Path of the Moment

The Roads

Basic Beliefs
Like the Path of Paradox, the Path of Self-Focus (Path of the Moment) owes a great deal to contact with so-called "Cathayan" vampires. The path addresses a Taoist notion, one summed up by the moral teacher Laozi's concept of "Wu Wei" - "conscious inaction" or "non-doing." The path teaches a degree of acceptance of the world. to use a pop-culture phrase, "You cannot change the world, you may only change yourself." The universe, internalists believe, follows its own course and one must follow along or be destroyed. Mastery over the world is an illusion. Having purpose is an illusion. If one "wanders without purpose" and allows the universe to proceed of its own accord, there is no conflict. Where there is no conflict, the Beast is quiet.
Internalists teach that meddling int he affairs of others is wrong. The tao must work through each person, as it will by nature. By interfering, one rejects the tao and strives against the tide. If a friend asks for help, then it is just and honorable to help; that is the way of things. But if a friend does not call for help and you interfere, you undo destiny and undo the tao. Worse, by interfering, one assumes a degree of superiority over the other and assumes a course of action that can endanger oneself and the friend.
All answers to all questions can be found within oneself. The universe had gifted all sentient beings with the tools to understand all things. If you cannot understand a thing by looking within, then it is not your place to know it. But while one may possess the tools of understanding, one must work to understand those tools before beginning. By honing self-awareness, one can learn what needs to be learned.
Internalists know that there is no future - what comes will come, and the past is dead. there is only the now. Actions occur properly only when they are spontaneous, natural and the result of the needs of the moment. Acting for the future is foolish and acting for the past is wasteful. Vampires on this path frequently quote Lao Tzu: The work is done and then forgotten. And so it lasts forever. Such focused, undistracted action leaves no room for angst, passion or any consideration other than the moment. Free from such baggage, the spirit is free of the Beast.
But the Beast is part of every Cainite. Sometimes it needs to roam free. Vampires need to feed. When the Beast is required to come to the surface, it should be welcomed. The horrors wreaked by its awakening are also part of the tao. It is only when the Beast comes to the fore, when it is not required, that is wrong. By knowing oneself, one can know the Beast and know when it must rear its head. If one is weak, if one falters, then the Beast rears its head of its own accord and that is a failure. The destruction so wrought disrupts the tao and the flow of things.

Hierarchy of Sins
1) Being a slave; submitting to the blood bond or a boon.
2) Frenzying
3) Not meditating regularly
4) Restraining the Beast when it must be freed
5) Struggling with one's self
6) Seeking to control others
7) Relying on others
8) Not treating others as you wish to be treated
9) Laziness - mental or physical
10) Overconfidence.

Ethics of the Path

• Live in the moment, with no thought to what has been or what is to come. Neither can be affected.
  
• Know one's self, intellect and Beast utterly. the visceral and intellectual are e4qual parts of vampiric nature.
  
• do not mourn those who fall to one's predation, provided such predation occurs at the correct time and place. When hungry, feed. When threatened, kill. To morn suggests that the tao is wrong.
  
• Do not be overconfident. The overconfident do not know their limits. But equally, do not underestimate one's self.
  
• Judge others (and one's self) by what they do and how they do it, not by their words.
  
• A being is responsible to itself and only to itself, not others.

History
Around the time of the Battle of Talas in A.D. 751, when Chinese and Muslim armies fought an indecisive battle, vampires from East and West met. Like their mortal prey, Muslim and Chinese vampires fought, but also traded in goods and ideas. The Muslims learned the secrets of making paper. Cainites learned the secrets of certain Chinese philosophies. As time passed, these outlooks developed and grew, influenced by Zen Buddhism and Taoism. Middle Eastern vampires, especially the Muslim Ashirra, were interested in such doctrines, but did not fully adopt the foreign precepts. Rather, a small group of non-Muslim vampires studied these ways in secret.
They might have died out, too, but for the actions of the Tal'mahe'ra, who recruited the followers and nurtured a path's evolution. The Tal'mahe'ra, the so-called "True Black Hand," believed that by channeling the excesses of its members into experimental paths such as that of Self-Focus or the Scorched Heart, they could better work to defend humanity.
Self-Focus was never a popular path, however, and did not have more than a hundred adherents.
Int he Final Nights, only a few vampires who've had contact with either the "True Black Hand" or with Cathayan undead follow the path. Certain concepts upheld by Cathayan vampires' own paths are similar to the precepts of Self-Focus.

Current Practices
Internalists do not seek to increase their influence, and do not evangelize their ways. They are, however, interested in both discussion of the "mortal" Tao and the Cainite equivalent. They have been know to choose Taoists for the Embrace. Vampiric scholars who show interest in so-called "Eastern" philosophies are sometimes invited to study this path. The following actually grows - slowly - and claims as many as 50 adherents in the modern night.
Several internalists are active in California, acting as mediators between Cainites and Cathayans, or seeking to learn from both.

Description of Followers
Some Kindred dismiss internalists as being slow and passive, but most have learned to leave the followers alone - they are more than capable of defending themselves. All seek to learn from experiences, and hope to glimpse a little of the workings of the universe from each new sensation. The are not idle dilettantes. Rather, they meditate on every new thing and seek to rationalize it.
Internalists believe in God or a higher being, but they do not fool themselves into believing that vampires are part of some greater plan. Vampires are there, a part of things, but nothing more.
Virtues: The path of Self-Focus (Path of the Moment) draws on Conviction and Instinct.
Common Abilities: Etiquette, Brawl (Martial Arts) and Expression are especially prized. Anything that aids in the "knowing" of one's self and the bettering of one's body and spirit" is to be pursued. Internalists also typically excel at the meditation specialty of Occult.
Preferred Disciplines: Auspex is valued, because of its capacity to help transcend the mortal plane and allow its user to experience the spiritual world. Internalists often learn physical Disciplines as self-defense. They tend not to practice such powers as Dominate or Presence.