Second Ocean, 25th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): To misquote and mischaracterize an ancient Zen koan (one of my favorite activities):

If you kick up dust, the nation will prosper and the people will frown. If you don't kick up dust, the nation will perish and the people will be at ease.

These words (or something vaguely similar) were spoken by Chinese Chan master Fengxue Yanzhao (869-973 AD, or 1396-1473 of my New Revised Universal Solar Calendar's Common Era). He studied Confucianism as a youth but failed to pass the state civil exams. Disappointed, he left home and joined a monastery. He traveled extensively to broaden his understanding, and eventually settled under a rigorous Zen master and became his teacher's heir and successor. He began teaching at the already dilapidated Fengxue Temple (where be got his name), and attracted students despite the run-down condition of the temple. Eventually, he and his students moved to a new temple where he served as the head abbot for 22 years. 

Reportedly, after saying the words above, he told his monks, "When you understand this, then there is nothing more and everything is your teacher. If this is not understood, then your teacher is a priest. Together, this teacher and priest can enlighten or delude the entire world."

"Do you want to understand the priest?," he asked and slapped his right side and said, "Just this."

"Do you want to understand the teacher?," he then asked, and slapped his left side and said, "Just this."

Really. That's how they talked back then.

To take the koan literally and not at all how it was originally intended, in these times and in this country, we have to kick up some dust and raise a little ruckus for the nation to prosper. This, however, will make some people very unhappy - if a protest doesn't inconvenience at least some people, it isn't very effective. On the other hand, it's good for the people to be happy and at ease, but in these times, that may mean the nation as we know it will perish.

Which is better - to maintain peace and harmony or to make the nation a more perfect union? Fengxue's "just this" implies that these activities aren't necessarily opposites but just two sides of the same coin. It's time to act and kick up some dust (good trouble), and it's also time to maintain peace and harmony.