai combat ability was still remembered) Unfortunately, this influence only encouraged Muad Dib's taste for irony and lo\e of paradox, fostering the increasing crypticism of his public utterances Several of the ghola's remarks may be traced to key passages m the 0 C Bible or the Commen tanes, as when Hayt first met Muad'Dib "The cleansed mind makes decisions m the presence of unknowns and without cause and effect " The saying derives from a comment on Bodhisat 739 "When you arc sinking in the river do you hold your feet still while you consider whether you fell from the bank or were pushed by a friend1*" The Koan Answers are recalled by the ghola when he suggests to Muad'Dib that infinite power can be contemplated in comfort only by remembering that all things are finite On another occasion, the ghola told Paul that 'We Zensunm say Not collecting, that is the ultimate gathering ' " from Ohashi XII12 After Muad'Dib walked blind into the desert, the ghola shared with Stilgar a moment of true Zensunm understanding 'He will not be found, Stilgar said " 'Yet all men will find him'" Muad'Dib's explorations of his inner life were very much in the Zensunm spirit His ORANGE CATHOLIC BIBLE 413 ORANGE CATHOLIC BIBLE abiding concern to "see into his nature" goes back to Hui Neng 5 but, as with so many of the Zensunm, he was not able to look beyond the self (or m Paul's case, the selves) to find the divine, tire jewel m the lotus "Find Buddha m your own heart, whose essential nature is the Buddha himself," teaches Eisai II6, but Muad'Dib, who found so much, did not find That After he became The Preacher, Paid sought to reawaken the relapsed firmer! to their Zensunm heritage At Arrakeen, he proclaimed ' The only business of the Piemen should be that of opening his soil to the inner teachings " In his desert years, however, Paul himself seems to have reverted more to a Nava-chnstian, even a Judeoslamic style of thought Zensunm thought-patterns were by no means eliminated, however, as can be seen when, on his first appearance at Alia's Temple, he cried out "The religion of Muad'Dib is not Muad'Dib" (cf "The finger which points at the moon is not the moon itself" {Sutra 124]) On his dramatic first appearance before Alia's Temple, Paul displayed as a kind of credential a mummified human hand from the desert Regarded as the relic of some final encounter with a sandworm, such a token was universally regarded as a communication from Shai-Hulud However, Paul further substantiated his claim to be a messenger from God by drawing on tests u the OC Bible "I bong the Hand of God, and that is all I brmgt" he shouted "I speak for the Hand of God I am The Preacher.