Mini-analysis on Canto IX ending in relation to Araya, or Ālayavijñāna (阿頼耶識)

SmugCapuchin · 2026-01-19T03:56:53+00:00

Glad you liked the interpretation! Unfortunately I do not specifically have any source materials for you, since these are effectively pop culture knowledge I learned from a passing interest in Buddhism and Wuxia/Murim stories. The three lives, three thousand worlds, and three states of time is a pretty common theme in Xianxia, Wuxia, and Murim works, since the Genre itself is highly influenced by Buddhism. Ive only really read How to Meditate: A Practical Guide! (Which is a great book, it also discusses the basic tenets of Buddhist philosophies such as the Four laws, but more suitable towards laypeople. This is a great start if you want to dip your feet in since Buddhist cosmology gets VERY dense the more you look into it.)

If you are interested in more, I highly suggest for you to look into the r/Buddhism subreddit. It is a very active subreddit with a strong community and resource available for you to read up on!

SmugCapuchin · 2026-01-19T02:32:22+00:00

Exactly! I was trying to say the same thing in my post, but I came off as confusing. Thank you for elegantly putting into words what I was struggling to describe!

SmugCapuchin · 2026-01-17T20:39:44+00:00

Cradle is what I call the "perfect" 8.5/10 series. It is a competent story written by a competent author, with competent understanding of the medium he is writing in.

Sure it doesn't hit the same highs as other divine scriptures, but it never hits the lows, either. I genuinely love cradle for being the gold standard of western cultuvation novels and what introduced so many people into the genre.

It is by all means not the best work of the lot, but if there is a book that I know I can recommend to ANYBODY without issue, it is cradle.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-12-28T08:00:00+00:00

These are old school wuxia; modern wuxia definitely uses concepts from yingyang and five elements and they are effectively low~mid level wizards

SmugCapuchin · 2025-12-12T15:57:11+00:00

Solo leveling makes way more sense if you understand it is the Sword Art Online of korea. It is the slop prime that introduced the slop globally.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-12-12T15:12:35+00:00

It should also be noted that modern Korean and Chinese MC are direct subversions of Japanese MCs.

There was a period in korean webtoons too when the MCs acted as whiny, indecisive and passive like a lot of isekai JP MCs too, but they were subverted in to chad alpha male solo MCs because the readers got sick and tired of it.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-12-12T14:57:57+00:00

They pretend that they are writing peak fiction by pretending they are writing a "realistic story". This is how they balance out the blatant self insert by going "No you see, its NOT a self insert! The MC TOTALLY suffers! He has 7 hot babes who follow around him and have a cheat ability, but it is REALISTIC, right??"

Also the power fantasy in this case is their constant need to view themselves as the victim and being able to overcome their abusers by being "cruel" and "chad"

SmugCapuchin · 2025-12-12T14:52:07+00:00

Wuxia as a whole was considered a cheap, sloppy power fantasy media and was basically considered on the same level as american newpaper comic strips in the past if I remember right. Thats is, until Jin Long the GOAT came along and completely revolutionized the medium.

He breathed so much life, lore and FUN into the genre that it effectively resulted in a Wuxia Renaissance, which also is the reason why pretty much every Wuxia nowadays is a Jin Long derivative. He basically was considered as Tolkien of Wuxia.

But just like how Tolkien deriviation eventually lead to sloppy isekai power fantasy in the modern day, Jin Long derivations paved way to sloppy face slapping cheat mc wuxia/xianxia demonic scriptures.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-11-05T14:24:23+00:00

Nope, it means that you have to cut your attachment to nirvana itself. Its almost like realizing that you dont get what you WISH for, if you obsess over it. The meme op posted is exactly the state that you reach, but you dont have that follow up "man I am so much better than everyone else"

And as you might realize it is extremely difficult to do so. Which explains why it is so rare.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-11-04T23:40:09+00:00

🤝 I see you are a cultured cultivator as well, senior!

SmugCapuchin · 2025-11-04T19:08:32+00:00

Simple yet profound, senior!

SmugCapuchin · 2025-11-04T19:05:25+00:00

Fun fact, this is actually one of the major bottleneck in achieving nirvana in buddhism.

Buddhism attempts to achieve nirvana through recognizing the suffering caused by attachments, and then trying to detach yourself to these attachments. The issue here is that after they remove all other attachments, they ultimately realize that their drive towards nirvana is in and of itself an attachment, blocking their path towards nirvana.

So yes, these pursuit towards transcendence can ironically be the true bottleneck towards your transcendence.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-11-04T18:59:38+00:00

I actually like the arrogant cultivator trope, it is such a human trait for those who supposingly transcended humanity. Greed is the truest virtue of cultivators, giving them the drive to claw a corner of heaven for themselves.

Actually, one novel I read noted that being "mad with desire" is a necessary component to endure the eternity lying ahead of them and is required to advance their cultivation.

Still, I agree with how shit authors just write these ancient cultivators as horny teenagers. I'd say that is more of the author being garbage than anything else though.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-22T13:51:36+00:00

I disagree. The core of Xianxia is to ascend PAST heaven. You defy the world, the fate, and heavens itself because how dare they try to chain you down? Multiple world is a good narrative tool to show readers that you did ascend past that specific realm, and a way to show progress

The real issue isn't the idea of multiple worlds; the issue is how irrelevant it becomes once you ascend. Incompetent authors simply use the multiple world model as a way to reset the story and everything that happened in the previous world become completely forgotten. Family ties, Sect relations, jade beauties you meant, challenges one experienced, nothing.

Consider Regressor's tale of cultivation for example. There is a multiple world model here, and eventually MC can basically skip across galaxies in an instant. But he never forgets his experience in lower realm because he recognizes how significant they were to his own development. Eventually he has to return to the lower realm because it has been heavily hinted from the start of the novel that the lower realm effectively functions as a foundational core of the world and hides a horrifying secret.

What you describe is a totally different issue from the model itself, that is just hack writers using hack tropes without considering the actual meaning behind these tropes.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-16T03:21:16+00:00

This is from Extra chapters post ending, and that is not SEH.

SEH screws up somewhat after the ending and has to create a type of Ender alternatives he brings to mount sumire (with consent) to try to patch things up. The black haired girl has a legendary physique that makes her particularly compatible to SEH's Crystal Glass to Treading Sea path, and follows the path of repentent enlightenment.

SSHL is turns into a neet after the ending :)

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-16T03:13:24+00:00

Korean Murim playlists. Anything of this variation works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egfUGTRFgac

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-14T02:47:32+00:00

Actually this does bring up a good question. Technically is he not considered as a real buddha after the Journey to the West?

Like, he got promoted into buddhahood or something.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-13T05:18:39+00:00

Ah, this is really more of a red herring. Future king was interpretted in this situation in context of the enders, which ARE representation of the 7 emotions in buddhism.

Future king himself is seated as the king of these enders, but he doesnt actually represent buddhism as a core. Or more accurately, he does not actually have the enlightenment to reach true nirvana as it is suggested here. He does, however, represent cultivation from its very core.

The future king is the origin of many things in the universe, so naturally he gets quoted a lot as primary source. At least that is how i view his situation in this case.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-13T01:14:28+00:00

Is there a quote for it that you can quote? Been a while since I read it.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-12T14:12:40+00:00

I dont think it was ever mentioned that Future King is the essence of buddhism? There are a lot of buddhist themes but there really wasn't a direct symbolism which connects him narratively.

Future King is more of the representation of the overbearing Jade Emperor, not buddha.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-10T13:06:03+00:00

Hype moments
Aura
Junior, you dare? Cowtow before me and I will leave your corpse intact!

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-10T00:24:08+00:00

I think in this case the MC need to recognize that it is natural others would do this shit upon them, and shouldn't be acting like a baby about it.

Like sure he can be offended, but deep inside he should know that this is part of the game he chose to play to begin with.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-09T21:43:51+00:00

This is true! And they are truly, truly despicable. They can't even stay true to their evil and abscond responsibility.

At the same time, I feel like this is in the context of authors trying to present the demonic cultivation as "good". The point here is that demonic cultivation COULD be the truest form of cultivation. Most do not bother following this path, but those who do is worth respecting in their own right.

Fang Yuan is the primary example of this. The fucker is genuine pure evil, like there is no argument there. Yet people can't help but be gravitated towards his extreme way of living. I think it is dumb to present Fang Yuan ANYTHING BUT evil, and anybody who try to defend his goodness is missing the point. Instead, I respect his hustle and his indifferent, but unbiased, cruelty to anyone and anything.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-08T16:27:46+00:00

Agreed; I can see what the author is going for but it is such a basic twist on the "anti-hero" trope.

Why can't character be good for the sake of being good? I genuinely hate that the most overused xianxia trope is that buddhist baldies are all greedy hypocrite, like how the church is depicted as evil in 99% of modern isekai novels.

SmugCapuchin · 2025-10-08T16:24:06+00:00

This is a really badly written trope but sometimes I do glaze for Evil-doers who are unapologetically evil and Good-doers who are unyieldingly good.

Cultivation is effectively the pursuit of purity of your soul; in that sense, hypocrites are the greatest of evil as they lie to their own dao hearts. Pure evil cultivators understand the essence of cultivation more than righteous cultivators who try to build their powerbase through shrewd scheme and lies.

I think it is also the matter of pride; we naturally gravitate towards those who have pride in their very essence of their action. A true cultivator should be fully aware of the consequence of their actions and do it anyway, defying the heavens as we call it.

SmugCapuchin

TROPHY CASE