#anitya

[raffaellopalandri]

A Stoic and Buddhist Approach to Workplace Common Sense

Workplaces can often become chaotic, filled with stress, emotions, and a tendency to overreact to challenges. Image found on Internet In such environments, developing and practising common sense becomes essential for maintaining harmony and productivity. What I do in my daily activity in supporting teams and individuals in workplace environments is combine Stoic and Buddhist philosophies to…

[tsultrimpawo]

The Truth of the Breath

Everything that is true about anything is true about breath: it's impermanent; it arises and it passes away. Yet if you didn't breathe, you would become uncomfortable; so then you would take in a big inhalation and feel comfortable again. But if you hold onto the breath, it's no longer comfortable, so you have to breathe out again. All the time shifting, shifting. Uncomfortableness is continually arising. We see that everything keeps changing.

– Sylvia Boorstein, "Body as Body"

[designae]

Family |23

[groundbreaking18]

18Teaching Of Bhagavad Geeta change your life in 2023

The Bhagavad Geeta is a sacred Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. It is a conversation between Lord Krishna and the warrior Arjuna on a battlefield and contains teachings on duty, self-realization, and the nature of reality.  The word “Geeta” is derived from the Sanskrit word “geet” which means “song” or “poetry”. It is called the “Bhagavad Geeta” because it is a song or poem spoken by Lord Bhagwan (God) Krishna.

 The Bhagavad Geeta was first said by Lord Krishna to Suraya dev before Arjuna, However, when he was given the teachings of the Gita, he had already taken birth on earth as a king." He forwarded it to his son Mannu. Mannu forwarded it to his son Ichavaku, and after that, it got disappeared for some time. So Lord Krishna again spoke to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.The Bhagavad Geeta is part of the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, which is traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa. Vyasa is said to have composed the Mahabharata, including the Bhagavad Geeta.

2. The Knowledge of the Self, or Atma Gyan, 

Knowledge of the Self or Atma Gyan is one of the 18 teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. It is understanding the true nature of the self beyond the body and mind. According to the Gita, the Self or Atma is eternal, immortal, and beyond birth and death. The body is only the self's temporary dwelling place and the mind is an instrument for the self's use. By gaining Self-knowledge, one can realize one's true nature and attain inner peace and happiness. The Gita teaches that the ultimate goal of life is self-realization and liberation from the cycle of life and death.

Read complete article .... Click here

[rdnewhaven]

The Impermanence of Thoughts No matter how many times we’ve thought that thought in the past, the very fact that we can shift to another thought reminds us it’s not permanent. — Shaila Catherine, “Beyond Distraction: Your Virtues Are Stronger Than Your Defilements” #Anicca #Anitya (at New Haven Zen Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp7eeF4OvXh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ryin-silverfish]

Ghost Month Special: Heibai Wuchang

Today is the middle of Lunar Seventh Month, a.k.a. Zhongyuan Festival, and I feel like there can't be a more appropriate day to do a deep dive on my favorite ghost cops, a.k.a. the Black and White Impermanences, a.k.a. Seventh and Eighth Master, a.k.a. Tua Di Ya Pek, a.k.a. Xie Bi'an & Fan Wujiu.

Now, I've talked briefly about them in my Chinese Underworld post, and if you watch C-dramas or play certain Chinese games, you might have seen these two + learned a few things about them already. But for those who haven't, here's the five-minute summary:

-they are (one variant of ) Chinese psychopomps, who show up to take the souls of the deceased to the Underworld.

-they are also ghost cops, who go after troublesome ghosts that are disturbing the living.

-both wear tall hats with four characters on it (which also varied), as well as nearly identical black and white robes.

-for their Hokkien, Taiwanese and SEA versions, there's a significant height difference between the two; the white-robed one is tall and skinny, while the black-robed one is short and stout.

-the White Impermanence is often depicted with his tongue hanging out of his mouth (reminiscent of those who died by hanging) and a more cheerful expression, while the Black Impermanence is dark/blue-faced (reminiscent of death by drowning) and relatively more grim and fierce.

-the White Impermanence is also worshipped as a god of wealth by some.

However, outside of these bullet points, their tales and trajectory of development are a fascinating rabbit hole. I'd call them thorough folk gods, who evolved out of the greater existing character archetype of "ghost bureaucrats fetching people to the Underworld" and became their own unique characters almost entirely through folklore and oral legends.

So, without further ado, let's dive in.

Impermanence

The Great Spectre of Impermanence could arrive unexpectedly. (无常大鬼，不期而到) ——Sutra of Ksitigarbha's Fundamental Vows

To start talking about these two, we need to go into the general category of beings they separated out of later: Underworld officials.

Some conceptions of those petty ghost bureaucrats that mirrored living ones already existed in the Han dynasty; in burial goods and "grave scripts", there were paperwork dedicated to those officials, who were supposed to keep track of the Dead People Belongings List and maintain the segregation between the dead and the living.

Their characterization would get expanded a lot as time went on, in Northern-Southern dynasty and Tang legends, but this isn't an article about the ghost officials as a whole.

We are still tracing the origins of two specific ones, and to do that, we have to start with etymology——the "Wuchang" in their names.

It is the translation of the Buddhist concept of "Anitya", referring to the impermanence of everything, which is always changing and dying and being reborn, with no constant to be found.

Yeah, you can see why a word describing the fleeting nature of life might eventually become associated with death and native psychopomps at some point in the Northern-Southern dynasty.

In the 39 chapter translation of the Dhammapada (interlaced with additional parables) by Fa Ju and Fa Li, the "Killing Spectre of Impermanence" (无常杀鬼) was first mentioned in the "On Impermanence" (无常品) chapter.

Another name for this grim-reaper-esque figure was "The Great Spectre of Impermanence", which appears in the quote at the beginning.

It appeared earlier than Ksitigarbha's Sutra, though: in another Northern-Southern dynasty translation of the Sutra of Golden Light, a Great Spectre of Impermanence was mentioned as this scary being that swallowed a king's younger son up whole.

By the Tang dynasty, the Spectre of Impermanence had appeared in both poetry and Buddhist text collections, as a generic name for the ghost that came to get you when you die.

However, the name wasn't exactly common or widespread, as made evident by all the N & S. dynasty and Tang legends about ghost bureaucrats where they were just referred to as, well, ghost bureaucrats.

Similarly, the Scripture on the Ten Kings doesn't mention anything about a Spectre of Impermanence. Instead, the second variant of the sutra says there are 3 ghosts working under King Yama——the "Soul-seizing Ghost" (夺魂鬼), "Essence-seizing Ghost" (夺精鬼), and "Spirit-binding Ghost" (缚魄鬼), responsible for dragging souls away in chains to the tree near the Underworld entrance pass.

(Their names might have corresponded to the idea of the Three Souls, each grabbing one of them, or the alternate division of Hun-Po plus the "vital force/essence".)

Right after that, however, they mentioned two demonic-looking birds sitting on the tree, one of which was named the "Bird of Impermanence", who would angrily scold and torment the dead for their misdeeds.

In this text, whatever the birds were, they were seen as a separate thing from the 3 ghosts that brought the souls of the dead to the Underworld entrance.

(A brief tangent about the 2 variants of the Ten Kings Scripture: the first could be found in the Dunhuang manuscripts, its name was 佛说预修十王生七经, and, as Teiser's translation of the scripture at the end of his academic book has showned, didn't have the 3 ghosts or the birds.)

(The variant mentioned above is 地藏菩萨发心因缘十王经, which is likely a Song dynasty Japanese apocrypha based on the first variant.)

Buddy Ghost Cops

When the ghostly officials of the Tang legends showed up, they could be alone, in pairs or in groups.

It was only in the Song-Yuan era that the idea of ghost cops showing up in pairs began to populate, and the first mention of the "Two Spectres of Impermanence" appeared in Vol. 3 of the Song dynasty 随隐漫录.

However, even without the word "Impermanence" attached, in various Song texts, the idea of there being 2 ghosts coming to get you instead of a single one or a group had already showed up with more frequency than before.

Come Ming dynasty, the Two Spectres of Impermanence got even more notable mentions in vernacular novels: a descriptive poem in Chapter 115 of Water Margins brings them up alongside the "Generals of the Five Paths" (五道将军), another native Underworld deity that showed up in Tang novels.

Plum in the Golden Vase, a.k.a. "that one Ming classic novel that often got censored and un-classic-ed because of its graphic sexual content", also has a folk Precious Scroll singing session (a story within a story, basically) that mentioned them.

In this story, King Yama sent a pair of "Impermanence Spectres" after Lady Huang, the protagonist of the scroll, who were also referred to as "Divine Boys/Acolytes of Good and Evil".

Now, the Boy-Acolytes of Good and Evil (善恶童子) were a pair of existing Underworld deities that had appeared in Dunhuang manuscripts and Ksitigarbha-themed artworks, responsible for recording the good and bad deeds of people respectively.

Their first mention was in the Tang translation of Surangama Sutra, and according to the second variant of the Ten Kings Scripture, the one recording bad deeds was said to look like a Raksha, while the one responsible for good deeds just looked like a regular divine acolyte.

Plum in the Golden Vase might have briefly aluded to that quirk too, in the story-within-a-story, where it was said that "Good people are welcomed by the acolyte(s), while bad people get the Yaksha(s)".

In the earlier Song dynasty compendium, Yijian Zhi, there are also mentions of two kids leading a fortunate guy's soul out of the Underworld, as well as showing up to inform some guy's wife that her days were numbered.

The second story is kinda funny, because after she had pretty much rolled over and accepted her fate, the two kids suddenly returned and were like "Excuse me, was Zhao your maiden name, or your husband's?"

Upon being informed that it was the latter case, they were like "Dangit, almost got the wrong person." Immediately after they left, another woman in the neighborhood whose surname was actually Zhao died.

Both stories do not use the specific name of "Acolytes of Good & Evil" for them, though, nor are they described as recorders of good and evil deeds.

For all I know, these two kids could be just like the pair of "young boys in blue robes" (青衣童子) who led Taizong into the Ghost Gate and the Underworld proper in JTTW Chapter 11: generic ghost workers.

But in Plum in the Golden Vase at least, they seemed to have been absorbed into the larger category of the Impermanence Ghosts, even though the Impermanence Ghosts still weren't their own characters yet, or gained any iconic uniforms.

Rather, it's more that 1) the catch-all name of "Impermanence" has become somewhat widespread for the generic ghost cops, though not yet universal, and 2) the Underworld apparently has a buddy-cop system in place now, where there had to be two ghostly officials for every newly dead person.

Psychopomp Outsourcing

In the late Ming and Qing dynasty, we got another twist on the Wuchang thing: Zou Wuchang, literally "Walk as Impermanences".

I've talked before about the early version of Taizong's trip to the Underworld, where Cui Jue/Ziyu, instead of being posthumously made a ghost judge, was a living official working part-time for the Underworld.

Well, Zou Wuchang is similar, but less prestigious, and you don't get paid either. The Underworld is short of hands (somehow), so they just grab a random living person and be like "Go fetch dead people for us."

The earliest mention of such a tradition in the Ming dynasty 语怪 placed the custom in Fengdu, the famous "ghost city" of Sichuan.

According to the text, when someone's soul was yanked off its streets to work as part-time psychopomps, they just fainted on the spot, and would revive after a few hours or overnight. The phenomenon was so common, the locals weren't even shocked, nor bothered getting them any medical attention.

Yuewei Caotang Biji goes further into the rationales of why Underworld needed those living conscripts. Apparently, all the living people clustered around a sickbed created a blazing aura of Yang, which certain venerable/fierce/brutish individuals also possessed in abundance, and was anathema to the ghost cops.

They were beings of pure Yin, after all, while the conscripts, whose bodies were Yin but still had plenty of Yang-aligned Qi, didn't have to worry about that.

Zou Wuchang was also not gender-exclusive, and there were mentions of multiple female conscripts in Qing legend compendiums.

Also, though the recruitment was forceful, you could actually retire after serving for a number of years——in one tale from 庸闲斋笔记, a woman fought the conscript for her mother-in-law's soul, who took pity on her and reported back to the City God.

In response, the City God said he'd send a report to Yama to see if she could be spared, and also released the conscript from her duty on account of her kind heart.

The popularity of this tradition across multiple sources and a long stretch of time signalled that, to an even greater extent than before, the ghost cops weren't generic ghost cops no longer: they are The Impermanences, which is only a few step away from developing into their own characters with unique iconography.

Black and White

First: where did their signature robe colors come from?

According to the first variant of the Ten Kings Scripture, officials under the Ten Kings were supposed to be dressed in black robes, riding a black horse, and carrying a black banner.

But in Tang folklore compendiums, that dress code wasn't a thing at all. A Taiwanese paper actually goes through tales of ghost officials inside Taiping Guangji where their appearances were described, and counted 22 cases of them wearing yellow robes, 7 cases of red robes, and only 8 stories involving ghost officials in either black or white robes.

Though ghost officials in black as well as white robes never appeared in the same story, they did have two things in common: 1) they tended to be quite tall, and 2) almost half of them were carrying weapons of some sorts.

The very late Ming/early Qing novel, Cu Hulu, also has a character ask Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha a bunch of questions in Chapter 12.

One of them was about the discrepancy between the depiction of Underworld officials in temples and the ones he personally saw, and he mentioned that the statues of "Impermanences" were 1) dressed in mourning robes and 2) about a Zhang and two Chi (3+ meter) in height.

Which suggests that, by the novel's time, the ghost cops had already gained a set of uniforms, one associated with funerary affairs.

(Also: I love Ksitigarbha's answer to that particular question——"Yeah we used to have a really tall ghost cop like that, people just call him 'Wuchang' because they don't know what the heck he is. Also, Impermanence isn't actually a real name, it's a concept.")

However, as far as I know, the earliest mention of a pair of ghost cops, one in white and one in black, was in Vol. 19 of Yuewei Caotang Biji. And the story is quite funny.

Basically, this Sun guy was temporarily residing in someone else's house, and the host's mother was severely ill. One day, the family servant boy carried in some dinner for him, and because Sun was busy with something else, he told the boy to put it on a nearby table in another room.

Suddenly, a white robed guy just appeared out of nowhere and entered the house, followed by a short black robed guy.

Sun hurried into the room, saw the two guys stealing his dinner, and angrily yelled at them. The white robed guy noped out of there, leaving the black robed guy behind and hiding in a corner, unable to exit the room because Sun was blocking the door.

He kinda just sat outside and kept an eye on them for a while, before the host of the family suddenly showed up, telling him that his mother had just spoken.

Basically, the ghost officials had come for her, and one of them happened to be cornered in the room by Sun, so would he please move? She didn't want to be punished for showing up late.

The host didn't know if it was true either, and was just going out there and checking. But the moment Sun went and sat somewhere else, the ghost in black scampered out of the room. Soon afterwards, wailing began to come out of the mother's room, suggesting she had been taken away.

As hilariously pathetic as these two unnamed ghost cops are, the only thing connecting them to the Heibai Wuchang of much later times is their robe colors, and the black-robed one being short.

There are no tales featuring both 1) a pair of ghost cops in black and white, and 2) the pair being referred to as "Impermanences", though.

The middle-late Qing stories that do refer to the ghost cops as such tend to only feature a single Impermanence: unnaturally tall, dressed in white robes and hats, either holding a fan or carrying strings of paper money on his shoulders, sometimes bleeding from his eyes or nose/mouth.

(Yep, you know how the White Impermanence is often seen as the older of the two sworn brothers? As far as their historical existence goes, he really is the older guy.)

It was in the 19th century 醉茶志怪 that we saw the first signs of the two converging. In the three stories with "Impermanence" in their titles, two featured the "white-robed ghost cop in tall hat" alone, one of which described him as looking like a 10+ years old kid, standing at the side of the road like a temple clay statue.

The third story, however, featured a sighting of two giant ghosts, one in white and one in blue/green, near the City God's temple. Out of the four people involved in the encounter, three died after a few days, and the only survivor was the one who had his line of sight blocked by the palaquin.

How did 1 become 2?

How did the single unique Impermanence become the Black and White Impermanences?

Well…it's a complicated question with no definitive answers. We know that in the (probably Qing dynasty) Jade Records, there are already mentions of a pair of ghosts called Huo Wuchang ("Life-is-Impermanent" or "Living Impermanence") and Si Youfen ("Death-Has-a-Part").

The former wears a black official hat and formal robes, holds brushes and papers in his hands, with blades on his shoulders and torture tools on his belts. He has big bulging eyes and is often laughing.

The latter has dirty, bloodied face, wears a white robe, holds an abacus, carries a sack of rice on his shoulder and has paper money dangling in front of his chest like a necklace. He has a sad frown on his face and is always sighing.

As you can see, there are similarities, but also notable differences from the "iconic" Black & White Impermanences. Whereas the White Impermanence is usually depicted as the cheerful one in white robes, carrying an abacus and wearing strings of paper money, here, he is the sad and grim one.

Their jobs also differ: instead of fetching souls to the Underworld, in the Jade Records, these two are responsible for pushing the dead off the bridges after they have drunken Mengpo's amnesia soup, into the scarlet river so they can reincarnate.

Personally, I view them as a transistory stage between the "Generic Impermanence Ghosts" and "The Two Unique Psychopomps We Know and Love", one strand of the folk god evolutionary process that was captured in written sources.

A Japanese paper goes into another strand in the evolution: the addition of the Black Impermanence. Namely, he might have grown out of a ghost that commonly showed up in City God worship and parades, the so-called "Wall-touching Ghost" (摸壁鬼).

The claim was based on very late Qing newspaper illustrations, where the Black Impermanence was depicted as holding up his two arms like this:

Which was a gesture commonly used by the "Wall-touching Ghost" during parades in the Jiangsu area, who also wore black robes and tall hats.

The author of the paper then dug into sources about the Wall-touching Ghost, and not only found records of the parades, but also a Qianlong era Mulian opera script, 劝善金科, that paired him together with the Impermanence Ghost as fetchers of the dead.

(The two were also given names in this opera: the Impermanence Ghost is named Ba Yang, and the Wall-touching Ghost, Wu Qi.)

Earlier mentions of the Wall-touching Ghost in Qing folklore compendiums, however, didn't depict him as a ghost cop. The story in 夜航船 just described it as a ghost thing that hid between walls and used its chill breath to suck up people's souls.

Another story in the 1878 浇愁集, even though it described the ghost more——dark-faced, holding its arms up like in the drawing, could turn into a cloud of black smoke and disappear into walls——still had it as your typical "ghost shows up, people die" ill omen.

So the paper's proposition is that, after the White Impermanence has separated out of the "Generic Ghost Cop Impermanences" and become his own thing, people in southern Jiangsu built on their existing Wall-touching Ghost and made him into the former's partner, absorbing most of his iconography in the process.

Similarly, the "tall and short" pair-up that was popular in Fujian and spread across Taiwan and SEA might also be a result of parallel local evolution, together with the name Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujiu.

Xie and Fan

Yes! At last, at last, we are getting to the most well-known and popular origin story, a.k.a. the Nantai Bridge Tale.

A summary: Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujiu were a pair of best friends/sworn brothers from Fujian, working as constables for the local magistrate. One day, while they were out on a mission, they saw a storm brewing. Xie went back to grab umbrellas while Fan waited for him under the bridge.

Unfortunately, the downpour soon began, causing the river to flood. Fan, unwilling to break his promise, continued waiting for Xie under the bridge and drowned. When Xie returned and saw his sworn brother's corpse, he hang himself out of guilt and grief too.

(…As a casual reader, I, always wondered why "waiting ON the bridge instead of under it" never crossed his mind as an option. Okay, sure, it was raining. But that's all the more reason to not stand under the darn bridge.)

Touched by their loyalty to each other, the City God/King Yama/Jade Emperor appoints them as ghostly constables, responsible for fetching the dead to the Underworld.

This story bears a lot of similarity to the fable of Wei Sheng in Zhuangzi. Basically, the guy made a promise to meet a girl under a bridge, the girl didn't show up, there was a flood, and, unwilling to leave, he drowned while still clinging to the bridge pillar.

Zhuangzi's opinion of the guy wasn't too high, because honestly, what a stupid way to die.

However, Sima Qian held him up as an exemplar of loyalty and keeping one's word, and the reading stuck. For later folktales about Wei Sheng as well as others that adopted the basic premise, like one tale in the 七世夫妻 story cycle, it also tended to get turned into a straight-up love story.

Though the Nantai Bridge Tale is the most popular version of their backstory, it's far from the only version. One version has them as Tang dynasty officials, working under the historical figure Zhang Xun, who died during the Anshi Rebellion.

While they were trying to get reinforcements, Xie was caught and hung on the city gate by the rebels, while Fan accidentally drowned.

When Zhang Xun was made a City God after the city fell and the rebels killed him, these two also became deified as his attendants.

In another version, Xie was a filial son with an aging mother, who had been wrongly imprisoned because of a friend's crime. During the Lunar New Year, Fan found him crying in the cell, and, upon learning about his sad backstory, released him secretly to visit his mother, on the condition that he returns after seven days.

However, his mother died soon after his return. Busy with her funeral, Xie did not return in time, and Fan, unable to answer to his superiors, committed suicide via drinking poison. When Xie returned and learned of the terrible news, he, too, hang himself.

And these three are far from the only known versions! Like, seriously, there are probably as many variations of the story as there are variations of the objects they held in their hands.

Though some elements stay more constant——using their deaths to explain their iconography, Xie being more commonly associated with the fan, umbrella, and abacus and Fan, chains, everything is subjected to changes and regional differences.

(For example, SEA oral legends tend to associate them with opium. Most of the time, they are constables or mercenaries employed to track down opium smugglers and other criminals, but some have them as Robin Hood-esque opium smugglers.)

Anyways, I hope this long post has offered some insight into the two iconic, yet also somewhat obscure ghost cops. I might add an "Appendix of Fun Facts and Tales" that doesn't fit into the main body of the post, but for now? That will be all.

May the readers who celebrate it have a nice Zhongyuan Festival.

Bibliography:

蔺坤:《无常鬼考源》

大谷亨：《黑无常的诞生与演变—— 以江苏南部的摸壁鬼传说为中心》

陈威伯、施静宜：《七爷八爷成神故事研究》

江義雄：《臺灣「黑白無常」與「范謝將軍」研究》

吳彥鋒：《臺灣七爺八爺傳說及其與信仰關係研究》

中国国家博物馆藏《十一面观音变相》的阐释

劉榕峻：狂放不羈、怪異獨特：談香港藝術館展出的「揚州八怪」

Stephen F. Teiser, The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

Fabian Graham, Voices from the Underworld: Chinese Hell Deity Worship in Contemporary Singapore and Malaysia

CBETA: 《地藏王菩萨本愿经》

CBETA：《佛说地藏王菩萨发心因缘十王经》

夷坚志/支癸07，“赵彥珍妻”

《金瓶梅词话》，Chapter 74

《醋葫芦》，Chapter 12

《劝善金科》Vol.5, Part 2

The Jade Guidebook: Appendices, translated by David K. Jordan

Journey to the West Vol.1, Chapter 11, translated by Anthony C. Yu

[literaryvein-reblogs]

can i request any words/ phrases/ themes linking to the word ‘relic’?

Writing Notes: Relic

Relic - an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr; souvenir, memento

Relics - remains, corpse; a survivor or remnant left after decay, disintegration, or disappearance; a trace of some past or outmoded practice, custom, or belief

Reliquaries - the containers that store and display relics

Where the bones of martyrs are buried, devils flee as from fire and unbearable torture. —St John Chrysostom

Etymology

Middle English relik, from Anglo-French relike, from Medieval Latin reliquia, from Late Latin reliquiae, plural, "remains of a martyr", from Latin, "remains", from relinquere "to leave behind"

Related Words

Afterimage - a lasting memory or mental image of something

Artifact - an object remaining from a particular period

Corpus - the body of a human or animal especially when dead

Decedent - a person who is no longer living; a deceased person

Memento - souvenir

Oddment - something left over; remnant

Oeuvre - a substantial body of work constituting the lifework of a writer, an artist, or a composer

Remnant - a usually small part, member, or trace remaining

Souvenir - something kept as a reminder (as of a place one has visited)

Vestige - a trace, mark, or visible sign left by something (such as an ancient city or a condition or practice) vanished or lost

Martin Luther complained about the profusion of relics and the absurd claims being made for them: "What lies there are about relics! One claims to have a feather from the wing of the angel Gabriel, and the bishop of Mainz has a flame from Moses’ burning bush. And how does it happen that eighteen apostles are buried in Germany when Christ had only twelve?"

Examples

ANCIENT GREEK RELICS. At Athens the supposed remains of Oedipus and Theseus enjoyed an honor that is very difficult to distinguish from a religious cult.

BUDDHIST RELICS. Relics of the Buddha and various saints were (and still are) venerated. Following the Buddha's death, his bones and teeth were divided for the purpose of being used as relics in order to illustrate his teaching of impermanence (anitya). These relics were so valued that they caused armed conflict between factions for possession of them. Afterward, these relics were taken throughout Asia with the gradual spread of Buddhism.

CHRISTIAN RELICS. Since the dawn of Christianity, relics have been an important part of Christian devotionalism. During the Middle Ages, the selling of relics became a lucrative business. The concept of physical proximity to the “holy” was considered extremely important. A pilgrim's possession and veneration of a relic was seen as a means to become closer to God. Instead of having to travel hundreds of miles to become near to a venerated saint, a Christian could enjoy closeness with him/her through their relic at home.

MUSLIM RELICS. Although certain sects of Islam strongly discourage (or outwardly prohibit) the veneration of relics, a very large collection of Muslim relics is preserved in the Sacred Trusts, located in Istanbul, which contains more than 600 treasured pieces in the Topkapi Palace Museum.

The Roman Catholic Church makes a distinction between veneration and worship of relics and icons.

3 Categories of Relics According to the Vatican

First-Class Relics: Items directly associated with the events of Christ's life (manger, cross, etc.), or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, a limb, etc.).

Second-Class Relics: An item that the saint wore (e.g., sock, shirt, glove). Also included are items that the saint owned or frequently used (e.g., a crucifix, book). An item more important in the saint's life is considered a more important relic.

Third-Class Relics: Anything that has touched a first- or second-class relic of a saint.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

Hope this helps! Do tag me or send me a link to your writing if it does. I'd love to read your work.

[russenoire]

mob choirさんの「exist」の大まかな歌訳と、この歌から語彙、その１：Ａメロ❶

mob choir's 'exist' in rough translation + vocabulary, part 1: verse 1

translator's note: i am a singer. it is not my aim to write singable lyrics in my native tongue; i translate for those who want a sense of what is being sung, to help me better commit lyrics to memory, and to aid my own study of the japanese language (and hopefully yours as well, kind reader!).

multiple translation passes are necessary to produce a poem that preserves as much of the song's meaning as possible while matching its rhythms, so i would hesitate to call what i am doing 'translation'. i think 'rough' is appropriate here.

learning songs in one's target language is a particularly active and participatory kind of immersion! i would much rather sing this in the original japanese, anyway.

vocab + lyrics below the cut.

この歌から語彙 words from this song

目を閉じる　〖 こまっちまう・me wo tojìru 〗　to close one's eyes.

浮遊（する）〖 こまっちまう・fuyuu 〗　floating, drifting. also meant 'wandering about, meandering, difficult to pin down' in an archaic sense.

うずき　〖 疼き・uzùki 〗　usually translated in JP-EN dictionaries as 'ache' or 'twinge'. to my surprise, when i looked 疼き up in a monolingual dictionary, i found that it actually refers to a 'throbbing pain'; 'ache' is off by at least an order of magnitude. related words are うずく (the verb form) and ズキズキ (the mimetic word).

失う　〖 うしなう・ushinàu 〗　to lose (something or someone), to miss out on something.

焼き付く　〖 やきつく・yakìts'ku 〗　lit. or fig. to be seared into, to leave a strong impression, to be etched into.

今際　〖 いまわ・imawa 〗　one's last moments, hour of dying.

惜別　〖 せきべつ・sekíbetsu 〗　a reluctance to or regret at parting.

迫る　〖 せまる・semàru 〗　here to approach, to be imminent.

無常　〖 むじょう・mujou 〗　the japanese buddhist equivalent of anitya; uncertainty, impermanence, change as a force.

つかむ　〖 掴む・ts'kàmu 〗　to seize, grasp, grab, hold...

歌詞 lyrics

Ａメロ

目を閉じても　浮遊する疼き even when i close my eyes a throbbing pain i can't quite pin down 失うほどに　焼き付く shape the more i lose, the stronger the impression left behind-shape 今際の惜別に　迫ってく無常 in my last moments on earth, i don't want to leave the uncertainty that lies ahead fast approaches この手で掴む missing piece the missing piece i'll seize with my hands

part 1｜part 2｜part 3｜part 4

[susidestroyerofworlds]

Got a few pickup lines, pick your fav:

Hey, my name is Microsoft Windows, can I crash at your place tonight? Are you an atomic orbital? cuz I think your attractive interactions are strong enough for bonding Are you carbon? Cuz I'd love to date you Are you Nitrogen? cuz baby, I think we could form a triple bond Are you benzene? cuz I think a ring would suit you Are you at the center of the Laniakea Supercluster? cuz you're very attractive Are you calculus? cuz I could study your curves all night Are you caffine? cuz I think you could keep me up Are you a wave? cuz I think we could constructively/destructively (choose based on situation) interfere Are you helium-4? cuz I think we could occupy the same position Are you a wave-particle? cuz I could measure your slit Are you an electrical outlet? cuz you could make me twitch Are you Hegel? cuz I could be your slave Are you anitya? cuz we could change eachother Are you ISO 8601? cuz your date is perfect Are you my eax register? cuz I could add to you Are you LSD? cuz you intensify my thoughts Are you the NSU? cuz I could shred your files Are you icecream, cuz i could lick you Are you close? cuz I would release for you Are you Tumblr? cuz i would blaze it with you Are you satan? cuz you could punish me for my sins Is your number 666? cuz you seem like a beast Are you a picture? cuz I wanna pin you against a wall Are you Fentanyl? cuz you make my hog twitch Are you a toothbrush? cuz I want you in my mouth Are you my surgeon? cuz you could rearrange my insides Are you T-cells? cuz I will make you remember me Are you a neutrino? cuz I wish I could feel you Are you melatonin? cuz I want you when in bed Are you a low temperature electron ? because id like to form a cooper pair and occupy the same space with you~ Are you Lee Harvey Oswald? cuz I want you to blow my mind

[coffilosofia]

MASYGUL

Tatapku bergelayut pada tepi-tepi mega di nastabala, terpasung di kecup biru dan nila pada sejingga senja. Dalam hati aku bertanya-tanya, adakah engkau disana mengamati cakrawala yang sama?

Sewindu sudah kadaluwarsa. Aku masih terpagut pada barisan kata-kata pujangga, melirihkan kepiluan meluruhkan kesepian. Ada yang bermekaran, akan tetapi bukan kelopak bunga. Berwarna-warni sementara Ia bukanlah garis-garis pelangi. Apakah terlalu dini bila sore bersajak menyematkan harap pada embun pagi?

Di kejauhan bara cahaya menyala-nyala, dedarnya menelesap hingga penghabisan jiwa. Aku adalah secangkir kopi pahit, namun mengapa kau tetap tersenyum saat tengah menyesapnya?

Rinai-rinai hujan merapal mantra, agar sang Anala mampu mendekap erat Anindhita; yang Ia tahu tak memiliki anitya. Lalu bagaimana bagaskara begitu merasuk pada jiwa bianglala?

Dera harsa hanya sementara. Lunglai lara bersenandung nestapa pada titian nirwana. Aku tertunduk sadrah pada selaksa kisah yang bersahaja. Tak kumiliki nyali untuk terus merapah di kedalaman sang Kama. Aksara-aksara asra memudar menjelma menjadi gundah aksa, dan masih saja, tak jua tersingkap tirai jamanika.

[raffaellopalandri]

A Buddhist Perspective on a Second Life in an Alternate Universe

Daily writing promptDescribe your life in an alternate universe.View all responses The concept of an alternate universe, a parallel reality where one’s life unfolds differently, is captivating and has ignited the imagination of many people, not just philosophers and scientists. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com From a Buddhist perspective, the idea of a second life, whether in this universe or…

[tsultrimpawo]

The Impermanence of Thoughts No matter how many times we’ve thought that thought in the past, the very fact that we can shift to another thought reminds us it’s not permanent. — Shaila Catherine, “Beyond Distraction: Your Virtues Are Stronger Than Your Defilements” #Anicca #Anitya (at New Haven Zen Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp7evGqO3Tz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[earhartsease]

oh gods it's come back again - that plague of people sharing some bolox about "ooh hey we slowed down chirping crickets and look they sound like a heavenly choir uwu" so us being us the last time round we found a cricket sound and did our own slowing down mp3 so here it is slowed down 2x 4x 8x 16x (we think) and spolier alert they sound like owls

https://www.yoxi.net/anitya/av/single-cricket-slowed-steps.mp3

[itsrameshvenkatraman]

SAHASRANAMA OF VISHNU: 527 of 1,000

NANDANAḤ {नन्दन:} There is happiness, then there is the source of happiness, and then there is “THE SOURCE OF HAPPINESS” – it is the latter alone that is nitya (everlasting and permanent), all other joys and moments of happiness are just that – moments and flashes that are anitya (impermanent, short-lived, ephemeral). One of the great challenges and struggles of life is to find this happiness.…

[rdnewhaven]

"There is no preparation for death except opening to the present. If you are here now, you'll be there then." — Stephen Levine #Anicca #Anitya #Anatta #Anatman (at New Haven Zen Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Comj_MTOoRC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[gitaacharan]

49. Sthita-prajna (Stoic) is Internal Phenomenon

Krishna says in response to Arjun’s query, sthita-prajna (one with coherent intellect) is content with self (2.55). Interestingly, Krishna didn’t respond to the second part of Arjun’s query as to how a sthita-prajna speaks, sits and walks.

‘Content with self’ is purely an internal phenomenon and there is no way to measure it based on external behaviour. Maybe, in the given circumstances both an ignorant person and a sthita-prajna might speak the same words, might sit and walk in a similar manner. This complicates our understanding of sthita-prajna even more.

Krishna’s life is the best example of a sthita-prajna’s life. He was separated from his parents at birth. He was known as ‘makhan thief’. His romance, dance and flute are legendary, but when he left Vrindavan he never came back seeking romance. He fought and killed when needed, but avoided war at times and was hence known as Ran-chod-das (who ran away from war). He showed many miracles and was a friend of friends. When it was time to marry, he married and maintained families, traced the samantaka-mani (valuable jewel) to ward off false accusations of theft and when it was time to give Gita Gyan, he gave it. He died like any ordinary person.

Firstly, there is no external pattern to his life, but the internal pattern is living moment by moment. Secondly, it’s a life of joy and celebration inspite of difficult situations, which were anitya (transient) for him. Thirdly, as mentioned in 2.47, for him ‘content with self’ doesn’t mean inaction, but it’s karma (deed) sans karta (doer) and karma-phal (fruits of action).

Basically, it’s living in the present moment without any burden of the past or any expectations from the future. The power is in the present moment and everything including planning and execution happen in the present.