Tag: Lord of the Rings

A New Dawn

I’ve been thinking about this conversation, shown above, from the game Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The game was made in 2019, just before the Pandemic, and other nonsense that went on in 2020 onward. How prophetic that statement was. Then again, I suppose this is something every generation has to live through in some ways. Sooner or later, things change, we lose something in the process and never get it back.

Wise words indeed…

It reminds me of a quote from the Analects of Confucius:

[9:17] The Master [Confucius], standing by a river, said, “It goes on like this, never ceasing day or night!”

Translation by A. Charles Muller

or Gandalf in the Fellowship of the Ring:

“Well, what can I tell you? Life in the wide world goes on much as it has these past age, full of its own comings and goings…”

J.R.R. Tolkien

Seen from another way though, this also means that new things come as well. Sometimes this can be scary, sometimes this can be a positive thing.

I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective.

Pain

When you read a textbook definition of Buddhism, usually it will state the First Noble Truth as something like “existence is suffering”, “existence is dukkha”, or “there is suffering”, etc, etc.

Recently, after stubbing my toe (again), I realized that these explanations don’t do it justice.

When the Buddha taught that life is (in the old Pāli language) dukkha, what he was saying was that Life entails pain. “Suffering” is vague and abstract, but pain is something we live with on a daily basis.

There is the obvious pain: pain from injury, pain from a stomachache, pain from medical issues, pain from heat, cold, homelessness, etc.

There’s also emotional pain: a break-up, loss of a loved one, the pain of romantic rejection, pain from being humiliated or abused, etc.

Then there are subtle pains: having to tear yourself from your favorite video game to go to work, the pain of eating the last French fry (and no more left), the pain of getting something and being disappointed, the pain from boredom, the pain from responsibility, the pain knowing someday you and your significant other will be parted for good, etc.

In short, pain is unavoidable. Sometimes it’s very raw and horrific, and at other times it’s subtle and bittersweet.

The Buddha did not teach that life is always suffering, or that life is not worth living. It’s just that pain is unavoidable. If you dream of a future of luxury or joy, you will still encounter pain. If you hope to live a long, happy life, pain still crops up sooner or later.

Even if you live as long as someone like Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings, with all her beauty, longevity and power, you still cannot avoid pain, regret, etc. If anything, it only piles up over time.

Most people who come to this realization decide to grin and bear it since life is still worth living. This is understandable. This is how many of us choose to live. The little joys in life, good friends, nature, etc, make life sweeter. The support we get from others keeps us going.

But there also comes a time in one’s life when we feel weary. A deep weariness.

At such times, the Third Noble Truth, that there is a way out of this, becomes important. Like Galadriel who eventually sailed to the West at the end of Lord of the Rings, there is an alternative for us too. Whether we choose to take that path is entirely our choice, but it is there when we wish to take it up.

Namo Shakyamuni Buddha

Compassion

I grew up as a teenager watching the old TV show, Kung Fu, on syndicate. I was a big fan, and although the show hasn’t always aged well, it was my first naive introduction to Asian culture, Buddhism, etc, so it holds a special place in my heart.

I found this clip on Youtube recently and wanted to share. It really speaks to the Buddhist notion of metta or goodwill (which I talked about here):

This reminds me of the famous encounter by the Japanese Buddhist monk, Honen, and the prostitute, and his similar approach. I really like the flashback scene here (the one describing the lily in the desert), which reminds me of appreciating the value of all life. Even Gandalf makes this point in the Lord of the Rings:

Finally, I was happy to find another clip from Kung Fu here:

The first flashback scene here, between young Kwai-Chang Caine and Master Po sitting beside a statue of the Buddha, really resonated with me when I was a teenager and first watched Kung-Fu. In fact, this was probably my first encounter with Buddhism ever.

Through the Ages

Been reading the Lord of the Rings with my son, and I stumbled upon this quote that I had never noticed before.

‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. Others dwelt here before Hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.

J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring”

Just some food for thought…

The Four Bases of Community

While recently reading a certain Japanese-language introduction on the Soto school of Zen (the same book where I learned about the Shushōgi), I came across another teaching I wanted to share called the Four Bases of Community, also called the Four Grounds for Fellowship, and so on. This term is called shishōbō (四摂法) in Japanese Zen, but the term goes much further back, all the way to the Pāli Canon as cattāri saṅgahavatthūni,1 where it is the subject of a sutra called the Sangaha Sutta (AN 4.32).

But what are the Four Bases/Grounds for/of Community/Fellowship (of the Ring)?

The Soto Zen book lists them as (with my rough translations):

  • 布施 (fuse) – offerings, generosity
  • 愛護 (aigo) – kind words
  • 利行 (rigyō) – empathy
  • 同事 (dōji) – cooperation

A number of helpful articles in Japanese and English all point to the same thing: even small efforts toward kind words, empathy or generosity toward others have a knock-on effect that leads to both to own’s one happiness, but also happiness of others who are not directly involved. Six degrees of separation and all that.

Given how people are agitated and tense in the current climate, it may be a good opportunity to put the Four Grounds of Fellowship into practice as they may have effects that one can’t expect.

1 Sometimes seems to be abbreviated to saṅgaha-vatthu for you Pali nerds out there.