#do I want to go down that rabbit hole?
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for some reason i literally cannot stop thinking about mlp!stone with a broken horn. because in gen4, im 99% sure there was literally only 1 occasion on camera where we saw a pony with a broken horn (aka tempest shadow/fizzlepop berrytwist my QUEEN) and she was in the fucking movie and girlie got mauled by a literal magical bear then, as a literal child. so now im going down a full thought rabbit hole of "what if pony horns are like human skulls. very soft and moldable for the first little while until it solidifies" cuz like maybe thats a reason the magical bear managed to rip it off, cuz they were literally thought to be indestructible (in fanon) before then!!!!!! idk i am very much so thinking way too deeply about this. and that brings me to pony!stone. because. how the fuck would be manage to get his horn shattered? i mean. theres an onslaught of OP magical beings in the mlp universe (read: the fucking magical space bear from before). and like. the only thoughts that come to mind are either like. it happened because a certain awful father. or. in the caunterlot royal guard. if thats where we're even placing him. and an idea just came to me where hes a changeling and simply takes on that body to appear like an easier target (which he absolutely is not. this horse has a license to kill). but idk if changelings as a species even fit him. cuz they all get reformed in the end and stuff. so back to horse he goes. but that still doesnt answer the question. tirek and king sombra are still in the equasion though. but sombra's a weak ass bitchbaby so that means tirek is the answer. with his freaky ass 12 year old side-kick. and i mean. there was that one epic fight scene going on with like a shit tonna magical energy so yknow. he couldve been gotten hit. if it werent for the fact the fight took place in fucking NOWHERE. so now im mad again. and unfortunately the falloutxmlp crossover books arent canon. cuz that sure wouldve made this a whole bunch easier. so. back to a certain father we go. sorry stone, into the meat grinder with you </3. wait wouldnt a damaged horn count as a disability. so. would he even be allowed in the horse army. what. oh no. eh fuck it hes already fucked up in canon and that version of him gets to be there. so. why not at this point
((sorry. i just. needed to have a brainstorm session with myself. cuz. i cant stop thinking about this!!!!!! i am the most mentally stable person out there. no i didnt watch the mlp movie like religiously when it came out wdym. no mlp lore videos are not my fave past time.. haha... ahem..))
~ rusty <- most shame ive ever felt putting my tag there /j
I'll be honest, I've never seen anything mlp-related ever. But um, I think Stone's broken horn would totally be because of Bharat. Because Bharat's neglectful and abusive in every universe. Unfortunately for Stone.
#tyler's asks#tyler's inbox#tyler answers asks#answering asks#asks#task force 141 oc#call of duty oc#cod oc#task force 141 oc: stone#call of duty oc: stone#cod oc: stone#where would I even start with getting into mlp?#do I want to go down that rabbit hole?#these are the musings of a very tired Tyler#but I refuse to go to sleep#rusty anon#:)
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Master manipulator vs Master manipulator
[First] Prev <–-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#xue yang#a-qing#The scenes with XY and A-Qing are so delightfully tense and anxiety inducing#They are both so deep in the mind games with each other. Convinced they have the leg up when in reality they do not know the full scope#Also is is just me or do XY and A-Qing give off the vibe of internet nemeses?#A-Qing coming in hard with 'Oh you think blind people cant do XYZ? Get canceled idiot'#Meanwhile XY is the kind to purposefully use leet speak in descriptive text to antagonize the screen reader population.#a teen girl and a 4-channer who found his way to tumblr would be awful to watch fight irl but the vibes are equivalent.#Meanwhile XXC is going on a nice little walk to pick grass. I love him so much actually.#through writing these notes I have also gone down the rabbit hole of trying to pinpoint Xue Yang's age. Hello? Is it actually not known?#The best resources I could find put him as 1-3 years younger then xxc and song lan#So? early twenties? late teens? Someone who has absorbed more mdzs knowledge...Please help#Oh no I'm even deeper in the rabbit hole now. What do you mean the ages are mostly just relative?#What do you mean cultivators can age differently (usually slower in xianxia)#Oh no oh no wwx doesn't have a golden core. I was too accurate in my homestuck AU re: lifespans. I want to go back.#(I love angst and am now marinating this thought in my little thinking chamber)
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the day the earth stood still is the day i felt your presence leave it, and then every day after that.
#tw grief#sigh sigh sigh.#apologies in advance as this is not the happiest yap ! i would just like to write out some of my feelings on this day#the heaviest heart weighs under an insurmountable amount of grief — the ghost of love#days like today are a twisted reminder that has every emotion flooding through your soul#longing . guilt . anger . an indescribable melancholy that could only be consoled through the sands of time#a year ago i lost my best guy friend and it’s never really gotten easier . but ive heard it never does#all i can do is bundle up the love i have for him and search for him in the clouds that take up the sky#the circumstances around his passing will never not haunt me and rather than go into it all i’d like to say is this#if you have a loved one or a relationship or a friendship you cherish .. then never ever stop fighting for it - for them.#as time never really seems to be on our side#each day i’ll live as he intended . to greet the world with kindness and a smile and passion for positivity#in his wisest words (or rather after every phone call we’d have hehe) i’ll try my best to stay awesome & encourage you all to do so as well#if you’ve read this then i’m taking your hand and thanking you#it didn’t feel right not acknowledging him at all on this blog . he’s the one that introduced me to anime + more importantly : one piece#i wish i could talk to him about it all so he could see how far down this rabbit hole i fell just as he had done#will be spending the day enjoying his favorite episodes and being gentle with the world that surrounds us#this is not like my usual yaps & i feel vulnerable posting it but i wanted to carve out a space for him on this blog#forever missing the connie to my sasha . maybe in another universe we’ll get it right#have a wonderful sunday my sweet friendz and if you can — hug your loved ones & blow a kiss up to the sky 🤍💫#thank you for being here & helping me make this a safe place .#₊˚⊹ ᰔ xoxo aims
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charles xavier is literally marvels damsel in distress
he needs to get obliterated!
for a moment i forgot i posted this ask last night and i thought you were just calling for the annihilation of charles xavier im CRYING
#nsft#?#in context ig valkvkjakl#snap chats#i was about to say 'what did he do' but. we dont gotta go down that rabbit hole today jERALVKEJLK#in the marvel universe you either want to obliterate charles xavier (murder) or obliterate charles xavier (impregnate) theres no in between
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also i really shouldn't have written stp because now i have a million ideas for spirit's adventures in new hyrule that I will never have time to actually write :((
#i freely admit that the whole 'spirit met jean at work' thing was an on the fly idea i didn't put much thought into#and then when i was writing stp i impulsively added that bit about jean and linebeck being family friends and you know what? that changes#things. like jean and spirit totally had to have known each other really well before they dated#and that thought has led me down a rabbit hole of thinking about who spirit dated before jean. and i know spirit was a serial dater before#jean (and would try to change his personality to make his partner like him more) but now i have a specific idea about Spirit's horrible#situationship before jean that is making me crazy (hint: spirit pulled a warriors and found someone who reminded him of warriors in the#worst way possible)#and i knew before stp that jean was a very calm person if only to highlight how over it he had to be to dump spirit after 6 months of his#bullshit BUT now that jean feels like a real character i kinda understand how much spirit would have been attracted to jean's stability#and how jean is this caring family guy and how much spirit would both want that stability for himself while feeling so insecure about#not needing to fight jean all the time or not needing to change himself to be someone jean liked that he would pick fights because#spirit is self destructive like hell and if his life and happiness is going to be destroyed no matter what he might as well do it himself#like god. goddamn.#you know the way everyone was obsessed about ickywars after i first brought it up? that's about i feel about jean and spirit#and i'm the only one who cares :)#me rambling#lu ctb
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People of tumblr help me! Oddly specific book rec request!!!!
I’ve wanted to get back into reading (it’s been working I read dps book version since I already love the movie, started rereading the hobbit, finished this poison heart which I started like 3 years ago and was 70% through, and finally started the secret history)
But I’ve been craving a specific (Niche?) genre of literature because fiction has me in a certain mood??
Does anyone have any book recs that are have these vibes:
- life is strange or gravity falls type story (Pacific Northwest, forests and fog maybe some cryptids or supernatural stuff)
-not straight up horror- like if it has creechurs they are a little spooky and there’s “something strange about this town” that’s cool but it’s not like constant horror and death more like nature being mildly creepy and supernatural, maybe there’s a mystery to solve or it focuses on the characters similar to life is strange
- not a must in case there is an older book that fits the vibes but it would be cool if it had queer characters or just representation some diff groups of people in general
-if I think of other existing media that has the vibes, I’ll put it here (Kids at summer camp create secret club and befriend cryptdids vibes? Or maybe they get powers from an old journal?)
-I’d also be down if it was like vampires(love them) or ghosts(pretty cool)
(Also due to booktok actively trying to murder me in like 2021- little to no spice please and thank you)
Hope someone actually sees this and it’s not too hard of a request
Im sure this genre has a name but I don’t know what it is
I guess oddly specific questions is what Reddit is for but Reddit terrifies me-
#ariana speaks#do I maybe keep seeing cinematic little edits of imaginary shows and books with these vibes?#do I keep seeing pictures of Oregon and Washington??#did I just go back down the hermits hollow AU rabbit hole???#maaaaybeeeee#anyway thanks guys#reading#book recs wanted#gravity falls#life is strange#hermits hollow#Pacific Northwest aesthetic#mysterious forest#idk what else to tag#foggy summer camp aesthetic#?#Oregon?????#cryptid
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I have ideas for fun hallowmas outfits but art is hard. I'm loving all the great art people are making and I'm like... i wish I was better at art especially historical-y fashion design. Every time I try drawing them it just doesn't look right.
I may keep trying, I really want to do the Neath fashion collection too!! But my art skills are limited on getting stuff to look how I want. This is why I usually draw weird creatures instead
#Grietje I want to do something varchas bc. Which led me down a rabbit hole on varchas fashion which is a mess#I read some victorian costume books from the time and there's so many odd abstract concepts on there like. Saltwater and freshwater.#So her hollowmas look I wanted to do as just “Varchas”. And then fashion mag wise I wanted to look at Dutch fashion of the era#Mikhail is going as a tiger I think. Maybe the 7th coil she loves pop culture#Birdie would of course be a goose or swan. Enoch does not want to wear fancy dress. Can we make him be chess? A devil? A drownie.?#I've drawn most of grietje with a broken glass mask but just really unsatisfied by the design#fallen london
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Requested by @scotisfr a chestnut Bella Sara Horse :> This is Anthea! Who has very inconsistent coloring over all being shown as like a dark chestnut/red in card art and tomato red in the stable.
#I have now learned what a chestnut colored horse is#Horse color classification is a rabbit hole I do not want to go down just yet <3#Also I played Little Goody Two Shoes all day and you can def tell I think#Bella Sara#Fanart#Anthea#Horse#Butterfly horse
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I’m tempted to start working on something about Eonism theory (basically proto-autogynephilia theory) and how it’s not even accurate to d’Eon (and why I suspect it might have been influenced by Gaillardet's novel).
#I'd need to do more research first#is this a rabbit hole I want to go down#like I think there is something interesting here that I haven't seen others talk about#but I'd have to do much deeper reading into the theory#and probably also finish Gaillardet's terrible book#this is a frédéric gaillardet hate blog
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just learned that people ship shadow and sonic, much to think about
#i am intrigued but i do not want to go down this rabbit hole#like what is their lore…..#idk shit about sonic#i’m sure there is a 4 hour video rssay about this
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a large amount of time I've been spending on -untitled undefined scope original fiction project- since the last time I posted about it has been trying to develop the protagonist concept I came up with last summer or whatever into like, a character that would feel real and era appropriate.
it's fun research to do. naturally a lot of the details I assigned to her are things that I already think are cool, so it's been a lot of fun trying to trace her traits back through the relatively recent past, getting reminded of how much things have changed, or where the gaps in my intuition are, and then doing a flurry of reading to get a sense for exactly how someone like her and the people around her could have happened and what her life was probably like leading up to her present day. hopefully this results in some good good verisimilitude.
#I wrote a short story from her perspective over the holidays and then didn't know how to continue it#and then I got distracted by real life stuff for a few months#I forget if I posted about that#and then I've been picking through archive dot org for the last few weeks looking at this stuff#the last big rabbit hole was trying to get a better feel for era appropriate ts/tv subculture#the current one I'm looking at is how she would've gotten into language learning and how that would've worked#nettle has been prodding me about the setting thing lately so I've been thinking about that more too#probably the biggest hurdle by far is figuring out how I want to play that#and how I want the thing to be divided up#since the original coc scenario I'm developing this out of is centered on a flight from LA to honolulu#and the airport dungeon was definitely meant to be a hook for a larger campaign#some amount of it is going to cover protag lady's failed life in LA and some of it is going to be worse things happening in hawaii#but it's like. how much do I want to balance it one way or the other#and realistically how much does the aesthetics of 20th century air travel add to the story#besides me personally thinking it's compelling ofc#a lot of what I find compelling about hawaii is that it's an east/west cultural crossroads and realistically that's also true of socal#and I can wax poetic about socal as much as I want without worrying all that much about mishandling something#and there's also a lot of socal specific history along similar parallels to pull from that I'm more familiar with#I guess it comes down to whether curiosity re: 'doing it right' is enough of a motivator to do the increased amount of research#which I guess it has so far with the above character details. so hopefully that will continue#but it also feels like using machine translation a bit yknow. it's hard to know how effectively I'll be able to sanity check#although depending on where this goes I might be able to get other people involved to sensitivity read down the line#with most of the creative things I do I just have a tendency to always rely really heavily on figuring things out myself#I also want protag lady to have a Cool Car and idk how to get that from point a to point b narratively#this is like an entire second or third post's worth of tags but I don't feel like unfucking this so whatever. suffer. I guess.
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be honest have the boys done any piss stuff 😠🤨?
P
this is one of those i can neither confirm nor deny situations
nate and wade, though?
#sci speaks#one of those i'd rather not think about it situations.#wade's definitely. definitely pissed on nate's leg more than once.#i think he'd do it to nate. because nate can take it.#im not going down this rabbit hole. i do not think i would like what i find. i don't want to devote more thought to this.#life was much simpler before i got involved in wade and peter's sex life.
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At long last…
I was able to do something that I’ve always wanted to do…
Talk about Ephemera for 20+ pages straight!!!
(half of it’s actually images but it feels good to say 20+ pages)
I hope you learn and feel things while reading it 🥰
no images version | most of the images in the document
#ephemer#khux#kh union cross#kh analysis#YAAAY YAY IT’S DONE!! this started out as a mini project but of course it evolved the more I fell down the rabbit hole#I love ephemera dearly so it felt SO good to delve into this#honestly doing this made me love him even more#there’s more I could say but I wanted to really stay focused on the character arc itself#without going off into tangents about /everything else/ I love about him#I may also add a link to a version without images later for easier readability; it's about 10 pages#and maybe the powerpoint as well once I clean it up#aka all the images I included#(side note: my student side keeps kicking me for not using times new roman and proper citations for this lol; it’s been hammered into myhea#I'm going to get a good grade in ephemera; something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve#okay bye now love you 💖#timeless child#my posts#chi infodumps
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Nothing wrong with me
#behold: the sowed seeds of my upped vitamin d dose#just would like to say that part of this is sponsored by a couple of very kind inboxers who reached out and said that they DID want to know#more about lady terror and which really helped reinvigor my motivations#and I WILL be answering those asks soon enough#(harder to do until I have my laptop back. like I’m sorry y’all I literally wish I knew what I was on in 2019 when I was writing all my#joker headcanon fics on my phone but I cannot replicate that and I dare not even try#)�� but regardless it will happen#but also yeah so this is a 6 page chapter summary for the fic and I’ve just started on chapter 2 and this will help a lot when#I get my computer back I think I’ve cleared my head a lot about this fic while not having it#but anyway#yeah uh…#egg’s wip’s#moral of the story is telling people you wanna hear about their oc’s that they’ve been working on for a whole year works#also went down a classical music rabbit hole about it today if that’s of interest to anyone but… me#bc one of my students did a presentation on poe’s impact on music theory and danse macabre which incited me to get familliar with composers#and pieces that would have actively been known in the 1840’s and have wanted to do since that bit about schubert on crozier’s hand organ#got dropped in the scripts#I think they’re going to feud on classical music tastes#average beethoven and chopin stan vs schubert enjoyer FIGHT#(except the serenade. that song was actually written about lady terror I’ve decided)#also thinking about lady terror and poe bc he’s said himself music is the highest art. they are concert buddies for sure#I bet that mf liked beethoven. poe is a big bass guy if I’ve ever seen one#it’s the drama you see
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to fulfill my promises to @ananeiah and to expound on @seventh-fantasy's post, there are many conceptions of enlightenment. because buddhism is a massive and old religion with a very robust canon, enlightenment goes by many names, it's articulated and imagined in many different ways. let's play the game of how many of them are adopted by the show...
popular metaphors that embody enlightenment include a refuge, a flame going out, or a firm island - because this world is often described as an ocean. all human beings are floating in the 生死苦海 sea of rebirth and suffering. to escape it, one must make their way to the island or to get on a boat. mahayana buddhism (aka. chinese buddhism) is literally named 大乘 the great vehicle, the primary idea being that enlightenment = to board a vehicle of transport, it will take you away. however, buddhism doesn't just envision this as an ambiguous vehicle. 乘 the vehicle specifically refers to a 船 boat.
the mortal world and the cycle of suffering is a sea and the way out is enlightenment, envisioned as a boat.
an extension of this is the concept of 彼岸 the faraway shore (alt tl: the further shore, the distant shore, the other shore, or at times the opposing shore). it draws on the same notion of 苦海 the ocean of suffering. to achieve enlightenment is to swim to shore, where there is finally safety and stability, free from suffering. this is why the euphemism for enlightenment is to 度到彼岸 reach the faraway shore.
此岸 this shore, is this ever-changing world full of agonies. you wade across the 苦海 sea of suffering, and reach 彼岸 the faraway shore. this is enlightenment.
as @seventh-fantasy depicts in this post, the final shot of ep 40, and as seen in the bonus ep 40.5, this is where llh is. ep 40 ends with the camera moving further into the distance, moving further into the sea. and the bonus ep 40.5 makes it clear again that lxy/llh has found his way to a different beach. llh has crossed the sea to another beach. he is on another shore, the 彼岸 faraway shore, far from 东海 the east sea where everyone else is.
let's look even closer at this.
enlightenment is also conceived as a place: 淨土 the pure lands, 极乐世界 the realm of greatest bliss, and so on. one of the geographical markers of this idea is 西 the west. this "land" accessible only to the enlightened (佛 buddhas, 菩萨 bodhisattvas, and 阿罗汉 arhats) is also dubbed 西方淨土 the western pure lands and 西天 the western heavens, etc.
enlightenment is imagined to be westwards. the opposite direction and away from 东海 dong hai = the east sea. where the story began and lxy famously plunged into; he fell into the 苦海 sea of suffering located in the 东 east. from this starting point, llh makes a meandering journey to his final location in the show. he makes his way 西 west, towards enlightenment, and reaches a 彼岸 faraway shore, the enlightened "after" and what is beyond.
now that we're on the topic of the pure lands, it's worth mentioning that this concept is furnished with a lot of descriptions in buddhist sutras. it is a beautiful, glorious land brimming with lotuses. because, of course, the lotus is yet another ubiquitous image that represents enlightenment.
the lotus position is crucial to the buddhist practice of prayer cultivation, especially in 禅宗 zen buddhism that is built around the central practice of prayer. lotuses are motifs in buddhist art, and buddhist myths (the legend goes that lotus flowers bloomed under the buddha's feet when he took his first steps as a child). people practicing buddhism are referred to as 莲友 lotus friends, 芬陀利花 the white lotus is a synonym for the buddha. lotuses are also integral to buddhist canon; the pure lands are detailed to have seven 宝莲池 treasure lotus ponds. every buddhist has their own lotus waiting for them in the pure lands; it is believed the more you cultivate, the more your bud in the pure lands grows/blooms.
of note, every living thing residing in the pure lands are made from lotuses. in fact, buddhist canon states that the enlightened are reborn inside a lotus bud, similar to an incubation. their new body is reconstituted from lotuses and they emerge anew when the bud blooms. crucially, it is also stated that every enlightened in the pure lands will have 莲花座 a lotus seat. this is a vehicle of transport, usually likened to the magic carpet from one thousand and one nights. it is described as 随心所欲、飞翔自在 something that acts after your heart's desire, something that flies free. the lotus seat is about boundless, freeing travel.
this isn't comprehensive at all, there are tons of other ways lotuses come up throughout buddhism. but the connection to the show is straightforward and self-explanatory. the primary motif in 莲花楼 mysterious lotus casebook is the lotus - a famous marker for buddhism itself. one of the dominant illustrations of enlightenment, the cultivation process to achieve it, and enlightened entities themselves.
the buddhist notions of rebirth are similarly heavily intertwined with the lotus. it is your body; you become it, it becomes you. from then on, you are surrounded by its image and its presence. you even have a lotus vehicle that becomes your main method of travel, a mode of travel defined by carefree contentment. sound familiar? llh's identity and his living carries major markers of enlightenment. it is one of the primary concerns of his character arc.
quick detour. a prominent moniker for enlightenment is the setting of the sun, as yet another epithet utilized by the drama.
detour over. crazy connections time.
discussions of death and suicide is, to my knowledge, particularly prominent in japanese buddhism. but as a whole, a significant portion of buddhist canon and a good number of buddhist media deals with this too. dying as a means to get closer to enlightenment, equating death and enlightenment, the subject of suicide itself. characters seemingly pass away and become enlightened, or characters strive for death with this express purpose as death is connected to enlightenment. this is true. one does not necessarily cause the other, but the concepts are interconnected in buddhism. it comes hand in hand, dissecting one means dissecting the other and vice versa.
most buddhist texts and masters do not condone a direct correlation, suicide is not the way to enlightenment. there is no buddhist value to killing yourself. but the key exception lies in one of the most important buddhist texts: the lotus sutra.
"These include several themes dealing explicitly with death, such as how suicide was committed to speed up rebirth in the Pure Land based on the sanctioning of voluntary death as a superior form of sacrifice in Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra ..." [1]
the chapter 23 in question talks about a bodhisattva who turns himself into a human candle and burns himself up, in offering to the buddha. there is more to the story, but it mainly functions as a lesson about cultivation and enlightenment.
in the canon about buddhist suffering, there lies a subset dedicated to physical pain and torment. there is a heavy focus on our 5 senses, specifically (that's a whole separate topic i won't go into here). very briefly, to suffer is to experience the world through our 5 senses. to live as a human being is to suffer in a sensory way.
buddhism aspires to transcend this flesh and blood suffering. so annihilation of one's body is an essential step to achieve enlightenment. usually, this theory centers natural death and decay. you accept that you are always aging, your senses will lose their edge, your body is always subject to illness, injury and other failings. let the body waste away, it will do so regardless.
hence, the human body is set on a course of gradual deterioration. this suffering is processed through our 5 senses and is defined by them. in the face of this, the lotus sutra is the only notable buddhist text that looks kindly upon "voluntary death" to transcend it.
similarly, llh accepts the effects of bicha on his body. it mimics the natural decline of the human body, accelerating the degradation of his senses, his immune system, and his physical capabilities in general. his experience of this form of suffering is also emphasized through a period losing his sense of sight. it is a very buddhist torment. but at the end of the day, it is still a man-made, unnatural cause generating this effect. accepting this is not the same as accepting 生老病死 death via age, sickness and other natural processes.
llh embodies the sentiments and themes in the lotus sutra when he consciously chooses to let bicha run its course. he chooses to die, it is a "voluntary death". let this destroy his body. let this suicidal choice (though its more nuanced than simply suicide imo) free him from buddhist physical suffering. thus bringing him closer to peace, a version of himself that will be happier.
finally, enlightenment is about ambiguity.
凡人 the common people are incapable of comprehending enlightenment. it is understood that the human senses and the human mind is too inept and unrefined, too clouded by illusions, to grasp it. there are a million ways to express it, depict it, and name it. but there is a consensus across buddhism that these are simply aids for the common student of buddhism, and they are not accurate to the truth. at the core of enlightenment is an abstraction, an inherent unknowing.
it is, by definition, a departure and a continuation. it is a removal from this world and a transition into another place, another realm. all at once, the phenomenon straddles a greyness between an ending and a beginning. it is unclear whether the enlightened has left, or is it the common man who is so lacking he cannot recognize or even perceive the enlightened? in the theory of enlightenment, buddhism accounts for both factors. but we will never know for sure.
where do the enlightened go? where are they, where have they gone? these are questions buddhists often ask and explore, and it is also the question that the remaining cast engages with. what is enlightenment, exactly? there is a suspicion, some notion of what must have happened. it might be death, it might not be. only the enlightened can answer this, everyone else is left without clarity.
in the end, the seekers get close to the answer but there is no real fruition. and so the search lasts indefinitely.
that, too, is part and parcel to enlightenment.
as for how enlightenment narratives function, i leave you with this.
"Nirvana provides the full stop (period) in the religious story; it gives what one might call, to use Frank Kermode's well-known phrase, "the sense of an ending" - that is, a real ending and not a mere breaking off. Such an ending is only possible within a narrative.
[...]
Nirvana, I want to suggest, is a moment within a discursive or practical dynamic, a formal element of closure in structure of Buddhist imagination, texts, and rituals. One might say that nirvana has primarily a syntactic rather than semantic value: it is the moment of ending which gives structure to the whole. The fact of narrative structure and closure provides a meaningful and satisfying resolution, although in itself nirvana has merely the formal value of a closure marker.
[...]
Earlier I called nirvana the full stop (period) in the Buddhist religious story; now I can add that it is a full stop in an eternal story, a full stop which brings closure to individual lives in a master text which itself can have no final ending." [2]
Sources:
Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World: Chikamatsu's Double Suicide Drama as Millenarian Discourse by Steven Heine ↩︎
Nirvāna, Time, and Narrative by Steven Collins ↩︎
#莲花楼#im exhausted and busy#but got caught up in doing this post anyway#deciding to look into what english buddhist canon has going on has led me down a rabbit hole#anyway...... lxy/llh's buddhist arc is very profound and meaningful to me#there's a lot of other buddhist theory i couldn't and didn't really want to get into#but i want to keep this post as just a list of enlightenment themes in llh's story#i wish i could get into like......#eg. enlightenment is a very very varied & diverse concept actually and there are different definitions of it#eg. nirvana isn't a place or something you “enter” or a stage you break through into#even though that's how it's often expressed#it's just a very tricky thing to convey#which is why there's like a 238912839 different names and allegories and euphemisms and metaphors for enlightenment#ambiguity generates people throughout history trying to bridge this gap in knowledge#and i'm so glad that quality was taken into account in the show#some might even say it is enlightenment's defining trait.... that it's a mystery#stressed that i didnt talk about 清净 purity that the buddhist plaque he got llh the name from is about#i think about it so muchhh a prayer quiets and cleanses the heart / lotuses will bloom everywhere.....#maybe some other time#me is mark
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I dunno what’s more fucked up, the fact that the Wonderbread guy is still around or the fact that there are artists who are still willing to do business with him.
#If you know you know#Do not look him up#You do not want to go down this particular rabbit hole#Trust me#Don’t say I didn’t warn you
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