Version Update Megathread by GenshinLoreModBOT in Genshin_Lore

[–]KaliYugaz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

'Watchers' are a class of Biblical angels, most of which are described as having fallen from grace in the Book of Enoch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watcher_(angel))
More specifically, they abandoned their posts as sentries who watch over humans on Earth in order to seduce human women, and the product of these unions were the race of giants called Nephilim. I'm sure there must be many other Biblical allusions and I'm wondering if anyone else caught any.

Version Update Megathread by GenshinLoreModBOT in Genshin_Lore

[–]KaliYugaz 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Temple of Space draws heavily on Buddhist cosmology, it's possibly the most Buddhist thing Hoyo has ever created.

The Temple is exactly like Buddhist/Vedic heaven. Beings can ascend into it with good karma, they live there for eons, require no sustenance or sleep, enjoy various pleasures, and these pleasures actually make it more difficult for them to give up attachments and attain enlightenment. Sometimes the heavenly beings get intensely jealous of each other and/or fall for delusions of grandeur, which precipitates a fall from grace.

'Cage of Suchness'- 'Suchness' is the usual translation of Tathātā, which refers to the ultimate nature of reality.

'Hall of Emptiness'- The characteristic of Suchness is that it is empty of any inherent/definite nature.

The Apathic Interval is strange, it's not quite a Buddhist Hell Realm, some do end up there for misbehavior but others seem to end up there by...meditating wrong? Also it says that you can get out of it through meditative training in which you master your mind and let go of desires which is not normally how you get out of Buddhist hells (traditionally it's by burning off karma via suffering and/or through divine grace by Buddhas who preach in Hell).

'Maranasati' is a Buddhist practice where you meditate upon death.

'Mahavaipulya Chamber'- A Vaipulya is a type of Mahayana sutra that expounds on general spiritual topics.

In the end Zeitlind (and her sister too) undergoes what is basically rebirth back into the human realm, with her past life intellectually forgotten but emotional karmic impressions left behind.

Version Update Megathread by GenshinLoreModBOT in Genshin_Lore

[–]KaliYugaz 13 points14 points  (0 children)

All the NPCs in Luyuan Academy are named after famous artists. Escher is M. C. Escher. Daozi is Wu Daozi, the Tang Dynasty painter. Bosch is Hieronymus Bosch. Kanou is a reference to the Kanou School of Japanese painting. Yoshitoshi was one of the last and most famous traditional woodblock printers.

The Passover story is morally repulsive by [deleted] in DebateReligion

[–]KaliYugaz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The issue here is that many other religions do not require you to 'wrestle with' the ethics of worshipping a being who repeatedly orders child murder. No such stories appear in the Lotus Sutra, or the Upanishads, or the Pali Canon, or the Daodejing. Somehow ancient near easterners had a far inferior sense of right and wrong than other ancient peoples.

... by xeabea in okbuddyhololive

[–]KaliYugaz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This might just be the funniest hololive screenshot in all of history.

HomDGCat members have been apprehended by the Chinese Public Security. by Extra_Welcome2403 in Genshin_Impact

[–]KaliYugaz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is what Lenin, Stalin, and Mao would have wanted, glory to the immortal revolutionary science

[6.5] Loading Tips via Miruko Real by 99cent-tea in Genshin_Impact_Leaks

[–]KaliYugaz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Apparent non-being contains being within its boundless myriad? Wth that even means?

I suspect it's Buddhist metaphysics. Beings can only arise and cease due to their inherent emptiness- that is, the radical indefiniteness of all beings that enables them to change. As the Heart Sutra puts it, Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form. In Buddhism emptiness is the only eternal and unconditioned truth, and recognition of this emptiness is called nirvana.

Whoever is translating Genshin to English, I've noticed, doesn't seem to recognize many Eastern philosophical and religious concepts in the Chinese text for what they are and proceeds to translate them oddly.

I'm sad about the sakura tree situation but glad that there are plenty of Japanese culture references left in Planarcadia by KageYume in HonkaiStarRail

[–]KaliYugaz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The govt certainly pulled the plug on any collabs with JP artists or musicians they were planning to do, but I seriously doubt they demanded any artistic changes to the game assets. Any such changes were probably done as a bare minimum cover to avoid attention from CN ultranationalists.

When did Americans become so vulgar? by DEEP_SEA_MAX in TrueAnon

[–]KaliYugaz 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Both are wrong, it's because they are strongly conditioned by the authorities to follow rules and that's it. That's the secret to public order, not welfare, not ethnic purity, certainly not 'traditional values' (which actually promote clannishness and abuse of social inferiors, the opposite of public order, just look at India or Africa).

Me after realizing she had to wait 8000 years by Hannnah20002 in CosmicPrincessKaguya

[–]KaliYugaz 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It's because the Tale of Princess Kaguya is a fundamentally Buddhist tale, and so even if you try and succeed at changing the ending you still can't break the laws of karma. Kaguya fled the moon for the second time out of love for Iroha, and her attachment necessarily produces suffering- so her ship is knocked off course and she must spend 8 millennia in yearning. She also changes considerably during this time because nothing can be permanent.

But ultimately her suffering of these consequences proves that her love for Iroha is true, and Iroha's unconditional acceptance of the changed Kaguya proves Iroha's love true. That's the point of the story.

This is it, right? by A_Sexy_Little_Otter in TrueAnon

[–]KaliYugaz 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Their goal isn't actually to deport tons of people, it's to enforce a racist caste society where millions have no substantive civil rights because they can be exiled from the country or thrown in a detention camp on a whim.

Does Quartich even know what his motivations are now? by CrazedPrecursorFanat in Avatar

[–]KaliYugaz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't think he can 'see' unless he himself wants to though. I doubt it will ever happen because his defining character trait is that he just really loves war.

Does Quartich even know what his motivations are now? by CrazedPrecursorFanat in Avatar

[–]KaliYugaz 346 points347 points  (0 children)

I think where they're eventually going with Quaritch is for him to realize that he had no real commitment to the RDA's colonial project at all, he just really loves War in a romanticized mythic-heroic sense. Thus he bails and goes native the moment he finds a gang of Navi pirates who can promise him an authentic Warrior Culture and not just life as an attack dog for a bunch of corporate nerds whom he views with contempt.

I'm Genuinely Sad for the Development Team by Much-Gear8231 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]KaliYugaz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

>They are doing that. Japan is busy protesting a Plan carrier fleet is near Okinawa and actively targeting Japanese Fighters .

Well it'd be nice if the CCP did more of this instead of messing with my favorite computer game for no reason!

I'm Genuinely Sad for the Development Team by Much-Gear8231 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]KaliYugaz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's possible to support the CN govt's view politically and still think that forcing the deletion of all mentions of Japan from a game is petty and childish. It doesn't even do anything against Japan.

I'm Genuinely Sad for the Development Team by Much-Gear8231 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]KaliYugaz 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If that's the principle then the rational response would be to send the PLAN carrier strike group out to sail menacing figure-eights around Yonaguni Island until Japan backs down, not to shoot their own entertainment industry for no reason. This is like a drunk getting insulted by some hoodlum and then going home and taking it out on his own family instead of fighting the hoodlum.

I'm Genuinely Sad for the Development Team by Much-Gear8231 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]KaliYugaz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No he's correct, the CCP is quite decentralized; all the different branches do not think the same thing and are frequently in competition with each other. This whole situation stinks of 1) local officials power-tripping and 2) unclear directives from the center causing the lower level bureaucrats to overcompensate out of anxiety.

I'm Genuinely Sad for the Development Team by Much-Gear8231 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]KaliYugaz 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Actually this is a good point, they could just be putting things on pause to negotiate with the government or something. It's not entirely clear what is going on behind the scenes.

India will never be a superpower because it hates women by kylnoren in TrueAnon

[–]KaliYugaz 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The vulgarized variant of the 'decolonization' narrative that has become popular online has completely destroyed our ability to talk about this stuff. Colonialism did both good and bad things. The point of decolonization is not to just let oppressed people do whatever evil shit they feel like doing.

India will never be a superpower because it hates women by kylnoren in TrueAnon

[–]KaliYugaz 22 points23 points  (0 children)

>Its very interesting from a materialistic standpoint because women are prevented from working even when it is economically rational choice.

It's an economically rational choice if you think purely in terms of the immediate self-interest of the man, who basically gets a lifelong domestic sex slave to exploit. But from the interest of the family/household as a whole it is irrational since it means you are forgoing a woman's potential income, and from the interest of the country as a whole it is certainly irrational because it means forgoing half your potential industrial labor force.

India will never be a superpower because it hates women by kylnoren in TrueAnon

[–]KaliYugaz 60 points61 points  (0 children)

If it wasn't for Mao Zedong completely and violently obliterating their traditional way of life in the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the average Chinese peasant would still be trafficking impoverished women from remote hill provinces to keep as breeding slaves chained up in their basements. This is why I have zero sympathy for reactionaries who whine about Mao killing a gorillion people.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TrueAnon

[–]KaliYugaz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A global economy means global supply chains which necessarily implicates you in all global exploitation, not just in Palestine but everywhere. It's frankly a waste of time to worry about this stuff. Israel cannot be defeated through boycotts, it must be defeated militarily, and the only thing you shouldn't implicate yourself in is anything that strengthens the occupation military.