To follow the Tao is to empty your mind. Each day, know a little less Until in the end, you are one with the way. As you were all along! Shao-La
Shao-La was an eccentric old Woman who lived in a temple atop a mountain (what is it with these people and mountains!?). She taught Taoism to Bruce Wayne, albeit a peculiar brand of Taoism that involved attaching Bruce to a rickety kite-type thing and pushing him off the edge of a cliff! She then steered the kite (which was reminiscent of Batmans cape-glider apparatus) as he soared above the mountain range and contemplated his future. Later, eager to learn what his future actually held, Bruce joined the adjoining temple of the dark Hsien-Tan, Shao-Las opposite number. Tan foretold that Bruce would kill his student, Little Dragon and then read a fortune for him that basically said YOU WILL BECOME BATMAN in not so many words. He then went outside for a bit of a deranged laugh and was promptly struck by lightening. Of course, many years later, in Gotham Citys Chinatown district, Dragon and Batman did indeed square off and, without even a single punch being thrown (but a remarkable splash page nonetheless), Dragon knew that he was beaten and thus committed suicide. Both mentors appeared in the two-part Legends of The Dark Knight story Tao, by Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson (October 1993). This story is well worth tracking down if you havent yet read it.