#buddhist science

[void-meditatum]

[bozemane]

Sōjō Levan Fuu

[kafkaoftherubble]

人性的“光”辉

//The Case for "Hikaru's" Humanity

This essay was originally a reblog/response to this post by chronicoverthinker.

I find the complexity of "Hikaru's" expression of love fascinating and nuanced enough for multiple interpretations. Hence, I wanted to put my thoughts out here in a separate post... for my own Garden's archive, to be honest! Hahahaha!

Anyway, I respectfully disagree with that post. Here's why.

Against The Case To Not Judge "Hikaru" As Though He's a Human

What I'm getting at from the bulk of the argument is that "Hikaru" cannot genuinely be described as aroace—or somewhere in the spectrum—because he's fundamentally not human.

I wanna push back on this. I think OP is not giving "Hikaru" enough credit.

The examples OP cited are either from the beginning—when he was very much 90% eldritch and 10% "cosplaying as a human"—or when he's still trying to grasp the deeper layers of being human.

Take his attitude with Asako discovering his secret(s).

OP is right that, during the first incident, "Hikaru" acted like a monster would. But in the second incident, "Hikaru" actually acted differently.

There was a brief moment of tension here—as if there was a split-second clash in "Hikaru's" mind that we aren't privy to. This is related to what I wanna talk about later.

For now, though, this is what happens a little while later... after Asako expresses her grief for the dead Hikaru.

Here, "Hikaru" philosophizes what it means to be a living being who sees death as a totality.

And while he's doing that—

He reached out and wiped the tears off Asako's face.

Bear in mind that "Hikaru" had only shown his most unambiguous benevolence to Emoshiki for a long time, but here, he's showing similar care and benevolence to a friend. A non-Yoshiki human.

That's not all. He also expresses similarly subtle humanity in his interaction with that Medium Ajuma/Auntie (I forgot her name even though I liked her a lot ahahhaha). He values her advice and looks up to her for counsel, contrasting the first time he learned of her existence through Emoshiki's phone. The latter was when he was still mostly a monster; the former was as "Hikaru" steadily gained humanity.

I want to also point out that "Hikaru's" gains are parallel to Yoshiki's losses. Emoshiki is starting to be registered as "not entirely human/living". He is starting to feel the effects of torii gates acting as barriers, for example.

But if we're talking about the thematic confirmation of "Hikaru's" change in his personhood, I think there is an even better one in the manga.

---

The Emergent Dual nature of "Hikaru," Visualized

Above all else, I think nothing illustrates "Hikaru's" clash between humanity and monstrous nature than this panel shown here by my (very one-sided) bro, Mokumoku Ren:

The panel before it was this:

The left side of "Hikaru" shows his Eldritch nature. The tendrils that clue us of his monstrosity are leaking out.

The right side, however... shows a single human tear. The side where he was simply crying as an emotionally hurting human being.

Even the words on the second panel have subtle hints of that duality. Notice that the "monster side" has the word "Kill? Kill?!" While the human side has "it hurts""I have to do somethin'" and "apologize."

The two sides share words, for sure, but when I read it, my immediate understanding was that

the monstrous side is reacting, hence it comes out first. It's automated; the default state Eldritch-bro has been in for many years.

The human side is responding, hence the tears coming out later than the tendrils.

One is "Hikaru's" default, dominant nature. The other? His gained humanity and his budding capacity for self-reflection.

Later in this chapter, we actually see "Hikaru's" humanity—in an unambiguous telling—winning against his default-dominant nature: he chose to respond instead of react. He gave half of his monstrosity to Yoshiki so he could be more human than monster from that point onward.

-----

"I Love You, Yoshiki."

This is how it was played out in Chapter 1.

----

And this is how it plays out in Chapter 26.

In both instances, "Hikaru" makes allusions to how fun being human is for a monster like himself. However, his reasons in the first chapter were superficial ("I have friends! I ate ice cream!"). The second panel, meanwhile, was thoughtful and earned.

You even notice how the first panel's "Hikaru" insisted that he's as good as a real human, while the second—now wised up to what humanity really means—admitted to being a monster and a substitute in origin.

I think "Hikaru" has gained enough humanity to him at this point that, even his self-deprecative " [...] the monster's feelings" is more human than monstrous.

His previous emotions were never this deep; they were copies of OG Hikaru at best while he outwardly insists he's so-totally Hikaru. But here, despite admitting that he really is "just a monster pretending to be human," he displays the sort of realization only a monster who finally gained humanity is capable of discerning. He's experiencing the nuances of a human's thought process, even noting his own lack of understanding concerning love.

This is why I disagree. I think "Hikaru" has enough human-ness to be reasonably considered aroace, at least at this point.

"Hikaru's" inability to understand love, even in terms of familial love or platonic love, is similar to my own. Nonetheless, there are still two dear friends I care a lot about, in a manner similar to how "Hikaru" feels for Yoshiki.

In other words: the way I understand "Hikaru's" declaration of love—per my own subjective experience as an aroace—is that he is expressing "care."

This gets us to the next point I'd like to make.

------

"Hikaru's" Love for Yoshiki isn't Expressed in Hunger

You're right; "Hikaru" hungers for Yoshiki. The exploration and reading of that hunger deserves its own analysis, but briefly, I see it as a metaphor for addiction (or even the violence of mental illnesses?), which can be intertwined with feelings like love.

No matter what it could be read as, though, if "Hikaru's" love for Emoshiki is just hunger masquerading as love, then there is little sense why "Hikaru" would express his love by putting distance between himself and Emoshiki.

His psychological journey up to that point on the beach centered around one question,

"What is the best thing to do so Yoshiki doesn't get hurt (by my monstrous side)?"

In other words, "What is the best thing for me to do so the person I love doesn't get hurt by my addiction/episodes?"

"Hikaru's" love is expressed in his commitment to Emoshiki's well-being. It is how he recognizes the danger of his monstrous hunger. As we've discussed earlier in this post, "Hikaru" is grappling with the duality of his personhood.

I think he is experiencing both care (which is "Hikaru's" version of love, maybe?) and hunger when it comes to Yoshiki.

These two desires interplay with each other... but are also at odds with one another. "Hikaru," being the battleground for these two sides, knows this very well. He also knows what's fueling these two things simultaneously, and chooses to let his care for Yoshiki lead his decision.

I don't think "Hikaru's" love refers to his hunger at all. I think they exist simultaneously, and we're watching this man-of-a-monster make a choice. Despite his origin, he's struggling with the human condition between not letting go out of "love," and letting go out of that same "love."

-----

Conclusion

There is definitely an element of subjective reading here, but I think "Hikaru," at this moment, can be judged as human (and, while we're at it, aroace).

He's got enough humanness that he can be judged through the lens of humanity (though I also agree that one can also choose not to do so, ahahha!).

His inability to understand the sentimentalities of families and friends is not a strong argument for the case of "Hikaru" not being "human enough."

"Hikaru's" love does not equal his hunger. They are not the same sentiments, though they do intermingle and influence one another like all webs of emotions do.

This post may seem like it's about "Hikaru's" sexuality and romantic orientation, but the bigger point I want to argue about is actually "Hikaru's" humanity. I hope to present a different angle to what "Hikaru's" psychology might be about.

-----

I wanna end this with how Yoshiki reacts to "Hikaru's" decision.

The prominence of his wounded arm in the panel and the intensity of his rejection toward "Hikaru's" decision, to me, seems like a quiet echo to how "Hikaru" —90% Eldritch, 10% cosplaying as human—began at first.

The one who's expressing a clinging attachment... is now the human who's starting to gain little supernatural, monstrous elements to himself.

---

Thank you for reading my ramble!

[curiouscatalog]

From: Transactions - The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 9. 1823.

Q41 .E2 v. 9

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

I knelt before my God. “God, why did you call me here?” I was but an acolyte, hardly worthy of His attentions.

God tilted his head to the side. “I wished to tell someone a story, and you happened to be nearby,” He explained.

I nodded, unable to conceal my excitement. To be called upon by God, at such a young age? It was unheard of! “I would be honoured to hear any wisdom from your lips,” I said.

His expression unchanging, God began. “Once upon a time, there was a boy. He had wealth and power, but he wanted the world.��

A story about overstepping your bounds, I thought. About the follies of ambition. Did God think me too eager? I had best be more humble. I lowered my eyes and bowed deeper.

“He plotted and schemed, seeking to rule. But a team of pure-hearted heroes saw through his deceits and rose to stop him. They waged an epic battle, good against evil, chaos against order,” God continued, not showing any sign of noticing my change in demeanour.

“Good almost won. Those heroes were indomitable, unstoppable. The boy feared for his life, for everything he earned. So he unveiled a great weapon, a bomb that would take out the world, for if he could not have it, no one should either.”

Ah, I thought. Selfishness. Pride. Two great sins. Perhaps He had seen me gloating over my skills? Yes, that must be it.

“He blew up the world, and as he did so, he discovered a secret. The path to immortality. The boy Ascended, and when the dust settled, he sat on a throne of radioactive stone and bodies, ruling over a broken people.”

God shook his head and closed his eyes. He had too few eyes, I thought idly, then cursed myself for the heresy. God was Perfection itself, the final form. It was not my place to critique Him. “That boy became a young king. His power grew endlessly, safe in the knowledge that his enemies had been vanquished.”

Carelessness, now. Would the king fall, betrayed by a trusted ally? Would his kingdom flounder from lack of tending? I listened intently. When God spoke, those who listened were blessed.

“Other kind souls, who saw the horror in his actions, took up arms. Time and time again, he destroyed them. Centuries passed, and the people stopped looking at him as a king, and started seeing him as a god. They forgot the story of how he rose to power, and invented a legend. They worshipped him.”

Idolatry! The worst of all sins. He would be cast down by our God, the true God. I grinned to myself, pleased by my deductive skills.

“He was showered in gifts and partook in every pleasure possible, every vice and depravity. He glutted himself on the rarest delicacies, slept with the most gorgeous men and women, killed those who so much as irritated him. His dominion was absolute. None would challenge him.” There was an air of resolute pride in God's voice, but it swiftly softened to his usual solemnity.

“The centuries turned to millennia. The young man still enjoyed his bed-warmers, and his fine wines, but he did not take the same thrill in them that he once did. The world had grown boring, he decided. So he entertained himself with the thought of gaining more power, the idea of taking other lands, other peoples, other worlds for himself. For a brief while, he felt whole again, alive.”

This must be about contentment, I concluded, not without a hint of panic. The story had taken so many twists- How was I to know what he meant to tell me?

“But time struck again, and the millennia turned to eras. He had conquered every galaxy there was, seen his very first struggle mirrored across the universe, and found his life no more fulfilled for it. His power was incomprehensible. Entire species would kill on his whim. He was no mere god, but God himself.”

“The concept of indulging his lust no longer appealed. Though his body was still young, he had seen too much to produce any interest in any merely mortal pleasure.” God sighed.

I was confused. What was this story about? I had missed something, failed his test. A bud of panic welled up in me.

“So the god turned inward. He pursued the works of philosophists, who were awed by their god's sudden interest in his work. He pondered on the meaning of good and evil, and wondered about the heroes he once fought. He realised he had been a tyrant and a monster, and made laws to make the world a better place.”

I gasped. Of course. This was about kindness! Forgiveness, and learning from your mistakes were both valuable teachings, so often forgotten in today's society. By putting us in the shoes of a heathen, only then could we truly understand the meaning of empathy.

“But even that faded with time, and as a final resort, he returned to his homeland, where he once resided. He hunted down the deathplace of his old enemies, the location of his former castle. And he wept for the very last time there, as the final shreds of his humanity died.”

“You see, he had been gone so long, so very very long, that the world itself was unrecognisable. Plates had collided and produced a mountain where his plains-home once was, the sun had turned a deep red with age, and even his people had evolved and distorted to become a new species. There was no trace of the world he once lived in, the boy he once was, the life he once lived. He, as he knew it, was gone.”

“And now, the eras turn to aeons,” God concluded. “And I wonder: What will be left? When the sun that was once his explodes, will he embrace it and end the saga? Or will he live on for all eternity, changing and changing and never dying?”

I blinked. “Great God,” I murmured, making the holy sign, “Forgive me, but I do not understand. What is the moral of this story?”

God did not frown, nor show any sign of anger. His voice was even as he said, “There is no moral, boy. Some stories are just that. Meaningless tales. Idle words. I never expected you to understand. Simply be grateful that you will never live as long as I will. Now go, and live your life. Love and make children and die, like I never got a chance to.”

Finally, it clicked. This was a test, to see my tenacity. He gave me a false fable, meant to bewilder me, and sought to see if I would still attempt to make sense of it. And because I admitted my lack of comprehension, I proved I was humble, and because I tried to understand anyway, I proved I was intelligent. Smiling, I got up and left.

God watched me go with eyes that had seen eternity.

The direct result of this

[intermundia]

well it was a good rant!

i was wondering if you re buddhist? bc of the way you talk about the jedi as monks and your feelings about that, but i don't want to assume anything ,:)

yes and no, i would say. discovering and learning about vipassana or insight meditation saved my life in college, and it opened up a path of wisdom that had previously been closed to me. the spiritual practice has been more and less present in my life at different times over the years, and i am currently living in the middle of nowhere and so i'm not active in a particular dharma community. i've meditated a lot (at times), and have a few different favorite teachers, both current and former monks, whose books i've read and lectures i've listened to that have been very formative, like pema chödrön or rodney smith at SIMS for example. so i am not a religious person, but have been deeply shaped by buddhist wisdom and have respect for buddhist cultural traditions, let's go with that.

[errantabbot]

Depth Psychology, Religion, and Breadth

In depth psychology, we frequently note that the best preparation for being a clinician is the widest possible education, not just in the sciences, but also in the humanities.

One needs to be exposed to, and conversant with, the fullness of life and the potential for human experience to be capable of authentic presence and meaningful interpretation.

The Roman playwright Terence once aptly wrote “I am human, and therefore, nothing human is alien to me.” When one can truly broach this threshold, they might be capable of authentically attending to (and even understanding) the varied meanderings of the human condition.

Definitely the same can (and should) be said of religious professionals.

Any religious schema taken on its own accord, that is, standing alone and generally imbued with an aura of uniquity with regard to the quality of its claims, and its capacity for discerning and conveying existentialist “Truth,” runs the risk of becoming utterly bankrupt- drunk on its own juice, and belligerent toward reality.

Therefore the German progenitor of the “science of religion,” Max Muller once rightly proclaimed that “He who knows one [religion], knows none.”

Assuredly religious adherents, professionals and laity alike, must be deeply committed to the metaphors and narratives of their religious tradition, so as to discern and apply the wisdom to be found at its heart. But, first, they must be able to authentically approach them as such, i.e. interdisciplinary assertions usually approximated in multiple cultures and times, in ways that can broaden one’s appreciation for their own preferred set of rituals and dogmas when examined in such context.

~Sunyananda

[luuney]

waiting for the day i become a pet in all sense of the word

[cadmar]

The Mismatch

On average, it takes about 1/10th of a second from receiving the sensory signals to triggering a neural pattern.  That is happening about 10 times a second.  Each signal is a burst of electrical-chemical and each signal is new!  In other words, after a neural pattern is triggered, the system is reset back to zero.  There is no accumulation.  We are looking at something entirely different from what we saw just moments ago!

The evolutionary purpose for our neural speed is the flexibility to change our focus at a moment of danger and this will greatly improve our rate of survival.  Also, this speed at 1/10th of a second gives us the ability to notice and to track fast moving objects and animals.  We collect information so much faster than the speed of most dangerous situations and animals!

Our emotional and physical body’s reactions are vastly slower.  Almost a second!  Every time we get a new neural pattern, it stimulates an emotional response.  Eventually, there is an accumulation which becomes our memories.

If our emotional reaction was set to equal the speed of our neural network, then there would be no accumulation.  We would always reset our emotional reaction back to zero.  

For example, this is the process: the first time you see something, your emotional reaction is, “That’s nice.  That’s lovely”.  Within 1/10th of a second, another neural pattern and now we have added, “That is very lovely.  Quite beautiful!”  Then comes along another neural pattern and our emotional reaction is now, “That is so beautiful, it would be lovely to have.”  Then comes another neural pattern and now our reaction becomes, “It is so beautiful, I desperately want it now!  I am going to take it”. This emotional reaction becomes a long-lasting memory to the neural pattern!  Our emotional reaction keeps building till a maximum level of intensity is obtained!

 All this from the mismatching of the two processes.  If our emotional reaction is 1/10th of a second, then we would always reset our emotional reaction back to zero, the original setting, and the highest level we would have is, “That’s nice.  That’s lovely”.  No emotional desires and wants.  Our memories would be on this level, “That’s nice” and not on the “It is so beautiful, I desperately want it now!  I’m going to take it!”

This is our biological process and our birth into sin!

The resetting of our emotional reaction to zero, to match our neural network, is enlightenment!  This is spiritual growth and development!  Of course, our “reality” of our perception  is physical and  is the same process as our biological emotional reactions.  At 1/10th of a second, we have a different sensation than from the accumulating effect  after many neural network patterns, say 10 of them, that this chair is solid, hard, and can hold my weight!  At 1/10th of a second, we would be having a different perception!

When we reset our physical body’s reactions to the neural network speed, we will have a completely different and more truer view on reality!  

[buddhismnow]

Instruction, observation, and experience. by Trevor Leggett

Enquiry, too, can become a sort of slogan, as blind faith can become a slogan. Instruction, observation, and experience. by Trevor Leggett http://wp.me/pFy3u-uo

A pupil of a Zen master in Tokyo attended his sangha where it was expected that the students penetrate deeply into truth, in the world and in themselves. This particular pupil had to go to the countryside on a business trip, and he stayed overnight. He attended a service in the local temple. When he returned, he saw the teacher and one or two of his fellow pupils and he said, ‘You know — oh, it…

[internationalnewspod]

The daily weird news roundup for Weds, Nov 30, 2022. Check out the International News Service wherever you get podcasts.

[raffaellopalandri]

Daily writing promptHow much would you pay to go to the moon?View all responses The idea of travelling to the moon has fascinated humanity for centuries. Since the first successful moon landing in 1969 (the year I was born), the notion of ordinary people journeying to this celestial body has transitioned from a far-off dream to a more tangible possibility with technological advancements and…

[truthoflight001]

https://youtu.be/fsySghJgkDk?si=xHd-_3nhLj8FHml2

[putmenthedirt]

seeing oomfs (not even on here but on twt too) shit on my beliefs makes me so sad :( obviously not everyone has to believe in the same stuff but i’d like to imagine ppl would be respectful at least

[libraryofbaxobab]

August 16, 2023:

I didn't see that ending coming for sure, but the rest of it kicked ass. Nonstop action: ghosts, dinosaurs, hallucinations, time slips, impending medical diagnoses, bratty rich people, a (possible) murder mystery... don't blink or you might miss something.

8/10 #WhatsKenyaReading

[sheilamurrey]

Nick Polizzi talks about Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Buddhism and offers a prayerful practice

When I opened my email today from Nick Polizzi and The Sacred Science, I stopped and read this with prayerful intention. It’s been one of those days. This is helping: “Hi Sheila “Spiral Sister” Murrey, Last year, one of the most influential Zen masters of our time, Thich Nhat Hanh, departed his physical body at age 95. Lovingly known as the “father of mindfulness,” his wisdom lives on and…