On Buddhism

[billy rubin]

fuck the japanese.

[Asmodean]

They don't love animals.

That's far too blanket a statement. Sure "they" do. Even farmers who produce beef may love their animals, and still kill them for food. There is a subtle difference between love of something and emotional attachment to one or more instances of this something.

There is nothing stopping the guy who prepares live sashimi from finding the fish cool and fascinating - and still filleting it while it wriggles away.

[billy rubin]

nothing except empathy for other living things, including non-japanese human beings. japanese culture minimizes this.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

[zorkan]

I didn't know about Unit 731, but I'd heard about the experiments done on people during the slaughter and occupation of Nanjing.
Even the Nazi's were shocked.
Japs also dropped bio-bombs containing anthrax, cholera and plague on the Chinese.
I'm guessing the whole idea of buddhist karma might have influenced their behaviour.
They regarded themselves as a master race and all others were subhuman.
Also the way they treated foreign women as sex slaves and POW's like vermin.

However I have taken notice of what a British POW said about his Jap captors.
He hated them, but felt no ill to the current generation.

[billy rubin]

japan has yet to accept respobsibility for its actions in tbe war. their national guilt remains as long as that is the case.

my korean brother in law-- born and raised in japan-- had to explain to his fellow university students --japanese-- that no, korea did not "invite" japanese peacemakers into korea in the 1930s, and that it was in fact a hostile military invasion.

japanese education whitewashes their war crimes in this and many other instances.

the day japan hosts a photo exhibition of the rape of nanking inside their hiroshima memorial i will change my mind.

[Asmodean]

their national guilt remains as long as that is the case.

Do they have any national guilt to speak of? It seems more of a German, British or American thing to me.

[billy rubin]

their national guilt remains as long as that is the case.

Do they have any national guilt to speak of? It seems more of a German, British or American thing to me.

actually, no.

japanes culture resembles chinese in that respect. there is less consciousness of guilt, but great awareness of shame. in china the practice of saving face is an imperative that goes back centuries, at least.

face culture means that it matters less what you do, than it does what you are caught at. so the japanese may fill the harbour at minimata with poisonous mercury, and be found out, but a public apology is deemed sufficient. or toshiba may sell american submarine plans to the soviets, but again, a public apology covers all th ebases.

in japan, the government is carefully erasing any factual history of the second world war within its educational system. even during the war, the invasion of southeast asia was touted as the greater east asian co-properity sphere, with the public facade that it ws a voluntary and compassionate imposition of health, wealth, and higher culture.

the japanese do not acknowledge their role in the atrocites their occupation troops imposed in the philippines, malaya, singapore, thailand, burma, and china. modern japanese school children grow up completely ignorant of the role their grandfathers played ion the war. once the memory is gone, then there is no longer shame, and the japanese will no longer even acknowledge responsibility for their part in the war.

th ehiroshima memorial is a case in point. nuclear war is a horrible thing, yet the japanese killed more chinese in nanking in their three months of terror than the americans did in the bombings. with a great deal more personal cruelty.

when i was younger i was fascinated by the depth and richness of japanese culture-- architecture, literature, pre-meiji history, and the arts. i studied the japanses language in university. but i take a much more nuanced view of their self-regard these days, and the results are very mixed.

and i find their love for live sushi to be representative of a general lack of empathy for pain and suffering of "others," whether human or animal.

[Asmodean]

japanes culture resembles chinese in that respect. there is less consciousness of guilt, but great awareness of shame. in china the practice of saving face is an imperative that goes back centuries, at least.

I've read somewhere that it even plays a part in their organised crime. Extortion by the threat of public shaming or some such. Hm... It's a different culture, to be sure. I can see some appeal, but suspect it takes work, being a good cog in the larger machine.

in japan, the government is carefully erasing any factual history of the second world war within its educational system. even during the war, the invasion of southeast asia was touted as the greater east asian co-properity sphere, with the public facade that it ws a voluntary and compassionate imposition of health, wealth, and higher culture.

Who says history is written by the victor? Heh... More by whatever culture has the capability of effectively writing it.

the japanese do not acknowledge their role in the atrocites their occupation troops imposed in the philippines, malaya, singapore, thailand, burma, and china. modern japanese school children grow up completely ignorant of the role their grandfathers played ion the war. once the memory is gone, then there is no longer shame, and the japanese will no longer even acknowledge responsibility for their part in the war.

Thing is though,  very few Japanese people alive today did any of that, nor did they vote for the leaders who ordered it, nor did they fail to overthrow a government that overstepped. In my book at least, that makes them absolutely guiltless.

when i was younger i was fascinated by the depth and richness of japanese culture-- architecture, literature, pre-meiji history, and the arts. i studied the japanses language in university. but i take a much more nuanced view of their self-regard these days, and the results are very mixed.

I'm hardly what the kids these days would call a "weeb" either. I do admire some things about the Japanese culture, such as their tendency not to inflict themselves on others, but as is the case with most cultures, it's a mixed bag. Not saying all cultures are equal, mind you. Some bags are more mixed than others, and the Japanese is not that in my book, but it does have its downsides. Deep-rooted collectivism comes to mind, (The irony of it being the source of the one admirable trait I mentioned is not lost on me, but nor is the observations that even a broken collectivist may get it right twice a lifetime)

and i find their love for live sushi to be representative of a general lack of empathy for pain and suffering of "others," whether human or animal.

Love of sushi in general is no different from my deep appreciation for consuming dead animals, yet I am perfectly capable of, to put it this way, compartmentalising a dog I want to pet from one I want to eat. One is a friend and a companion, with all the emotional baggage attached. The other is food.

I mean, yeah, the fish is often raw, but it does not have to also be wriggling. Conversely, in Thailand, one can get a nice bowl of jumping shrimp salad. I don't think that speaks to a lack of empathy for animals - it's just that ripping some/certain animals apart is precisely what your canines are for. They are food.

[The Magic Pudding..]

Is it OK to be racist now?
This is good.
I've had my thoughts, Turkey resisting Sweden's entry to Nato grates.
It's OK to hate "the Turkish" because they deny the Armenian genocide.
I think I could easily think of a way righteously condemn  every nationality.
                       

[Asmodean]

I think I could easily think of a way righteously condemn  every nationality.                   

...Which is, in part, why I choose not to.

Is it OK to be racist now?                 

Your thought crimes, dear Pudding, are your own.

I'd like to see Sweden in NATO as well. I think they would be more technologically useful to the aliance than Turkey, and more politically predictable besides. Turkey has its strategic position though, and Sweden's land borders are exclusively with friendly nations.

[zorkan]

It's OK to hate "the Turkish" because they deny the Armenian genocide.

Here's a slight coincidence.
I was talking to an Armenian 2 days ago and he spoke of the genocide.
He informed me that Armenia was the first christian country, and not Judea.
I'd have probably said SPQR.

[Michael Reilly]

Secular Buddhism is wonderful. Buddha was called 'the Great Physician" quite appropriately, in my mind. I have benefited tremendously from meditation, and from the truths elucidated by Buddhist philosophy. Rub that shit on everything.

[Asmodean]

As long as you keep those philosophical truths malleable enough to change with changing or revealing reality.

[zorkan]

As long as you keep those philosophical truths malleable enough to change with changing or revealing reality.

Unfortunately, not here.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-518499/Buddhist-monk-cut-pieces-run-lawnmower-Milton-Keynes-temple.html

He had been warned by The Buddha to be::
"Free from craving
before the break-up
[of the body],

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.10.than.html#:~:text=Gotama%2C%20tell%20me%20about%20%E2%80%94%20when,2%5D%20no%20yearning%20is%20his.

[Asmodean]

Would it be bad taste for The Asmo to insert a suitably vicious karma joke right about here?

It's a bit of an aside, but this reminds me of "spiritual experiences" that some people claim to be the root of their belief. While I can intellectually understand how they would infer the divine from their knowing that a loved one has died before they were told or having a feeling that they had to be somewhere and when they followed it, some great event in their lives occurred or... Jesus appearing to them in a fucking dog turd.

Anyhoo, while I can understand how many such people arrive to where they are at, philosophically speaking, I'm almost-invariably unimpressed by how little they pondered other likely scenarios as to the nature of their experience, and how few questions they ask of their own faith. I guess it's kind-of in the word "faith," but yeah... I digress.