#and it literally says Dalai Lama

[avatarfandompolice]

But don’t worry guys they got Asian actors so it’s perfect :) :) :)

[evilminji]

The Anti-Ecto Acts... could literally start WW3

I am sitting here, contemplating China. The country. Literally one of THE OLDEST countries. With a truely massive population. And... I will admit my ignorance. But from what I have heard? They are big on honoring the Dead.

Their Dead.

The Dead of China. Hundreds of millions of souls. Which, statistically, would mean the average human ghost has a good chance to come from the region. And they are not alone.

Again, my ignorance curses me, but if my general knowledge is to be believed? It is a common practice in Asianic Countries. Oh sure, they won't argue there might be BAD ghosts. But that's to be expected! There are bad PEOPLE! They die.

They have monks and priests for such things. Specialists. Ancient problem, tried and true solutions. They move on and have lunch, consider what options there are for dinner. Business of the day and all that.

But THEN.

Fanatics from the West. Painting themselves as Men Of Science, not only dare to play god, but tear open a hole to THE AFTERLIFE? And start ATTACKING indiscriminately? They stand before an international stage and spew clearly bigoted pseudoscience, to justify their genocide, while ALSO letting God's and demons run roughshod over the WORLD, just so they can try to convince everyone they have the right to MURDER YOUR ANCESTORS?

They OPENED THAT GATE! They LET THEM OUT! There is a difference, culturally, for many of your countries between the soul of a dead man (powers be damned) and a SPIRIT OF LIVING STORMS.

You are not IDIOTS. Tigers are dangerous. Wolves are dangerous. But someone walking into a crowded mall and releasing frightened wild animals DOES NOT mean we go into the wilds and start killing! We charge the madmen you attacked innocent people!

The fact that tigers and wolves are dangerous IS NOT NEW. The fact that the souls of the dead are dangerous is ALSO not new! It is not malicious. It is INHERENT. A state of being. That is why they are not encouraged to linger! We love them, but this world is not built for them. It is fragile and barren, built for the living.

But dear sweet FUCK, the WROTH.

How? Many countries EXACTLY. How many religions? SPECIFICALLY honor and protect the dead. Declare in no uncertain terms, the SANCTITY of the soul?

How many people have LOST somebody? A friend, a lover, a CHILD.

And in one breath you give them hope then THREATEN it? "They may still be out there... we are going to brutally torture them to death. Because your loved ones are animals to us."

The UN would have the SINGLE most ugly, barely contained, riot imaginable. Spiritual Leaders would be tearing CHUNKS out of the US. The Pope, the Dalai Lama, you name it. You can NOT invade THE AFTERLIFE and not have it IMMEDIATELY become a religious concern.

Not to mention the international SAFETY concern. One countries actions? Unleashing beings that can effect the GLOBAL ECOSYSTEM? The ENTIRE planets weather? Plunged EVERYONE into Eternal Sleep??! How can that not be considered DILBERATE after the first one!

Your grand idea is to ANTAGONIZE them? Make MORE of them come through??

"Kill death itself". You fanatical NUTJOBS! That's not even a NEW hypothetical! That ends HORRIFICLY for literally EVERYONE. Eternal starvation, suffocation, crushing, and worse! We suck the planet dry, over populate so horrifically we end up BURIED UNDER OUR OWN CHILDREN, and suffer FOREVER without the release of death!

You fucking MORONS! Eternal life is a well known CURSE!

Their science is shaky at best, hardly peer reviewed. DEEPLY unethical. And clearly dangerous! Radioactive!!! In a population center?! How many innocent people have been exposed!?

And if the Ghost are reaching OUT? Imagine meeting long dead countrymen, who come to you fearing for their very SOULS. Who have lived in peace. Unknown to you, for CENTURIES. Who beg you, in YOUR native tounge, to help. Talks of people disappearing. Fear and desperation.

This is not to say world leaders are great and benevolent figures, free of greed or sin. Nor their governments. But it is quite another thing entirely, when they talk... and all you can think is "you are talking about my dead father. My late wife. My deceased son."

When they spew their HATE. And back hand your loved ones by doing so.

What powerful person has not lost SOMEBODY.

All this? And I have not even TOUCHED on the shit storm DC would add on top. The Drama? The IMMEDIATE near certain SMITING? You want to MURDER Superman's FAMILY??? I'd say pick a god and pray, but you've already made enemy of ALL of them.

So... good luck and get fucked?

@hdgnj @the-witchhunter @stealingyourbones @nerdpoe

[edenfenixblogs]

I think that I’ve realized one of the big reasons that antisemites are so anti-Israel—I mean, aside from it being a state where a lot of Jews are.

Israel is a state that protects Jews. It also does a lot of bad things under the Likud government. And it also harms Jews that get in the way of the Likud government. But none of that matters to antisemites.

Because a state is an institution. And the left has been very clear that it’s all about criticizing institutions.

And in the absence of a governing religious body to criticize, the Israeli state is all the leftist antisemites have to criticize.

They can’t seem to fathom that the leadership of Israel is not in anyway synonymous with a religious institution. They cannot seem to fathom that the Likud government isn’t in any way representative of Jewish people as a whole—and not even of Israelis as a whole! (Once again, Israel is a parliamentary system. It’s about who has the largest proportion of votes, not a majority) and that Jews in Israel as well as non-Jews in Israel have a say in who to vote for and often strongly oppose Likud and Netanyahu.

It’s like a whole chunk of otherwise progressive people have been waiting for a way to criticize all Jews by attacking some institution they think speaks for us.

They cannot fathom that we are literally just a small ethnic group with half of our number in one location and would very much like for us and for them to not be victims of violence. That’s the uniting principle.

They’ve continually demonstrated how little they know and understand about Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish history.

I genuinely do not know if they’re aware that there’s no supreme Jewish council or whatever. There’s no Jewish version of the Grand Imam, Grand Ayatollah, Dalai Lama, Celestial Master, or Head/President of the Church.

We don’t even have a main synagogue from which edicts or traditions flow. We did have one. The Wall in Israel was our main institution. But colonizers and invaders destroyed it. And other religions built their institutions on top of it. And the religious governing body of Jews fell apart thousands of years ago.

…so the only thing that holds us together is each other. Rabbis don’t answer to some central authority. We hold traditions together through culture and traditions and connection to our land of origin, like many our even most other indigenous cultures.

But, because there is one (1) place on the entire planet where Jews are a majority of the population and not a minority, suddenly vicious attacks on the character of Jews everywhere are fair game as long as antisemites pretend they are talking about “Israel.” But they aren’t talking about the State of Israel. Because they get mad whenever we tell them to please specify the current government and the Likud party, because they are the ones responsible for carrying out the needless violence.

But they won’t do that. They seem to believe that there is some uniting religious force that exists in the Israeli government. And they seem to think that we are all united by this religious directive of “Zionism.”

That’s the only way any of their criticisms make sense logically. They don’t see themselves as attacking actual humans. They see themselves as attacking institutions. And any Jew who disagrees with them? Well they are just bastards supporting the institution.

But…there is no supreme Jewish institution. It doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist because they destroyed those institutions.

They’re making themselves feel good by thinking attacking Jews is somehow helping free Palestine. But it’s just attacking Jews.

It’s like a weird continuation of supercessionism. They’re projecting their religious structure onto a religion that is fundamentally incompatible with that structure.

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

ok so let me preface this by saying that i am chinese and am not trying to argue china bad, but i guess like, why is tibetan independence considered Balkan-zing china? Like this isn't some case of like old ass territory that was conquored by china a long time ago and now they've integrated with the rest of china, The PRC literally annexed Tibet in 1951. Shouldn't it be considered a good thing for Tibet to get independence? I'm not trying to gotcha you or anything i just don't understand why

Before Tibet was liberated by the PRC Tibet was a feudal theocracy run by monk kings and manor lords who would chop the hands of their tenants for owing debt. Almost all Tibetans in the Tibetan Autonomous Region speak their own language, go to classes taught in their language, continue their distinct cultural practices as one of the officially recognized ethnic groups of China, and have been lifted out of extreme poverty by the PRC's socialist development. The Dalai Lama is literally a hereditary feudal ruler (and p*do) who once owned child slaves whose entire purpose is to be a CIA-supported mascot for the supposed "peaceful, tranquil" independent Tibet that most credulous Westerners who are not familiar with the region's history have in their minds. The only reason you'd want Tibet to be "independent" is if you've casually swallowed State Dept. narratives about "China oppressing Tibet" your whole life, which I don't mean as an insult since that's the situation most people in the West (including me until a few years ago) find themselves in. And the reason why the US and its allies want Tibet to become "independent" along with Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan is precisely to weaken China and separate it into smaller states it can dominate through neocolonialism. In terms of comparing it to Palestine, you may notice the difference in that China hasn't built a giant wall around Tibet that it keeps Tibetans locked inside.

[youremyheaven]

Mrigashira: The Truth Is Subjective?

This is part 3 of my Mrigashira trilogy (here's part 1 & part 2)

I had previously explored the Mrigashira tendency to speak the truth and often be considered crazy for it. I thought I'd expand on this nature for this post as well.

Being truthful can mean many different things. The truth is also context-bound and what one exposes can differ based on the circumstances.

Dalai Lama- Mrigashira Mercury conjunct Rising

He has been at the forefront of the Tibetan independence movement, He has spoken up about nonviolence and his work includes a focus on the environment, economics, women's rights, non-violence, inter-faith dialogue, physics, astronomy, Buddhism and science, cognitive neuroscience, reproductive health and sexuality. He's literally one of the most admired people in the world and is considered a Bodhisattva. Being truthful or bringing attention to the truth is a big part of his life. This is not to say he isnt shady tho

He is also a very complicated figure. He used to get a personal income of over $1 million every year from the CIA for about 2 decades between 1959 and 1974?? He inappropriately touched Lady Gaga when they were on stage together, there is also a video of him asking a young boy to "suck his tongue" 🤮🤢

sometimes the truth isn't really the truth. whatever you believe to be true is what is true to you even if it does not have any basis in reality. one terrifying example of that is the Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Ashara

Shoko Asahara- Mrigashira Moon

He was the leader of the infamous cult Aum Shinrikyo, that carried out the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and several other attacks. Asahara declared himself as God and led his followers into believing that the end of the world was coming. Its a bizarre mix of new age conspiracy theories, religious syncretism, enlightenment, doomsday mentality and pure sadism.

He and several other leaders of the cult were executed in 2018 after more than 2 decades in prison.

It goes to show how "truth" is very subjective. Shoko was a megalomaniac who was fcked in the head, yet he managed to convince manyyy people of his teachings and even got them to do whatever he wanted them to do??

Donald Trump, Mrigashira Sun conjunct Rahu, popularised the term "fake news". it is so interesting to me that a man generally known as a liar will have Mrigashira of all naks and esp have it conjunct Rahu, the planet of illusion. Astrology is funny like that sometimes. He was very forceful in spreading his truth, even though that truth was bigoted, racist, classist and misogynistic. And in one way, he helped expose people who supported him bc what is worse than being known as a Trump supporter? That is enough to gauge someone's character and nature.

Idi Amin- Mrigashira Moon

mrig nakshatra is actually present in the luminaries of many dictators/fascists/terrible leaders. Idi did not really have any specific ideology, he was a brutal narcissist who got a kick out of murdering people even at the expense of his nation's well being.

Ryuho Okawa- Mrigashira Moon & Venus

He was the leader of a cult called Happy Science and declared himself to be God. one thing that stands out to me with mrig natives is how since Mrigashira nak represents the fall from heaven, i.e, the beginning of life on earth in some ways, its natives tend to be obsessed with truth telling, I had explored more positive manifestations of this in part 1 but this tendency can be manifest in very bad ways as we see from these examples as "truth" is very subjective. Okawa was telling his truth bc he genuinely believed he was God but does that make it right?

Jennifer Lawrence, Mrigashira Moon

JLaw has always struck me honest, maybe a little too honest but that's what made her so likable initially and unlikable later on. I had mentioned this in part 1 as well about how the presence of a Mrig native often triggers other people or makes them feel threatened. part of it is the fact that Mrig has serpent yoni and subconsciously we sense the energy of other people's yoni animals and react a certain way in their presence. people with predator yoni animals strike us as intimidating. most people hate snakes and will probably kill them if they see them bc it could be dangerous and this is honestly how society reacts to a lot of serpent yoni women. So many sex symbols have serpent yoni in their big 3 (Pamela Anderson, Marilyn Monroe, Angelina Jolie, Brooke Shields etc) society seems enchanted by them but is also quick to tear them apart. people feel deeply uncomfortable with these natives is what I have noticed. JLaw's reputation suffered after she had been exposed as a try hard "cool girl". but tbh, there are celebs out there who are far more annoying and done far worse things, how come JLaw's hated for being the "cool girl"?? part of it could be that we all see our collective shadow in her, the hot sexy talented woman who seems to be a messy clumsy loser and is also "one of the boys". JLaw grew up on a farm with 2 brothers, its only natural that her personality is a little brutish and unladylike, it gets old really quick bc it seemed gimmicky but it is interesting to me how someone can be ripped apart for something so small??

Sandra Bullock, Mrigashira Stellium

Sandra plays these unladylike but blunt and honest characters a lot (While You Were Sleeping, Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality movies etc)

Sonam Kapoor- Mrigashira stellium (sun mercury & mars)

Sonam is known in the Indian media for saying whatever comes to her mouth lol, that means she makes a lot of dumb comments (she once said her being a nepo baby was the result of good karma from past lives lol and that people think you're a good actor if youre not good looking which is basically implying that she isnt considered a good actor bc she's too good looking lmfao) but she does have moments of radical no bullshit honesty, like the time she wrote an essay talking about body image

Monica from Friends always called out everyone's bullshit. She was played by Courteney Cox who is Mrigashira Sun

Leah Remini Mrigashira Sun

she exposed the dark secrets of Scientology through her memoir and docu series. this is another form of Mrigashira truth telling. exposing the darkness, evil and injustice in this world.

North West, Mrigashira Stellium (Sun & Rising)

North exposing her family is a bit of a running joke, she revealed she has dyslexia on IG live which pissed Kim off and in general she's known for her bluntness and calling out her mom esp. Kim even said that North is her "lesson" and that North "intimidates her" and how North is Kanye's twin (Kanye is also Mrigashira Sun)

Tupac Mrigashira Sun

honestly watch any interview and you can see how honest and sincere Tupac was (sidenote: isnt he sooo handsome??<33). i cant pinpoint to specific moments but Tupac was so young and sooo beyond mature?? idk if anybody in their early 20s has this kind of articulation anymore.

Paula Abdul- Mrigashira Sun

this is a bit of a strange case. Paula claims to have been in a plane crash in 1992 which left her with a spinal cord injury and forced her to take about 10 years off before she restarted her career as a judge on American Idol. she has talked about this many many times in the last 2 decades. except of course that there is zero evidence of this plane crash. obviously, she could just be lying but why lie about something that could so easily be proven? i think sometimes Mrig natives have a tendency to delusionally believe what they say. i have no doubt that Paula is convinced that she was in a plane crash and that it ruined her music career but its not objectively true.

Donald Trump & even Kanye West (both Mrig Sun) are other examples of celebrities who talk about wildly stranger things that they believe to be true.

Ewan McGregor- Mrigashira moon

In the movie The Island, Ewan's character discovers that everything about his existence is a lie and that he and the other inhabitants are human clones.

I feel like this trope of realizing lies and "waking up" is tied to Mrigashira's nature.

in the movie Passengers, this happens in reverse, JLaw wakes up and then learns the truth

The Truman Show, starring Mrigashira Moon, Jim Carrey is another example of a Mrig native realising everything is a lie.

i think its a common and unfortunate pattern in the lives of many Mrig natives to suffer abuse and I feel like the reason many of them do is because they falsely believe the lies they are being fed is true :(( it takes them time to "wake up" to the truth (ex: Mrig Sun Brooke Shields who always defended her abusive mom who made her pose nude for playboy when she was a kid??? among other things, its only recently that she has started to admit that those things werent okay)

thats it for this post!!

[irithnova]

Ok I think. We need to appreciate how goofy/embarrassing Mongolia can be so here's the post (will be talking about edgier stuff at some point but let this man flop around if only for a second):

During the Yuan the words "buluo" and "buzu" were virtually non existent in important Chinese texts despite the frequency of the words used before. It's most likely this exclusion was not accidental and was a result of the Yuan rulers being sensitive to the barbarian connotations of the word. Yes Mongolia was offended by being called a barbarian by China and told him to stop

He was totally acting all new-money and spending his newfound wealth on the most ridiculous shit, like a literal fountain that dispersed 4 different types of alcohol

Thinks throwing money at things is some sort of fix-all

Went on a 40-day bender when Ogedei ascended to Khanhood

Did I mention he was an alcoholic?

Would take on the advise from advisors that came from everywhere but China.

Made his own version of a racial hierarchy with Mongols and other Northerners being at the top and Southern Chinese being at the bottom ("who's the barbarian now?!!")

Categorised his Chinese subjects into 10 ranks, with Confucian scholars coming 9th - below prostitutes

Chinese criminals got way harsher punishments than Mongol criminals

No sinicization here folks - this dude was NOT wearing Chinese clothes or eating Chinese food. In fact a lot of Mongol rulers never even bothered to learn the language. Mongolia probably knew it but would make China speak Mongolian with him anyways

Despite all this he was absolutely addicted to Chinese stageplays you have no idea how much Mongol rulers loved that shit

Got defeated by Ainu and response sent him gifts to try and get him on his side

When I tell you how possessive he was of Ilkhanate I was not joking, there were certain Ilkhanate rulers like Ahmad who tried to break free from Yuan influence by having the inscriptions of the coins refer to Islam rather than the Yuan Khan, but after him under Arghun, Yuan suzerainty over Ilkhanate coinage was reinstalled - it's speculated this was encouraged by Khublai (ruler of the Yuan)

Could not accept that the Yuan dynasty divorce was real and so called the remains of his empire the "Northern Yuan" ("You see the marriage never ended I'm just living in the Northern half of our house. It's called the Northern Yuan. Yes it's perfectly valid fuck off")

Went all surprise-pikachu-face when years of being a megalomaniac lead to his Northern subjects finally turning against him

During the four Oirat era, the Oirat confederation called themselves the four "tumens" (tumen = 10,000) of Oirats. Mongolia responded by basically going "hmm... FOUR tumen you say? Well... we are the SIX tumen of Mongols... Checkmate"

Again during this time, (Chinggisid) Mongols would record how Oirat rulers would "bully" Mongol rulers,. A lot of these accounts were greatly exaggerated as many of these so called Oirat rulers were actually just visitors who had nothing to do with the Oirats

The Choros Oirat clan had an origin myth that involved emerging from a sacred mother tree. Mongolia responded by hijacking this story and making it so that Genghis Khan came down and #defeated this tree

Definitely coped + seethed hard when the Dalai Lama started giving non-Chinggisid Mongols the title "Khan"

Once Mongolia was incorporated into the Manchurian-lead Qing dynasty, he was making almost all the exact same complaints China once made about him but now directed at Manchuria and did not sense an inkling of irony in any of it ("Why does this teenager think he can boss me around! He's uncultured and the only culture he gets is from me! He doesn't know anything about anything!)

During the era of communism and Russian influence in Mongolia, I've read that some Mongolians complained that the Russians "drank too much" errm... Pot calling the kettle blac-

Some non-historical ones which are still based in fact somewhat but just also overall goofy as hell:

He is weirdly freaked out by cats

He fucking loves KFC I swear there was even some Mongolian TV show about KFC workers.

His love for Chinese stageplays now has a 21st century equivalent: cnovels. Guiltiest pleasure

He's very... moe, around Tibet. Make sure to back away from them if you see them with each other unless you wanna hear some weird shit

Pretends he doesn't like Kpop. He does

Thinks calling Tuva a kleptomaniac rather than a thief is some sort of politically correct upgrade and doesn't understand why he's still offended by it

>"Buryatia should be a part of greater Mongolia again" #panmongolism"

>Makes fun of Buryatia for being "too Russified"

>"Inner Mongolia should be a part of greater Mongolia again #panmongolism"

>Makes fun of Inner Mongolia for being "too Sinicized"

If Kazakhstan is really annoying him he'll ask him if it's past his bed time

[eeveecraft]

"Tulpa" and Cultural Appropriation

I cannot believe I feel so compelled to do this again, but after witnessing an announcement by Plural Nest that they're switching to parogenic terminology because they've been convinced by sysmeds that tulpa = appropriation while literally "sourcing" things from minors, singlets, non-Tibetans, and yes, of course, sysmeds is just so goddamn frustrating that I'm going to write this post. I will be referring to this Google Doc Plural Nest themselves linked in their announcement that contains a motley of blogs and accounts by various people:

Strap the fuck in because we're going to be here for a while.

Tulpa = Appropriation Is and Always Was a Bad-Faith Argument

I am prefacing this post with this idea because I want you to keep this in mind as you're reading. Something that has always bothered me about this "discourse" is that the people who go on and on and on about how they're protecting minorities and stopping actual harmful, real appropriation by attacking the Tulpamancy community never:

Go after actual harmful depictions of tulpa that actively profit off of sensationalizing the paranormal version of the word and deliberately linking it to Tibetan Buddhism (Supernatural, Mandela Catalogue, Slenderman, etc).

Uplift the voices of actual Tibetan Buddhists, even ones who disagree with them (which there ARE Tibetan Buddhists who are 100% okay with tulpa as a term, not just the Tibetan Buddhist AMA).

Explain how us using tulpa to describe our systemmates is actively harming Tibetan Buddhists. They just say it's harmful without providing any real examples of harm besides the word annoying them.

The intention of these people never was to protect vulnerable minorities, it was to deliberately blacklist a word a community has used for over a decade and a word that is literally being used in academic studies. If we as a community dropped tulpa, cold-turkey, 100%, we would lose access to so much of our history and access to scientific studies that the community NEEDS to be more accepted by the general public.

If these people actually cared and took the time to look into the Tulpamancy community, they would clearly see that the community very much stresses that tulpa is NOT the same as the paranormal term that IS sensationalized, and that all it means is a type of systemmate that was intentionally/unintentionally created through repeated interaction. And yet, that's not the case.

Oh, also, I found out that the Tibetan Buddhist Tulpamancer who did the AMA also has a Tumblr blog, and they even reblogged this post. And they even left this in the comments:

No one should feel ashamed of using the term “tulpa”. Buddhism, and practices related to it, are meant to be shared. That’s the whole point of the practice. And this greater community, is unique and distinct from Tibetan and related origin, it isn’t “appropriation” and even if it was, no one owns the term, and as I see it; use it as you wish!

So yeah, even further context!

Anyway, with that in mind...

Origins of Tulpa

One thing many people get wrong in the Google Doc is that tulpa directly is a Tibetan word. I have stated this in multiple places from my video on the history of Tulpamancy to my original essay back in 2020 on this very topic, but tulpa was derived from tulku and sprul-pa, which tulku specifically means the reincarnations of the Dalai or Tashi Lama, and sprul-pa means a type of "magically-produced illusion or creation." Alexandra David-Neel, a French explorer during the 1920's-1930's derived tulpa from these two words, and even in her own book, she admits they are not the same:

“These may be considered as veritable tulkus and, in fact, the demarcation between tulpas and tulkus is far from being clearly drawn. The existence of both is grounded on the same theories,” (David-Neel pg 313-314).

David-Neel, Alexandra. Magic and the Mystery of Tibet, Internet Archive, Translated by Claude Kendall, 1971 Dover Edition.

So, for all the people who keep saying that tulpa is a specific word in Tibetan Buddhism is incorrect, tulpa (paranormal) is BASED off of Tibetan language, but is not directly a part of the language, and the meaning was also changed. However, there is a further distinction I need to make:

Paranormal Versus Modern Tulpas

There is a very, VERY important distinction I need to make that a LOT of people who scream, "TULPA IS RACIST!" get wrong. Modern tulpas, the type created by the Tulpamancy community go by this definition (or any similar variation):

A sentient/sapient, typically intentionally created being that is conscious and autonomous, and can only be seen, heard, or felt by the host/system that can also think independently from the host/system. Essentially a separate person sharing a body with the person who created them.

Source: My own Tulpamancy guide.

When the term created by Alexandra David-Neel that is still used in horror media goes by (paraphrasing some bits):

A type of phantom created by a person's concentrated thoughts that when developed enough, it frees itself of its creator's to go onto be a "half-conscious, dangerously mischievous puppet" or just severely injure or even kill their creator.

This definition is cobbled together from David-Neel's own book since she doesn't directly give a definition for paranormal tulpa that I can just fully quote here that's concise enough. Another important observation I made is that David-Neel right afterwards also mentions her ability to see thought-forms, you know... the type derived from English Theosophy, the concept that's way more accurate to modern tulpas than "phantoms," that existed before David-Neel wrote her book? Funny, huh?

Why does this distinction matter?

It's pretty simple. The actual harmful word that horror media profits off of and sensationalizes for clout is the definition David-Neel derived. The word that people attack the Tulpamancy community for literally just means a type of systemmate and has no inherent paranormal or spiritual meaning. The former deliberately shows off the word's Buddhist roots for the sake of personal gain while the modern word is stressed as something on its own, its own concept and practice that is not related to Buddhism. Modern Tulpamancy is completely secular, you can be completely atheist (like me) and create a tulpa just fine. Anyone can. Not a single culture can claim something literally anybody can do by mistake.

Just that the word has a distant link in etymology to it and isn't actually a Tibetan Buddhist concept. By the logic of people who think tulpa is a racist term, any term derived from another language in English would be racist... which would account for 99% of the English language, and honestly kind of demonstrates that they low-key don't even know what racism means at that point.

So, please tell me why the latter is in the crosshairs of people who are supposedly protecting a minority? Why is it that I myself have had to call out things like the Mandela Catalogue for using the paranormal variant of tulpa and twisting it into an edgy story about body-snatchers as some kind of cryptid SCP creature, but I haven't seen anyone else do it? Why isn't there an outrage by these people on notoriously appropriative shows like Supernatural? Hmm.

(Also, important that another blog reblogged that post and mentioned that they've spoken to actual Tibetans on Facebook and how none of them think tulpa is harmful specifically because it's so far-removed from Tibetan Buddhism. Like, they're cool with it as long as the community doesn't try and link it to Tibetan Buddhism, which is literally what the community does and has been doing for YEARS. Love how sysmeds conveniently ignore that. Same with this AMA by another practicing Tibetan Buddhist on Reddit, which is REAL funny that Plural Nest doesn't link this AMA, but links another post by a person who converted to Tibetan Buddhism who agreed with their viewpoint, even if that post was extremely flawed).

People Who Tout This Claim

One thing that is extremely frustrating to see is all these POC systems go on and on and on about how white people shouldn't speak about POC issues, but then turn around and speak over other POC. In one of my original posts on this topic, I specifically made the comparison of a Chinese person trying to dictate what can and cannot happen in Japanese culture. Both are Asian, both are people of color, but they are not the same, and to imply that is racist. POC systems saying that they can dictate that a word based off of Tibetan language is racist as hell, even when they're not Tibetan, just because they're both Asian implies that POC culture is all the same that any person of color can dictate what happens in the other culture is disgusting. Full stop. It's generalizing a HUGELY varied amount of peoples and cultures, and just generalizes them as all the same, and quite frankly, that's insulting.

And even if we go by their logic that any Asian POC can dictate whether or not tulpa is racist also conversely means that any Asian POC can also dictate that tulpa isn't racist. I can literally just go to my best friend who's Asian and Buddhist and ask him if tulpa is racist as a term, he'd just laugh, and say this whole discourse is stupid. In fact, let me go do that:

(He sent me a GIF of SomeOrdinaryGamer laughing, LMAO.)

Anyway, this is what he said:

i am an asian, i believe that the word “Tulpa” is not racist nor cultural appropriation.

(FYI, he's also a Tulpamancer and has been for almost as long as I have.)

I can go on r/Tulpas or #RedditTulpas right now, make a poll for Asian POC systems, and ask them whether or not tulpa as a term is racist, and get hundreds of votes that no, it isn't. It means systems like The Cabin System who are also SE Asian who've openly stated that tulpa as a term isn't racist also have as much stake in the argument as the opposite side does.

Do you see how it devolves into a pissing contest between sides? What does this achieve? All it does is segregate the community and draw unnecessary lines, which is exactly what sysmeds want because it's ways easier to harass and kill smaller communities that way or turn them against each other until they eat each other alive. And they won't just stop with tulpa terminology, they're just using tulpa because they found a convenient scapegoat to attack it. Sysmeds literally find ANY excuse to demonize or take away a word from the endogenic community, it's no different here.

To further prove this point, sysmeds literally tried to say "system hopping" is a term appropriated from RAMCOA survivors, which was completely false. They are not afraid to pull the appropriation card on any word they can, tulpa isn't the only instance of it.

Just by looking in the #tulpa tag, you can see people who are equating people who use tulpa as racist, and want to split the community between "racists and non-racists."

Another key fact is that most people who have this view also have a comical lack of understanding of what Tulpamancy even is. For example, the system that coined willogenic specifically because they think tulpa is racist defined willogenic systemmates as:

“Willogenic system - A system that was purposefully created or “willed” into existence. There’s no connection to t/lpam/ncy at all.”

(Notice how the definition also excludes unintentional tulpas, which is roughly a third of the community? Fun!)

Yes, the actual definition is censored like that. So, the definition states that a systemmate can be ""willed" into existence," and is supposed to be a direct replacement for tulpa. No. No. Stop. You don't just "will" a tulpa into existence. If that was true, we wouldn't still get people on r/Tulpas making posts on how they've tried and tried for months or even years to create a tulpa and still failed.

Not just that, but it severely misrepresents the tulpa creation process as this super simple thing to "will into existence" when tulpa creation varies a LOT from person to person and is far more than just willing a fully formed tulpa into existence. I've mentioned this before, but I seriously do not like the broader Plurality Community attempting to force the Tulpamancy Community to adhere to their terminology that they created, and slapping, "Use our terms or you're a racist piece of sh!t!" on top of that has a REALLY bad connotation.

And remember when I made that distinction between the actually harmful paranormal tulpa definition and the community's definition? Yeah, like I said, most people who have this opinion also are conflating what we do to the paranormal definition.

All the Tulpamancy Community does is create a space where people can partake in tulpa creation and development. That's it. The majority of the community views it as 100% psychological, there's no paranormal ghost nonsense happening, and people are just trying to live their lives with their tulpas. It's not any more complicated than that, and labeling people who use a term like tulpa as racist is seriously scummy.

How "Tulpa = Appropriation" is Harmful

Ironically, this "discourse" has caused more harm to the Tulpamancy community than anything else. Like how I said that all the POC systems who said "tulpa" as a word has "harmed" them don't provide any examples of harm? Well, I can provide examples of how this whole thing has actually caused damage to people in the Tulpamancy Community.

Let's start with me. On multiple occasions, I have had multiple anons harass my inbox, calling me racist, calling me slurs, and even sexually harassing me in the comments of one of my posts specifically because of this issue. In fact, several sysmeds tried raiding our Discord server alongside harassing us on Tumblr because of what Amanitasys's post started, and this has also happened to @cambriancrew, @sophieinwonderland, and more because we happen to be blogs that intersect both communities.

The Widening Divide

Secondly, the widening divide between the Tulpamancy and Plurality communities.

The relationship between the Tulpamancy and broader Plurality community was already tenuous, and for most of the Tulpamancy community's history, it has stayed isolated from other Plurality circles. It was only within the past few years that the communities started to intermingle, but this drama can ruin that.

Because as someone who HAS been in the community for over half a decade, I can tell you that the majority of the Tulpamancy community thinks this drama is stupid and aren't going to change terminology for multiple reasons. Now, do NOT take this as the community going, "Tulpa is a completely unproblematic word!" when the community has debated the term's usage for YEARS. Nobody is saying the word is perfect, but it's what the community has used for over a decade now and every attempt to change the word has failed. And honestly, as someone who's reviewed the vast majority of Tulpamancy guides in existence, I likely know better than anyone else that if tulpa was blacklisted like some people want, the community would lose so much history and resources, it's not even funny.

Unlike the broader community, the Tulpamancy community has a focus on the creation and sharing of Tulpamancy guides and resources, and the vast majority of these resources directly have "tulpa" or "Tulpamancy" in the name, let alone the sheer volume of times the aforementioned words are used in these guides. If we completely dropped the word, the ability of new people to look up and find these guides becomes FAR more difficult. "Tulpa" is a unique and consistent word and makes it easy to look into the community, which in turn helps people discover resources that can help them on their tulpa creation journey.

And for the bottomfeeders who'll inevitably go, "Well, just change the resources!" I need you to go outside and touch some grass, please.

1.) There are literally hundreds of guides, not even including website domains like Tulpa.info, Tulpa.io. Tulpa.net, and many more. There are literally academic studies that use tulpa, and if the community (not just the Tulpamancy community) wants any hope of being accepted by the general public, we NEED those studies to back our existence (as frustrating as it is). Don't forget all the articles, podcasts, and videos we couldn't even change if we want to! Again, over a decade of history.

2.) The VAST majority of the people who wrote these guides are no longer in the community and it is disrespectful to the authors to take and change their work without their permission (if ANY of you tried taking my guide and replaced every tulpa-related term with something else, I'd be PISSED).

3.) Literally every alternative to tulpa has some critical flaw in one way or another (I made a post about this here) and literally nobody can agree on a single term. The amount of fragmenting this would cause would make the aforementioned issue of discoverability EVEN WORSE.

4.) The rate at which resources are created has slowed dramatically since the community's early days. People are just complacent with what they have now, and I don't think labeling tulpa as a racist term is suddenly going to get more people to write more guides, just to change a few words around.

I feel this issue can get to a point where the Plurality community literally starts banning the usage of tulpa-related terminology completely, thus excommunicating the Tulpamancy community from most plural spaces. Places like Plural Nest where the staff OPENLY say that tulpa is appropriative sets this precedent, and even though Plural Nest (at least right now) is still allowing people to use tulpa terminology, other places might pick up on what Plural Nest did, but worse. That ends up excluding people like us from plural spaces and just undoes all the work that's happened to connect the two communities.

Like, systems like us, Dragonheart already have to avoid sysmed servers, but now, even with "inclusive" servers, we might be run out because the owners/staff think tulpa is a racist term. So now we have an extra layer of anxiety when trying to join new communities. That's fun.

It's literally creating what endogenic systems already deal with in the plural community, but now even parts of the endogenic community are bullying another subset of their own community. It's terrible.

So, in the Tulpamancy community's perspective, we either: A.) Give up our most used word and people lose access to so much history and resources, and create a huge divide in our already fragmented community.

Or:

B.) Stick to our guns, but be excommunicated and villainized by the broader Plurality community.

There's no winning here. Regardless of what the Tulpamancy community does, it's going to cause a lot of damage. Sysmeds win regardless with their goal being to divide and fuck up our community, and it deeply upsets me.

What Tulpamancy Really Is

So, what are people trying to attack so hard and blacklist from plural spaces? What are people fighting so hard against to conform to their standards, or be labeled as racist? What Tulpamancy is, for a lot of people, is a means to living a better life. I cannot tell you how many stories I have read of tulpas stopping their hosts from taking their own lives, how creating a tulpa has hugely improved the mental health of others, or how tulpas encourage their hosts to socialize and take care of the body, or how just making a tulpa connects you to a community with the mutual interest in self-improvement and self-love, and so, so much more. Tulpamancy improves people's lives, and Tulpamancy techniques are not exclusive to us.

Any system, or even singlets can learn from the Tulpamancy community to improve their own lives. And yes, that means Tulpamancy helps a lot of people of color as well, as well as a lot of other vulnerable minorities! Whether it's learning vocality to better communicate with alters or using switching techniques to control switching, or even learning how to make a mindscape or improve visualization skills. I don't understand how this community can be labeled as a bunch of racists (even though there are scumbags like Kopase that sadly exist (why don't you guys RIGHTFULLY sh!t on people like him?)) when literally the entire point of the community is self-betterment.

And like what @dharmayokeyodasampa, the Tibetan Buddhist Tulpamancer stated before, "Buddhism, and practices related to it, are meant to be shared. That’s the whole point of the practice," and the same can be said for Tulpamancy. Tulpamancy can be for everyone if it means making their lives better. It's meant to be a positive thing that can truly be life-changing, and seeing people trying to label that practice with one of hatred and harm is just... horrible.

The Tulpamancy community doesn't have some secret agenda to silence people of color or mock any kind of religion or practice. We're just a bunch of lonely people wanting companionship and are tired of being alone.

Conclusion

"Tulpa" as a term, at best, is murky. Nobody is arguing that David-Neel was a saint. She wasn't, and she's dead and buried. Tulpa isn't her word anymore. People in the Tulpamancy community are just fed up with outsiders trying to dictate how their community should be run. We know the term has issues, we know its history is not all sunshine and rainbows. We do not need outsiders barging in and stating the obvious and acting like they know more than we do about our own community and history.

And look, I know some people who believe tulpa is appropriative have good intentions and just want to be non-offensive, but people take advantage of that. Sysmeds took advantage of people wanting to do right and weaponized people into being their mouthpieces under the guise of, "We just want to be racially-sensitive." But instead of actually protecting minorities, all it did was harm another minority while ignoring groups who are taking advantage of the word, and using it for clout and profit. That is exactly why I started this LONG essay with why this whole thing is a bad-faith argument.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: this is the Plurality-equivalent of "queer is a slur." Drama deliberately caused by bad actors who spread rumors of a word being bad, leading it to be picked up by well-intentioned people, and being turned into the pawns of those bad actors without realizing it.

I'm so pissed I had to make this post, but after seeing what Plural Nest did, and then learning that they KNEW some of their sources were by sysmeds who have ACTIVELY professed their hatred of tulpas and decided to use them anyway to a community of over a thousand users just led me to being fed up. It gave this indication that if large plural spaces like that are echoing a statement meant to divide us, things aren't looking good, and I'm not going to sit here and watch a community I've been in for over half a decade get wrongfully demonized.

If Plural Nest staff just said they're changing terminology because they just don't like tulpa or or the fact that it's conflated with horror media, I would've been fine with it. That's a perfectly understandable reason not to like the term. We're not forcing you to use the term! Use whatever term you want! It was the motivation behind it that I take issue with and the precedent it sets. I don't know where this community is heading, but I hope things go all right.

7-22-2023

[system-of-a-feather]

Sorry for all the Tulpa-discourse lately, this is more of a Buddhist ramble / discussion than syscourse but ya know

It's been on my mind a lot between it being in syscourse circles heavily and the fact that I'm actually currently on a system-designated theraputic homework assignment to reconnect with Buddhist concepts and to incorporate it into my self care routine so I can get back to my baseline after doing something of a survival mode to help balance out XIV being in borderline-crisis lately resulting in my burn out

I'm (as Riku as a part) actually usually very hesitant to talk about much of my cultural and personal experiences and AAPI-rooted parts of my life because of old system dynamics, persecution, and a lot of other things that make me very anxious and prone to fawning when me existing in a space I am involved in is at all challenged which is largely why I leave it to XIV to voice it for me since he also is the guy that keeps me from falling into old dynamics. (<- literally is the person who thought I was *checks notes* faking being asian like that is a possible thing let alone something I thought LONGER than me faking DID)

So honestly, its kind of a bit cathartic occasionally to actually have a sense of self and security enough to have the balls to actually defend myself in terms of this sort of crap and assert that I actually, ya know, have an experience in life. So as much as I typically hate the negativity and contention that bringing this stuff up brings, it's honestly theraputic and part of me expressing a valid part of my existence and self - so with XIV's nudging I tend to let myself have that space.

With all that said, I wanted to bring up a discussion point and correction point now that I'm not genuinely and authentically triggered about racism, I think a thing I do want to comment on in regards to the rhetoric on the tulpa topic that anti-tulpa-term people get wrong when talking about Buddhism and """""""tulpamancy""""""" is that Buddhism is not a closed culture or closed practice and stating that does a disservice to the group as well; albeit its the lesser of two wrongs by a LONG shot so I shirk it off as a "to get to later" point

But Buddhism is incredibly open to anyone interested on engaging with it and its part of why - when I specifically talk about the critiques of """"""Western Tulpamancy"""""" in terms of Buddhism I try to remind myself to desalinate between "westerner" and "white". There are many many many white Buddhists - as there are many black, latin, native, Middle eastern, etc Buddhists as well.

In some cases and for some people, Buddhism is a religion and/or spirituality, for others it's more of a way of life / philosophy. Tibetan Buddhism, as I know it as a non-Tibetian Buddhist, is a lot more on the religion side of things which is a different topic I honestly am under knowledgeable to comment on - but overall the thing that ties a lot of Buddhism together is the core and underlying principles of acceptance, letting things go, connecting to the greater world, and just general enlightenment as a means of finding peace.

Myself, and a lot of Buddhists, gladly encourage people to look into Buddhists practices and principles and ideology because its honestly extremely healing and regardless of if you are SUPER into it and go become a monk or what not or if you just dabble in it, so long as you do it respectfully and understand your biases and genuinely have GOOD RESPECTFUL intent and an interest on understanding it more, its an amazing and really welcoming thing to get involved in.

The thing all the 'pro-tulpas' quote on the Dalai Lama is honestly entirely true. Almost everyone could benefit from the practices and principles found within Buddhism.

That is to say however, that there is a large difference between spending a day or two at a monastery and learning more about the culture and the ideas of Buddhism and integrating them into your life and just grabbing this Really Cool and Quirky High Level Principle / Ritual / Practice of a Specific Typically Very Dedicated Version of Buddhism and ignoring EVERYTHING ELSE about Buddhism and saying "this aspect, this aspect I like and I'm going to completely warp it how I like it while calling it and/or referencing it in terms of Buddhism to make it look intellectual and enlightened for me to be involved in it."

I've seen it said in some Buddhist communities and discussions regarding the more ritual and involved aspects of Buddhism - specifically in regards to the Mahayana approaches - that a lot of the practices and rituals when used inappropriately or unguided can be "dangerous" with danger in this sense being a worsening of the individuals conditions resulting in an increase in a lot of the core things almost all versions of Buddhism considers unhealthy and unideal such as increase in conflict, desire, and disconnect from the greater world and thus generally more suffering.

And on that front, while not being of the Mahayana school of thought and as a result not really believing so much in bodhisattvas, I can - from my personal view and perspective - entirely understand how frustrating it is to see a term often sighed with "buddhists roots" be used in a way that - in my opinion - almost exemplifies the exact opposite of what I understand to be the crux of the idea of Buddhist peace.

A large part of me getting more involved into the concepts Buddhism has to offer and honestly a thing that had both helped my healing journey and how I interact with my system is the large realization that the existence of "I" doesn't really have much ground to it in what it is and what it means and what defines "I".

That identity and human nature is largely a mobile and constant changing force part of a larger and grander thing that is just really existence as a whole and there is little that makes me more unique than say the trees or the squirrel looking for nut or a bird singing in the tree other than the fact that I have the "curse" of conscious awareness and 'advanced intellect' that makes it so that I both feel the need to >Be< something and the bother of "the next thing". A large part of practice is letting go of a lot of notions that a lot of society and life reinforce - one of the most in my current stage of learning and practice - is letting go of the concept of "me and I" and just, ya know, being.

And to me, looking at the """""Western Tulpamancy Community""""" you have people who are sectoring off a part of themselves, their experience, their life whatever and not only identifying it as seperate from them (NO!!!! We are all connected >:[ <- light hearted comment) but also giving that part of themselves an entire identity of it's own and a whole second sense of "I" beyond what was already there - combined with the overall themes of 'developing your tulpa' by giving it more traits and details and stuff until it 'becomes independent' is rooted in such American / Western individualism which DO not even get me started on how toxic individualism is and how inherently opposite it is to Buddhism and

//deep breath//

I'm getting ahead of myself, the truth is while the concept of 'creating a headmate' or whatever greatly concerns me as a Buddhist - as a human and as a Buddhist (in a different perspective), seeking out to change people is the last thing I'm interested in and it's honestly not this uber horrible or harmful thing and its really not my business; so as long as it is making someone happy and what not, I really don't care if it doesn't match to my theory cause ya know, theory is that - just theory. Live and let be ya know - yall have your own life to live and yall know how to live your own life better than I could assume to know so I'm not gonna try to tell you how to live it. Philosophical theory comes second to philosophical practice and practice says to live and let be.

But its just really frustrating a lot of the time to see how the topic is handled when its far from really what it is. And in theory, I should let it go because honestly, people using the word "tulpa" to describe experiences that are largely anti-thetical to my understanding of Buddhism - while annoying - is not the end of the world and fostering hate and aggression does nothing but increase the overall suffering (dukkha) in the world. Often, when I think about talking about it or getting mad, I do tend to repeat that mantra back to myself and most of the time I refrain and leave it be.

That being said, XIV runs on the philosophy and critique of the over theroretical approach to Buddhism over the realistic and practical in saying that by "letting go of" certain frustrations and annoyances and grievances - while healthier for the individual person - enables and perpetuates long term suffering for the masses and years to come. So that while it would be best for me / us to let it go and exist in a state closer to Buddhist peace and doing so is an entirely valid decision (thus why I respect Buddhists who say using the tulpa-term is fine), I would also be choosing to maintain my peace over acknowledging and speaking up about the honestly long and ongoing racism and disrespect that plague those that I feel particular kinship with and in XIV's perspective (one that I am starting to take on a bit more lately) - the choice of personal peace is a selfish one that is complicit in increasing the suffering of the world as a whole in favor for the individual "I" that honestly has become a bit distasteful for our system.

But anyways, I digress. Buddhist ramble done.

[sophieinwonderland]

Where the actual fuck is your source for claiming anti-endos are pro-genocide? That's a HUGE fucking claim to make a biiiiiig stretch. Like you are actively dismissing people who are Tibetan who have said there's an issue with the usage of the term already- and now you're claiming a HUGE demographic is pro-genocide?

Who? I'm genuinely curious. I don't see many anti-tulpas who actually identify as Tibetan Buddhists. A lot are really vague about the type of Buddhism they practice or don't even seem to know where the tulpa even comes from.

Before going any further, it's important to understand the relationship between China and Tibet. I covered this in another post:

The above post was in response to an anti-endo who repeatedly echoed CCP talking points that "Tibet is a part of China," which while true from a certain point of view, is a little disturbing in a conversation about the cultural identity of the Tibetan people. This culminated in them describing the Dalai Lama as an "80-year-old Chinese Man," which is incredibly invalidating to the Tibetan people who have been struggling to maintain their freedom for reasons so obvious that I shouldn't have to spell out.

And the anti-endo community... doesn't care.

I wouldn't say they're pro-genocide. They're just... genocide-neutral when it comes to Tibet. By erasing the unique cultural identity of the Tibetan people, they can pretend that all Asians are a monoculture and anyone of any Asian descent have just as much right to declare Tibetan Buddhism as a closed practice and anything borrowed from it appropriation.

Even if that ancestry may be from the same people who invaded and are oppressing Tibet, it doesn't matter to them, because anti-endos don't care about Tibetan culture, history or autonomy any further than using them as talking point to silence one of the largest communities of created systems

They're okay with repeating CCP propaganda that erases Tibetan identity as long as that propaganda suits their own interests.

Anti-endos, at every opportunity, erase the history of Tibet and Tibetan religious leaders.

They claim that Tibetan Buddhism is a closed religion, something that practically every Tibetan Buddhist will tell you is wrong in a heartbeat, and erases the countless monasteries across the globe that are welcome to everyone.

When that doesn't work, they will claim that Tibetan Buddhist practices cannot be used by people who aren't Tibetan Buddhists, contradicting the Dalai Lama himself encouraging other religions to use Tibetan Buddhist meditations.

They will try to paint the story of how the tulpa arrived in the West as one of white people stealing Tibetan culture, erasing the involvement of translator Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup in bringing Tibetan culture to the West, tulpa included, helping to spread knowledge of their religion around the world in a way that would appeal to Western audiences.

And as we see above, many anti-endos will go so far as to actively support CCP propaganda that brands Tibet as nothing more than just another part of China or the Dalai Lama a "Chinese man," literally supporting the CCP in its aim of erasing Tibet's identity.

Make no mistake, the anti-endos who pretend to be so angry over people identifying as tulpas don't actually care about Tibetan culture. They don't care about the secular CCP trying to take control of the religion. They don't care about teachers being imprisoned for teaching the Tibetan language.

When the current Dalai Lama passes, the CCP will try to choose their own illegitimate reincarnation as they did the Panchen Lama. Anti-endos and you won't hear a peep out of anti-tulpas who will continue to act as if the greatest atrocity to befall Tibetan culture is created systems borrowing a word with a Tibetan etymology.

The whole thing is just performative.

Anti-endos try to speak for Tibetan Buddhists, rewrite Tibetan history, and erase the autonomy of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leaders to determine who can and cannot use their spiritual practices. Then they turn a blind eye when their own echo CCP rhetoric that has been used to justify the cultural genocide of Tibet.

[soup-mother]

can't believe we're still seeing ppl try to use the bible to justify the existence of Israel. what fucking year are we living in? "we believe god said this is ours" isn't an arguement that holds up like.... under any scrutiny whatsoever? like you can literally say "i don't believe that though", like it's fully just an opinion. (don't get me started on the nature of state legitimacy, i know i know, I'm saying this one is extra comedic)

go sit in the losers club with the vatican, the Taliban and the Tibetan "government in exile".

wait update to that last one, they technically stopped being a theocracy because the dalai lama didn't want to be in charge of them. lol.

[uncloseted]

hi! i read one of your past posts and you mentioned that you think everyone is redeemable and i want to hear more thoughts on it, i feel like a lot of beliefs like Karma and Hell really push the idea that once someone does a bad thing or is a bad person, they deserve to suffer the consequences of those actions forever bc they are a bad person forever, what are your thoughts? does it relate to your views on the law and prisons? what about people who are not remorseful or love to hurt others?

I really love this question so thank you for asking it! The first thing I should say here is that I grew up Eastern Orthodox Christian, which isn't really a tradition that has hell or karma as part of their theology. I'm sure over the years, Orthodox churches have adopted the fire-and-brimstone version of hell, but the way I was raised viewed hell as a spiritual separation from God as opposed to a literally place where your body is tortured. I think this may be an extension of the Jewish concept of Gehinnom, where a person has deviated so far from the will of God that they're emotionally tortured by intense shame, but I don't know that for sure. I'm not active in the church or anything anymore, but I think the fact that I didn't grow up in a "your actions on earth will doom you for all eternity" faith tradition is probably part of the reason that I think redemption is possible and that a belief in redemption is necessary. I think it's also worth noting that in a lot of Christian theology, it's not actually your actions that send you to hell- it's not accepting Jesus Christ as your savior. In a lot of Christian traditions, you can be a serial killer as long as you repent and accept Jesus on your deathbed, and people like the Dalai Lama will be sent to hell by virtue of the fact that they're not Christians.

For a long time now, my view has been that there are no inherently "bad people" in the world. Our genes, epigenetics, womb environment, unbringing, experiences, cultural context, socioeconomic status and a million other things all come together to inform all of the decisions we make from one moment to the next. And because of that, I just don't think it's fair to treat people as lost causes. Some people get dealt a really difficult hand and deal with it the only ways that they know how, but that doesn't mean they can't improve with the right kind of support. It's like that quote from The Good Place - "people improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them when they don't?" I believe nobody is beyond rehabilitation because what's the alternative? That we just accept that some people are just born evil and deserve to have their rights taken away because of it? And even if we did accept that people could just be "born evil", that doesn't really seem like their fault, does it? And so I think in this hypothetical scenario, we can try to mitigate the harm that kind of person could do, but it just doesn't feel fair to punish them for something that's out of their control.

If you don't believe me about the idea that there are no inherently bad people, look at the biggest determinants for whether someone will be incarcerated at some point in their lives: having been in out of foster care, receiving a poor school education, having early contact with police, having unsupported mental health and cognitive disability, problematic alcohol and other drug use, experiencing homelessness or unstable housing, and coming from or living in a disadvantaged location. The more of those factors a person experienced, the more likely they are to be incarcerated. There's also a link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and incarceration later in life. To me, that just doesn't seem like people who are incarcerated have some sort of propensity towards evil- it seems like people who are incarcerated are a result of a system that failed them.

And if you look at the types of people who are incarcerated, that's basically what you see. About 58% of all incarcerated people either do not have a high school diploma or only have a GED. About 66% of people incarcerated in the US had annual incomes under $12,000 prior to their arrest. 75% of incarcerated adults in the US are functionally illiterate, and 85% of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally low-literate. 44% of those in jail and 37% of those in prison have a diagnosed mental illness, and about 26.7% have ADHD. 58% of people in prison have a substance use disorder. Around 10% of those coming in and out of prisons and jails are homeless in the months before their arrest, and I couldn't find a number, but I imagine significantly more of the current prison population has been homeless at least once in their lives. Some sources suggest that children of incarcerated parents are six to seven times more likely to become incarcerated at some point in their lives, and 68% of men who are incarcerated reported experiencing some form of abuse before age 12.

We also know from other countries that having a strong social safety net and a focus on rehabilitation works. Per capita, Norway, a country with a strong social safety net and a policy focus on the well-being of its citizens, has a homicide rate of 0.552 per 100,000 inhabitants. The US, with its "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality, has a homicide rate of 6.383 - just fewer than Zimbabwe and just more than Grenada. By taking a rehabilitation-focused approach to imprisonment, Norway has reduced its recidivism rate to 25% after five years, and it has one of the lowest crime rates on Earth. In the US, 76.6% of prisoners are rearrested within five years, and in some parts of the country, that number is even higher.

All of this brings me back to my larger point, which is that... I just don't know if I believe that there are people out there who don't have the capacity to be remorseful or who love to hurt others (in like a violent crime kind of way and not in a masochistic kind of way). Looking at Norway again, only 3,687 people were imprisoned there as of 2022 (roughly 0.07% of their population, compared to the US' 0.7%). Of those, only 1,172 were violence or maltreatment (0.02% of their population), and 796 were sexual offenses (0.01% of their population). Of all those people, only 76 are considered to be there for "preventative detention", meaning that Norway doesn't trust that it's safe to release them (0.001% of their total population). If we extrapolate that number to a global scale, that's 82,000 people in the entire world who aren't safe to be around others- way less than the 10.35 million people who are currently incarcerated.

But even then, I just don't believe that those 76 people are in some way defective or irredeemable. Certainly, many of them have done horrible things (although not all of them- two are actually in their for their involvement in a heist, one for armed robbery that didn't kill anyone, and one person seems to be imprisoned primarily for making death threats to the prime minister), but I think most of them are probably just deeply damaged people. I want to be clear that I don't say that to excuse their actions or to spare them from accountability. Rather, it's to say that I think given the right support, some of that damage can be repaired, and maybe, eventually, they'll be safe to release. But even if they never reach the point where they can go out in public again, I still think it's our moral duty to try and help them get to a place where that's possible. I think to not offer them help is to reject their humanity, and that's just not something I can support in good conscience.

[deathbypixelz]

Actually, since my last couple posts have possibly contributed to it...

If you're doomscrolling right now, stop it. Stressing yourself out does not help anything.

We're dealing with a lot of stressful shit right now, so this isn't me saying "hey if you're even the tiniest bit stressed rn, leave the internet and stop helping <3". Of course this is stressful. We're going to be stressed by this. Stress is a natural reaction. Rather, this is me saying if you are paralyzed, if you are spiraling, panicking, or are getting close to any of those conditions, you need to take a break.

Sign the petitions on your dash right now, send the last couple emails, then close tumblr, close all your socials, close your laptop or put your phone down, and go make yourself a hot drink.

You are one human. You are one animal. The world does not rest on your shoulders alone, and you are not designed to handle the stresses of the world. You simply aren't.

If you need to take a break, there are literally, genuinely, millions of other people ready to pick up the slack for you until you're recovered. Your voice still counts among that crowd, but we can continue on without you for a bit. It won't be the end of the world. I promise.

You can't pour from an empty cup. And all stress and worry do is exhaust you.

There's a quote attributed to Dalai Lama XIV, but it's been rephrased a million times, so I don't know the exact wording. But the wording I first heard, and the version I like the best, is:

"If you can do something about it, there is no need to worry. If you cannot do anything about it, then worry is of no use."

Saying that to myself has genuinely stopped me from spiraling more times than I can count. If I can help fix it, great! If I can't, it will be what it will be!

So if you're feeling crushed and paralyzed right now, this is your sign to take a break. You're not helping anything by doomscrolling. Give the animal that is your body what it needs, and come back whenever you're ready.

[xylophonetangerine]

I hope that once the Dalai Lama dies Xi Jinping or his successor comes out and literally says 'we have the magic urn, we get to choose the next one'. I think geopolitics should involve more ancient magical artifacts.

[snurps]

another thing to vent about.

not saying i agree with what the dalai lama did, but tibetans have spoken out about how the "suck my tongue" thing really was just a huge misunderstanding and is just a cultural thing and injoke even. it's actually meant to be respectful to your elders, and of course he didn't actually mean for it to be sexual.

i'm just saying, it's really sus how quick all of y'all were to turn on him. i can get the reaction, especially since it involves a child, but he's literally an elderly asian man who espouses nonviolence, speaks very broken english, and therefore won't be defending himself against what everyone is saying. among asians, he is literally the dalai lama, a tibetan man who has been persecuted practically his entire life by the chinese government. he literally hasn't lived in his hometown since 1959. that's older than some of y'alls grandparents xD moreover, the clip went viral because of chinese propagandists. and well, i suppose they succeeded.

but even despite his defenders, some of y'all are still so stubborn and narrow-minded. i can understand people who are sensitive about religious trauma, especially ex- and current catholics (sorry y'all), but literally these are pointless accusations against the dalai lama.

enjoy virtue signaling. i doubt you actually care about how that boy felt. by the way, he said in an interview that he really enjoyed meeting the dalai lama (and it's ok if he was still uncomfortable. when you see your aunties and they all want to give you kisses, wouldn't you feel uncomfortable as a little kid too? be honest ;) )

why don't you just go on with your life and do something that makes you happy instead of getting pissed about something you can't do anything about? or put that anger into something like volunteering and actually make a change instead of just posting a random comment on instagram or facebook because ohhhh, you just have to let everyone know what your shitty, uneducated opinion is about the dalai lama!

like come on. there's enough anti-asian sentiment going on already. sit down, shut the fuck up. listen.

also, again, there are numerous other cultures where kissing adults on the lips is not sexualized. go educate yourself. here, i won't even tell you to "just google it." i found you a wikipedia article. why don't you read it, hm?

sigh, i wish people would be willing to try to understand each other more instead of leaping to judge others. the world would be so much better if people would take even 10 seconds to try to understand the other person's point of view before hitting that tweet button or whatever.

also twitter sucks fuck twitter i hope elon musk drives it into the ground lmao

[ishallbelife]

How could you think of yourself this way?

In 1990, there was a small gathering of psychologists, scientists, and meditators who came together with the Dalai Lama to explore the topic of healing emotions. Sharon Salzburg was there—she’s a much-adored writer on lovingkindness and happiness, and the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in the U.S. Their poignant interaction at the meeting is now legendary.

She asked him, “Your Holiness, what do you think about self-hatred?” Apparently His Holiness looked startled, leaned over to his translator, and emphatically and repeatedly asked for a translation of “self-hatred.” Finally, he looked back to Sharon, and asked, “Self-hatred…what is that?”

Hold up. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is considered to be the incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, didn’t get the concept of self-loathing—something that so many of us westerners know all too well? You know, DOWN on yourself, man. We live this way. When I first heard about this event, I thought, Doesn’t everyone hate themselves to some degree, like, isn’t it just universal human affliction? Apparently not.

Also present at that meeting of great minds was meditation teacher and author Jack Kornfield, who adds to the story. “Then, [the Dalai Lama] asked not only whether we knew what [Sharon] was talking about, but also if we ourselves experienced this self-hatred. And almost all the Buddhist teachers there, representing an entire generation, said ‘yes.’”

With his hallmark humility, the Dalai Lama responded, “I thought I had a very good acquaintance with the mind, but now I feel quite ignorant. I find this very, very strange.”

Some philosophical discussions of this story bring up the point that while it would be hard to say that Tibetan Buddhists and the Dalai Lama have literally never heard of self-hatred or self-aggression, it’s simply not emphasized in their spirituality in the way that it is in the western world. Maybe this is because they didn’t grow up with the Original Sin soundtrack playing in the background of their lives.

Thrown for a loop, His Holiness wanted to explore the concept of self-hatred further. He was not letting it go. “Is that some kind of nervous disorder?” he asked. “Are people like that very violent?” And then he delivered this white hot Truth in the form of a question:

“But you have Buddha nature. How could you think of yourself that way?”

--Danielle LaPorte, on the Dalai Lama via White Hot Truth

[meanwhileinstasiville]

"Is there gas in the car? Yes, there's gas in the car! I think the people down the hall know who you are"

Get along, Kid Charlemagne.

Expies (there are a few): "There's no censorship here, everything is FLITERED! I'm communicating" There's that guy on terminal 11. *"Fox looking over his shoulder"* *paces by the second I log in* *paces by again with armload of food from the food pantry* There's that guy too.

(I've never seen a cartel operate as a civilian institution before, "Newman" (read: my old boss) watching Jaws from a computer in "the compound".)

There was even a cooper 800-NHS, parked *where I entered the safeway parking lot*, who then pulled out ahead of me at that exit later, only to park some few hundred feet down the street. Things I get to experience (instead of being dead) because it's less like "hacker crap" newman, and more like "they die the same day" Escobar. Seem to be a lot of "E"s in the upper echelon drug trade.

I got to see yellow here and yellow there, and instead of hearing "phil" paged every time I got close to Ace Hardware, now it's "Alexander". At Market of Choice now. After this library. After the Dollar Store guy " who "was at waco". And we shouldn't forget "Lee" the pacing library security guy. Or Lee, Phil, Eric etc in the news.

(My least favorite color, and this is for someone's amusement like "newman" if he were backed up by a fortune 500 company, and used to run a drug cartel)

I expect this to continue to be as patronizing as possible, and not reflect my real life experience, values, etc. *More yellow comes up the stairs*

"Make me white, give me notoriety and blonds" Says a drug kingpin kid who watched 30 rock (because polls said a demographic he "belonged to" did, probably), and Last Week Tonight, where they have parliament, and happened to interview the Dalai Lama. From a different roof of the world. And how's that going? The sea of cultural inundation from an ailing empire now being overrun by people from India? The cars. The literal flags. The car company based there.

Edit: Destined to be a monkey at the zoo, like so many other empire protectorates. Same game plan, as any place you can think of. Pakistan? Rhodesia? Australia? Always the same.

*woman with yellow hat and built like a latina, sits on 8 as a rebuttal to my blog* Nope, not kidding at 2:29.

This is what a cartel "gone legit" looks like, around here.