Excerpted and adapted from The Tao of Story: from Dracula to Bodhisattva, by Allan B. Chinen, M.D.

Copyright © 2000 by Allan B. Chinen. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the author.

Introduction

Whether we are aware of them are not, we live out stories -- from archetypal, mythic tales, to stories we remember about our parents. Regardless of the content of these "life tales," all of us at some time or another face one of four basic story problems: being stuck in a story; becoming lost among stories; failing a story; and finally, being wounded by a story.

Stuck in a Story

Sisyphus is an archetypal example of someone stuck in a story, endlessly repeating the same drama. But there is an even more dramatic and horrible illustration of a stuck story -- the vampire. Doomed for all eternity to feed on the blood of the living, the vampire cannot escape the accursed drama he or she is forced to play out.

Dracula is probably the best-known vampire, and his story is well and often retold. What is often missing, though, particularly in movies, is the final end of the original book by Bram Stoker. And that end has profound insights about being stuck in a story.

Once an ordinary man, Count Dracula was bitten by a vampire, so that upon his death, he became one himself, neither truly dead, nor alive, but Undead. After centuries of preying upon his people in Transylvania, Dracula moved to London, seeking readier supplies of blood. One of his first victims was Lucy, a young woman only recently engaged to be married. Using his hypnotic powers, Dracula bewitched her and drank her blood each night. As she became weaker day by day, her fiancé and friends called in a colleague for help, a Professor Van Helsing. He recognized the signs of a vampire, but despite his best efforts to help Lucy, she died. Her fiancé and friends could not believe that Lucy had been the victim of a vampire and would now become one in death. So Van Helsing took them to Lucy's tomb at night, and to their horror, they found only an empty coffin. Shortly thereafter, Lucy herself appeared, carrying an infant whose blood she drank. Faced with this gruesome evidence, Van Helsing and Lucy's friends killed the vampire that Lucy had become by driving a stake through her heart. As she died, however, her monstrous face became human again, as kind and gentle as she had been in life. True death released her from the vampire curse.

Seeking the vampire who had "infected" Lucy, Van Helsing and his team eventually found Dracula and hunted him down. Unmasked, the Count fled London for his native Transylvania, but not before attacking Nina, Lucy's closest friend. The pursuit of Dracula now took on a desperate turn, because if Nina died, she would become a vampire herself. Her only hope lay in Van Helsing and the other valiant men finding Dracula and killing him, releasing his curse upon Nina. The group pursued the Count through many trials and tribulations, until they finally caught up with him in a dramatic finale.

Dracula's henchmen carried the vampire, safely ensconced in his coffin, rapidly towards his castle. Just as the sun began to set, reviving Dracula and giving him back all his power, the heroes reached him.

• What ending do you expect?
• What finale would you want?
• Compare your answers with the original ending:

As night fell and Dracula awakened, the heroes broke open his coffin, and drove a stake through his heart, killing him. In the next moment, Dracula's body began to crumble into dust, returning to its natural state, after centuries of an unholy life. Yet in the process an amazing transformation took place -- all the hatred, rage and evil in his face vanished, and were replaced by a look of utter peace, and profound gratitude. Dracula was released from his curse, from his centuries of darkness, evil, and torment. His soul was finally redeemed and the vampire curse upon Nina broken.

• What do you crave and need to survive, even if it means taking life from others? Fame? Attention? Power?
• What are your vampire curses? Living on credit cards?
• Who infected you? Whom have you transferred the curse to?
• Who redeemed you?

Lost in Stories

After escaping a stuck story, what new narrative do we live out? Here a new problem arises.

The Original (slightly revised)

Long, long ago, when all people still belonged to one nation, their king gathered them together. "Let us build a tower to thank God for our prosperous land and good life," he said. And so everyone set to raising the tower. As it grew higher and higher, the King and all the people became inspired, and vowed to build their tower so tall that it would reach heaven. Looking out from His window, God saw the tower approaching His house. He became troubled and thought, "Humanity will soon enter My house. Then they will learn the secrets of the universe and gain power over all things. Yet they have little wisdom, and so I fear for all creatures." God pondered the problem and then had an idea. He raised his hand, uttered four words, and thereby confounded humanity. Where there had been one language, one understanding, one heart, and one will, now people spoke in different tongues and misunderstood each other. Conversations turned into quarrels, quarrels led to blows, blows to battle, and soon the people were scattered over the earth by warfare, each new nation with their own King and Queen, behind walls and towers.

The Sequel

Over the millennia, the disputes deepened, and each clan grew in power, so their battles became ever more fearsome, and the cries of the dying more piercing. Shaken by the tumult, the noble vaults of heaven fractured, and one by one, eternity's crystal towers began to shatter. Slowly but steadily, the celestial pillars broke into fragments. Some say God fled, as the foundations of heaven split apart; others claim that God was injured by falling vaults, or perhaps even died. And year by year, as the collapse of heaven accelerated, the luminous city broke down piece by piece, and the fragments fell upon the earth, injuring many. Some rubble, still bright with heaven's light, set people on fire, while other debris, sharp with truth, wounded many more. The victims often did not notice their injuries, because the shards of heaven wounded souls, not bodies, and left no blood as evidence.

• When in your life have you faced this Babel, perhaps about a career choice, a relationship? In adolescence? At midlife? After a divorce?
• How did you find your way through all the confusion? Or did you?
• In today's "postmodern," relativistic millennium, how do you choose among different stories?

Failing a Story

Long ago, and far away, there lived a kind and generous man much loved and respected in his village. One day a holy lama arrived in town, and the kind man approached the lama to ask for instruction in how to become enlightened. The man explained that he had seen all his children married, and now that he was widowed, he wished to turn towards seeking illumination. The lama saw that the man was sincere and so he taught him a special ritual and prayer to perform many times each day. The man retired to a cave in the mountains, where he practiced the ritual and prayer constantly. One year went by, and another and yet one more, but the man still found no enlightenment.

After 20 years, the holy lama returned to the village, and the kind man, now quite old, went up to the sage. "For 20 years I have prayed, meditated and performed the ritual you taught me," the old man said, "but I have not found enlightenment. I must be doing something wrong. Would you be able to help me?" The lama asked what the man had been doing, but when the old man described his practices, the lama exclaimed in horror, "I fear I have taught you the wrong thing. That ritual and that prayer cannot go together, and you will never become enlightened starting over, because you are so old. I'm deeply sorry for my error."

• What would you do in his situation?
• When have you failed in something you desired passionately?
• What did you do then?
• Whose fault was it?

The old man was devastated. He did not know what to do, but since he had nowhere else to go now, he returned to his cave. After all, it had been his home for 20 years. There he pondered what to do with the few years remaining in his life. After a time, he decided that he might as well continue his prayer and ritual, even if they would never enlighten him, because they seemed like old friends after 20 years of practice. He began his prayer and ritual, and in that moment he was enlightened.

• How do you explain what happened here?
• When in your life has failure and despair suddenly turned into revelation or transformation?
• What prompted the change -- something you did or did not do?

Wounded by a Story

If we fail stories sometimes, stories sometimes fail us. Instead of living happily ever after as a reward for our hard work and struggle, sometimes we gain nothing, because of bad luck, or a host of other misfortunes. We are wounded by our story.

The tale of Oedipus the King is probably familiar to any student of psychology -- how at birth, the oracles prophesized that he would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother, and how despite his efforts and his parents', the accursed fate came true: as a young man, wandering the world, Oedipus met a stranger, who angrily attacked Oedipus for not giving way on the road; in defending himself, Oedipus killed the hot-tempered assailant, not knowing it was his father. Soon after, he came to Thebes, never guessing that it was his native land. The city was plagued by the monstrous Sphinx, but Oedipus solved its riddle, defeating it, and liberating the city. In gratitude, the people of Thebes made Oedipus their King, and he married their Queen, only recently widowed. No one ever imagined that she was actually his mother.

Many years later, after Oedipus sired his own family, misfortune plagued Thebes, and the oracles said it was because an abominable criminal lived there. When Oedipus learned the horrifying truth for the first time -- that he had killed his father and married his mother -- he blinded himself in grief and guilt, while his mother and wife hung herself. Exiled from his native Thebes for his unspeakable, if unwitting, crimes, he was shunned by all men, and wandered from place to place, aided only by his daughter Antigone.

Oedipus at Colonus

After some 20 years of wandering, the ragged, haggard Oedipus, led by his daughter Antigone, arrived -- unknowingly -- at the grove sacred to the ancient Furies, just outside of Athens. When the people learned his identity, there were horrified and asked him to leave, accusing him of unspeakable crimes. But Oedipus defended himself -- he was innocent, he declared, having committed his crimes without knowledge: his actions were decided by destiny, not him. And Oedipus, now knowing he rested in the sanctuary of the Furies, realized a final prophecy was coming true, and that destiny had guided his footsteps once more. He appealed for refuge to Theseus, the noble King of Athens, promising that his death and burial in Athenian soil would bring a great boon to the city, and Theseus granted him sanctuary.

Meanwhile, Oedipus' other daughter, Ismene, arrived with news from Thebes -- the oracles had just revealed that where Oedipus died and was buried, a divine blessing would protect the land. And so Polyneices, one of Oedipus' sons, was on his way to retrieve Oedipus: Polyneices had begun a civil war, fighting his own brother for the throne of Thebes, and believed that Oedipus' presence on his side would guarantee victory. In addition, Ismene went on, Creon, the present ruler of Thebes, sought to bring Oedipus home, by force if necessary, and planned to imprison the blind man, just beyond the boundaries of Thebes -- near enough to the city so that when Oedipus died, the blessings that the oracles had predicted would come to Thebes, yet keeping Oedipus far enough from the city, so that his parricide and incest would not pollute the land as it once did.

Creon soon appeared, accompanied by soldiers, and when Oedipus refused his demand to return to Thebes, Creon -- not daring to seize Oedipus himself -- abducted his two daughters. But Theseus defended Oedipus, seized Creon and forced him to return Ismene and Antigone.

Polyneices arrived next, asking Oedipus to return with him. The old man, remembering how both sons had done nothing to help him or Antigone during their long exile, laid a curse upon Polyneices and his brother, dooming them to kill each other in their civil war.

Shortly after Polyneices departed, thunder shook the land, and Oedipus, knowing his end was near, asked Theseus to accompany him to a secret place in the sanctuary of the Furies. There Oedipus would die and if that location were kept a secret, even from Ismene and Antigone, Athens would be protected by the gods against all foes. A divine voice then rang out, telling Oedipus to hurry, and not delay so long. Theseus and Oedipus entered the forest, and after a while, Theseus returned alone, saying nothing of what happened. One of the King's attendants, however, had watched from a distance, and reported seeing Oedipus vanish suddenly, Theseus covered his face, as if to protect himself from a fearful light. And so, in mystery, ended the long, harrowing tale of Oedipus the King.

• What you think happened to Oedipus, and why?
• When in your life have you been "wounded" by a story?
• What in your life has been unexpected, unacceptable, uncontrollable, like Oedipus' fate (but maybe less dramatic)? What did you do?