#Panda entertained a work thought 💭

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

Was Yangchen crying alone at Jetsun’s bedside after everything happened? … Was she the only one crying? No comfort? At all? Not even an implication of comfort between the lines?

If she was the only one crying or looking affected at all, then it’s doing a great job of fuelling the thought of the nuns not seeing her as truly existing. (The nihilistic sort of emptiness)

I kinda hate how my brain gets sometimes while trying to entertain me at work because when the idea first gets there I can’t stop thinking about it😵‍💫

[dutchannanas]

Episode 7 My thoughts 💭

Riiiight, death match time!

I'm a bit slow. So all the leaders should pick a better rapper in order to survive? And if they want to get rid of a shitty rapper, they should pick someone worse than themselves? That is what I'm hearing.

WAIT I'm confused. I'll just shut up and watch. OH it depends on how well you did at the Block Tournament. That makes sense.

Khan isn't planning on sacrificing Loopy meanwhile Loopy would sacrifice himself for his team every time lol

Reddy is also saving Haon basically.

Kaogaii what are you doing???? Is his father's instincts kicking in???

CHABOOM WHAT ARE YOU DOING

WHY WOULD YOU PICK MARV AND NOT DOUBLE DOWN

Goodbye Gamma

Cocona and two guys who never performed

Block 1 and Block 5 didn't pick any elimination candidates because they survived everything in the previous episode.

DAMN only 8 out of 16 will survive!

WHAT

Oh I get it now

So the leaders will have a 1 on 1 battle. Before they begin, they have to submit a card with the name of one of the elimination candidates. So if Hippie Kunda for example wins and she picked Gamma, Gamma will survive.

~

Hello everyone, OP here. From this moment until 1 hour 1 minute of the show, I forgot to save my writing on my phone. I have no one to blame but myself. Should I start over again and re-watch the past 40 minutes?

I have decided to continue watching like nothing happened. I'll finish the episode as usual but afterwards I'll think again about what to do. After all, there is still 1,5 hour left... I'll change to my laptop because auto-save TT

OP again. I'll just skip this part. I even forgot to upload this T^T

~

Alright Hippie Kunda vs Kaogaii. O'Domar survives and the rapper who goes home is- what the fuck? Gamma? I had a gut feeling. I hope next time he goes on a show, he'll do better.

Last battle! Kaogaii should go again, right? I'm confused, what is this show trying to foreshadow? I applauded behind my screen for Hippie Kunda, it must suck for her because she just lost. I'm proud of her for working hard! Oh! Instead of giving a shitty performance, he didn't rap at all. He was planning on eliminating Koala. I think it's Koala because he's the one who's edited out. I forgot about him lmao. Thanks to the K-hiphop sub-reddit for proving information!

So everyone tried their best to save their teammates, only Kaogaii used this opportunity to eliminate a rapper on purpose.

Loopy, Reddy and Haon... their hearts are too big for their bodies.

What will happen to Block 7? Will there be drama? Reddy showed a more confident performance than Chaboom both times. It is what it is. Owen in Block 5? Will they accept him? Either way, if Owen wants to win then, yes I agree that staying in Block 7 is a bad idea. Something has to change.

Block 8 is just 3 people now. They should make a big change to in order to survive. Ahw, I want to give all of them a hug :((

Jack Daniel's ad time

Owen looks like a tomato hahaha

Loopy and Owen... It was very touching to watch. I have been avoiding this but ever since the two of them were announced to participate, I was hoping for a mkit rain reunion. I didn't express it, worried I'd jinx it or something. I feel so nostalgic right now, it's unbelievable, I discovered them 5 years ago...

Oh shit. Daniel Jikal decided to withdraw from the show. I respect his decision.

Khundi Panda is now leader of Block 5. Not gonna lie, I thought he was already the leader, not JP. I forgot. Owen and DD join Block 5!

lmao Kaogaii tried to recruit Since and now Since is trying to recruit Kaogaii.

Kaogaii is so entertaining XD

SINCE IS GOING TO BLOCK 6?? Wow I thought she was a loyal person but it seems like she values winning more. I don't mind, the longer she survives, the more I get to watch her perform. I do hope that outside of Rap:Pulic, Since and Punchnello drop a song together. I really enjoy the two of them on stage. Block 6 is looking stronger. Skyminhyuk is now the leader of Block 4, instead of Punchnello. Hippie K and Drain K join Block 4 and Block 8 dissolves.

JTong is joining Block 2!! Even though he left, Block 1 is still a strong block. Chaboom is moving to Block 3. Foggyatthebottom moves to Block 2 and just like that, Block 7 closes down. Double Down changes teams again is now in Block 1. Osun is joining Block 5. Where did that come from? Damn, he gets to be the leader too. Nice deal. Oh Osun~ you broke Haon's heart :( Kind of a dick move to change blocks without saying anything.

~

It is time for a new mission. Changing Blocks has come to an end. Third Block Match. Block competition. First match, Block 5 vs 4. Second match, Block 3 vs 6. Third match, Block 1 vs 2. Oh shit we're already starting the fight! The preview for the next episode looks promising, it'll be lots of fun!

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

“What would the nuns possibly gain out of spying on Yangchen?”

[I don't know what this turned out to be😅 I was a lot better at writing essays in Norwegian classes than English classes because I could 'talk' more. This is structured thinking and ‘talking’ I guess]

I got hit with a sudden thought while I was at work.

The nuns who spied on Yangchen during her childhood can be seen as a Devadatta story if you squint your eyes and tilt your head a little; something that started off with good intentions that later led to misery.

That it started out as something with a good intention because Yangchen was, for a fact, unstable. Something that would be important for someone in Ayunerak’s position to know. You know, what should be done if the next avatar isn’t quite sound of mind? How would their actions and choices affect the world? This, by all means, is a good intention.

But it doesn’t stop at a single report of this information. It continues and evolves into detailed monitoring. With the mention of Abbess Dagmola taking notes of the names and past lives Yangchen would slip into, I’d imagine that those reports would be quite detailed.

(I’m continuing to write as I’m walking home)

But why not stop at a single report and continue to monitor her by themselves without sending more reports? Because, for one, this isn’t mindfulness, nor is it respectful of them to do so and it would definitely generate negative karma for them. Something that I strongly believe came back to bite them when Ayunerak slipped up and let the information be known to Yangchen.

Now then? The Avatar, the most important person in the world, who is from their temple, doesn’t trust them. For as kind and compassionate Yangchen is toward humanity, something like this, especially from people who she thought she could trust and with a fragile mind like hers, breaks a bond to a point where it simply can’t return to what it used to be. And for some people, this is something that can be accepted- “this has happened, this has hurt me and I cannot change this”- but never forgiven.

If I go full on Buddhist and mythical and all worldbuildingy, Yangchen would be considered a reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, and some regard him as a Buddha. A Tathagata. (This depends so much on the tradition) and if the definition is stretched and moulded, the breach of trust and the lack of respect for her as a person, is a wound to her. Which would go under the unforgivable sin of wounding a Tathagata and send someone straight to hell. [If you really stretch and water down the definition and define what a wound truly is. In reality, this rule would mean attempting to kill a Tathagata]

I don’t believe that Yangchen has forgiven them. (At that point in the books, at least; I am aware she resolves to not find out who, it's more the nuns as an entity that I'm thinking of) She might have said so to comfort, if they found out she knew, and keep up that ‘compassionate avatar’ front of hers, but not meant it; Actions like that hurt no matter who you ask. Taking her compassion into account, I’d believe she’d want to forgive them, but would be too hurt to do so immediately.

It takes a very strong person and a lot of cultivated compassion and bodhicitta- she is the Avatar, after all- to forgive such a betrayal of trust. Yangchen is 17. She is a teenager. She hasn’t been in the world for that long. There is time to eventually forgive if she hasn’t.

I know Hsien resides at the Western temple, but when I first heard that, it felt a lot like service to me. Hierarchy. Something they did to serve her because she asked them to. [That would also strengthen the ‘compassionate avatar’ image as well, wouldn’t it? Make her look nice in their eyes. Didn’t think about that…]

(I am home now)

Now, what would the nuns gain out of continuing to send such reports and monitor her as closely as they did? Despite the obvious cultivation of bad karma?

We don’t know. That’s the thing. This is where the squinting and head tilt comes in because a lot of this can be speculated since there isn’t a lot known about the nuns at the temple.

In the instance of Devadatta, he was jealous of the Buddha and wished for status and honour. He began with good intentions, wanting to make the sangha better by hardening some of the Buddhas rules, something he thought would be helpful. But there he was met with failure. He befriended a local king, who gave him a lot of donations and really brought out an obsession with himself. Devadatta later approached the Buddha, asking him to resign and give the leadership over to him. Something the Buddha refused. Devadatta tried to kill the Buddha three times before he created a schism in the sangha by leaving and creating a new school with his followers. He became extremely ill nine months later and saw the wrongs of his actions and wished to meet with the Buddha to beg for forgiveness. On his way to the Buddha, the earth sucked him down to hell before he could meet him.

Obvious downward slope there.

He commited the three unforgivable sins, killing an arhat, wounding the Tathagata and creating a schism within the sangha

Some reasons for the nuns, just at the top of my head, temple donations/funding, patrons, status-among the temples and in the order- and refugees to possibly ordain.

I doubt they were jealous of a small child, believing that they should be the avatar instead of her. But this idea is common, though. So maybe? If they’re that petty.

Taking in the isolation of the world at the time, trade with the outside world went down; Upcharged prices and people being greedy mostly. They lost money and funding to keep up with the temple. It’s the largest temple, so I’d imagine they’d need a bit more materials and money than trading with each other could bring in. The nuns could have continued writing reports to Ayunerak, concerned about Yangchen’s unstable mind and how she’d affect the world, hoping that they’d get donations or patrons to help with the temple in return.

The refugee mention depends a bit on the environment, rivalries between monks and nuns, and what sect is more popular at the temples during this time. Say, the platinum affair happens, the order of the white lotus involvement is known among the monks and nuns and people begin throwing blame at each other for saying ‘this’ to that order member and ‘that’ to another order member, blaming them for causing the platinum affair to happen; That they were the root that caused such suffering. Rifts begin to form in the communities and those who write reports to Ayunerak believe that getting more refugees to the temples and ordaining them would bridge the rifts. And the temple with the most refugees does bring about a certain status that ‘they’re the most compassionate ones’ and are thus better than the other temples.

… wouldn’t this be like trying for a baby, thinking it would fix your relationship with your partner when you should’ve broken up with them? That was a very sudden thought that popped into my head right now. But there are those who believe it, so this can have some merit.

For status within the order, it’s very speculative. Because one, it isn’t known what an air nomad's role in the order is. Two, can they even rise up the ranks as an air nomad? Those who’re not supposed to care for status or worldly affairs? Three, a practising air nomad and politics? How would that work?

I headcanon, genuine practising air nomad members of the order to mostly be scholars, collecting rare historic information and writing treatises. Transporting items or people across the continent. Not necessarily high rank. Nomads, on the other hand, I headcanon them to be a lot more open to different things. [I lean into this in some of my fics. Shout out to my Sonam fics and further ones involving her<3<3 Shoutout to the elusive wings of love, to an extent<3]

So, say that they can rise up the rank like a normal member and out of ‘concern’ for Yangchen, secretly wanting status and honour, sends those reports thinking that they’d be on Ayunerak’s good side and thus rise quickly in the ranks because of her. This is very selfish, despite what good intentions they had at the start. I guess it would show the other members that they care for Yangchen, though, and they’d receive praise for being so kind and caring. This is the closest I've gotten it to Devadatta's story.

[I know I’ve mentioned in some of my fics that there are air nomad grand lotuses, but it’s more the rising in rank I’m thinking of as opposed to being ‘gifted’ the title so to say and becoming one without rising rank.]

Then it’s the meddling in politics. Knowing the orders ‘neutral’ status and tending to observe the world instead of acting, why knowingly let people suffer? Why knowingly let people die? Something that would go against the teaching? I don’t understand.

But then, not everyone is kind and there are corrupt individuals who believe they know better and they unknowingly cultivate great karmic obstruction with such a belief. People who believe they know better also tend to cherry pick things to make them look better; They look at some teachings with contempt and favour others. This is bad. Like very bad. They’ll end up unable to cultivate respect for the teachings, if they think they know something, they will lose something else, and their practise will be a small portion of the path, and the karmic obstruction this creates will be extremely painful to remove.

Tsongkhapa makes mention of this in ch2 of the Lam rim chen mo

Geshe Tsakpuwa also comes to mind here; the one who poisoned Milarepa

So, someone could’ve truly deluded themselves into thinking that they were practising the teaching by sending the reports to Ayunerak, thinking that it would be for the betterment of other beings if she knew of Yangchen’s connection to her past lives. The karmic obstruction created will show itself at a later date in their life.

A good comparison would be corrupt pastors.

There is another thing I thought of, but it’s rather… apathetic, if taking in Yangchen’s mind into context and something that they don’t gain anything from. Like, at all. Outside of a hurt Yangchen who doesn’t trust them.

That is the thought of the ‘me.’ Of a permanent self. Which doesn’t exist in the true nature of reality.

Someone could’ve then written those reports to Ayunerak with the genuine belief that Yangchen doesn’t truly exist. So since she doesn’t exist, what they’re doing won’t really matter that much because ‘we don’t exist.’ This, while yes, it’s a view that’s sought to achieve, it’s also quite a cold way to regard Yangchen with when she needs something that is untainted and undeniably Yangchen’s.

For her younger years, she needed a ‘me,’ something that was undeniably hers and she thought she did until Ayunerak slipped up.

A last reason, is that the nuns were manipulated into spying on her. Which I believe can have happened. Or blackmailed maybe because nuns haves lives, too, they could’ve gotten caught doing something they weren’t supposed.

You know, what if a nun was involved with someone, that someone found out that Yangchen was the avatar and threatened Yangchen’s safety, demanding information in return? It is a possible scenario.

This is something that could be a Jetsun scenario, if she was the one to leak information. [Oh my god, the angst potential this has in a fic]

After getting all that out, I still don’t see what they’d gain out of doing that. Like, I genuinely don’t? Nuns and monks are well read people and extremely knowledgeable, so they’d know that it would be a bad thing for them to do. If they’re genuine practitioners, nothing outweighs such negative karma that they’d accumulate from doing that and they would know that.

If they’re not genuine, then I believe their reasons for doing so comes in this order, that they think themselves to be better, corrupted teaching, status in the order and at the temples and temple funding.

Reasons I'm cautiously including because it depends on context:

The belief that Yangchen doesn't truly exist is something

Manipulation/blackmail

Those reasons, taking the state of the world into account, seem the most realistic and likely ones.

Did I get you thinking? If I got you thinking, then I did something right:)

[I entertained a thought I had at work thinking that it would be a quick throw away post and this happens😂 did this just turn into an essay? I’m not arguing for anything, though���� I was just thinking and this happened. I am sooo surprised that I remember the lam rim bit😭 I’m so proud of myself😭🥲 Welcome to my brain on an average work day when I try to entertain myself]

[a-chuffed-floating-panda]

I entertained a thought I had at work while packing away pastries and now I’m a bit over 1k words into speculations of why the nuns at the western temple spied on Yangchen, like what they wished to gain from spying on her 😵‍💫

So, um, expect the reflective text soon?