#mr...u are literally building a private army 😭

[seoafin]

FIRSTLY IM SORRY FOR SPAMMING IN UR BOX AGAIN IN LESS THAN A MONTH BUT JJK BRAIN ROT HOURS AGAIN &;"&/@/@2 - 🐱

so, jjk 132 got me thinking that akutami was vaguely talking abt dukkha (1 of Tilakkhana/ 3 marks of existence) when yuuji said that in the grand scheme of things, he’s nothing more than a cog. no single english word can cover the full meaning of the word dukkha. some translators try to use the words suffering, unsatisfactoriness, stress, etc. each of these words sometimes fits in a particular context, but sometimes it doesn't fit in a different context. in general it’s translated as (1)

suffering, but it’s not quite accurate bcs the word dukkha covers a much broader range than just the word ‘suffering’. what does the word dukkha actually mean? based on the origin of the word, in The Bhagavad Gita, Winthrop Sargeant discusses the origin of the words sukha and duhkha: the ancient Aryan tribes, who brought sanskrit to India, were nomadic peoples, bred horses and cattle, traveling in chariots drawn by horses or oxen. ‘su' & 'dus'= prefixes denoting good & bad. the word ‘kha’ in (2)

later sanskrit developments, is defined as 'sky', 'ether/air /which fills space', or 'space'. but in fact originally "kha" meant "hole", specifically the axle of the artan chariot. so, sukha, used to mean, "have a good axle", & duhkha means "have a bad axle" which of course brings discomfort to driving. in classic sanskrit, the word duhkha is often compared to a clay pot maker where the wheels are creaky and do not turn smoothly. of course, the pot results are uneven & ugly. the opposite of (3)

so actually, dukkha isn’t always properly translated as 'suffering'. dukkha encompasses a broader scope & isn’t just suffering, that’s too narrow in scope. does the clay pot maker "suffer" if the appliance is noisy & the output is uneven? ofc not;  just unsatisfactory, imperfect, not ideal, annoyed, disliked, maybe annoyed at having to repeat, but i don't think suffering is like the common sense of suffering. do you like to ride a train w/a slightly damaged wheel? ofc u don’t like it, right? (5)

grief, right? from the start, i was a little disturbed, so i could explode when i had to take the train for up to 12 hours. the word 'suffering' suggests negative emotions, which in turn gives the impression that buddhism is pessimistic (especially for non-buddhists/ beginners). in fact the buddha's teachings are neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic. some english translators have partly kept the word 'dukkha' & have not translated it to avoid narrowing the meaning of the word (6)

dukkha itself. in the buddha's first discourse, he said, “O bhikkha, this is the noble truth about Dukkha: birth is dukkha, growing old is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, sorrow, disappointment is dukkha; to gather with the displeased is dukkha; to part with the pleasurable is dukkha; not getting what one wants is dukkha. In short, Panca Khanda is dukkha." BUT, he never said this life is dukkha, nor did he conclude that life is dukkha. there are still a lot of ppl who (7)

rush to the wrong conclusion by saying that life is dukkha. this is as reckless as claiming that all who have two legs are human, based on the fact that humans have two legs. understanding that there’s dukkha, we can then go to the next step, which is to understand the causes of suffering, then know that it can be eliminated, & then apply the method of getting rid of that suffering; namely the eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right (8)

effort, right mindfulness, & right concentration but dukkha is only the first step, ppl have to the next steps & eliminate that suffering. (it’s the 1st step of 4 noble truths, the 3 others are the cause of dukkha, the solution to end dukkha, and the path to end dukkha respectively) it’s like humans who first have to know & admit that there’s a law of gravity b4 they think abt & finally find a way to create an airplane against gravity, even creating space w/ out gravity. i’d like to mention (9)

that there’s 3 divisions in buddhism (theravada, mahayana & vajrayana(tantric/ estoric)) & the mahayana is somewhat mainstream in the east asian countries including japan so akutami might use that division for jjk. but it’s mainly theravada and mahayana all over the world & the difference between the 2 is that in theravada (it’s considered as the oldest & more conservative of the teaching of gautama) the highest goal a buddhist should achieve is becoming an arhats (in theravada defined as (10)

one who has reached a state of nirvana thru extreme self-discipline & abstention from worldly pleasure. depending on the school/ division of buddhism & the evolution of the term over the centuries, arhats may be considered as similar to buddhas, or enlightened ones. some traditions, like mahayana buddhism, consider arhats imperfect when compared to buddhas. in contrast, the pali tipitaka text describes arhat as the goal of the buddha's path to liberation.) & getting free from samsara (cycle (11)

of life n death) while mahayana (somewhat less strict than theravada) buddhists believe that they can achieve bodhisattva (refers to any individual who has attained bodhicitta [or the will to live a life centered on serving others & assisting them in reaching enlightment) by staying in the samsara cycle, which is kind of similar w/ gojo’s enlightment but staying as a teacher to help his students even tho he has his own goal. just like dukkha, shamans are part of the cogs/ wheels/ gears of (12)

life (or train as a parable i stated earlier) all the bumps, sticks & setbacks we have things just never go completely well. & since dukkha is the 1st step of 4 noble truths. this has an origin & that there's also the possibility of its cessation. the wheel can be made to turn smoothly so we no longer have those "bumps",or at least no longer experience them as such. the cause of dukkha (suffering) is ignorance & desire (craving/greed of pleasure, material goods, immortality basically things (13)

that can never be satisfied), by the acquisition of right views on the true nature of things (anicca, dukkha, anatta) & by the full understanding & practice of the eightfold path is the way to end dukkha & reach nirvana which is cessation. cessation of what? the cessation of 'becoming' & becoming includes "everything" as we usually understands it. by the cause of dukkha it's obvious atp that it's those higher ups, but everything is impermanent (anicca). to make the the ride go smoothly, the (14)

wheels have to turn smoothly. both gojo & geto's ideal world would eventually come true but maybe it's when they, themselves & all the main casts are replaced by other set of cogs bound to turn & won't be around to witness the train arriving to the last station. or maybe the only idealistic world that have the most possibility to come true is gojo's one (resetting the shaman world). was geto aware that it was actually a wild goose chase all along? might be. but w/ akutami's subtlety of (15)

inserting the 3 marks of existence theme in jjk, this might lead to a shaman civil war tied in revolution to end the cause of dukkha & lead them to (a figurative) nirvana (the dukkha itself might also include everyone's skeletons in the closet) bc from the very start i never get the end game boss vibe from sukuna/ mahito's obvious role as an antagonist & brainy might be based on mara from the buddhism lore. but there 4 types of mara, a) kleśa-māra - māra as the embodiment of all unskillful (16)

in the course of his meditations, the buddha was tempted by the demon mara. mara sent his armies, various temptations, & finally a challenge that the buddha must defend his claim of enlightenment. the buddha touched the earth, & called the earth to witness his achievement. this “touching the earth” is seen as a significant gesture (mudra). mara can also be understood not only as a figure in a story, but also as a representation of inner temptations—mainly one’s ego—that obstruct the path to (18)

enlightenment. therefore, overcoming mara is equivalent to overcoming the self (like the tokyo kids’ hunger to gain more power individually, unlike kyoto who work together). GAHHHH THIS TURN OUT LONGER THAN I PLANNED. but honestly i dont have enough concrete material to just “yea brainy is def mara” bc he hasnt reveal his grand plan yet, but there’s one more important figure in buddhist lore where he commited ānantarika-kamma (5 unpardonable acts) which brings immediate disaster : shedding (19)

the blood of a buddha (he drop a huge boulder, but missed & a splinter of it hurt buddha’s pinky toe, he also get an elephant drunk to charge at buddha but the latter tame it), creating a schism (heresy) within the sangha, the community of buddhist monks, nuns & pariṣā who try to attain enlightenment (devadatta set up his own buddhist monastic order by splitting the sangha. during his efforts to become the leader of his own sangha, he proposed 5 extra-strict rules for monks, which he knew (20)

buddha wouldn’t allow. devadatta's reasoning was that after he had proposed those rules & buddha hadn’t allowed them, devadatta could claim that he did follow & practice these 5 rules, making him a better & purer monk.), matricide n patricide (he didnt commit it but he convinced prince ajatasattu to murder his father king bimbisara & ascend the throne. ajatasattu follows the advice in a way that’s still a bad karma so..) by the end of his attempts, the ground open up, swallowed him & he got (21)

dropped to avici hell (lowest level of hell). brainy probs want to reformed the world?? mara on the other hand repented & took refuge in the 3 jewels (buddha, dharma (the teachings), sangha (the monastic orders of buddhists)) bonus : yuuji’s talk of killing mahito no matter how he change (form, name, etc) is probs based on samsara (end) || ALSO ABT THAT YUJI AINU THEORY, I FOUND STH INTERESTING THAT MAY LINK HIM & SUKUNA TOGETHER BUT LEMME JUST GATHER MY THOUGHTS FIRST || - 🐱

i literally don’t have anything to add but THANK YOU FOR DEFINING dukkha BC I HAVE BEEN SEEING THAT WORD FLOATING AROUND TWITTER.

everything you mentioned from yuji’s entire cog dialogue, to gojo and geto’s “perfect world” ALSO how you mentioned geto’s exercise in futility considering that he knew his world was possible, if it was gojo. not him. ahdsfdsjnfsnjfnjk

ALSO A SHAMAN CIVIL WAR??? that would literally be an amazing arc to read omg. idk if akutami is going to go there but you’ve planted the seed in my mind!!! i wonder who would be on which side if it did come to that though