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The Eightfold Path: Right Effort

Right Effort

Right Action connects with Right Effort, because when there is a solid understanding of what good actions are for oneself, there's a desire to alter thinking to motivate Right Action. Because effort is a triggering word that exhausted people would least want to hear, that the path requires more effort, Right Effort can be underrated, or overrated. Instead of being too lazy, people may think the path is supposed to be an Olympic effort, which can be a mistake that lasts for years. But the irony is that over-striving has a potential for insight and knowledge and in fact it's a knowledge that continues as you refine your practice further. It's a lesson in learning what NOT to do. As time passes you are able to see that right effort does not require you to blow up the train tracks of your thinking but instead to use the railroad switch. Instead of being a striving ambition, Right Effort is more about cause and effect and altering the causes so as to move towards the right effects. Looking back over your life, you will likely find times where a small change you made manifested a completely different lifestyle. Correspondingly, if that small change didn't happen, your current life would be unrecognizable.

This path involves the exploration of effort and learning what is too much or too little. Rob Burbea said that "to develop skill, I have to know what it is to make too much effort and be too active and know what that feels like." The great thing is we can compare more pain to less pain before acting, as a form of reflection. So much of the path is exactly this. "Oh, I don't need to create this sense of grind to accomplish the exact same action." Meditation insights involve layers and layers of this, and part of the practice can be a feeling of "is this thought satisfying? Is this train of thought superfluous? Why? What for? Is that paranoid? Is that REALLY going to happen? Is this worth daydreaming about?" If modern humans have 30,000 thoughts a day, as some studies show, and many of them are totally superfluous, then activating better ones while dropping needless ones, is a way to save energy. Right Effort is often translated as a Right use of Energy, and the simile of the lute is used in Buddhism to illustrate this balance between two extremes. It's not too tight that it breaks and it's not too loose that it's out of tune. "Oh, when I really overshoot, I get a headache in between my eyes, and...when I undershoot, I fall asleep." Right Effort is most important when dealing with the typical Buddhist hindrances that derail meditation practices. It's very easy to meditate for 10 seconds, but after an hour one can be totally lost by the end.

Meditation - Trap Doors: https://rumble.com/v1grdgd-meditation-taking-stock-wnaad.html

Practicing The Jhanas - Q & A - Rob Burbea: https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/60874/

In SN 46:51, the way to starve hindrances is to take up mental real estate with positive mind states and to look at drawbacks to different forms of lust and ill will. When one uses imagery of consequences, but also of rewards, it can generate healthy forms of desire and aversion. If you can learn from prediction, you save the effort of having to go through trial and error in real action and real consequences. Energy also needs balancing in the body. Sometimes people need to open their eyes, adjust their posture, and exercise with walking meditation to increase wakefulness. At other times, there's over striving which is frying the practice in the mind. Recognizing the sense of self being a "meditator" and doing the practice to the point of grind can be an insight. Asking yourself how much push and pull do you really need to watch the breath, helps to dial down the unnecessary effort. In reality breathing happens on its own when you pay attention to other things, but the Super-ego can criticize and micro-manage the breath into a grind if one is not careful when putting attention on the abdomen or chest. Even the sense of WATCHING the breath can have a grind to it. Eg. Trying to do it right, to perfect it, and to get angry with failure. Awareness of the breath is already operating. Even the need to look at the belly isn't required to feel the abdomen move, and it moves on its own. Wherever you put your attention span, that push and pull grind is operating on anything we are looking at and creating a projection and mood on what are really inanimate objects or independent subjects moving with their own intentions. Our expectations affect how we value what's in the world and having this understanding can make Right Effort appear more like Right Inspiration as well. Those same locations and scenarios take on a different mood and color when you feel great. Inclining the mind towards what is positive, joyful, and interesting, tends to make what seems a problem evaporate, which is true for small irritations and problems that don't amount to much. Small problems and irritations need a negative mood to escalate to something bigger in the psyche. Cause and effect. Directing attention towards what is positive and peaceful doesn't mean that negative things don't happen, but it helps to make clear what is one's own business and what is someone else's. People are dying everyday, but to stop what you are doing to give a minute of silence for each statistical death prevents any happiness from manifesting, and one is going to die anyways and the rest of the population must move on if they intend to function.

How To Walk - Thich Nhat Hanh: https://rumble.com/v1gphuh-how-to-walk-thich-nhat-hanh.html

The Ego and the Id - Sigmund Freud: https://rumble.com/v1gvdo1-the-ego-and-the-id-sigmund-freud.html

There are plenty of times where we have created great mind states and I assert that those legitimate ways are just fine. Esther Hicks likes small goals with each transition between activities, which are targeted by many self-help gurus and it involves some premeditation and visualization. You look at a transition between activities and you imagine how you can contribute to positive mind states with oneself and those around. People imitate and if you have a positive mind set, and of course not a fake one, because people can see through that, but a legitimate zest, it can bleed into others as they imitate your countenance. Esther calls it Segment Intending, but it's really creating small positive goals that build momentum to better days, weeks, and months. Things won't go well all the time, but realizing that the attention span is limited and that you have to pick and choose between dwelling on the negative you can't control or focusing on what you would like to manifest in the next segment, the latter option is healthier. What you pay attention to grows, and like in the Flow system, there is pleasure in closing the gap between now and the small goal. Smaller goals are easier to deal with in the mind because it's controls overwhelm that usually happens when people think of outsized goals that are more distant. Small goals add up to bigger ones and dropping the big goal, which is really just a way to thread small goals together, can release tension in the moment. These kind of daydreams are more about what you would like to manifest in the morning, afternoon or evening. They naturally move to distant goals as a way to line up the smaller goals, but momentum can only happen when smaller daydreams are matched up with smaller manifestations in reality. Like a rangefinder camera, it's like the focusing prism where two images have to match up to focus, except in this case the reality matches up or is even better than the daydream. Then when adding Buddhism to this sense of Becoming, there is also a clean feeling from activities that have little to no wear and tear to them. Whether one got some good exercise in, or found some lasting quiescence from a meditation session, there isn't even a faintest hit of remorse. Right Effort connects with blameless activities that support Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, and Right Action. A clear conscience is enjoyable. It also creates a sense of a new identity or Becoming that is possible. Whatever past history a person has had, if they can get a taste of that mana, a sense of freedom from conditioned identities can peek through the clouds. An enjoyment of Being without having to DO.

Ask and It Is Given - Esther and Jerry Hicks: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781401904593/

This ability to admire objects and activities leads to admiring existence. The Advaita teacher Jean Klein said "attune yourself to this admiring state where there is no admirer and nothing admired." He continually noticed that admired objects point to oneself if one looks carefully. "The flower points directly to your looking, a looking where there's no looker, no seer. There is only seeing, only looking. Yes, the aesthetic joy is after the looking, after the seeing." A lot of these books can seem abstract, but my review of Parmenides, which includes a lot of Heidegger, points to the uncanny astonishment of existence. The pleasure in being is admiring that anything exists at all. You may include objects with the admiring, but it's the totality that these collections of objects are in, the admiration of possibility, and finally the admiration that there is any manifestation AT ALL. So much works without a need for a conceptual controller. There's a craving leading to one plot point of the personal story after another. A person makes a purchase, and temporarily there's an enjoyment of being, then a sense of lack in the storyline and a pursuit for another satisfaction, which brings one to just vibrating in Being again, but then lack returns, and so on. The conditioned personality then asserts itself as if that is the only operation working with repetitive memory covering over new experiences.

Parmenides: https://rumble.com/v1gsvkl-the-presocratics-parmenides.html

"To identify yourself with your car or your house seems unacceptable. Yet you do not clearly see the unacceptability of identifying with the personality. This identification goes very deep because you spend all your efforts trying to be free from it in one way or another. One day you will see that the one who tries to free himself from the prison of this identification, the 'liberator,' also belongs to the prison. When you see you are in a prison, that the prisoner, in all his efforts to escape, belongs to the prison, in this moment you are out of the process, free from the prison. And then I would say: Be it, be the freedom. You will realize that in reality you were never in prison and so there is no meaning in trying to get out. When you need the personality, it comes to you. It is the situation which asks for it. But it is a completely transparent personality. You need it, you use it, and you forget it. There is no memory in it. Identifying with the personality must come to an end, and in this absence there is presence. The personality is psychological memory. How can you face life through memory? Life never repeats; it is always new. It is only psychological memory that maintains the 'I-concept.' In living free from memory there is spontaneity, and in this spontaneity you are completely adequate to every situation." One could quibble with this because memory is involved in skills and habitual skills are what is adequate to a situation, but even the learning of new skills to be more adequate is a process of learning by doing, and over-conceptualizing isn't necessary. This is why book knowledge can often fail, because the freshness of experiences includes unique features each time that can't be all predicted by any book.

Like in my Nirvana review, seeing interconnectedness in vivo relaxes the feeding utility part of the mind, that needs to see parts, or what Jean Klein calls "Fractioning," but the appreciation of totality can dawn on the conceptual self by seeing the supports that make up any fraction. The flower needs the soil, sun, rain, and the vantage point to be seen. A wordless wonder of totality that Safranski finds in Heidegger's work. "This primal experience of astonishment...as if one had just been born into this world...Astonishment at the mysterious 'that something is there at all' contains a question that cannot be satisfied by any possible answer. because any answer that explains that 'That' with a 'why' finds itself in infinite regression--each why can be followed by another why. And because no answer is possible, it is not even possible to formulate what exactly is being asked when we ask about the mystery of the That." Right Effort has to orient itself back at itself to avoid getting into spiritual goal-setting and the same kind of emptiness that can occur with worldly pursuits. The totality is still lost by spiritual fractioning of Subject > Object > Time, and the typical grinding sense of lack to pollute the present moment urging some forced action to make the lack go away.

Nirvana: https://rumble.com/v1grcgx-mindfulness-nirvana.html

Be Who You Are - Jean Klein: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780955176258/

Beyond Knowledge - Jean Klein: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780955176289/

The Book of Listening - Jean Klein: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780955399947/

The Ease of Being - Jean Klein: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781684034987/

I AM - Jean Klein: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781838383695/

Even if people say, "well I have to get back to utility and get on with my life," and they apply just endless methods of closing gaps between oneself and goals, it's infinitely better than staring at negative events and ruminating. That is a massive form of over-processing, that only confirms again and again that a negative event occurred, but nothing more is achieved, except a depletion of batteries, and therefore a depletion of energy you ironically need to close the gap between oneself and new goals. That is why having small goals, and even having a limited number of goals per day, conserves your energy. Slowing down helps to reduce mistakes, which is in the end ironically faster, and of course there's less opportunity to ruminate. The other problem is the negative energy of others who don't know how to do anything of these things, have no intention of learning, and feel that happiness is better when they can close the gap between themselves and others through sabotage and destruction. It's like a mining project for those types and they are drilling through people. This is the reason why we have military, police, and security guards. The world of legitimate success involves work and trade through contracts, and contracts have to be upheld by the rule of law or else they are meaningless. Many people don't believe in that and will just take what they want and live in a world of gangsterism. Positive intentions will have a limited effect in environments dominated by cynicism and predation. A Subject > Object > Time self-narrative also drains energy in that people have to defend these identities from ridicule when it's just a fictional construct, but one that veils consciousness nonetheless. Consciousness conversely saves energy in what automatically is. It's Be-ing vs. Do-ing. Be-ing points to what is effortless in our skills and habits and doesn't discount their contributions. Be-ing saves energy in that it satisfies the nervous system by going in the opposite direction by letting go of the object, and then counterintuitively, the tension of Subject and Time also weakens. You either get relief by closing the gap on goals or dropping goals. If you need some exercise and sunlight, just go outside and do nothing but look at interconnectedness and symbiosis by seeing objects and joints between recognitions so that concept bubbles pop into each other and expand to the mysterious totality. Feed on wordless astonishment for a little bit.

Be-ing can be self-satisfying because one is resting in what works automatically, which means the "Do-er" can relax, and this can be partially seen with day-to-day habitual skills which feel comfortable and demonstrate this to us readily. Allowing automatic functions to vibrate without manipulation, just as they are, will complete a lot of the stress relief that people are looking for. From that vantage point, there's less of a need to have a "Do-er" grinding-self-concept forcefully trying to meditate or to feel better. Consciousness is already manifesting this. Yet, most of us are very good at feeling better through distraction, but aiming the limited attention bandwidth to the places that save energy, which is present moment sensation, is more skillful. With Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood contemplated, so by checking those areas for weaknesses, and not trying to change the past with draining rumination, the foundation for Right Effort, or Energy, is strengthened. That kind of contemplation aims you in the direction of activities and interests that have a blameless quality to them, which saves energy further. Those activities have a clean aftertaste and are refreshing. Just as in the same way that automatic sensation is working effortlessly, our skills can do the same. We rely on habits to work automatically to help us in our waking states, through repeated cultivation. The mind needs reminders with directed attention until the skill is automatic, but once it's automatic, there's no need for a do-er to pretend to turn a crank to get the skill working. Imperfections and mistakes are dealt with by cultivation and learning, but once those new skills are automatic, life seems easier. Repeatedly developing Right View, etc., down the list, eventually manifests a clearer and clearer conscience effortlessly. If one returns habitually to desires that lead to conflict, mental and physical wear and tear, then the clinging and tethering of those habits will pull the mind towards anticipatory stress in spite of Right Effort, meaning it will require A LOT more one-pointedness and sustaining of concentration to get into a positive mindset, though it is possible if one keeps at it. Developing skillful supports makes Right Effort a breeze.

To keep instructions simple on how to develop a positive mind state, like appreciation for example, you would scan your environment and look for utility and what IS working. You would admire what works by paying attention to HOW it works. With consistency and momentum, the mind goes into appreciation, and the momentum can even accept what is faulty and imperfect by enjoying the pity of endeavor and the failed intention to help that so many devices provide for us. This can be as simple as looking at seams in walls and appreciating the fact that the ceiling is not caving in, and how you are protected from the bad weather outside. Wordless attention is all that is needed towards technology and marveling at how it works, and the fact that it is still working after long periods of use. Appreciation creates fascination, which is a better way of being in the conventional sense. One can look into the body and notice what is still working well and enjoy sensation on the skin, enjoy how comfortable furniture is, enjoying nature and seeing how it works, enjoying fresh air, all that and more, which provides another sense of wonder. Esther Hicks calls this an Appreciation Rampage, but terms like Rampage are problematic because of that forceful grinding conceptual "Do-er" that is trying to force appreciation through an angry rampage. There's also a subtle sense of contempt towards Esther's audience and their endless burdening questions looking for her to be a pseudo-parent to solve all their problems. I almost want her to say "just fuck off and appreciate your themed cruise you stupid idiot!" Momentum is a more truthful description than rampage. Any appreciation will be dampened by causes and effects that don't work out, or are vexing and frustrating, but the appreciation of fixing things, replacing them, and enjoying renewed abilities to function regenerates that appreciation again. Better mind states are generated by tending to causes and effects, not by a fake "Do-er" personality. Right Effort is returning to causes and effects and tending to them again and again when things go wrong. Unless one is a casualty in a war zone, there's usually something to appreciate, skills to learn, or opportunities to rebuild and renew.

Mindfulness - Letting Go: https://rumble.com/v1grbjr-mindfulness-letting-go.html

Appreciation Rampage - Esther Hicks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKdtVHYPICg

Flow: https://rumble.com/v1gvked-how-to-gain-flow-in-7-steps.html

Anatta (Not Self): https://rumble.com/v1gr0w5-mindfulness-how-to-avoid-intellectualizing-your-practice.-anatta.html

Dukkha (Dissatisfaction): https://rumble.com/v1gr1it-mindfulness-how-to-meditate-for-longer.-dukkha.html

Anicca (Impermanence): https://rumble.com/v1gr219-mindfulness-gone.-anicca.html

This is NOT the Actualism method: https://psychreviews.org/this-is-not-the-actualism-method/

New Year's Day Guided Meditation: https://rumble.com/v1gvmab-new-years-day-guided-meditation.html

Now this isn't to say that every person is in the same boat. Many people have had enormous damage done to their sense of freedom to explore and create self-satisfaction, or they've gone through extraordinary trauma, so a practice like this is more about improving things as best as one can do with the understanding that trauma damages nerves and recovery can only accumulate. It's really hard for some people to enjoy Be-ing in any shape or form. Paul Holman in an interview with Conscious TV's Iain McNay, describes what he sees in therapeutic environments and reminds that "some people have been so damaged by their lives that they are coming for years, and I still see people I've seen for the last 25 years, and that's okay too. There are many people who live in horrible circumstances, who have had terrible lives, and their nervous systems have been absolutely fried by trauma and difficulty...Some people's nervous systems have been damaged irreparably, but that doesn't mean we can't do things." The difficulty is accepting that there is no one shot solution and we have to tend to very many causes and effects to gain a therapeutic result that matters FOR THAT PARTICULAR INDIVIDUAL.

Paul Holman 'Freedom Through Spatial Awareness'- Conscious TV: https://youtu.be/iplp0jBbIpI

Causes and effects include separate skills, that when trained to work automatically, can now work in conjunction. Furthering this understanding that this process takes time helps to reduce impatience. For example Daniel Ingram talked about his appreciation practice via Actualism, and being a doctor, repetition and habit is described by him as a dosage. "...Do it all day long for a year or two and see what it is does to you: taken to that dose and degree of dedication, you would be surprised at what can occur." Dedication here again would be a light redirecting of the attention span to what you are developing to avoid unnecessary grinding effort with Subject-Object-Time narrative impatience.

My Experiments in Actualism - Daniel Ingram: https://www.integrateddaniel.info/my-experiments-in-actualism

Understanding human bandwidth limitations for the attention span and limited energy, means that one is patient with Right Effort and one treats it like laying a foundation for future Being. Each successful momentum of appreciation becomes a conditioning to make it easier to incline the mind more effortlessly in the future. The mind thinks "I remember how to do that." In fact, a huge part of any appreciation practice is to be able to recall successful past highlights in one's life and that can prime the mind to begin another appreciation-momentum with less force and one-pointedness. The habitual mind will start popping out suggestions for appreciation simply out of repeated doses of Right Effort. One can't expect an occasional intention towards well-wishing to make a big difference, but singling out areas of great weakness with large doses of skill development will eventually make those skills habitual and there's less need to go back there to deal with a leaky foundation. When reinforced really well one doesn't have to worry about a flooded basement. One can then tend to the roof or maybe a window needs fixing now. Maybe well-wishing for others is so strong now a person should develop equanimity. Skills are endless and each person will find development non-linear in the sense that it's better to look at skills as foundational instead. You build on them.

Learning about limited bandwidth also helps to understand how the mind works with time. All these skills have to be tended to one at a time and one can overextend with too much multi-tasking, and distraction can easily take over. With mindfulness, you realize your mind can be pulled by the peak of pleasure and swirl around there to motivate action. It ignores drawbacks that happen later in the time continuum. When drawbacks are brought in vividly, before taking action, the excitement and momentum decreases at the right time. Desires are results focused and they look at drawbacks as something to get over or ignore, as a way to enhance pleasure, but when drawbacks are salient, then desire decreases, and a new kind of pleasure, the peace of renunciation, can now be sensed. You can see how dualism can connect fractionally with the whole by taking in more data than what the desire was hung up on on. Our attention span has limited bandwidth to incapsulate a full experience of pros and cons. It needs to oscillate between the two to get a fuller picture, and this skill can enhance self-esteem and create a healthy robust sense of agency and choice. Without consideration of pros and cons, the mind will feel less like it has choice and become fatalistic and dependent on authority figures, who could be dangerous.

It's true of determinism that there are many things that our agency isn't in control of, especially when we were younger. The increasing ability to compare and discriminate qualities and experiences, increases the sense of agency over time. Purposeful non-judgmental intentions to imagine realistic drawbacks, reduces the need for repression and dogma. It's a personally attained lesson, and the more keenly the drawbacks are imagined and felt, the less repression is needed to change a behavior. It's self-policing because it goes into the habits more deeply than an inauthentic repression, or restraining oneself because authority figures tell you to. You change because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to. Real learning involves emotions, and not knowing that leads to situations where desires increase in pressure and unconscious discharges happen without a sense of control. Desire gets fixated on points in time where pleasure is most heightened, to feed and make the pleasure last longer, and that creates pressure to release tension in action, which may be fine in certain situations, but in others it would better to consider consequences and to let them sink in. This desire trap is kind of like what you see in photography, art, and advertising. It's a subtractive skill, which is about disguising totality into fractionation to manage impressions and to increase desire.

A great example is the Cycle of Abuse, when victims strangely return to abusers because of their ambivalence over them. Toxic people play on distraction. Unless the victim repeatedly brings back the drawbacks of an abuser, and examples from the past, they may sell themselves short and return to abusive relationships, like they don't have a choice, when really it's because their attention span is stuck with the perceived allure. This is why controlling the attention span, through Right Effort, or Right Energy, or Right Emotion, can authentically develop an individual's character despite social influences. SN 12:52 advises that, "...in one who keeps focusing on the allure of clingable phenomena, craving develops...In one who keeps focusing on the drawbacks of clingable phenomena, craving ceases." The limited bandwidth needs to sample more before making a decision. When the drawbacks manifest emotions that are stronger than the desire, then the desire naturally relaxes without a need for a fake personality to put effort towards repression. When the consequences are minimal, or the risks are acceptable for the individual, then it's easier to navigate through life. One can even attempt difficult things when one has deliberated enough and is happy with the cost.

The Psychopathology of Everyday Life - Sigmund Freud: https://rumble.com/v1gtl55-the-psychopathology-of-everyday-life-sigmund-freud.html

SN 12:52: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN12_52.html

Right Effort in SN 45:8 simplifies the above endeavors by classifying these efforts, choices, and deliberations in a neat heuristic to abandon unskillful qualities that have arisen, prevent unskillful qualities, generate skillful qualities, and to maintain skillful qualities. Whether one has to put more or less effort in each scenario depends on the strength of habits at any one time. It's not the same kind of effort in every situation. It may involve just the lightest intention to change the subject in the attention span to something more blameless. What also makes this less stressful is to have no judgment about what is in the mind, since it's cause and effect anyways, but also because thinking is not something that is supposed to stop and it doesn't require bashing and self-flagellation. Not all impulses are of equal strength. This becomes easier with mindfulness, but just a recognition that something unskillful is there is plenty in most cases for it to vanish, or one doesn't have to wait that long for it to vanish. This dire sense of "Oh this means I'm this or that..." is an unnecessary layer of rigid identification. This is a very important point because some people have trouble with suggestibility and those with OCD and Paranoia, can easily soak up every joke, projective identification, and suggestion from the environment with a sense of compulsion, blame and fear. If it can slide off of the subject by them simply waiting, then they can let it roll off. Strong effort IS needed in situations where there's escalation and a choice is being contemplated to go into something violent or there's something life changing. Certain choices can't be undone or forgotten. One may have to use anger, force, and a sense of grinding to avoid unchangeable consequences that are manifesting quickly. For those who live in relatively peaceful environments, less forceful methods are adequate. It's more like Right Priority or Right Energy. Vīrya is Sanskrit for this factor. It's an energetic, motivated effort in most cases. The mistake of treating effort as always a grind ignores effort that can feel more effortless where there's motivation. Rob said it's "cultivating beautiful mind states...Cultivating what’s beautiful and learning to let go of what’s not so helpful." "Skillful qualities" can be a very dry description for experiences of rapture, bliss, and peace. The purpose of using the term skillful qualities, is to avoid dogmatic language, because there's a weakness in having a list of things to NOT do in situations that are complex, and dogmatic rules may not always apply. There is a need for ingenuity when dealing with powerful mental forces.

The most difficult area for beginner meditators, and even sometimes for advanced meditators, are the 5 hindrances and how they destroy the results of Right Effort. They include: Sensual desire, Ill will, Sloth and Torpor, Restlessness or Worry, and Doubt. Jill Shepherd reminds that a simple emotional distancing technique of noting, recognizing, or labeling the mind state that is interfering with the meditation can create a sense of separation, and a recognition of the untainted awareness that's always there. It helps to keep people from identifying with narratives related to the hindrance and to let go of the content of what's happening, which is the typical attitude of the Modern Mind, of intellectualizing everything into a Subject noun, and instead to lean towards the sensations that thoughts can create. Like a 6th sense, thoughts have feelings connected with them based on preferences, and this helps to connect the body and mind for beginners who typically feel decapitated from the body. Intermediate and advanced meditators forget how bad it was at the beginning. One can live with complete forgetfulness of the body for huge swathes of time until something finally hurts or there's a sense that the body is failing in some way. Holistically including the body and thoughts helps to reduce that psychoanalytic problem of splitting, where parts of the psyche are split off as "bad" parts because the mind hasn't figured out how to develop skills in these areas. Briefly being able to step out of Subject > Object > Time, and to include sensations of the body, is how these practices can seed in the beginner meditator, and glimpses of integration and oneness can be seen.

Mindfulness mixed with Right Effort is also best when it's curious about the sensations and not trying to push them away with aversion. Rob Burbea said that "when the energy level of attention is more than the energy of the emotion, then that starts liberating things. When the energy of the emotion is more than the energy of the attention, we are sunk." To make the mindfulness go a little deeper he would look more into the knots of these hindrances. There may be more than one hindrance arising, and by tuning into those vibrations, with the consequent analysis and understanding, there can be a more accurate recognition. When impulses are unconscious, they can easily takeover. When recognizing impulses accurately, and by not forcing impulses away, the mind can learn to relax and wait, and this isn't an impatient waiting, but a continued awareness of sensations present in the hindrances. This is often enough for the hindrances to vanish in many cases. At other times, a simple concentration practice to distract the limited attention bandwidth, with a consistent returning to the breath, and without aversively reacting to the hindrance, can take the mind off the hindrance and provide enough energy to return to a more pleasant relaxed mind state. The mind has trouble feeling fantastic and horrible at the same time. A small bit of horribleness has trouble manifesting when someone is in deep rapture and bliss with concentration.

The Jhanas: https://rumble.com/v1gqznl-the-jhanas.html

If mindfulness isn't energetic enough, it can be good to develop opposite mind states to those hindrances to provide a little more help. Sensual desire may not pry loose with mindfulness alone and by connecting deeply with mindfulness, consciousness may just sink into the desire in daydreaming and be stuck in an infatuated cloudiness. Gil Fronsdal asks us to look more realistically at the object of desire, or Thanissaro Bhikkhu recommends looking at drawbacks, like described above, but cause and effect works well when an ignored drawback is brought vividly to consciousness. One example Gil mentions is realizing that you may love a fiction of a person from afar and that they may have a personality that is quite different from your imagination, and a realistic sobering perception can help to snap a person out of it. You can get creative with these skills. For example, transferring knowable bodily functions that all humans have, from the memory of oneself, and transferring it to the other person, who is doing well to hide it, is a way to realize how unfamiliar that person is to you and how distorted and anti-septic your vision is of them. Those distorted visions lack humanity. Even a Hollywood star has to fart. The person may also be in a detrimental power differential from you, and while stuck in the infatuation, you can notice realistic details of rejection that would likely happen if you were to attempt to escalate an interest into something more. Desire knows no propriety and a realistic assessment of oneself can be like sniffing salts. "Really? Will a sexy millionaire fall in love with me?"

Fassbender outs Marion Cotillard's flatulence: https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/fassbender-outs-marion-cotillards-flatulence-33357647.html

For Ill will, there is a similar blindness to reality. The mind can go into the strange territory of revenge scenarios, time travel, and paranoia. Any kind of realistic contemplation, and a testing of reality of course, and a questioning of beliefs, can help to find what is distorted, and losing a belief in those scenarios, and how they must or should manifest, can be renounced as an illogical tunnel vision. Thinking that one doesn't have access to a desire because of an evil gatekeeper may be true some of the time, but it may not be true all of the time. There isn't always someone trying to stop you, unless you have evidence that they are. Certainly envy, resentment, and rage can decrease when people develop their weak skills so that attainment of those desires becomes a non-issue, and there's no need to blame someone. Developing a habit to check mental scenarios against actual evidence before getting emotional is a good one for paranoia. Looking at drawbacks over an object of desire that can't be shared, is another way to create a deflation of ill will because the rival is doing you a favor by fractionating over there with an object while you zoom out and rest in totality instead. In a paradoxical way, you're getting more relief than they are. Learning to drop toxic people from one's life is another endeavor that can free up a lot of mind space when one isn't around negative influences to imitate.

It's usually a belief that something can't happen in reality, when a basic investigation shows that it can, has to be let go of at some point to find relief, and pumped up desires to change, correct, rearrange or annihilate people in order for one to feel at peace, has to be seen for its lack of creativity. Aim at areas of accessibility and vacuums of need for a longer lasting sustenance. Finally, frustration can be looked at differently. By actually looking directly at the risk associated with a goal, and how many moving parts can fail, this can help to reduce expectation of success and then failure can now appear as a form of learning instead of appearing "devastating" to the mind.

Many of these feelings can evaporate simply by testing their truth and then one can develop those pleasurable and beautiful meditative mind states as a replacement for rumination. Allowing that one can enjoy the practice is a difficult one in the West. Many people bring their scarcity mindset to these places, yet no pleasure that others have, or one generates, is at the expense of someone else when we are talking about meditation. Some people also are unfamiliar with healthy forms of ill will which relate to boundaries. Certain boundary skills are blameless under the law. You can check that out on the prior installment of Right Action.

Right Action - The Eightfold Path: https://rumble.com/v1grhdd-the-noble-eightfold-path-right-action.html

Sloth and Torpor, or a sleepy laziness, that manages to outlast your mindful recognition, may be a call for sleep that is actually needed. There are those who like to arouse energy in the meditation to the point that they sleep less, but for lay people who work and have vigorous lives, respect for regular sleep can be the refreshment that's needed. Sloth and torpor can also hide a deep boredom and ennui for some people. Developing interesting goals, including spiritual ones, can increase excitement and dislodge blockages. Practicing with eyes open and adding exercise with walking meditation will also increase energy.

Conversely, Restlessness and Worry can be a situation where there's a need for more relaxation. A basic concentration practice will reduce the number of thoughts after a period of time. Counting the breath can also give a restless mind something to do along with the breath so that the verbal constructs are WITH the breath instead of pulling away somewhere else. As in the above psychological advice, any practical solutions or actions that need to be taken care of in the world can help to remove the worry. If the problem is actually treated or solved, there's less need to think about it. Also, checking distorted fantasies against reality helps to remove what underpins unnecessary worry. The mind can drain a lot of energy in "what if" scenarios that are not happening and are so peculiar and unlikely to happen. Scanning the body for tensions related to the thinking is also a sly way of relaxing the restless mind. Like a feedback loop, tension in the mind builds tension in the body, which irritates the mind further, and coaxes it to generate more thoughts about the problem. Sending the feedback loop in the other direction by relaxing tensions in the body can short circuit the momentum. There's also insight to be had on needless tension because it's rare that tightening a muscle will actually solve most of these problems that arise in the mind, yet the mind is doing this nonetheless. There's enjoyment of letting go unnecessary tension, and over the years, the body posture, breathing and gait can improve.

Doubt I found to be one of the easier hindrances to deal with, but is often the most difficult at the beginning of a new practice. All the above practices of emotional distancing with noting what's there, relaxing the body, and making life improvements, all provide benefits that manifest perceptively in reality. Doubt is hard to maintain when there's progress. In the beginning it takes some leap of faith to at least try these practices for longer periods of time, and it only takes a 1st Jhana Flow state to arise for doubt to vanish. These small successes stay in memory and remind one of how cause and effect works. With basic concentration practices, you are learning how the mind goes into Flow. You give the "Do-er" part of the mind something to work on, a form of playing, to see if one can stay with the breath consistently. Once the mind lights up with reward and also a small surrender of self-consciousness, the doubt evaporates again and again. People need that experience of "it's working!" from the part of the mind that monitors success in a conventional way. For more advanced teachers like Jean Klein, he would just call these altered states a compensation or a temporary "sweet." For beginners, the trail of bread crumbs is necessary until it's not.

Mindfulness Of Mind States - Rob Burbea: https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/21010/

The Psychodynamics of Meditation - Part 2 - Rob Burbea: https://dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/11505/

Right Effort - Jill Shepherd: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/68951/

Unhindered - Gil Fronsdal: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780989833400/

Thich Nhat Hanh used the simile of gardening and how meditative development is like a seed that can be watered. It's about feeding and providing nutrition for what you want to develop and grow and letting lay fallow what is unskillful. When you plant new habits, they begin to squeeze out the old ones. They are tasty herbs and vegetables and much better than eating weeds. The old habits do have some value in that they can be like dormant memories and weak impulses that can't take over consciousness anymore and they provide a sense of learning without fear. You can't forget the past and you wouldn't want to because if you could you wouldn't be able to learn.

As one moves the mind in better directions, there's less doubt about continuing the practice. Meditation can infuse new areas of one's life. Typical of Buddhist practice, or any psychological modality, is the activity of compartmentalization. This happens when we use these practices only on the cushion and only with our eyes closed. That's very limited. As skill increases, people find the seeds grow and flower into daily life. Watering the plants is a way to make the vegetables juicy, and one can find new plots of land to garden. Also like in the simile of eating, Right Effort involves a savoring of these nice mind states. When the mind is preoccupied with something good to eat in the form of spiritual pleasure it doesn't need much effort to stay. Right Effort turns into a suggestion to continue to enjoy. Having a juicy practice that's interesting will always trump a dry grinding over-efforting practice.

Understanding Our Mind - Thich Nhat Hanh: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781888375305/

Savor - Thich Nhat Hanh: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780061697708/

Bhikkhu Bodhi is honest about these differences in the mind of a beginner compared to one that has gone through cultivation. It's really a monumental conditioning, and de-conditioning program, to change the mind. "The starting point is the defiled mind, afflicted and deluded; the goal is the liberated mind, purified and illuminated by wisdom. What comes in between is the unremitting effort to transform the defiled mind into the liberated mind. The work of self-cultivation is not easy — there is no one who can do it for us but ourselves — but it is not impossible...The first two hindrances, sensual desire and ill will, are the strongest of the set, the most formidable barriers to meditative growth, representing, respectively, the unwholesome roots of greed and aversion." When a person isn't trained, desire can unconsciously lead to conflict with others as a way to control what can't be shared, which is desire falling into greed, and aversion is the unconscious fight or flight response that generates inner and outer conflict. Greed to attain, and Aversion to protect what is attained. With training, the vicious cycle becomes more predictable and it's easier to pick your battles. A lot of things really are not worth it.

Right Effort is an understanding that you can't change the past, an understanding that the future is based on what is cultivated now, and that mind states are cultivated by cause and effect, not magic. RIGHT EFFORT is just filling up the attention span and threading one thought or perception at a time in a happy direction.

SN 46:51: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN46_51.html

The Noble Eightfold Path - Bhikkhu Bodhi: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/noble8path6.pdf

Contemplative Practice: http://psychreviews.org/category/contemplativepractice/

#meditation #buddhism #eightfold path

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bennettdavisblog · 7 months

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Over the Ocean and Through the traffic, to Grandma’s Pagoda We Go!

Our internal clocks are so out of whack, not knowing if it’s night or day, Saturday or Monday (recall we lost Sunday), taking a nap just wasn’t going to happen. The concierges recommended many things to see and do. Though they pushed that we go to the Genocide Museum (nothing says Welcome to Cambodia like a stop at the Genocide Museum followed up with a quick jaunt over to the killing fields), we opted for a short walk to a pagoda close to our hotel. Called Wat Phnom, or Temple Hill, it is where Phnom Penh got its beginning. The legend is that an old lady (Daun or Grandma) discovered some Buddhas inside a log there and decided that a hill with a pagoda should be on top of it and from that the city was born. Yeah, not sure I believe that one. However, there is a hill and there is a temple built on top and we set out to see it. This is when culture shock takes over and you realize that you actually are on the other side of the world. It’s one thing to be at the Raffles being pampered and quite another to be walking around Phnom Penh getting an unfiltered view of the city, its people, and its way of life. It ain’t like home. Speaking of home, we had to pass the US Embassy to get to Grandma’s pagoda. The building takes up an entire city square and a big one at that. You are not allowed to take pictures of it, and I can only imagine why the US needs an embassy of that size in such a small country. Actually, I can imagine, and I suspect it has something to do with proximity to the “C” country to the north. Odd, but I digress.

Back to Grandma’s pagoda…The pagoda is in a traffic circle and to get there you take your life in your hands hoping that you won’t get run over by the same modes of transportation we dodged in Pho’s van. In Pho’s van, we had protection. Crossing the street you’re on your own. It’s Grandma’s death trap. Thanks, Grandma. The best way to cross is to become part of the weaving and bobbing of the traffic flow. Trust me, you learn that quickly. Staying committed, hesitate and you’re dead, miraculously we make it to the other side. Not a wonder all these people are there praying in the pagoda. They’re thanking Buddha for allowing them to live after crossing the street. Supremely jet lagged and not knowing what the heck we’re viewing, we looked a little like this guy perplexed at how his new toy works.

At this time, we don’t have a clue about Hindu or Buddhist mythology (as of this writing we are near experts), so I took this photo of Lisa (people we just got off a 20 hour journey and she looks pretty good) in front of a seven headed Naga, the sea serpent that protects Vishnu in Hindu and in Buddhism, Buddha told Naga how to become a human in its next life. Or something like that.

We went about halfway around the circle and finally came across the stairway to Grandma’s pagoda.

We climbed the steps and the second thing we came across was this party going on with a barbecue, incense, and lots of people.

Clueless about what we just saw, we climb some more steps and finally make it to the temple. You have to take your shoes off to go in and I wonder if I’ll ever see my $150 sneakers again. I will. The temple is beautiful and full of gifts and money for whom I don’t really know. The monks maybe? Buddha? No idea.

We walk around the temple, assume we are now blessed, exit, go back down the stairs, and catch a tuk-tuk to go find a French owned wine bar I read about called Bouchon. We get dropped off, went in and had two glasses of wine and some delicious clams. The bill was just under $16.00. I’m going to like Cambodia!! By the way, the currency is US dollars making life very easy for us gringos.

Back to the hotel for a quick rest and shower. We decide to dine at the hotel since we were so tired. The waitress asks if we want inside or outside and since it’s a gorgeous night, we say outside. Still or sparkling water? Sparkling. Here’s how they serve it.

Not being terribly hungry, we ate a few appetizers, fine, nothing special, and were headed for the room. HOWEVER, we passed The Elephant Bar and since Jackie Kennedy went there, we had to go, too. Nightcap! The Elephant Bar is as classy a bar as there is. You feel the history of the place when you go in. Imagine all the dignitaries, movie stars, and prominent businesspeople who have stopped in (and still do) for a world changing conversation over a Mekong Gin dry martini.

At this point, I’d like to say we’ve had a second wind, but no way. Lisa has Jackie’s Femme Fatale and I have a house Negroni, which for some reason is a big deal in Cambodia.

Barely able to keep our eyes open, it’s now officially time for bed. We drag ourselves to the room and fall fast asleep. It’s only 8:30pm PP time and Sunday is still nowhere to be found.

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dzthenerd490 · 1 year

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File: OC 25

SCP#: APT

Code Name: Seed of Sanguisuga

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-APT is contained at Site-AG, within a centralized gravity containment cell. This is to prevent SCP-APT from activating its anomalous properties. The containment cell is separated from the rest of the site by a hallway about 60 feet in length. The hallway is divided by four heavy containment lock doors, two of these doors block off a different end of the hallway while the other four stand in the middle of the hallway. Each door stands 20 feet apart from each other.

This is to prevent research staff from falling under the anomalous control of SCP-APT. The baren area surrounding SCP-APT's containment cell has been walled off with the walls standing 60 feet in length all around SCP-APT. Due to Site-AG being on [data expunged] the chances of outside staff coming into SCP-APT's area of effect was minimal, but the Ethics Committee weren't willing to take the risk. They gave the order to not only construct the wall but also have a total of 40 AFA-1 droids wandering the baren ground in-between the walls and SCP-APT's containment cell so that anyone who accidently gets into SCP-APT's area of effect will quickly be escorted out or exicuted should they come under its anomalous effects. At this time all SCP-APT's anomalous effects are fully understood so for that reason and additionally because of its danger, no testing will be permitted under any circumstances.

Description: SCP-APT is a golden holy statue created by Group of Interest: The Creed of Ealaqat Jayiea, more specifically the subgroup known as the Crusade of Sanguisuga. The statue of SCP-APT resembles a silver leech that wraps its body around a golden pyramid, the statue is 8.5 cm tall. testing with AFA-2's have conformed the silver and gold that make up SCP-APT are [data expunged], how this is possible is unknown.

SCP-APT is a Hypno Hazard, when someone is within 50 feet of SCP-APT they will start to come under its spell within 5 seconds to 5 minutes. Once a person is under its effect, they will attempt to pick it up and take it to an area with 50 people or more, the more people and close distance are contributing factors to where the person under the influence will go. Somehow the person under SCP-APT's spell will always know where to go in order to find an area with the favorable requirements. Once the person finds a good place with lots of people, they will attempt to find a good area to place SCP-APT.

A favorable place for SCP-APT is normally either outside but close to the town, village, or enclave chosen or a vacant plot of land within the chosen area. Once a favorable place has been found the person under the influence will place SCP-APT within the middle of the favorable place and then attempt to pour all their blood onto the statue by any means possible. Once the person under the influence has died because of blood loss, SCP-APT will start to activate.

SCP-APT will absorb the rest of the blood, bone, muscle, and flesh of the dead body from the person under the influence. Once SCP-APT has absorbed everything it will start construction a structure around it, making the materials seemingly out of nothing. The structure is almost always created with stone, steel, iron, gold, silver, wood, human skin, human skin, human muscles, leech skin, [data expunged], [data expunged], and [data expunged]. Once the structure is completed it will resemble a church either having resembling characteristics to churches of other religions such as Christianity, Catholic, Judaism, Islamism, Buddhism, and Hinduism; why this is the case is unknown.

These structures are to be known as SCP-APT-1, SCP-APT itself will always be attached to SCP-APT-1, normally on top of an alter or inside a shrine within the structure. SCP-APT-1 instances are also Hypno Hazardous anomalies in that once they are fully constructed, everyone in the chosen area will immediately become under its influence. They will start to develop a new religion within their heads and go to the church every day to worship said religion. They prayer, ritual, and anomalous properties of the region tends to vary but two traits that always remain consistent are how the religion revolves around giving blood to their god and that god being SCP-[data expunged], also known as Leech Boy. However, it should be noted that what the people under the influence refer to leech boy as their god will always be under a different name. Normally during the first month of worship everyone remains human but afterwards they start to mutate as accordance to better resemble their religion, mutations always vary and are never consistent.

It's at this point that the people are to be known as SCP-APT-2 instances, these entities regardless of what kind of mutations they develop are to no long be considered human. Though most of the time they continue to act human and mostly appear human to fool outside forces into thinking they are normal. However, they mostly do this to fool outsiders to come into their territory so that they can offer them to their god. When outsiders don't come into their territory they often go out and hunt for people to be sacrificed to their god.

After about 5 months of offering blood to SCP-APT within SCP-APT-1, SCP-APT will then create SCP-APT-3. SCP-APT-3 is a golden saucer that absorbs all blood it touches and converts this blood into an anomalous energy that feeds SCP-APT-1, it should be noted that this process is still not fully understood and may never be understood due to the restrictions on testing because of SCP-APT's dangerous nature. Regardless, once SCP-APT-3 has been formed SCP-APT can be removed from the SCP-APT-1 structure. Afterwards one of the SCP-APT-2 instances will take SCP-APT and travel out of the village and find a new area to infect, thus starting the process all over again.

Peculiar about this, once an SCP-APT-2 instance takes SCP-APT during this process they will look entirely human and no longer have an insatiable hunger for blood, they won't even need to eat human food to stay alive. SCP-APT is somehow able to keep them alive until they find a suitable area and sacrifice themselves to start the process. For whatever reason the SCP-APT-2 instance carrying SCP-APT will find a location far away from any current SCP-APT-1, with the normal distance being about 16,000 kilometers. The working theory is that this prevents the anomalous cults created by SCP-APT form clashing with each other or stealing each other's food source.

Unfortunately, this is not the end as SCP-APT-1 instances get stronger once they have developed SCP-APT-3. As stated, earlier SCP-APT-3 converts blood into an anomalous fuel source to make SCP-APT-1 stronger. What this means is that SCP-APT-1's area of effect will start to expand and the land around the area of effect will come under its anomalous properties as well. Normally baren land will start to develop structures that will assist the community in worshiping their god. Weather these be farms for breeding captured prey, armories full of weapons to defend against hostile outsiders, or even nurseries where eggs will grow into newborn instances of SCP-APT-2, thus growing the population. This growth will continue so long as SCP-APT-1 gets more blood. However, it should be noted that at this point, it's impossible for SCP-APT-1 or the SCP-APT-2 instances to die of hunger.

SCP-APT was discovered in February of 1985, when several reports of a mysterious black creatures with red eyes were attacking people in New Mexico and Texas of the United States, Similar reports were also coming in on Mexico. The survivors of the attacks called the creatures "the chupacabra" and claimed that they were sucking the blood of those they captured. However, none of the survivors had a consistent description of the creature as some descried it as a giant black monster with three red eyes as well as a snout like mouth but a human body, others saying it looked like a black lizardman with red insect eyes, and others saying it was a black hairless dog that had red eyes and a whip like tongue and so on.

With no consistent leads the authorities from all local areas of both the United States and Mexico just wrote it off as delusional people feeding into an urban legend. However, the Foundation knew better and sent in agents of Mobile Task Force Iota-10 "Damn Feds" during the interrogations to confirm the presence of an anomaly. The one thing all witness had in common was seeing an entity with dark black skin and red eyes. As such several squads of Mobile Task Force Lambda-12 were sent in to investigate the areas where the entity was spotted. However, this led to the annihilation of a majority of the Lambda-12 units with only a few survivors left.

A recording was made with one of the survivors after they were retrieved via Foundation chopper. this is the recording.

Begin Record

Dr. Malik: Good evening [data expunged], how are you feeling.

Lamba-12 unit: ...

Dr. Malik: Uh... sorry, I was just trying to-

Lamba-12 unit: how about you cut the bullshit and just ask what you want Doc?

Dr. Malik: Uh, right sorry you've just been through a lot so I wanted to help make you comfortable.

Lamba-12 unit: I saw those things slaughter my entire team, how exactly am I supposed to get comfortable.

Dr. Malik: ... right, I apologize, but uh now that we're on topic what exactly are these things you're referring too?

Lamba-12 unit: ... we were wrong, we thought it was some kind of shapeshifting monster, but no, it's a whole fucking army. Somehow, they knew we were coming and fucking bated us. We found one and followed it but...

Dr. Malik: but?

Lamba-12 unit: it led us into a trap, we were surrounded by those fuckers. they all looked exactly the same, they were covered in black scales like lizards, but their eyes were big and disgusting like flies and they were glowing red too! We shot at them but, it only pissed them off. Sure, they were bleeding that disgusting black stuff, but they were acting like it was just a scratch. The only reason I'm still alive is because I was used the UV flash grenade on them as I ran off, again it didn't hurt them, but it kept them off my ass.

Dr. Malik: Hm, the three other survivors reported something similar, that it wasn't one creature but multiple, furthermore [data expunged]'s team encountered the variants that resembled hairless dogs, and [data expunged]'s team actually encountered a new variant that looked like giant bats. Again, the only characteristics they all had in common, being black skin and red eyes.

Lamba-12 unit: Yeah, that sounds about fucking right.

Dr. Malik: Thank you for your time, the Site therapist will meet with you outside.

Lamba-12 unit: thanks for the offer doc, but I'd actually prefer a nap, I kinda need one after the hell I went through, one of those fucking freaks even bit me, the bastard.

Recording Ends

The Lamba-12 unit was unfortunately killed by Foundation security after the interview due to blood tests showing he was slowly mutating and would become an SCP-APT-2 instance after [data expunged] more hours.

Afterwards Mobile Task Force Artemis-6 "Wild hunt" was sent in to take down every known location of SCP-APT-1 instances, one by one as well as record everything they could about the anomaly. It was thanks to them that the Foundation was able to find out everything it does about SCP-APT. On its missions MTF Artemis-6 managed to wipe out at least six different SCP-APT-1 instances before finding SCP-APT. The churches are listed here.

Holy Black Blood Hounds - located in [data expunged], Texas, United States. SCP-APT-2 instances were mutated into giant hairless dogs that with whip like tongues. They used the tongues to stab into their victim's neck and like a syringe, they could pump the blood and into their bodies. Their stomachs acted as blood banks so that they could slowly consume it over time and offer the rest to their respective SCP-APT-1 structure.

His Eternal Flock - Located in [data expunged], Nuevo Leon, Mexico. SCP-APT-2 instances were turned into giant bats that had tiny vampiric fangs all over their wings. They would normally wrap their wings around their prey and their prey to quickly drink their blood from all over their body. They would only drink enough to incapacitate their prey and take them to their respective SCP-APT-1 structure to feed the rest of the prey to it.

Temple of the Hungry Swarm - Located in [data expunged], Coahuila, Mexico. SCP-APT-2 instances were transformed into giant insect like beings that had no eyes but instead large mouths that almost covered the entire head. They had four arms, elongated and sharp fingers, talon like toes, and giant wasp like wings. They used their claw like fingers and talon like toes to rip apart their prey and feast only on small pieces while giving the rest to their respective SCP-APT-1 structure. MTF Artemis-6 only suffered one casualty when destroying this church.

[data expunged] - Located in [data expunged], New Mexico, United States. SCP-APT-2 instances were tall with slender naked bodies and actually had white skin and black eyes, unlike of normal instances. They used their churches name which turned out to be an info hazard to lure prey to their territory so they could be fed on and scarified without worry. Thought it took two weeks, MTF Artemis-6 was able to destroy this church without any casualties.

Temple for the Children who broke the Chains - Located in [data expunged], Durango, Mexico. [data expunged]. After suffering six causalities, MTF Artemis-6 was forced to retreat. Instead, a fleet of Mobile Task Force Sigma-6 "Valkyries" was sent in, all piloting ISJ-3 "Stingrays". They bombarded the area. The cover story was the area was caught up in a battle between two cartel factions.

[data expunged] - [data expunged]. [data expunged]. [data expunged]. [data expunged]. [data expunged]. [data expunged]. [data expunged]. Afterwards SCP-APT was retrieved.

It is unknown why the O5 council ordered all data concerning the sixth church to be erased.

Because there are still reports of "the Chupacabra" roaming around Mexico and lower area of the United States its suspected that more churches made by SCP-APT exist, but no concrete evidence has been found of their locations or existence.

Update: A member of the Crusade of Sanguisuga was spotted in [data expunged] and was quickly apprehended by MTF Iota-10. He was sent to the closest Foundation Site, that being Site-[data expunged] and was tortured/ interrogated. Dr. Wicked was later sent to Site-[data expunged] to conduct the interrogation. The following is a recording of what was learned by the Foundation.

Begin Record

Dr. Wicked: You good?

Sanguisuga Cultist: ...

Dr. Wicked: ... Here have some blood.

Dr. Wicked rolls up his sleeve and walked up to the tied up and injured Sanguisuga Cultist. They smiled and their neck quickly stretched out and bit his arm. However, after drinking some of his blood, they quickly spat it out.

Sanguisuga Cultist: Ugh! Argh! Guugh! What the fuck are yo-!

Dr. Wicked then slaps the Sanguisuga Cultist, making them spit out their own blood, and continue coughing in pain.

Dr. Wicked: I'm the one that's going to make your life a living hell if you don't talk.

Sanguisuga Cultist: Alright, alright, fuck... ok, you win. Damn it, ask anything.

Dr. Wicked: Good, do you know of this artifact?

Dr. Wicked pulls out his Foundation screen pad and shows an image of SCP-APT.

Sanguisuga Cultist: ... Yes, I made it.

Dr. Wicked: Really? Interesting. Care to explain why?

Sanguisuga Cultist: It is a tool to spread his good word. His image, his glory, his very blessing onto this unworthy universe.

Dr. Wicked: Let me guess he came to you in a dream, and you told you in the dream to build this thing and you went and did just that.

Sanguisuga Cultist: Oh no, non-believer it was nothing like that. I did this as it is my way of showing my worthy ness of becoming another holy priest in the Crusade of Sanguisuga.

Dr. Wicked: Sanguisuga? It seems like you and all the others converted by SCP-APT call him by a different name. Some call him the starving child, he who eats all, the king of the crimson river, and [data expunged] aw, shit! I'm not supposed to say that one. Fuck, the O5 is going to kill me... again.

Sanguisuga Cultist: Hahaha, he goes by many names because he touches many different people from many different worlds, he touched the people of my world centuries ago and now we come to your world to spread his many names.

Dr. Wicked: What? What are you talking about? Are you saying you're not from earth?

Sanguisuga Cultist: Now you see non-believer, true my church is known as the Crusade of Sanguisuga but when united with the others who worship his glory we are known as the The Creed of Ealaqat Jayiea! A thousand mouths to feed the hungry god! The poor child lost in the abyss! We will be the ones to give him the blood he craves! And he will come to us in the blackest of wombs and bless us for our good graces! He will ascend to adulthood and become a true god, then he will be the one to feed us, his starving children... FOREVER...

Dr. Wicked: Yeah, an ancient god from the abyss is trying to rise up and destroy the multiverse- blah, blah, blah. Obviously, I haven't heard of that before. Fucking hell don't the old gods have anything better than committing genocide on all of reality.

Sanguisuga Cultist: ... Now that I think about it, our lord seems to have a particular fondness of the world because he was once here.

Dr. Wicked: Oh really? Who was he, I probably know him.

Sanguisuga Cultist: ... [data expunged]

Dr. Wicked: ... Leech Boy? That's impossible, he died along with [data expunged] when SCP-[data expunged] and SCP-2845 started to [data expunged].

Sanguisuga Cultist: God don't die, so long as we have faith they will rise again.

Dr. Wicked: Fuck... this interview is over; someone kill this fucker. He has no more uses.

Sanguisuga Cultist: You can silence me, but you change nothing! Our lord can transcend time and space through the abyss! It's because of that that he spread his seed and good word over our world centuries ago! He may have done so for another world long before ours! He had trillions- no, INFINITE number of children and we all will never stop until he has ascended into this world and make no mistake he will! He has chosen your world to be his home! You should be grateful to have such an honor! But no matter, my death means nothing! Kill me and a thousand more eggs will hatch, and each hatchling will follow the word of our lord more faithfully than me! He will not be silenced! He will rise again!

Recording Ends

The Sanguisuga Cultist was executed immediately upon Dr. Wicked's request, afterwards Dr. Wicked was [data expunged] as punishment for [data expunged] which violated the order of the O5 council.

SCP-APT has proven to be a great example of how dangerous the Group of Interest: The Creed of Ealaqat Jayiea is, even if their contact with our reality is limited. Due to their main method of entering our reality being the Wanderer's Library Mobile Task Force Sigma-3 "Bibliographers" and Mobile Task Force Tau-9 "Bookworms" are to remain on alert for any activity or anomalies relating to the Creed. Especially if members of the Creed and its subgroups are attempting an invasion on Earth.

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

#DZtheNerd #SCP: Horror Movie Files #SCP Foundation #scp au #scp fanfiction #scp mtf #SCP Mobile Task Force #SCP OC

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dissidiacloudstrife · 5 years

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in light of the tulpa thing bc im still feral over it i made this

for the love of god just call them muses or something, im tired

#dead or alive youre talking with me #hi im a person who believes in astral and muses as theyre seperate people who can talk to you sometimes #shits fucking wild ddue #but im tired of the tulpa shit #pls use your perfered searching website and fucking look it up #takes two seconds to find out its from Buddhism #specifically tibetan buddihism

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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WLW Japanese Buddhist Who Uses Ghosts for Powers, has Ghost GF

@kanehon submitted:

Hello! I’m Latinx, planning a story set in a Urban Fantasy-equivalent of my own city. One of the main characters is Japanese-coded, as my city also has a large immigrant population, I plan to include her family as background characters too. In this setting almost everyone has some kind of magic power, or is a magical creature, so that is seen as normal and common. For this character I planned for her to be able to interact with ghosts and, only if she allows, they can possess her to do things she wouldn’t be able otherwise.

In the story she’s a Coroner and her powers would help with that, talking to them, viewing their side of the story, etc. Not only that, but there is the ghost of one woman in particular who is often with her, with them being lovers.

However, when considering the character’s religious beliefs, I could only find that in Shinto, Death is seen as impure so it seemed disrespectful to go with that. On the other hand, when I looked up at Buddhist views, the best I could find was that Buddhism views organ donating positively as a way to help the others.

Can I respectfully keep those powers/profession with her being Buddhist, being that she uses it to help people, or would it be better to not mix the two things and take a different route entirely? Is there something I’m overlooking and should be aware of?

Secondly, the ghost lover is a butch Japanese-coded woman, Are there any stereotypes I should be aware of and avoid? This is not the only queer relationship or character in the story, and I want to make sure those are shown in a positive light. Ideally, I also want to avoid it seeming like “bury your gays” by showing that, she is as much “There” as anyone else for my character thanks to her powers.

I think a key difference between Japanese versus Western views on ghosts/ spirits is that we differentiate between 幽霊 (yuurei) or specters and 精霊 (seirei) which are the spirits/ souls of the dead as a whole. Yuurei are almost always viewed negatively, while seirei are simply dead people who haven’t moved on. While seirei may have general attachments to the real world, yuurei have particularly negative attachments: desire for vengeance, memories of betrayal, histories of pain and oppression. The key point for both, however, is the cultural belief that both should move on.

As you say, in Shinto traditions, death is unclean, and so ghosts should be purified and go to the underworld (i.e. Yomi/ Yominokuni/ Yomotsukuni). In Buddhism, attachment is viewed as a barrier to achieving enlightenment (Nirvana/ Nehan) and thus, for a ghost, attachments to a previous life delay their re-entry into Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth necessary for their soul’s spiritual progression. Thus, even if your coroner character is only culturally Japanese-coded (and not religious in any way), I imagine they would feel some level of discomfort doing anything to allow a dead person’s spirit to linger. Thus, I question the utility of having their love interest character be a ghost. I can picture more transactional relationships where her interactions with ghosts and use of their powers are done in the interest of helping the ghosts move on such as:

Completion of a task left undone

Resolving regrets

Pacifying malevolent specters

However all of the above are poor fits for a long-term love interest, particularly one who is Japanese-coded themselves. A short, intimate fling with a ghost would certainly be an interesting pitch, but the distinct expiration date would make it quite bittersweet.

- Marika

One thing that stood out to me was that you are Latinx writing a story set in your own culture, which I figure has its own beliefs around ghosts. Considering, as Marika said, that you’re employing ghosts in your story in a way that doesn’t jive with Japanese Buddhist-Shinto beliefs, I think it may be better to draw from your local religious lore rather than to push a round peg in a square hole. Is your character’s Buddhism important to the plot, or did you make her Buddhist because she’s Japanese? Is your character’s Japanese-ness important to the plot, or did you make her Japanese because it was one of the more populous minorities in your home city/country?

Second: with regard to the girlfriend herself, I must stress that a deceased gay character does not inherently a “bury your gays” make. You do appear to have a sense of this as you mention her “there”-ness in the plot, but that’s exactly why you had nothing to worry about in the first place. The trope, and the issue with it, is withholding the happy ending of, AND screentime for, a queer character, because they are seen as disposable. A story can even bury-its-gays without actually killing them (comas, disappearances, abruptly written off the show, etc). Death is not the important component.

Also, I don’t think we are able to answer to the point of the girlfriends’ butch Japanese-ness because you gave us no other information about her personality, ethnic/immigrant background, or relationship dynamic with the coroner.

~ Mod Rina

Note: Due to Japanese pop culture, the notion of the yuurei vs. seirei divide has blurred, particularly as Westernized notions of ghosts/ apparitions have made their way into urban legends, manga and anime, however, I advise against going with these interpretations as we have more than enough of them in Japan already.

- Marika

#japanese #buddhism #shinto #ghosts #religion #supernatural romance #death #asks

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pair-annoyed · 4 years

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Anime I Watched This Fall

My first semester of college is officially over and the December holidays are upon us! I hoped to make one of these posts sooner, but I have been incredibly busy with schoolwork. Now that things have slowed down, let’s take sometime to reflect on things I’ve watched.

These anime are listed in chronological order and encompass everything I’ve watched from 9/1/2020 - 12/15/2020

Like always, they will be rated on a 1-10 scale; 1 meaning complete garbage, 10 meaning masterpiece. I will offer my thoughts on what I did/didn’t like about each show!

1. The God of High School - 6/10

Despite the stellar animation from MAPPA and my high expectations, I was really disappointed by how this series was treated. Most of the story’s crucial elements were handled poorly. I finished this series feeling more confused about the plot than when I first began. The power system is really cool, but poorly explained. More time should have been spent on exposition and world building for this series, instead the fights were given the most screen time.

2. Doukyuusei - 7/10

I really liked the style of Doukyuusei. Granted, this was another movie I chose to watch primarily because of the hype surrounding it. The dynamic between Kusakabe and Sajou is an interesting one, and I also enjoy how the movies different acts were separated by the seasons. However, there's nothing that really sets Doukyuusei apart from other romance movies, its a little generic. Still, I enjoyed it nonetheless.

3. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season - 8/10

My opinions on Re:Zero’s second season are biased. This was, by far, the sequel I was most hyped for during the summer/fall anime season. I was so happy to see the story’s continuation and I’m looking forward to the season’s second part coming sometime in January. Re:Zero is one of my all time favorite series because of the way it handles it characters and power dynamics. I also really enjoy the show’s psychological aspects. If you haven’t already, give Re:Zero a try!

4. Saint☆Oniisan (Movie + OVA) - 8/10

This was a wonderful comedy. I wasn’t sure how the subject of Jesus and Buddha living together would be tackled, but it was handled wonderfully. I was laughing for pretty much the entire movie. I love the art style and little references to both Buddhism and Christianity, plus the incorporation of Japanese culture. Saint Oniisan is a bright comedy, with two eccentric main characters. If you like a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and need a good laugh, I can’t recommend this more.

5. Clannad: After Story - 10/10

Never, while watching anime, did I cry as much as I did while watching Clannad: After Story. I didn’t realize how much I related to Okazaki until I saw him grow up in After Story. I was left sobbing, especially after episode 18. I still, to this day, cannot listen to the Dango song without tearing up. The original Clannad is nothing special, but the continuation of its story its something heartfelt, emotional, and down-to-earth. I love Kyoto Animation with all my heart, and Clannad made me appreciate everything the studio has done just a little bit more. Thank you Clannad, for reminding me about the kind of person I strive to be.

6. Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu - 5.5/10

The art in A Whisker Away was beautiful. The story itself, however, is nothing too enjoyable. I found it difficult to like our protagonist or her love interest. Nothing about this movie is inherently memorable. The emotional climax came far too early which made the second half of the film seem long and drawn out. All in all, the movie has a wonderful concept, I just believe it could have been so much more emotional than it was. When I watch a move, I like to empathize with the characters. It’s difficult to do when the characters aren’t given the proper exposition to be empathized with.

7. Shikioriori - 6/10

This is less of a movie and more of a collection of short stories. Flavors of Youth is something you shouldn’t watch on an empty stomach, all of the food looks incredible. The same cannot beside for the rest of this feature. The stories themselves seems heavily clichéd. Much like A Whisker Away, the initial premise is intriguing, but the execution results in something that comes across as trying too hard and carries no emotional weight with the viewer. If you plan on watching, pay more attention to the artwork and animation than the actual plot. You won’t be missing anything.

8. Vinland Saga - 7/10

Vinland Saga helped me get out of the rut that Clannad: After Story. Not only does this show have a great story, its action packed with lots of interesting fights. I especially enjoyed all the Nordic history embedded within the show. Its really unlike any of the other historical anime I’ve watched. I will say, it’s gory. But, compared to all the other things I watched this time around, I finished this series the quickest. Its good, its graphic, its fast paced!

9. Mononoke Hime - 7/10

It’s ironic considering how much anime I’ve watched that I have yet to watch all of the most classic Studio Ghibli films. Princess Mononoke is grittier than most other Ghibli films I’ve seen, but it’s message is positive and its characters are wonderful. I can’t really speak ill towards classics like these. I guess maybe my one complaint is that this movie could’ve been a faster pace. Other than that... I really enjoyed everything Princess Mononoke offered! I understand why it’s so popular.

10. Howl no Ugoku Shiro - 8.5/10

Can you believe it took me this long to finally watch Howl’s Moving Castle? Me neither!! This movie is so endearingly beautiful. I loved every second of it, from the characters to the soundtrack. So many iconic things come from just this one movie. I would like to take this time to thank my best friend for reminding me that Studio Ghibli films are wonderful! Thank you for watching this with me, I loved it! All in all, I regret not watching this sooner!

11. Toradora! - 6.5/10

Toradora took me a while to finish, just because I lost interest about halfway through. But, I powered through it, and ended up really enjoying the show! I’m not the biggest fan of the ending, but that’s just a personal preference. Somehow, this show also made me cry? I’m not entirely sure why because Toradora! is probably the thing farthest from sad. Apart from the show’s dull slice of life moments, it was super cute! A much needed light-hearted romance.

12. New Initial D Movie: Legend 1 - 5/10

Full disclosure, this is the only thing related to Initial D that I’ve ever watched. My band and I watched this expecting to hear some of that iconic Initial D music, itself all we got was a mildly confusing story about different types of cars. It was cliché and frankly a little boring. Although, I am still considering watching the original Initial D just so I can hear the music in the way it was original intended. I’ve got no other opinions on this movie. It’s best not to watch these movies without the context from the rest of the franchise.

13. Uchuu Patrol Luluco - 7.5/10

I didn’t really understand why people enjoy studio Trigger so much until I watched Space Patrol Luluco. I loved all the fun references to other studio Trigger works. I loved the humor, and I loved all the bright colors. The animation was extremely high energy, and the art style fits the show’s premise. Each episode was only 12 minutes long so it was a super quick binge. If you’re looking for something quick, light-hearted and comical, this is the perfect show to watch.

14. Orange - 7/10

I owe a big thanks to a tumblr mutual for recommending this show to me! This holds the honor of making me cry by episode 3! I honestly did not expect the subject matter of this show to be as dark as it was. Usually when I see the genre ‘shoujo’ I do not associate it with a love story like that of Orange. The heavy subject matter made it a little too close to home for me, but I still really enjoyed this series. It reminds me off all the good times I had with my friends in high school, and of all the regrets I carry with myself to this day.

15. 3-gatsu no Lion - 7.5/10

March Comes in Like a Lion is another show that was a bit of a slow burn for me. Each episode left me feeling emotionally drained, so I had to take a lot of breaks while I was working on watching this series. Shaft, the studio behind this anime, holds a special place in my heart because I loved their work on the Monogatari Series. March Comes in Like a Lion is a little different. It’s driving force it is characters, and it was cathartic to watch our main character transform through the entire duration of the first season. I know the show’s second season is much better, so I’ll be starting that soon!

16. Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei - 8/10

I loved how artsy and smart The Tatami Galaxy is, but honestly I couldn’t watch too much at once cause it would hurt my head. I also couldn’t watch this show while I was tired because the speaking rate is much faster than typical anime. The Tatami Galaxy is so unique for its medium. I loved the different time loops and the crazy animation. The characters were fascinating. The dialogue, although very fast, it also fantastic. There’s an element of humor to this unique story telling, and I enjoyed ever minute of it!

Currently Watching:

Hunter x Hunter - 6.5/10 (As of Episode 30)

I pride myself in having watched a lot of shounen anime, but I was reluctant to start Hunter x Hunter for years because I thought I would find it boring. I was oh so very wrong. Considering great shows like Naruto and Fairy Tail that fall under the same category, I expected Hunter x Hunter to be subpar in comparison. It gets a low score for two reasons. One, the power system was introduced a little too late and now I’m wondering if all the fights post episode 30 will involved nen in some way, shape, or form. Two, its still on hiatus.

Two Cursed Additions For This List

Please to do not let these be representative of my anime taste.

1. Yarichin☆B*tch-bu - 4/10

I am a CLOWN for not knowing this was 18+. The only reason I watched this was to see why everyone was talking about the pink-haired boy with the glasses and tongue piecing. I know why now, and I regret it. This was a massive mistake on my part. But hey, at the least the art and ending song kinda slap?

2. Euphoria (Dropped After 1 Episode) - 2/10

If you know what I’m talking about when I say Euphoria, I am so sorry. And no, I am not talking about the HBO series. Seriously, don’t google this. Don’t watch this. Don’t interact with anything related to this. You’re probably wondering, “Then why did you watch it?” I did not watch this willingly. You see, I have a very bad habit of starting anime and then taking months to finish them. I made an ultimatum with a friend, lost, and then was forced to watch this a punishment. Not a fun experience. I’m very glad there are no GIFs of this on tumblr...

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the-last-cuddlebender · 4 years

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I straight up check your profile daily for the southern raiders analysis you’re working on. 👀👀 where IS IT 😩

bRUH I am so excited to drop this analysis you have no idea (It’s creeping up to 22k+ I am gonna cryyyyyyyyyyyy). The only problem is that my TSR analysis and “Moon theory” are so incredibly hard to structure and articulate. I’m happy you’re so excited for it, though!!! Truly, it’s an honor. I’ll give you a taste of my madness and what’s to come, but be warned: it may be a bit hard to follow because TSR (from how I’ve come to understand it) is about the vagueness of beginnings, endings, and cycles, so there isn’t really a starting point for me to begin with. (So it may seem a tad bit like a ramble in some points that I haven’t fleshed out yet/am summarizing for this ask)

This analysis has me on trails like THIS brilliant nonsense, and I am 1000000000% here for it:

Roku: “The spirit's name is Koh, but he is very dangerous. They call him The Face Stealer.”

Katara: “We’re going to find the man who took my mother from me.”...“That’s him. That’s the monster.”

Lion Turtle: “To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed.”

Roku: “When you speak with him, you must be very careful to show no emotion at all. Not the slightest expression, or he will steal your face.”

Hama: “Congratulations, Katara. You’re a bloodbender.”

(If Katara had killed Yon Rha, she would be giving up her identity--her face. Not only would she have become a killer, but she would be killing what made her Katara)

Aang: “Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

Forgive him--approach him for what he is, not the faces your memories or your heart are having him wear. See him for the pathetic man he is in that moment right in front of you.

Aang’s forgiveness is seeing someone for the sum of their parts. It’s judging them and seeing through into their very soul, just like the Firebending Masters saw through Zuko being the Crown Prince and Aang being the Avatar. That meant nothing to the Masters. What did matter to them was who the boys were right there, right then, right in front of them.

“Why should I hold a grudge against you for something you did in a past life? After all, you’re a different person, now. You’ve come to me with a new face.”

But anyways...

If I can give no other take-away from my analysis and moon theory, it’s that Yin and Yang are not two entities; they are three. I think the fandom’s misunderstanding of it may be why the discourse on TSR (and Aang, Katara, and Zuko) is so black and white (pun intended lol).

“But Yin and Yang are obviously two things. Don’t you know the symbol?” I hear some people already saying.

Wrong, sir.

It has never been just Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang have never existed as just two things.

They are Yin and Yang and Wu Wei.

(Aunt Wu has her name for a reason, and she has the mark of the wise in her hair for a reason, too...AND she is at odds with Sokka in The Fortuneteller for a reason, too!!!...but that’s for the analysis😉)

Balance isn’t good triumphing over evil. Balance is good and evil. Balance is standing on the flow between two opposites--it’s the compliment that connects them. (The koi fish live in an oasis for a reason.)

I’ll explain what Wu Wei is later in the full analysis (like many things in here), but here’s some of my evidences and proofs for the “Yin Yang trio”:

The Tibetan “Wheel of Dharma”

(I’ll also explain the Wheel and Dharma and etc. later because it has everything to do with Koh and the moon) Long story short, the wheel and its spokes are representative of the 8 steps to enlightenment and the cycle of rebirth.

Look at the hub of the wheel. It’s a swirl made of 3 parts.

It is also a white lotus

Here’s the colored version of the wheel (as an alter):

Recognize the colors?

BLUE, WHITE (or gold, depending), & RED

These are the “THREE TREASURES” OR JEWELS.

They symbolize DHARMA, BUDDHA, & SANGHA respectively.

KATARA, AANG, & ZUKO

water, air, & fire

T H R E E

Bato: “Ice dodging is a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery, and trust.

Bato: “The spirits of water bear witness to these marks...”

Why does Bato say spirit(s) plural? The Ocean and the Moon are only two spirits. The Ocean can’t be two things. Right?

WRONG

Yue: “The legends say the Moon was the first waterbender. Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves.”

The Moon--singular. The Tides--plural (push and pull)

Lion Turtle: “In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within our senses.”

The moon pushing and pulling the tide is the moon bending the energy of its world.

Katara finding balance between “being too weak to do it” or “strong enough not to” is her bending the energy within herself.

It’s two solutions written as a question but said as a statement.

Yue: “Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves”

THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS IS ABOUT AANG AND ZUKO LEARNING FROM KATARA. Katara had already learned from Aang and Zuko all leading up to TSR. That was her studying. TSR was her test.

TSR is Zuko’s and Aang’s studying. Sozin’s Comet is their test.

Bato: “For Sokka, the Mark of the Wise. The same mark your father earned. For Katara, the Mark of the Brave. Your courage inspires us. And for Aang, the Mark of the Trusted. You are now an honorary member of the Water Tribe.”

Aang - Wise (”you’re pretty wise for a kid”)

Katara - Brave (the same mark her mother earned)

Zuko - Trusted (”I was the first person to trust you”)

Sokka - Bato ("I am to have no part in this--you pass or fail on your own.”)

Yin and Yang are nothing without their dance. The Avatar and the Firelord mean nothing if they don’t have a world to rebuild.

The valley means nothing if there isn’t anyone to live in it.

Fighting is useless if there isn’t someone to fight for, otherwise it is “selfish and stupid”

Katara had to have a reason to return from Yon Rha. She needed to have Aang waiting for her. If she didn’t have a reason to stay, then she wouldn’t have a reason to go.

To have a reason to sleep, a person has to have a reason to wake up.

Katara: “Aang. He just took his glider and disappeared. He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone; that it's all his responsibility.”

Hakoda: “Maybe that's his way of being brave.”

(Bato: “For Katara, the Mark of the Brave. Your courage inspires us.”)

Katara: “It's not brave! It's selfish and stupid! We could be helping him! And I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much we need him, too? How can he just leave us behind?!”

(It was, in fact, not easy for Aang to ‘do nothing’)

Katara: “I understand why you left. I really do, and I know that you had to go, so why do I still feel this way? I'm so sad and angry...and hurt.”

Hakoda: “I love you more than anything. You and your brother are my entire world. I thought about you every day when I was gone, and every night when I went to sleep, I would lie awake missing you so much it would ache.”

(AND YUE IS ONE OF THE ONES TO SAVE AANG IN THE OCEAN FOR A REASON)

Thinking and missing: a matter of mind (who) and heart (want).

Iroh: “Who are you? And what do you want?”

Sokka: “We need to go back. I wanna see Dad, but helping Aang is where we're needed the most.”

Mai: “I love Zuko more than I fear you.”

BUT YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT THE MOON FOR A HOT SECOND???

I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT THE MOON

I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT 2 MOONS

OH REALLY???

OH REALLY, ZUKO

A FEW HOURS YOU SAY?

THEN TELL ME, ZUKO

WHY IS THE SUN GOING UP

WHEN IT IS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT A FEW HOURS LATER

AND KATARA IS SLEEPING SO YOU CAN’T TELL ME IT’S BECAUSE YOU RISE WITH THE SUN OTHERWISE SHE’D BE WIDE AWAKE DURING THE FULL MOON THAT SHE USES TO BLOODBEND NOT EVEN TWO MINUTES LATER

THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS A HARVEST MOON

WHICH IS THE LAST FULL MOON OF THE SUMMER

(and looks off color when it rises/falls because of the angle of the rise/fall in the atmosphere...it’s normal once overhead)

AND SYMOLIZES HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF

“We’re going to find the MAN who took my mother from me.”

“That’s him. That’s the MONSTER.”

8 spokes on the wheel

Katara was 8 when Kya was killed

8 steps to enlightenment (the “Eightfold Path”)

8 phases of the moon

8 faces of Koh

“One of your previous incarnations tried to slay me! Be it 8 or 9 hundred years ago” (but time is an illusion, so hundreds mean nothing)

THE OTHER TWO MOONS THAT ARE CONSUMING MY EVERY WAKING MOMENT???:

1.) The WOLF MOON--the first full moon of the new year (a love between the wolf and the moon in the harshest winters...connection is kindof obvious lmao)

2.) THE THUNDER MOON

The Thunder Moon is the full moon of July. It is also known as the Buck Moon--for when young buck regrow their antlers.

Yue: “My hair turned white.”

Zuko: *cuts and re-grows his hair*

Aang: “I have hair?”

The Thunder Moon--the full moon of July--is also the beginning of a certain Buddhist holiday.

DHARMA DAY

WHICH CELEBRATES THE BEGINING OF BUDDHISM AND THE FIRST OF THE 8 STEPS (the first spoke of the Dharma Wheel) TOWARDS ENLIGHTENMENT

AVATAR IS ALL ABOUT CYCLES

THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS IS ALL ABOUT BREAKING THEM

I haven’t even touched Jung, Koh, Hinduism, and Buddhism yet

or the fact that Katara and Kya are the only characters in the entire series to wear moons on their clothing and that, together, they form an actual lunar phenomenon

or why the spirit oasis isn’t a complete circle

or the fact that this thing that Aang is told to chase is just like Whaletail Island:

or how important the Great Divide and the Solstice are

AND I’M JUST GETTING STARTED

BECAUSE EVERYTHING IN THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS--RIGHT DOWN TO THE SOUND DESIGN--IS ABSOLUTELY MONUMENTAL IN UNDERSTANDING THE SHOW, ITS MESSAGE, ENERGYBENDING, AND LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE

TLDR: Idk how the heck I’m going to arrange or articulate this analysis because it is WILD. Be warned: There is literally no exact beginning and ending to this analysis because the whole point of Yin and Yang is that is has no beginning or ending (...kindof...), so you’ll have to bear with me once I’m done editing it into something that’s somewhat coherent.

These are just SOME of the things I’ve been able to answer with my moon theory and analysis of The Southern Raiders as it currently stands:

Why “letting go” isn’t really letting go (as we understand it...see: Aang’s confrontation with Koh)

Why Lake Laogai and the Spirit World are symbolically the same thing.

Zuko’s advice to the bullfrog is actually a summary of the show, energybending, the origin of bending, and the definition of Aang’s “forgiveness” I stg

Why “Sokka’s instincts” are the reason Katara yells at Sokka

Believe it or not, every time Katara mentions her mother, it is at specific times for specific reasons.

^^^same thing for the moon, lack of moon, moon positioning, etc.

Katara’s mother’s necklace is more important than we realize.

Who the faces of Koh are and WHY they are there.

The true meaning of Jet’s sacrifice.

Why Jet’s episode about the dam explains the entirety of TSR as it pertains to Katara (all the way down to the little girl who runs to get her doll after the dam breaks)

Why Katara actually DID forgive Yon Rha, and the fact that she doesn’t even know it is proof that she did

^^^^^Aang’s definition of forgiveness is completely misunderstood by the fandom, and the way he “forgives” is sososo much deeper than “moving on”, and it is DEFINATELY by no means “doing nothing” or “excusing” past actions.

The importance of lightning, Zuko, Aang, and Katara.

The absolutely monumental and not nearly talked about importance of Jeong-Jeong like holy crap.

How Katara and Azula are just as much of a Yin and Yang as Zuko and Aang but not in the way we think they are

Why Koh has the Blue Spirit’s face

Why Koh DOESN’T have the Painted Lady’s face.

Who Ni-Ni from Katara’s campfire story in The Puppetmaster is

How and why Iroh was able to learn firebending from the Masters even though he didn’t have a partner.

How/Why Azula had her breakdown and why she saw her mother in the mirror

Why “Leaves from the Vine” and “Four Seasons” are the same song, explain Azula’s downfall, and explain the Yin and Yang of TSR.

Why Katara and Sokka are so often mistaken for parental figures.

Why Aang’s flashbacks to the Air Nomads are so important in understanding TSR.

Why Toph and Suki disappear after the campfire in TSR.

How Hakoda, Gyatso, and Kya are all connected.

Why it is so dang important that Azula shows up in the beginning of TSR.

The importance of the Spirit Oasis.

Energybending, healing with waterbending, Aang’s trauma, and Zuko’s scar.

Why Zuko gives Katara the exact opposite advise in TSR that he gave her in the catacombs.

How everything could be predicted and read by the moon.

WHY YIN AND YANG ARE THREE THINGS AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THREE THINGS.

HOW ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL OF THIS TIES BACK TO THE MOON AND BUDDHIST BELIEFS--AND YEAH THE MOON AND BUDDHISM AND HINDUISM ARE MORE CONNECTED IN ATLA THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.

AND HOW IT LEADS INTO OUR MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SELF--BECAUSE JUNG TOOK GREAT INFLUENCE IN HIS DEVELOPING THEORY OF THE CONSCIOUS AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS FROM THE HINDU/BUDDHIST RELIGIONS

^^^^AND ALSO THE THEORY OF THE SHADOW AND THE PERSONA

The ocean is a deep, dark, unknown place with a lot of hidden monsters (like Yon Rah). Katara needed a light to find her monster, but she also needed somewhere she could breathe when she came back up for air.

If she didn’t have both Zuko and Aang, Katara would have drowned.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a thesis, and what I’ve said and listed here isn’t even all that I have.

btw This all does line up on the traditional Yin Yang symbol we know and see in the show, but I don’t have enough space here for that lmao. That’ll be in the analysis

I hope you enjoyed this little taste, my friend, because I need to sit down for a hot second before my brain leaks out of my ears. Sorry for the ramble. I promise the analysis isn’t like this lol. This is just me trying to summarize as best as I can.

***Disclaimer: My points are always subject to change since I am still researching. These are the facts as I’ve found and applied them to the evidences I’ve noted from in the show. I’m always open for friendly discussion or any directions to better sources on Buddhism/Tao/Jung!***

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styleiswild · 3 years

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Interview with Beastie Boys for Machina magazine, 07/1998

By: Rafał Bryndal

Translation: Anna Bak ( @styleiswild )

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Introduction: The party called Beastie Boys in Lisbon went on for two days. On the first day we (the journalists) were invited to the magical “Kremlin” club to listen to the new album [Hello Nasty]. I don’t think I have to explain how I felt knowing that I was possibly one of the first Polish people to listen to that phenomenal record. On the second day each of us got to meet the band in Hotel Ritz during the so-called “round-table.” It’s like a private conversation with the artists. It looks a bit like a coffee party at your aunt’s. (…) The whole meeting was just as absurd, in a positive way. The answers they gave us were often ironic, as one could expect.

R.B.: Don’t you think that being Beastie Boys is way cooler than being any other band in the world?

MCA: Unfortunately, we haven’t tried being a different band yet. So I can’t really answer your question.

Mike D: To be honest, there’s something to it. Maybe because we have so much fun working together. It’s not always fun, of course. We do work from time to time, but only sometimes.

R.B.: It seems like you work on your albums for fun and pleasure exclusively?

Mike D: I think it’s because we don’t release them that often.

Ad-Rock: Yes… Yes, you must be right, man.

MCA: Hey, we’d released Ill Communication after a two year break.

R.B.: Yeah, but this one took you four years.

MCA: Yeah, we had to level it out. It takes us three years most of the time.

R.B.: You grew up together. Are you always on such good terms with one another?

MCA: Sometimes there’ll be tripartite fights. Not sure you’ve ever seen what it looks like when three people fight each other. Each of them against the other two. That happens sometimes. Rarely, though. To be honest, we don’t really argue much.

R.B.: Your new album seems a bit like a departure from The In Sound from Way Out!

Mike D: Hello Nasty is a collection of a dozen or so songs, each of them stylistically different. That’s why you can’t really compare it to our previous releases. I guess, though, that at least two of the songs would’ve worked well as instrumentals on the previous album.

R.B.: How do you deal with the new technologies in music?

Mike D: Technology is present in all genres today and you can’t run from that. Music evolves largely thanks to the new technology. Especially hip hop music. We do it like the true rappers do, which means we start with a drum machine, then we put it on a loop, and then we use digital delay system. That’s one of the newest inventions. Technology is unpredictable, because people – who are its creators – have no clue about what the artists can do with it.

R.B.: Is it true what they say on the internet? That this album is the first one of the three that you’ve recorded lately?

MCA: You’ve really heard about that?

Mike D: Gosh, you can’t keep anything secret today.

Ad-Rock: Three? To be honest, we’ve got many more albums recorded.

Mike D: The last one of the three is a country album. The genre is so popular that you can’t really keep such a record a secret anymore. Especially when you’re in Manhattan and you walk around in a cowboy fit, it’s suspicious as hell. Because there aren’t many cowboys in Manhattan. People see a guy in a cowboy fit and assume that he has to be working on a country album.

R.B.: Is it really so important for your clothes to fit the style of your music?

MCA: You identify with your music more when you dress up. People often cheat, they wear clothes that don’t fit the music they play.

R.B.: So what kind of clothes did you guys wear when working on Hello Nasty?

MCA: I wore a bat girl costume.

Ad-Rock: I dressed up as a scared woman.

Mike D: I’d wear a bathing suit, because I wanted to go swimming all the time.

Ad-Rock: We couldn’t really find what we were looking for at first. We tried on a range of fits and finally found those that went well with our music.

R.B.: You’ve been popular with skateboarders. It’s a group of people who wear unique clothes and listen to a lot of your music, as it seems. Do you identify with this subculture?

MCA: I don’t think it’s just that one subculture. There are a few more we’d like to identify with.

Mike D: For me it’s long gone. Skateboarding isn’t much of an extreme or exclusive kind of sports discipline anymore. It’s become very popular.

R.B.: You’ve worked with Lee “Scratch” Perry on the new album. Can you tell me what kind of benefits did that bring you?

Mike D: It’s hard to say, but we’ve always been pretty impressed with his work on dub music. He’s also inspired Mario Caldato, our studio engineer. For me, Lee is an artist of science, a living fucking legend.

R.B.: Do you think that you can inspire young musicians?

MCA: Sure, but that’s a normal thing, right? If music is evolving as a part of culture, then everything and everyone inspires that process. We’re happy that we can be a part of that culture to some degree.

R.B.: A lot of white kids have gotten into rap music thanks to “Rhymin’ & Stealin’.” At least that’s what happened to me…

MCA: As a white kid… Right, it’s hard to be a black kid in Finland.

Mike D: We discovered hip hop when we were thirteen or fourteen. We’d go and see Public Enemy and bands like that. We were totally enchanted. It’s not that weird that kids who listen to us want to do the same thing.

R.B.: Some people say that you don’t like it when other artists sample your music. Some say that you’re more liberal, though.

MCA: It all depends on how the sample is used. If it’s creative, then we’re here for it. But if they go and copy our own ideas, and the whole track revolves around that idea, then we’re obviously pissed off.

R.B.: Are you as satisfied with making music as you’re with your magazine and your record label?

MCA: It’s all really about creating something new, publishing the mag, recording albums or playing gigs… We’re really into humanitarian work, too. Sure, the music is the most important thing of all. Nobody knows where it comes from, it’s hard to define the process of making music. It comes from subconsciousness.

R.B.: I’ve heard that you were to make a movie based on your “Sabotage” video?

Mike D: Unfortunately, that’s not true.

MCA: It doesn’t change the fact that we’re planning to make a movie…

R.B.: About what?

MCA: You can actually watch it in the cinema already, because Spice Girls had stolen our screenplay and made it their own.

R.B.: In the 80s there were a lot of humanitarian aids, like benefit concerts during which quite a lot of money got lost for a very simple reason. Those actions were organized on such a grand scale that it was nearly impossible to control the funds. Aren’t you scared that the same thing can happen to your organization?

MCA: Free Tibet is there to help people find out about the issue and educate them on it. The money that we get helps us organize the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. It’s not like those other actions from the past that were strictly about collecting funds.

R.B.: Do you believe that the bands you invite to play consider the gigs something more than simply another type of self-promotion?

MCA: I feel that most of those artists are really moved by the issue we’re trying to bring to people’s attention.

R.B.: You’re fighting for free Tibet, while recently it’s been 50 years since the State of Israel was formed. And Palestinians are fighting for their rights to be respected. Why have you taken on Tibet and not Palestine?

MCA: Tibetans’ fight is based on the idea of non-violence. It’s a peaceful fight. The contrast between the brutality of the Chinese government and that quiet fight of Tibetans does make an impression, and that’s why we’re popularizing the ideas behind the Tibetan struggle. We believe that the non-violent, peaceful act is the only logical way of dealing with the issue.

R.B.: Even if the peaceful fight ends up leading to the extinction of Tibetan culture?

MCA: The same thing will happen if Tibetans decide to use violence as a means to gain their freedom.

R.B.: Is it true that your music is banned in Hong Kong?

MCA: That’s right. We can’t play there. Our albums can’t be sold on their market. All of the bands playing for Milarepa are banned from performing in China.

R.B.: You’ve met Dalai Lama on several occasions. Does he like your music?

MCA: Dalai Lama doesn’t listen to pop music at all. Lots of bands give him their CDs. He takes them because he doesn’t want them to feel bad, but he won’t give them a listen.

Ad-Rock: That’s why he stores so many demos at home.

R.B. What is Dalai Lama like?

MCA: He’s fantastic. He’s a great role model, representing all of the values people associate with Tibetan culture, with Buddhism. He’s got great charisma. He oozes calmness that comes from the respect he has for everyone.

R.B. What’s his opinion on Tibetan Freedom Concert?

MCA: He thinks it’s an excellent way of spreading his word. For him, the concert is a kind of holiday.

R.B.: As far as I know, you have a slightly different view on the future of Tibet. He wants to negotiate with the Chinese government about Tibet’s legal right to autonomy in China, while you fight for total freedom for Tibet as a sovereign country. Is that true?

MCA: It’s related to his view on the type of fight. He’s so scared of any form of violence that he’s ready to negotiate with the Chinese government. He’s choosing the lesser of two evils, that’s what he’s doing. We’re in a completely different situation, though. As American citizens, we want to speak with our government about freedom for Tibet. We believe that Tibetans should be free and we want to encourage the government to take action to help Tibetans gain autonomy.

R.B.: The “Sabotage” music video was unique and quite shocking. Are your new clips going to be equally as original?

Ad-Rock: It’s gonna be some good shit.

MCA: We had lots of fun working on it. The “Sabotage” video had a lot to do with the song, though. Our new clips won’t have anything to do with the songs. They can be treated as independent short features. We plan to make a couple more totally different clips.

R.B.: You’ve been a band for so long that you must be best friends and not only, let’s say, collaborators. Can you please describe one another?

Mike D: Adam Horovitz is, to use basketball terminology, the play maker. He shows us how we’re supposed to play because he’s the one in charge of the balls. Sometimes he can’t score from a distance, though. Adam Yauch, on the other hand, is a very unusual power forward. His style is completely devoid of aggression, unlike Karl Malone’s. Or Charles Barkley’s. He can dull his opponent’s vigilance with his slow moves and get all the points.

Ad-Rock: Mike is an idiot and a thief. Yauch is a liar. I’m as cool as James Bond.

Mike D: Some people might say that we’re CSC. Crazy Sexy Cool. And that’s what we wanna be.

R.B.: Can you explain your record cover? You’re in a tin and you look like sardines.

Mike D: Doesn’t it sound pretty? “Sardine tin”? It’s almost like a big surprise. You open the tin and it turns out that people’s lives are similar to the life of sardines.

MCA: Maybe this album was recorded by sardines and you’re now talking to them? Who does know?

#beastie boys #mca #adam yauch #ad rock #adam horovitz #mike d #michael diamond #1998 #90s #hello nasty #hello nasty era #scans #interview #music interview #beastie boys interview #this is not an ‘official’ translation ofc #done it in my free time #my posts

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handme-myshovel · 4 years

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My thoughts on Self-ish

The album Self-ish is a journey of self. Not a journey of self discovery, but of loss of self. Prefacing this essay with: this is entirely my interpretation, not trying to claim I know authorial intent.

“Self-“ is the introduction, the question. Will is stating he is gonna be “myself again.” Clearly he remembers having some form of identity at some point and has since lost it (see 2012). “Self-“ itself mentions 2012, which is the next song on the album.

2012 starts with a discussion of how he used to be: “innocently cynical, a proud individual.” Quickly he follows this with how he can’t remember how he “forgot himself” in the year 2012, which he also can’t remember. The song contains imagery of both hallucinogenic drugs and many different religions and spiritualisms: Taoism, Christianity (both in general and specifically Catholic), Zen Buddhism, and Mahayana Buddhism. The song explains his lack of self and identity, stating he lost it due to a desire to find his place in the world through hallucinogens and spiritualism; ironically, this is how he lost any idea of having a place in the world. It’s important to note that much of Will’s music also deals with his personal mental health. Bipolar-II, which he has, is characterized by, among other things, a weak sense of self and identity.

Cotard’s Solution, the next song on the album, is a reference to Cotard Syndrome, where a person believes they are dead and decaying. This song moves from the explanation of loss of self to questioning the reality of the self. “Cry my name, remind my brain of my identity, I’m not gonna listen.” “How many people am I? Now that I keep em in my memory, still I check in the mirror to see how I look, I look different in different ways. You do the math, who’s looking back? That’s not me!” “Carving my initials in the back of my hand in case of losing track.” Are all lyrics which suggest the falseness of self in the first place. In terms of motifs, the song contains a bit which is reprised in the albums penultimate track, Dr. Sunshine is Dead, “if dreams can come true, what does that say about nightmares?”

The next song is Mr. Capgras. This song (even its full title alone) is a reference to many things: capgras syndrome, where one believes a loved one has been replaced; face-blindness; tulpamancy, the art of creating a false spirit/person; among other things. The song opens with a repeating line of “you’re trying to replace yourself.” This fits right in with the developing theme: loss of self, questioning of identity, and now the creation of a new “self” to replace what was lost. Because of the title and nature of the song, though, it is made out to be a negative, false thing to try and manufacture a replacement self; or many selves. “All the false identities,” “And another man in your repertoire, ready in your head and fed up in your memoirs,” “What you feel and what you do, are those things really you, and if not then what is?” The song also repeats “You’ll never take me alive!” This implies a paranoia over the loss of the false self (really, many selves) he has created. As motifs go, the backing track at the end (��this is not enough, this is not enough to prove it yet, no I need to hit the bottom”) is a motif taken from a later song, Hand Me My Shovel, I’m Going In!

The next song, The Song With Five Names, continues this idea of loss of identity. This song’s thesis is that one can never be certain of anything, especially when it comes to the self and the identity. By this point, Will is starting to accept this lack of identity rather than fight it or try and accommodate for it. He states that the self is all in the head anyways, so how can anyone be certain that it’s real? And what does “real” mean in this case anyways? He talks about identity and self being a projection to “protect you from the void within the form.” The lyrics continue the religious motifs of the album, referencing Judaism through a Hebrew epithet of God(I Am Who I Am) and a Christian Gospel song (Old Time Religion). The chorus references digging and shovels, saying “you can break a shovel when you break new ground, you dig dirt up when you dig deep down.” This seems to be a direct argument against the next song Hand Me My Shovel, which talks about needing to dig deeper and hit the bottom. While Hand Me My Shovel wants to get to the bottom of this loss of self, The Song With Five Names wants to simply accept it. The repeated “gotta get to the bottom of it” also appears in this song, further linking the two. The song also contains the line “I noticed that the sunshine is a gaslight.” This could refer to the album’s penultimate track “Dr. Sunshine is Dead,” in which it is sang “I am not the sunshine, I am not the moon at night.”

Hand Me My Shovel, I’m Going In! breaks the trend thus far. It stands in contrast to many songs: while 2012 is about forgetting, this song is about remembering; and while The Song With Five Names accepts the lack of identity, Hand Me My Shovel wants to prove something, wants to explain it. He recalls how he got to where he was through the verses, and in the chorus states “this is not enough to prove it yet, no I need to hit the bottom.” This could refer both to getting to the bottom of an investigation and “hitting rock bottom.” The song contains references to his mental health (“Ill bookmark my DSM cause I need to remember my place”) and substance abuse (“Bottle, well, or barrel? All are empty. Dug, or drank, or poured it out.”) The titular lyrics “Hand me my shovel, I’m going in” can refer to both embarking on an investigation of his past and going deeper into the spiral of addiction he’d already faced, similar to the double meaning of the “hit the bottom” line.

The album’s penultimate song, Dr. Sunshine is Dead, explores identity through the metaphor of light and dark. It references Plato’s Cave, an allegory which discusses ones perception of reality, which is also explained through the use of light and shadow. The chorus states, “I am not the sunshine, I am not the moon at night, well who else could I be, when I can hardly see?” and “I am not the sunshine, I am not the moon at night, I’m no one if I’m nowhere in between.” The use of sunshine and moonlight is interesting, since moonlight is just reflected sunlight; Will is not his original self, nor is he a reflection of who he once was, but someone else entirely. This is also stated in another line: “who should I be, then, if I’ll never be the same?” This question is promptly answered: “I will be my sunshine, I will be my moon at night.” He has supposedly changed his mind, asking “who else could I be?” He exists as all forms of himself at any time, not just whichever he wants to put out to be seen. If no selves are true, then all selves are true, this song explains. The song ends with a reprise of Cotard’s Solution: “if dreams can come true, what does that say about nightmares? I’ll stay awake tonight.”

Finally, the album ends with “-ish”, the second half of the first track “Self-“ This is the answer to Self-‘s question, the conclusion he has come to after exploring these questions through the album. Even the way the songs are titled explains this: “Self-“ introduces the concept of self and identity, and “-ish” challenges that. He has decided that ultimately, his sense of self or identity doesn’t matter. “I am a point in time and space. I am the truths that I create. So when my matter takes its stand, no it doesn’t matter who I am.” What’s the point of identity anyways? The only person it matters to is you, and you’re just dust in the wind. It doesn’t matter who you make yourself to be.

The thesis of Self-ish as an album is that it is pointless to worry about your sense of self and identity, as it’s arguably false by its very nature (one could say that “all identities are equally invalid,”) and ultimately doesn’t make any change to the reality of the universe.

#Will Wood #long post #Will Wood and the tapeworms #wwatt #self-#-ish #2012 #mr capgras #song with five names #cotard’s solution #hand me my shovel I’m going in #dr sunshine is dead #self-ish #self ish #oc

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leoteaworld · 4 years

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Discover the Different Types of Japanese Green Tea & Brew Guide

Green tea has been used for centuries for their medical benefits and are even used today in modern science in alternative medicine. Green teas are not only healthy, but also incredibly flavorful and tasty. Some green teas boast earthy aromas and grassy favors which will peak your senses from the initial smell all the way down to the very last sip.

When people think of green tea, they often associate it with the Japanese. In Japan, it is a staple beverage as it is available at almost every restaurant across the region. It’s easy to stumble across some type of food or beverage that has green tea within it. From matcha green tea lattes, to ice cream, and even chocolate bars, green tea is everywhere in Japan!

Not to be confused a Chinese green tea, Japanese green teas possess unique properties in both their roots and tastes that make the tea drinking process even more exceptional. Let’s discover the many varieties that Japanese green tea has to offer. We will find out what makes this tea so unique and how to choose a tea that best fits your taste buds.

Japanese Green Tea’s History

Green tea actually originated in China, but found its way over to Japan as it was carried back by nomadic Japanese monks. Japanese monks would travel to China to learn about Buddhism. This is where the monks originally discovered green tea. The irresistible green tea was then brought back by the Buddhist monks to Japan, where the Japanese began to add their own special twists to the brewing process. It’s thought that green tea was first introduced to Japan during the Nara and Heian era, well over one thousand years ago.

Back then, only the upper class were able to get their hands on green tea. As time went on, the production of the green tea leaf substantially increased as farmers increased their yields. Thanks to the increased supply, the demand was met and the popularity of green tea took off. Historians tell a story of a priest in the 12th century called Myoan Eisai. Eisai is credited for green tea demand increase when Eisai wrote a novel on how to properly brew and drink green tea.

In the modern era, the Japanese have made green tea consumption a part of everyday life. It is ingrained in their very culture. Green tea is even used ceremoniously in traditional tea cups. When political figured arrive in Japan, they are immediately offered green tea as a gesture of kindness and to offer a warm welcome.

Types of Japanese Green Tea

Sencha

This is the most popular and widely drunk tea in all of Japan. Sencha green tea is offered in most restaurants throughout the region. It’s brewed by using the smallest tea leaves to give it its exceptional flavor and aroma.

Sencha green tea is offered in many different forms, including a high quality variety that is sure to tickle the fancy of even the most dedicated green tea enthusiast. When harvested, the small leaves are immediately steamed to avoid oxidation. After the leaves are protected, they are packaged into cakes, balls, or spindles.

The taste walks a fine line between acidic and sweet. Sencha green tea is considered to be mild in body and flavorful in taste. Many claim that the green tea consists of hints of melon, pine, and grass. The premium Sencha teas come with a more complicated taste that really calls out each flavor in a bold flavor that is not too overwhelming.

The two different varieties of Sencha green teas are distinguished by how the tea leaf is steamed. Asamushi Sencha green tea is the way that the Japanese have been steaming green tea for centuries. In this variation, the littlest green tea leaves are steamed for around 60 seconds, giving it a soft yellow hue and particularly sweet in taste. Fukmushi teas give Sencha green tea a modern twist which requires the leaf to be steamed for a longer time. The longer steam time results in a darker color with an unfiltered appearance. This tea offers a heavier and earthier flavor.

Gyokuro

Gyokuro tea is another Japanese variation that is harvested from the Camellia sinensis plant. It is unique in that the plant is grown in the shade in the final months before the leaves are collected. The lack of sunlight during the last month of growth inhibits the growth of cholorophyll and other antioxidants. This nutritious tea has a soft and sweet flavor and is one of the healthiest Japanese green teas available.

The lack of sunlight is also responsible for inhibiting the production of L-theanine from morphing into a catechin. L-theanine is thought to add to a consistent feed of caffeine, making it much less jittery and helping with the dreaded caffeine crash.

Gyokuro tea is renowned for its creaminess and seaweed like long-lasting flavor. This well-balanced green tea is soft and sweet through and through.

Genmaicha

Genmaicha green tea is unique in that the leaves are combined with brown rice kernels, giving the tea a toasted and fuller taste. Genmaicha tea offers a filling flavor similar to that of eating a bowl of chili. The brown rice removed rough flavors from the green tea leaf, making it an easier beverage to enjoy.

Coined ‘the people’s tea’, Genmaicha tea was widely available and incredibly popular as it was the cheapest green tea option available. The combination of the cheap brown rice and the more expensive green tea leaves made the overall cost very affordable for the general public.

In the modern era, Genmaicha green tea is renowned for its taste and aroma that is unlike any other. It is also known to the people as ‘popcorn tea’ thanks to the popped brown rice. Many Japanese use this tea as a palette cleanser either both or after they eat. This tea is traditionally prepared at a more elevated temperature than traditional green teas. The extra heat helps unlock additional flavors of the brown rice kernels.

Matcha Green Tea

Matcha green tea is well-known worldwide thanks to its stone-ground preparation. The ground leaves leave behind a green powder that is renowned in the cooking world. The ground powder is used to make popular drinks suck as the matcha latte. Once again, this tea is cultivated in from plants that spend a portion of their life in the shade.

The grinding process consists of the tea leaves being placed on bamboo mats and first steamed and then dried. The dry leaves are the smashed and obliterated to extract the popular green powder. The powder can also be extracted in a mill.

Speaking of healthy teas, Matcha green tea is incredibly healthy. Grinding the leaves allows you to ingest the entire leaf to get the most nutrients as possible, rather on having to rely on extracting the nutrients into a liquid. Matcha green tea has the incredibly high levels of L-theanine amongst other nutrients.

This tea assists your digestive system in taking up Vitamin E and other healthy fibers within the leaf itself. Saturated with antioxidants, Matcha green tea is the healthiest Japanese green tea on this list.

For Macha brew guide, you can refer to HOW TO PREPARE MATCHA GREEN TEA?

Hojicha

If you don’t like the jitters that are associated with a cup of coffee or other stronger green teas, then you may enjoy Hojicha green tea. This tea is infamous for its low caffeine content. It is uniquely roasted, unlike the other steamed green tea varieties. The roasted leaves are pan-fried after cultivated to keep oxidation at bay.

The roasted profile offers a nutty flavor and is also unique in that it does not project a green hue like other green teas. The color is a light brown hue thanks to the roasting process that the leaf undergoes.

Since the caffeine content is so low, many elderly whom are concerned of heart conditions and even young children who are too young for a cup of coffee drink this variety. It’s traditionally prepared for a short time in hot water to avoid bitterness.

Kukicha

Kukicha green tea is truly special in that it is not brewed from tea leaves at all. This tea is interestingly brewed from the stems and stalks of the plant in hot water. Kukicha tea is also known as Bocha or stick tea because of this.

Kukicha tea that only harvested from Sencha or Gyokuro plants is referred to as Karigane tea. Karigane tea offers nutty flavors with a filling creamy sensation. Kukicha is popularly consumed to aid the digestive system.

Guricha

Guricha tea is hard to come by and sought after by tea enthusiasts everywhere. This uncommon tea variety makes up for about 5% of the entirety of Japanese tea supply. Since it is so rare, Gruicha tea often sells for a very high price at auction or at the market.

Coming from the Kyushu Island found within the Ureshino region, Gruicha is known for its unique shape that closely resembles a comma. The color of this tea when brewed is a dark pine with hints of sweetness. If you’re able to get your hands on this, then you will understand why it is so sought after!

Uji Green Tea

Uji tea originates in Uji, Kyoto. It is a uniquely traditional tea that is rooted deep within Japanese history. This ceremonial tea was transported numerous times during the Meiji era. This tea would be presented to the shogun of a military to show respect. It may not be the tastiest tea available, but it still widely enjoyed by historians and those who appreciate the culture.

How Do I Brew Japanese Green Tea?

This guide refer to general Japanese green tea include variants introduced upon. To start, heat the water to temperature that ranges between 150 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Refer to the list below to make sure that you are brewing your green tea variation at the correct temperature. We advise that you refer to the product label for brewing instructions.

If the temperature is too high, then you may notice bitterness. Boiling the water is not good for the flavor, so avoid this. Generally speaking, follow the directions below to correctly brew different varieties of Japanese green tea:

Sencha: 140 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit for one to one and a half minutes.

Gyokuro: 122 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for one to two minutes.

Matcha: 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

Genmaicha: 185 degrees Fahrenheit for one to two minutes.

Hojicha: 200 degrees Fahrenheit from anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes.

Kukicha: 185 degrees Fahrenheit for up to one minute.

Guricha: 158 to 176 degree Fahrenheit for 35 to 45 seconds.

Drink Japanese Green Tea

When it comes to green tea, the Japanese are the best. The seemingly endless amounts of variety will ensure that you discover a variety that fits your palate. The cultural and traditional significance of green teas in Asia make this beverage special. So pick a Japanese green tea of your choice and be sure to enjoy it on us!

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