I think that while that explanation may have been its mythical justification, you would be misunderstanding it if you understood it only on that level. The instant torture camps where also very much a mechanism of the state for punishment of criminals and disidents, as you might expect. Sheng was not thrown in there because they wished to help his spiritual progress, but because they wanted to hurt him.
>It's
>>origins are murky, its precise workings now forgotten and after
>>Sheng Seleris was defeated, Godunya abolished it.
Godunya, of course, didn't want any more Shengs coming out of it.
>Traditionally you leave the camp when you have become enlightened.
>At various stages, demons appear and offer you various inducements
>if you abandon the instant torture camp. They are usually rebuffed
>for enlightenment is thought to be a greater reward than mere
>worldly power. Sheng however eschewed enlightenment and chose to
>leave when the demons of temptation offered him the world.
I think traditionally, you leave the camp when you are considered to be sufficiently enlightened - which often may mean having renounced your criminal past/ revolutionary ways/ heresy to the satisfaction of the camp commanders. Most of its inhabitants are not sufficiently skilled mystics to ever escape by mystic practice - and once offered a chance to leave by any means, take it.
The torture camps are literally hell on earth. Like Hell, they are there not for the further enlightenment of the already highly enlightened, but for those who are far from enlightenment and do wrong. Normally true mystics leave the place as quickly as they can, much as they do the mystic hell.
Sheng is unusual not in that he chose to leave, but in that he chose not to.
NB - enlightenment through torture would appear to be a 'short path' type power, a bit like FrenzyPeace, rather than the normal eastern path of gradual detachment. This merits further investigation.
Cheers David ------------------------------
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