#Rain World fans come get your buddhism lore

[kasarasun]

Beta fish gojo and geto - word vomiting

It's very cool and peak fiction, as is all the rest of their being in contrast with eachother

I'm sooooo sleep deprived hehehe

buddhist symbolism.

Thats right I'm here to talk about buddhist symbolism. I'm in two fandoms with buddhist symbolism and it has ruined my Christian upbringing /j

Okay okay so

Two Fish (Matsyayugma) are one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols(Asthamangalas), and they have two? Three?? Maybe more??? Meanings depending on your source. (Dw about the sanskrit names you won't need to remember them)

Most will say they represent freedom in/from the samsara cycle- which roughly translates to wandering, so its like wandering the cycle of death and rebirth?- which is which is associated with rivers/seas (at least twice I'm a fake buddhist) because fish can swim and stuff so they have freedom of movement. And the sea is an infinite expanse that one must cross to reach the banks of nirvana. The fish represent those who can traverse this sea of suffering freely. They also represent happiness, because who wouldn't be happy to chose to be something other than a bacteria? Its like this: free and happy fish, swimming in pairs, mingling and brushing fins without any concern of drowning- because they're fish, why would they drown?

An alternate source assigns the two fish as a symbol of the universal monarch (Chakravartin). This might be because of their association with a Jainist figure, some guy with a lot of S's in their name- one of the 63 illustrious figures, but I can't find much about this one compared to the other two. (There's a website with this definition citing 'The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen' but I do not personally own this book.)

Two fish also represent fertility cause its two fishies so they have a loooot of kids or something yay yay :3

ohhh kasarasun, I have never seen you beforein this fandom, what does this even mean and why should I care

Well, it might not mean anything at all, since the matsyayugma (two fish. I lied.) are traditionally depicted as two carp, or two golden fish, (and Gojo and Geto's fishsonas are black and white Betta fish)

...but two fish are buddhist symbols in a series with a lot of buddhist symbolism and imagery, and also moving away from traditional stuff and something off topic, so it's easy to say that it might truly mean something. It could be homosexual squared laughing at us all because the fish are free to swim together while Geto and Gojo are doomed by the narrative (tm). It could be me being delusional as usual.

However, it's not because they're happy and having lots of kids together- ahahaha, why would that be true?

[spotsupstuff]

hiii, your last lineless piece was absolutely beautiful, i wonder if you could explain it a little to me to get a jumping off point for my own research? im curious to know how much of it was picked for the aesthetics and how much of it comes from the concepts you wrote out

i know samsāra is the concept of like.... circular karma present in Buddhism and other religions but i dont understand why the animals in the pieces are there or what they represent. i can see swk, liu er and ma's names/titles written out but the other concepts written are a mystery to me, i tried to look them up but i dont think im putting in the right thing

i know its probably spoons to explain the whole thing so if you dont wanna maybe you could link me a site you used or something ^^ thank you so much, an thanks for posting amazing art ♡♡

jgklsjgkdsmk thank you!!! And of course I can, though u’ll be prolly a bit disappointed to know that the whole piece set is just built upon a crossover between LMK and a game more than something from the actual eastern religions

The animals in the piece are slugcats from the game Rain World, just as well those glowing symbols/signs/characters on the pictures. The “names” of the slugcats (幸存者，僧，猎人) mean the same things as the symbols 👇

(I fucked up the hunter symbol but there’s very little of RW fans so I hope nobody of our little numbers will come to catch my ass for it)

(side note that those smaller symbols along the middle of SWK’s body are chakras n they r very much real. There’s 7 of em usually, but cuz this is Fruit Twins Lore only the first four are drawn. All my understanding of chakras comes from my real life since I Ain’t Christian)

Rain World was my hyperfixation at the start of last year, it’s built around the idea of Saṃsāra and Nirvana, I made the connection between LMK n RW thru the “oh hey, same social circle of religions!”, the slugcats and their titles fit the three main monkey siblings (SWK being an actual monk + vegetarianism cuz of the monking; one of Ma’s themes as a character is surviving like a roach + both her and Survivor lose parents as kids and have to fend for themselves + become strong and kinda ruthless because of their time alone; Six Ear making it an Actual Point to eat more meat than veggies just to spite religions n SWK + excessive killing + fucked karma situation/being revived after dying just like Hunter) n so I went FUCK YEA cuz I’mma slut for parallels

But when it comes to actual research on these kinds of things: the only consistent sources I have is Wikipedia and/or Quora (the most reliant information you’ll Ever get is from the people of the actual culture). otherwise I tend to jump around multiple sites, perhaps my two books of mythology and then cross-reference everything I’ve learned to filter out what I’m CERTAIN is a real thing and what isn’t. General knowledge of the language and culture itself also helps. Look up what certain characters mean more abroadly cuz gtranslate won’t give you the Whole context n check for the context not being explained in too simple western terms. A site that isn’t common enough in my research sprees to call it “consistent” but shows up a lot anyway is journeytothewestresearch. I usually use that one as a final foolproofer or last life line if I can’t find a thing otherwise