#cyclic change

[yoga-onion]

Buddha to his disciples, mini-series (20)

Samsara (Reincarnation)

“When something disappears, something is born. In Buddhism, life and death are the same thing.”

“Samsara” is a Pali & Sanskrit word that literally means "wandering through, flowing on", wherein the term connotes "cyclic change" or, less formally, "running around in circles." It is therefore also translated as 'reincarnation'. 

Ancient Indians believed in reincarnation, or rather took it for granted. Therefore, the Buddha also thought it was natural and taught on the premise of reincarnation. And the purpose of the Buddha's teaching is for us to escape from this world of samsara (namely, liberation/enlightenment: Ref).

There are six realms of samsara as conceived by the ancient Indians. They are listed in order of increasing suffering as follows:

World of Hell (naraka), the world of the most suffering. Hell means 'underground prison'.

World of hungry ghosts (preta), a world suffering from hunger pangs. Becomes a demon with a swollen belly. A world where those who have committed the sin of greed are reborn.

World of animals (tiryagyoni), including birds, beasts, fish and insects. There are about 3.4 billion species.

World of warlike demigods (asura), Asura is a demonic species. A world where asuras live and fight all the time, causing constant suffering and anger.

World of human beings (manushya), in which human beings live. It is plagued by the fundamental sufferings, the four and eight afflictions, which are unavoidable in human life.

World of gods or celestial beings (deva), Heavenly beings can fly, and the world is full of pleasures, but here too there is the suffering of old age and death.

ブッダから弟子たちへ、ミニシリーズ (20)

輪廻 〜 “何かが無くなれば、何かが生まれる。仏教では生と死は同じものである。” 

“輪廻”はサンスクリット語で「サンサーラ」という。この語の本来の意味は「さまよう、流れる」を意味し、生あるものが無限の生死を繰り返すことを指す言葉だ。よって、”輪廻転生”とも訳される。

古代のインド人は、誰もが輪廻転生を信じていた、というよ���は、それがあたりまえだと思っていたのだ。よって、釈迦もそれが当たり前だと思い、輪廻を前提にして教えを説いている。そして、釈迦の教えは、われわれがこの輪廻転生の世界から脱出すること（すなわち解脱：参照）が目的である。

古代インド人が考えた輪廻の世界は六つだ。以下、苦しみの多い順に並べる:

地獄界〜最も苦しみの多い世界。地獄とは「地下の牢獄」の意。

餓鬼界〜飢えの苦しみに悩む世界。腹が膨れた姿の鬼になる。慳貪の罪を犯した人が再生する世界。

畜生界〜畜生界は鳥・獣・魚・虫など畜生の世界。種類は約34億種。

修羅界〜修羅は阿修羅といい、魔類。阿修羅が住み、終始戦い争うために苦しみと怒りが絶えない世界。

人間界〜人間が住む世界。人間が生きている上で避けては通れない、根源的な苦、四苦八苦に悩まされる。

天上界〜天人は空を飛ぶことができ、快楽の多い世界だが、ここにも老・死の苦しみがある。

[fortunatefires]

After the death of Aaron Bushnell I can't stop thinking about the quote "Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. we have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible."

[pathological-runaway]

Daleth is afraid of being forgotten. Which, put this way, doesn’t really make any sense: they’re the most experienced and wise of all Elders, they’re the one others look up to, their advice is welcome and sought. There’s no reason for them to fear being forgotten, not really, not with the impact they have on the lives of so many people. Still, Daleth wonders if it’ll be enough once they’re gone.

you can read the fic here on ao3 or below the cut

Daleth is afraid of being forgotten. Which, put this way, doesn’t really make any sense: they’re the most experienced and wise of all Elders, they’re the one others look up to, their advice is welcome and sought. They guide travellers and refugees towards the Light and have opened the gate to a brighter future for hundreds of people. They have seen pilgrims come to their Temple from faraway lands just to consult them, just to listen to the tales of times long gone, just to understand where they all come from and where they’re supposed to go.

Ayin adores Daleth’s company, Teth asks for their advice when feeling lost, young Samekh imbibe every piece of information they may find, eager to understand this world better. Tsadi shares their worries and discusses the news with them, Lamed requests their opinion on matters they deem important. There’s no reason for them to fear being forgotten, not really, not with the impact they have on the lives of so many people.

Still, Daleth wonders if it’ll be enough once they’re gone.

The child eyes them with apprehension, looking away the exact moment the Elder’s gaze meets theirs. They’re very young for the position they’re in, but, with Daleth’s assistance, they’ll manage. Daleth has no doubts and hopes the child’s will soon disappear, too.

***

Daleth is afraid of being forgotten, which, while still improbable, somehow seems plausible now. Or, perhaps, they’re simply getting worse with age. And the latter appears to them far worse than the former, because, scared and old, they wouldn’t be of much use to people, would they? They’ll end up forgotten, one way or another.

The Kingdom is flourishing. Darkness, which has been a major menace to most inhabitants of the Sky since the dawn of time, has started to subside, little by little. Castles emerge high and majestic, and fanfares announce the advent of a new age.

Daleth still shepherds travellers towards a better life, but something has changed in the way this journey is viewed. People seem to be in a hurry, enthusiastic — too enthusiastic, perhaps — and ambitious, and their hasty movements and decisions make the Elder frown. The travellers seek brilliance and stardom and speak of shiny golden statues and balconies with magnificent views as if these were their daily bread. Their dreams are big, too big for the mantas carrying their boats and the birds accompanying them, and Daleth starts to feel small, the weight of others’ expectations crushing them for the first time in centuries.

The world appears to centre around the endless festivities of Valley and business opportunities of Forest, the rest of the Kingdom slightly fading away in the background, unable to compare to the splendour of the Citadel or the abundance of resources in Forest Caves.

The change makes Daleth anxious, even if they don’t think the current situation will last long. And yet, the old and shabby Isle looks bleak in comparison with other realms, and they feel like it’s the same with them.

The young child is barely a child anymore, and they don’t particularly need the Elder’s help nowadays. They gravitate towards Samekh, who aren’t much older than the Prince themself and have a penchant for loud parties and fancy dresses, and disregard most of Daleth’s advice. But then again, Daleth shouldn’t take what they’re doing at this age so seriously. It probably won’t last long, either.

“Be careful, Alef,” the Elder admonishes just in case, “not to fly too high.”

“We live in a kingdom built in the clouds, Father. We should not be afraid of heights.”

It’s not really anyone’s fault that Isle is on the ground.

***

Daleth is afraid of being forgotten, but there’s not much to fear now. Few people live in Isle on a regular basis compared to those that stay there temporarily, and it often feels like those few people are the only ones who still remember the old and grumpy inhabitant of the Temple.

The rest are far too busy grovelling at the King’s feet.

Daleth arranges books carefully on the shelves, paying attention not to mess up the order, not to let a book fall. Their hands are getting shaky with age, and this thought alone makes them tremble even more.

No one really asks for their advice now, but the few Islanders that still keep the realm’s traditions alive look happy when their Elder shows up at their celebrations. And Daleth will make sure that their people will be left with enough of them once Daleth themself is gone.

They have come to accept that their assistance is no longer wanted, most siding up with the King instead. They all glorify progress and whatever else that Valley keeps screaming about. The petty part of Daleth likes to think that the Elders will come to their senses one day and start to ask them for forgiveness and advice. But it’ll be too late then, because Daleth will be angry and brave enough to send them away and make them clean up the mess they’ve made by themselves.

It'll be too late then, because Daleth will be gone by that time, laughing at these idiots from the starry sky.

For some reason, this little fantasy doesn’t make them feel much better.

The person hiding their face behind that monstrous mask has nothing childlike, and Daleth prefers to think that Alef died altogether than to accept what they have become. The Elder didn’t teach them to disregard nature, didn’t teach them to make up lies, and surely didn’t teach them to solve conflicts by taking arms. What they did teach was the exact opposite of these three things, but it seems like all of them have gone forgotten.

Just like everything else, Daleth supposes.

When Ayin comes to the Temple and asks them to join the Anti-Darkstone coalition, Daleth screams at them at the top of their lungs. There’s no way they’ll participate in this senseless slaughter, and there’s no way Ayin — their oldest and closest friend — ever thought they would.

The sky gets darker on the horizon, and Daleth can’t help but think that the current situation is unlikely to stop anytime soon.

They sigh and get back to their books.

***

Daleth is forgotten, just like the rest of the Kingdom, lying in ruins under a thick layer of dust for decades and decades and decades.

The child eyes them with apprehension, but they don’t look away when Daleth’s gaze meets theirs. They’re very young for the position they’re in, but Daleth has no other choice but let them do what they have to and hope that, against all odds, they’ll manage.

The Elder is no more than a shadow of their past self, a reflection on murky water of who they used to be. But then again, everything and everyone is. There’s nothing to be done.

It’s strange how different death is in reality compared to what they thought it would be like. After so many years of waiting, it almost feels underwhelming.

The books on the shelves are all yellow and dusty, and they fall apart the moment the Elder’s fingers touch them. But they’re standing in the very same order Daleth left them in, which can only mean one thing.

But at this point Daleth’s too numb to even care.

***

Daleth is afraid of being forgotten once again. Who would’ve thought they would?

There are children passing by the Temple almost every day, looking for trapped spirits, bringing light, or simply exploring. They come and go with the birds, able to reach such unfathomable heights Daleth worries they may fall.

“Be careful,” the Elder admonishes, “not to fly too high.”

They laugh.

“Oh, but you built a kingdom so high in the clouds! We couldn’t reach you at all if we dared not leave the ground!”

Daleth wonders if life is supposed to move in circles or if it’s just being cruel.

The children ask them questions and look for advice, explain how things are in other realms and request their opinion on all sorts of things, eager to learn everything about this world, its past and possible future, where the kids themselves come from and where they need to go.

And Daleth is happy. They really are. That they’re remembered, that they’re wanted, that, despite their imperfect knowledge, they’re popular among these lovely children.

Daleth has missed it.

And yet, when the Temple empties, they can’t help but feel a surge of melancholy.

Looking out of the window at the sand dunes where flowers used to bloom, they ask themself if they deserve being remembered.

***

Daleth is afraid of being forgotten and wishes life weren’t cyclical, but both things are, unfortunately, out of their hands.

It seems that Isle is far too empty for the curious children, who opt for spending their time in the peaceful Prairie, the enigmatic Forest, the splendid Valley, the exciting Wasteland or the mysterious Vault.

Even the deadly Eye of Eden seems to attract more attention that Isle.

And Daleth tries not to take it personally. It works for some time.

But they can’t deny the fact that other Elders have more fascinating stories to share, more artifacts to show. It’s always a question of quantity, not quality, Daleth realises. It has always been.

They don’t really want to believe it though.

The children running around aren’t the ones Daleth has tried befriending, and each new generation starts avoiding Isle in general and its Elder earlier and earlier into their lives. Perhaps it’s their older and more experienced friends who advise them against dwelling for too long in the lonely desert. The kids gravitate towards each other, after all, close in age and sharing a penchant for exciting adventures and varied sceneries. Daleth tried teaching them patience and concentration, but children are way too young to understand such complicated things.

And once again, the Elder feels them all slip away while they themself fade into oblivion.

(Even though there’s no reason for them to be forgotten, with the impact they used to have on the lives of so many people.)

[hypersanity]

Philosophy and Elitism - Comics https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonicsGamingDomain/comments/1ijkm9t/thinking_about_a_subscription_to_dc_infinite/

So I've been learning about kite man, who is one of my new favorite characters/archetypes - the cyclic pattern of always starting over - applying new information from failures to slowly overcome obstacles not faced by normal standards and experiences - reflects one of the methods I use to learn since memory's different (and memory and understanding are completely different and misunderstood).

And I happened upon a character I've literally never heard before - Animal Man.

Seems to have ties to swamp-thing, which makes sense that he's reminiscent of a druid - but in like a venom style where things aren't black and white but a spectrum of shades.

Vegan anti/hero? https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/comics/book/animal-man-2011-1/85ebe20d-c87a-4cdc-bf15-65d1b3de400b/story-animalman-the-hunt-books

"Evolve or die" - actually an activist superhero that understands there are no heroes without a world to live in. By standards today this would be seen as "radical", when in actuality, it's being ethically consistent in ones abilities and choices that can be entirely avoided - but chosen NOT to.

About holding YOURSELF accountable in actions that lead to a global effect and collectively, instead of waiting for a point of no return.

---

"The believer": Here points out he's (Animal Man) an auto-didact who's not satisfied with just doing one thing and sticking to it like everyone else.

Philosophy

Something that I find hilarious and intentionally ignorant as fuck, is that people say philosophy isn't good for anything, not for music/ movies etc.

But without philosophy, there's nothing compelling - without philosophy, there's no imagination, no philosophic archetypes like kite man/animal man/venom/magneto and many others archetypes that use philosophy to add depth.

Otherwise everything would be grey without philosophy, archetypes strictly confined to pre-determined "forms" of philosophy.

Elitism and narcissism make an intersection when someone says that "oh this belongs to author x" - philosophy is a human invention, someone doesn't have to read x amount of books or specific books to learn philosophy.

One doesn't need to have a degree - this is ultimately reminiscent of a fascist.

The first people to invent philosophy - didn't have books to create new forms of it.

Many philosophies borrow from others to create a new one.

A philosophy itself isn't inherently good/evil (minus exceptions for those literally designed as such) - but in how someone uses it.

The worst kind of malignant narcissists say, "you have to purchase x amount of something to be x".

You don't have to read books about philosophy to learn about it, you can learn from archetypes, mythology, experiential experiences or wiki.

No-one starts learning at the same periods, no-one starts on the same resource -

Saying you have to understand philosophy by solely reading specific books, is the most un-human way to approach something.

The best movies and comics use philosophy, if you say otherwise, you're not actually proving it - you're just asserting your belief, despite not actually being interested enough in philosophy to engage in a way that's not just parroting the most famous philosophers and saying it's not.

Because that would be malignant elitist narcissism that aligns with any society that hates learning and doing so in a way that's fun. "just read books and never have fun, OR learn", as having fun is paramount to learning and assuming everyone learns the same way is literally fascistic gate-keeping. Grifters say buy my book that teaches you everything while stealing a phrase from another author- despite not fighting climate change due to "aliens" - DeGrasse Tyson. Oh, so you only believe in an education for people who can buy books, and methods not possible/conducive to their learning. - Which ties into anti-AI hysteria and disinformation - TBD.

[cait-sith]

Day 17: Moon

[tewwor]

smacked my brain back into place a little more, but spreading my interests into other forms has been nice! does eat up a bunch of time, though ... so i'll probably keep things mostly queue based here & do the opposite of my job when diving into drafts ( aka ignore numbers ). yapping might be spotty on here & discord for a few more days. oh, also, activity might go super quiet this time next month or it might crank up — it's always different every year, but ! grateful to have yall on my dash as always ♡

[cherrychapati]

rethinking my major + career interests + entire degree why do I do this to myself

[daincrediblegg]

really funny when people get so possessive of fictional characters. like what are you going to do call your lawyer? you going to slap a restraining order on anyone who writes an opinion on sleepo bopkin that isn't you? did your fantasy make you feel entitled to an idea of control that no one ever has or ever will possess? try prozac and leave everyone alone

[kate-apologist]

the nice thing about doctor who is that everything parallels something else if you're willing to wade through the past

[cryingjayb1rd]

dick fighting with bruce while jason is robin and jason listening in but not interrupting. he wants to stand up for bruce, show dick that the things he thinks are such a big deal about bruce are not so bad really but he doesn’t know how to. jason fighting with bruce while jason is red hood and dick not interrupting it. he’s trying to figure out how violent is so violent that he should put himself on the line. dick fighting with bruce while jason is robin and jason interjecting and getting an annoyed eye-roll. jason fighting with bruce while jason is red hood and dick interrupting and jason starts yelling at him because how do you, of all people, not understand. an old fight between bruce and dick springs up again and jason has to really stop himself from getting involved, but it’s a close thing.

[toopunkrockforshul]

Also I Will Not Make Myself Stressed and Unhappy about not having read my book/worked on fic/knitting/drawing/etc. Cause those are all Fun Things that I Can Choose to Do and don't actually have any to do any of those things and all of them can be done at a time when I feel like doing them

[allycat75]

In case anyone needs this.

Quote from the totally disturbing GQ Oct. 2023 cover article that should have raised major red flags for anyone who cared about the subject (sickly photos not included):

[disneydatass]

Attack on Titan finale episode conclusion: women be loving toxic ass men

[tenmartha]

love love love how utterly selfish elevenamy becomes for each other. amy deifies eleven and then demands that he always live up to her standards. he can’t just be a person, he has to be her saint/god/father. he has a responsibility to her. okay so she made him into a god, he’s going to act like it. eleven does whatever he wants to amy whether she likes it or not. she’s always little amelia to him, someone that he gets to push around and to use to prop up his ego. he’ll emotionally manipulate her, he’ll make her wait for him. because he can. because she lets him. because there is nothing unforgivable between them.

[jon-sedai]

Just thinking about Summer being a representation of Bran, the Fisher King. Summer taking several wounds over the course of the story, notably one to the leg just as Bran did. Summer who goes beyond the ice wall to lands of snow (closer to lands of winter) and becomes emaciated…summer getting thinner and being wounded as winter nears/gets stronger. It’s almost like the changing of the seasons. We see that summer journeys to the lands of snow, biding his time before he returns - just as Bran will surely return. The return of Bran meaning the return of the summer. Have to wonder if we’ll see Summer (the direwolf) start to get bigger as spring is ushered in. Winter = death, but Spring = rebirth/growth. And after spring comes summer, when the summer king reigns.