This blog has no history, it never existed until just now. All you see on it is an illusion created in this, the last second of existence, to fool you into thinking that the blog is real and thus deny the abandonment of your own ego for the illusion of Maya and silly cat pictures.
I was getting arranged married to Jesus Christ on the beach. I was super upset, but my family kept telling me that I didn't have a choice. I'm a Buddhist lesbian...
Forgiveness is about making peace with reality. It means you let go of your inner resistance regarding present circumstances and what led to them. As a result, you are free to fully focus on how to move forward productively. Forgiveness does not mean that you approve of what you are forgiving. It is not the same as condoning. When you forgive yourself, it means you are being gentle and honest. When you forgive others, it means you are being compassionate and sane.
Harajuku Street Style Interview with Future Japanese Buddhist Monk Rei
Harajuku Street Style Interview with future Japanese Buddhist Monk Rei. Known in the Harajuku scene for mixing traditional Japanese fashion with modern elements, 19-year-old Rei comes from a family of generations of Buddhist priests. He's studying theology now, intending to become a monk and follow the path of his ancestors. Interview by Ticomeba.
Me: So, while men are not blessed with immortality like elves, it’s said that their ability to die and go beyond the physical world is its own kind of gift. The stuff about Beren and Luthien kinda throws a wrench into this, since she could apparently stop being immortal as a full-blooded elf anyway, which makes it seem like the elves just get a better deal period, but regardless, most of the elves ultimately go to the blessed land of Valinor, which is in the far west, but removed from the circles of the world.
The Pure Land Buddhist in my head: The place in the far west is not quite the final escape, but as good as it gets while still being a sentient being. Right…
Me: Valinor is also the home of the Maiar and Valar, godlike beings. A renegade Vala, Melkor, is the overarching villain, but the main villain of the books is a renegade Maia loyal to Melkor (at least originally), Sauron. Anyway, Sauron put a lot of his power into a single artifact, a ring. This ring falls into the possession of the protagonists of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and possession of the ring causes an obsessive attachment in whoever has it, and apparently allows them to live indefinitely, but it doesn’t bring them any real happiness or contentment.
The Pure Land Buddhist in my head: Okay, the circle/ring/wheel-shaped object keeps you miserably tethered to life and itself. The symbolism is a touch heavy-handed, but I can live with it.
Me: The author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was a devout Catholic, and while not overtly allegorical in the fashion of his friend Clive Staples Lewis’s Narnia books, many see a great deal of Catholic influence in the Lord of the Rings mythos.
The Pure Land Buddhist in my head: (spitting out the tea he had coincidentally just started drinking) Catholic?
Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.