The Dharma talk I intended last week gave me a piece of information that I feel has unlocked Mirage of Blaze for me, elucidating the thematic trajectory of the whole text. Maybe this is old news to some, but I wanted to write about it. Potential spoilers for all of Mirage
(Blanket disclaimer: I am a tiny baby Buddhist, so I’m likely getting details about Buddhist teaching wrong.)
The information mentioned in the Dharma talk was this: Many believe Kannon (Avalokiteśvara) to be the only bodhisattva to have attained Buddhahood and chosen to become a bodhisattva again, i.e. to relinquish Nirvana (and some small measure of enlightenment) to remain in service to sentient beings and feel some suffering in common with them.
Suddenly it all made sense!
In general Buddhist (not Mirage-specific) terms, this makes sense to me because Kannon is the bodhisattva of compassion; that is to say, having compassion for others was her particular vow, the goal that set her on the bodhisattva path. To have compassion, however, it is helpful to have empathy, and to have empathy, one must be able feel, on some level, what someone else feels. So if someone is suffering, empathy implies some degree of suffering along with them; Buddhas do not suffer. (I feel my reading of this, however, is inflected by the Western roots of the word “compassion”: “suffering together,” whereas the Asian terms associated with Kannon generally refer to “perceiving” others’ situations; I guess that implies empathy to though?)
On to Mirage
Part 1: Minako
In a very Western way, I will lead off with my thesis: I think Mirage is saying that Naoe is on the same path as Kannon. (Perhaps in the very distant future, Naoe will fill the role of Kannon.) I had already come to the conclusion that Naoe was moving toward the bodhisattva path, but this makes the whole narrative much clearer.
For one thing, his story runs parallel to Minako’s, and Minako is explicitly likened to Kannon (over and over...). In the Shouwa prequels, Minako and Naoe are distorted mirror images of each other. Both their lives are defined by coming to love Kagetora, and Kagetora loves them both: they are the only serious, life-partner loves of his life. Both are willing to sacrifice greatly for Kagetora, and both express such a pitch of devotion (albeit in very different ways) that he comes to (provisionally) rely on them as people who won’t abandon him. The similarity of the roles they fill for Kagetora is the basis of Naoe’s jealousy of Minako and his private thought that if she were a man, she would replace him.
In the prequels, Naoe and Minako’s relationship does not go well, she dies, and he ends up with massive guilt for raping her. (I’m not sure how much guilt he feels for exorcising her; he had to do that to save Kagetora, and he’d certainly do it again.) His guilt drives him to a very rapid reevaluation of Minako. He goes almost at once from hating her to virtually worshipping her, and, thus, for both Naoe and Kagetora, she becomes the Kannon/Mary figure they appeal to for forgiveness. (Her own soul has passed on to be reincarnated, so I’m not confident these prayers are actually heard in any way.)
This pedestaling of Minako as Kannon is a problematic way to think about an ordinary (if impressive) human being, but it does surely show that Naoe has tremendous regard for the idea of Kannon. Though he disdains Buddhist practice in many ways, he profoundly honors her place in it.
Part 2: Future Naoe
To skip a bit of development (for now), the oldest Naoe we see is the “billion”-year-old Naoe from present Naoe’s weird vision toward the end of the series. Now, this vision isn’t necessarily a literal glimpse into the future, but whether it is or not, I think it thematically sets up a trajectory for Naoe after the story’s conclusion. Future Naoe comports himself much as I would expect someone on the bodhisattva path to do. He is calm, helpful, friendly, sympathetic, and demonstrates no signs of personal need or distress. He is very compassionate to Present Naoe. I think this scene is a hint that Naoe is heading toward the bodhisattva path, though very slowly. Even Future Naoe observes he himself is not at the end of his journey.
Part 3: Naoe Learning Compassion through Kagetora
The earliest Naoe we know of (the adult “original” Naoe, unless I’m missing something) is almost the antithesis of compassionate. He’s not a bad man by the measure of his society, but he is pretty low down on Kuukai’s stages of enlightenment, not exceeding stage 2 (of 10), which is grasping Confucian ethics. He is a good Confucian; his loyalty to Kenshin and Kagekatsu is real. He discharges his duties ably, and he expects to recompensed in kind. His greatest concern is that he is not fairly recompensed, that his work as a samurai is not properly valued in terms of wealth, honors, etc. In a word, his ambitions are wounded, and he doesn’t seem to think much beyond this. His powers of empathy, though not absent, are fairly underdeveloped.
This rapidly begins to change when he is assigned to work as a kanshousha under Kagetora. Kagetora provides a role model previously outside of Naoe’s ken. Despite his flaws, Kagetora has the admirable trait of immediate compassion for beings in pain, not only in thought but in action: his instinct is to spring to the aid of other people. (This is how he meets Minako, for example.) Naoe figures out pretty quick that, though Kagetora is deeply weighted with his own problems (when they start working together, he has just lost the civil war), none of that dampens his care for others, and Naoe comes to admire that intensely.
Their relationship, of course, has a rocky road ahead. Kagetora belittles Naoe (to test his loyalty). That hits Naoe exactly where it hurts, in his sense of not being given his due. It also hurts in a new dimension: the belief that he is, indeed, inferior to Kagetora, that he will never reach his heights of selfless service to others. This infuriates Naoe and drives him to various bad behaviors, which hurt Kagetora and others in turn. As painful and messed up as this dynamic is, it does spur Naoe to try to emulate Kagetora. It gives him a model of compassion to aspire to.
Sidebar on Naoe and sex: Early on in Kaikou (I don’t remember the details and am not going to fish for it right now), Kagetora berates Naoe for some failure of feeling, and this reminds Naoe of his wife complaining that he lacked emotion in bed. Based on this incident, Naoe resolves to get better at sex (and, as we know, he is successful). In its way, this is part of his becoming more compassionate. The Naoe we know later is good at sex because he’s tuned in to what his partner wants; he’s learned to pay attention to others’ feelings. In fact, it’s characteristic of Naoe’s point-of-view sex scenes that he thinks far more about his partner than he does about himself; indeed, he often seems almost unaware of his own pleasure. I suspect this is pretty unusual for human beings in general, and I would read it as evidence that, at least by the 20th century, Naoe has significantly developed his own instinct for prioritizing others, at least in that dimension. (Worth noting that this tendency is not only true with Kagetora, who he’s obsessed with, but seems an innate trait in Naoe himself, insofar as his female partners are not complaining!)
Indeed, from early on, Naoe is becoming a more compassionate figure. He develops some compassion quite early for Kagetora, especially when Kagetora’s second body as a kanshousha is a child’s and Naoe ends up his caretaker. Though Naoe always asserts that he could never compete with Kagetora’s inherent wonderfulness, we see numerous examples across the series of his empathy and compassion. He feels deeply for Haruie over losing her love, Shintarou. He is astute in his observation that Narimasa wants to be tortured by Sayuri, whom he wronged. His affection for the Kasahara and Tachibana families bespeaks a deep ability to care for people, well outside his obsession with Kagetora. At least by the 20th century, he is generally caring and helpful to most random people who happen across his path needing assistance.
Naoe’s ability to focus on others’ needs ahead of his own is put to the test in second half the main series when he has to face Kagetora’s soul dying. There are times when Naoe could have exorcised him and, thus, saved his soul, though not his identity as Kagetora. But in the end, he doesn’t. He honors Kagetora’s decision to sacrifice his life in order to create the Shadow Shikoku. That is surely the most difficult thing Naoe has ever had to do, and he does it to place Kagetora’s needs above his own, which is an act of stunning compassion.
Part 4: Naoe’s Compassion for Kagetora
Long before this particular trial, however, Naoe has been sacrificing for Kagetora. Throughout much of the middle of the main series, he repeats ad infinitum that this horrible, abusive push-and-pull they have with each other is their “ideal way of being.” When more objective folks like Irobe suggest they’re going to destroy themselves and should give it up, Naoe refuses. In fact, he staunchly eschews (almost) all the good Buddhist things that would calm his spirit and alleviate his pain. Instead he jealously guards his obsession with Kagetora and, when he needs to calm himself down, opts for superficial props like sex or smoking. He positively refuses mindfulness, having one of the most relentlessly active “monkey minds” of any character I’ve ever read. (That he can’t even be mindfully in the moment when he’s having sex with Kagetora really says something!)
But he does all this, or at least the reason he cannot conceive of doing anything else is because Kagetora needs his obsession. He says something like this to Irobe in volume 15. Kagetora needs to be worshipped by him; without that adoration, his fragile ego will fall apart and his terror of abandonment take over. This is perfectly true—we see it happen in the Karin arc, where Kagetora thinks Naoe (being impersonated semi-badly by Kotarou) has ceased to love him. It does, indeed, crush him.
Naoe’s great argument against following the Dharma is, in essence, that his doing so would harm Kagetora, or to be more specific, harm him more than any of the harmful actions Naoe’s obsession drives him to (yes, even more than the rape of Minako, though Naoe does not exactly state it this way). And he’s right. At least, he’s provisionally right. There might be an utterly different scenario where the much healthier, less obsessive love of someone like Minako might also help heal Kagetora. But my sense is that, because it would be less obsessive, it would be harder for Kagetora to fully believe in and, thus, would slow his healing. In any case, that’s not a path Naoe has immediately available to him: he himself has been so wounded by Kagetora that were he to lessen his obsession, it would probably attenuate their relationship overall (increasing Naoe’s drive to leave and get some self-care) and that would wound Kagetora as Kotarou!Naoe does.
And Thus—Kannon
By now you can probably see where this is going. There is an analogy to be made between Naoe’s refusal of the Dharma and Kannon’s relinquishment of Buddhahood. Of course, Kannon is X-number of kalpas ahead of Naoe in overall spiritual development. But the analog is there, the willingness to sacrifice one’s own joy, one’s own enlightenment, to be present for other people.
I would read Naoe’s experiences with Kagetora as a crucible he goes through to emerge purer at the end. He puts himself through a lot of agony, and it teaches him some indelible lessons about the nature of suffering and his own capacity to be present for another person, his own ability for care for others, which even by the end of the main events of Mirage is immense compared to most of us. His life with Kagetora forges Naoe into a being oriented toward compassion. He has a very long way to go before he will be Future Naoe and longer still till he might become a bodhisattva, but if he gets there, I suspect he’ll get there with a vow very much like Kannon’s, to hear the plight of other people and alleviate their suffering.
It is really amazing to find a reflection like yours, this fills me with emotion and joy.I am currently rereading the Mirage of Blaze books and knowing that this type of reflection is shared in this group makes me want to read the development of each character in more detail and not miss anything.Naoe on the road as a Bodhisittva is a very successful idea with the development that naoe has in the main story.From the beginning we were told that Naoe was very insistent on what she wanted and that she would not give up until she got it because she knew that in the end there was always a reward. her together with Kagetora was an emotional journey where she was able to develop as a compassionate person. For Naoe to see Takaya decide to give her life for the shikoku shadow is a painful but necessary step in her development as a character.Even if takaya was no longer with him, everything he learned these 400 made naoe become a whole being who can have compassion, but becoming a bodhisattva would also mean letting go of what causes pain, serious memories for example. . , so from my point of view I would follow in Kannno's footsteps.Love according to Buddhism is characterized by kindness and benevolence, without being attached to anything.so if naoe follows the path of buddhism to show his love towards takaya for millions of years it will be through compassion towards others (basically being like a predicate), but without forgetting who guided him on the path "kagetora".
-"somehow I want, I want to encourage purification in a way that doesn't turn into a battle"– “I will continue living and seeing it with my own eyes. I will continue to perform kanshou until all life disappears from this planet. Until I am the last person here, I will make sure that your feelings are real…”"I'll show you...That my love was eternal"
In itself what Naoe swears by takaya is within Buddhism, which is a genuine wish for good towards kagetora.
This would be a small comment on my part, as I have to go through some MOD chapters again, but I'm excited to see the translation continue and find some great thoughts. I will also try to provide some reflections and psychological profiles of some secondary characters such as the Hojo family and Kotaro smokes♥️♥️
Chihiro
Hi Chihiro,
Thanks for your comment and sorry for my late reply. I've been sick with Covid, feeling better now. You make a great point that Naoe's vow to never abandon/always remember Kagetora has a certain (unintentional) Buddhist ring to it. It's hyperbolic (?) rhetorical style is similar to vowing to learn all the numberless Dharma gates, and so on.
I don't know if this was intentional, but it also interests me that part of your post genders Naoe and Kagetora as female (she/her). This seems to relate to discussion of Kannon, who seems to be the most gender-switching of the Bodhisattvas. I actually thought of writing a little paragraph on this in my post but got tired out. Basically, I've come to believe that Naoe is the most gender crossing of our main characters. Haruie does change gender, but then fully internalizes being female. Kagetora gets forced into a lot of feminizing situations, which, understandably, leads him to invest quite strongly in his own masculine identity. Naoe, however, is consistently fascinated by the idea that gender is not essential (ex. each person has spiritual eggs and sperm). That might be another hint that he is heading toward being a Kannon-like figure?
I would love to hear your thoughts on the Houjou and Kotarou.
Hello labigni, I really appreciate your answer and it fills me with emotion how much you know about Buddhism and history. I apologize for not responding on time but I promise to be aware of the forum notifications, since chatting / seeing with more MoB fans is simply beautiful.
I send you my deepest wishes to get better from the covid and a big hug.
I am very glad that my comment is to your liking. ♥
In fact, when I reread the last volume of MoB, I realized several details of the similarity of the promise that Naoe makes to Kagetora with the vow that Kannon makes not to enter the state of Buddha until all human beings have completed their lighting process.
From my perspective, Naoe's promise will make him grow as a person and more fully develop the desire to help others without putting the promise he made to Kagetora in the way. The current naoe from the end of the series of league novels still has a long way to go before he can even become a shadow of kannon, but that flaw makes him someone who can understand the pain of others.
Naoe's consolation is the promise and the fact that he will never forget takaya, for me this consolation is mutual. As long as Kagetora remains in Naoe's memories, he will be an eternal comfort to both of them.
This reminded me of a passage I read:
"Having crossed the Samara stream,
! that we can help living beings to cross !
being released
let us free others! Being comforted, that we can comfort others!
We are finally being set free! May we set others free!
At the end of the series, Kagetora tells Naoe that he freed him with his love and Naoe says no, it was Kagetora who saved him.
I do believe that Naoe in the not so distant future, will be able to become a Bodhisattva but keeping the memory of Kagetora and showing his love towards him with his acts of compassion, and even if it means retracting his enlightenment in order to continue fulfilling his pledge and helping others.
I am more than sure that it will not be an easy path for him, but that is what makes him understand the emotions of others more and he can find solutions to help them. even Maitreya himself predicted that he will be born in the worst times and to reach total enlightenment he would be an unenlightened human.
And you are quite right the promise towards Kagetora has a certain Buddhist tone.
Since to fulfill it, naoe will have to know how to be a good person who is more attached to the 108 doors of Dharma and even without knowing it.
I was looking for a fanfic where he talked more about Buddhism and Naoe.
Since it would be good to know or imagine what events will happen with naoe on his way without Kagetora. It would be beautiful to see how little by little he is heading towards the journey to fulfill his promise.
In fact, one of the things I would most like to know is what happened is
vol 33 page 234 . Where apparently Naoe still has some resentment and prevention towards Kotaro. Unfortunately my Japanese is very basic:
"Without changing his expression, he placed Takaya on the lobby sofa. Naoe understood that he had possession, rekindled his vigilance despite reluctance. He was a man who couldn't let his guard down even when he was an animal.
If I'm human again, I can't forgive myself for being able to use words."
The last sentence is the eu has me somewhat confused.
"If I become human again, I can't forgive myself for being able to use words"
I don't know if this part was said by Kotaro or Naoe in his thoughts. In case it's Naoe's, that would mean that he didn't forgive Kotaro for impersonating.
In fact, Naoe in volume 40 Naoe only tells Nagaime that Kotaro is still alive and that Houjo helped him in the Kuman fire.
In that case, I would really like to know what your opinion is or if I mistranslated it, since in case it is Naoe's thought, that would mean that in the future Naoe might be able to forgive him and this is a key point where Naoe grows as a person.
"I don't know if this was intentional, but it also interests me that part of your post genders Naoe and Kagetora as female (she/her). This seems to relate to discussion of Kannon, who seems to be the most gender-switching of the Bodhisattvas. I actually thought of writing a little paragraph on this in my post but got tired out. Basically, I've come to believe that Naoe is the most gender crossing of our main characters. Haruie does change gender, but then fully internalizes being female. Kagetora gets forced into a lot of feminizing situations, which, understandably, leads him to invest quite strongly in his own masculine identity. Naoe, however, is consistently fascinated by the idea that gender is not essential (ex. each person has spiritual eggs and sperm). That might be another hint that he is heading toward being a Kannon-like figure?"
This part was because since I finished reading vols 20, 21, 22 and saw the theme of the spiritual sperm, I found that gender was very important in the history of MoD. In other words, from this point in history, gender was not essential, if Kagetora or Naoe were women or men, their relationship would be more spiritual .
In fact, there is a part where Naoe tells Kagetora that every time there was an interaction between the two, Kagetora took Naoe (as a woman, not sexually) and possessed him countless times. This was because of the spiritual sperm, it was not based solely on relationships sexual if not the union of souls. In terms of sex, Naoe would be bisexual.
In fact, in Buddhism they never prohibit sexual relations and do not discriminate against any type of sexual orientation. What if they do not accept is attachment to sex and sexual addiction.
In fact, this reminds me when Naoe had sexual relations with Kagetora, in fact the times they did it were for pleasure purposes but later Naoe changed that desire in order to help Kagetora, in the red whale arches, since through sex causes a bit of Kagetora's curse to pass onto him.
Even to the point where her male member is torn apart, but this end was not for pleasure but to help Kagetora.
In fact, a curiosity of the Bodhisattvas is that Kannon is Avalokitesvara and has 108 avatars, but in which he represents them the most is in a female gender. Represented as a being of compassion, but compassion is one of Kannon's forms and in itself it is also one of the virtues that all Bodhisattva share because in the end they are all the same being.
There was a story where they said that Avalokitesvara in order to free all beings, but seeing that there were many people left to save, Amitabha Buddha, seeing the enormous effort, gave him 11 heads and a thousand arms.
But the curious thing is that each head had its own thought, but its end was the same.
My guess is maybe in the future Naoe will be one of Kannon's heads or avatars or she could also be one of the 7 Bodhisattva.
Doing all these investigations fills me with emotion, I really appreciate your contribution with all my heart and I will be happy that you read my thoughts on Houjou and kotarou.
In fact, there is a lot of curiosity about the family insignia, since in every photo I have seen there is a Houjou clan insignia in some houses. So it is an investigation that I want to do.
Regarding Kotarou, there is a great development in the Mod story, but I feel that it was a bit rushed, however, psychologically, being an emotionless being, it would be closely linked to his status as a ninja, even though it may also be a baby trauma or something hereditary.
I really want to talk more often in the forum and I appreciate your effort to give us your thoughts, thank you very much and I really hope that you make a short recovery from covid ♥ please take care of yourself ♥♥♥
Chihiro
in fact this song reminds me a lot of the Naoe on the way to the Bodhisattva:
If there is a destiny givenGet up and follow the path full of obstaclesIf God's intention is what is calling youOpen your eyes and follow the path full of obstacles
A breath today, a life tomorrowA path that only my heart traveledUnbearable weather gains hopeMaterializing a life and it heats up
Let's pray, let's feel itDeep breath, it's throbbingLet's pray, let's walkto where tomorrow waits
you don't have to missEven though you can't seeGo straight on your own two feetEven if you fight cause you can't touch itDon't be afraid, take a step and create your own story
Take an oath, embrace itThe sky in the distance, throbsan oath, we go towardsto where the light shines
Time goes byEven if you gain more reasons for tearsand surround you
Pray, if not forget itIt won't end, oh
Turn this moment into a breathAnd create a life that fightsThis feeling creates a miracleand it gets hotas proof of life
Pray let's feel itDeep breath, it's throbbingpray let's walkTo where tomorrow is waitingTake an oath, stand upThe sky in the distance, it's throbbingTake an oath, look upto where tomorrow awaits
song:Inori; Masatoshi Ono
Chihiro
I occasionally think about which of the fictional characters I love whom I'd like to meet in real life, and I always come to the same conclusion about Naoe: no way! The reason is that if I'm anywhere near him and Takaya when shit goes down, he'd sacrifice me without a second thought. (Well, maybe a little regret at the necessity in hindsight, but that wouldn't help me any!)
That's the big element your thesis is missing, I think (with the usual disclaimer that you know way more of the story than I do): universality. Naoe is too hyper-focused on Takaya/Kagetora and doesn't seem to have the sort of broad world-encompassing philosophy that I imagine the buddhas and bodhisattvas need to have. Even your compassion examples are all focused on Takaya. What compassion has he shown to other people in general that might be interpreted to have a "holy" aspect--i.e. beyond 1) the responsibilities of one human being to another and 2) his mission?
I gather that Naoe was quite the asshole 400 years ago and is certainly much better now, but let's put that in perspective, shall we? 400 years ago the Spanish Inquisition was still active, public executions were popular entertainment ("drawn and quartered" was a literal and very brutal act), and "witches" were being burned at the stake. Humankind has made progress along the moral arc, and it would be pretty sad if Naoe hadn't.
Here's my counter-example: Kaizaki. (If I seem to be coming on a bit strong, I apologize--it's probably due to my frustration with the Naoe-as-Kaizaki plot.) Naoe seems to have no conception of Kaizaki as a fellow human being who deserves to have his boundaries--not to mention his right to his own body!--respected. Harry Potter, despite its many problems, got this one right. The Imperius Curse, which gives you absolute control of another person, is one of three Unforgivable Curses. In Mirage, nobody treats Naoe taking control of Kaizaki as if he were a "human robot" (this is in the actual text) as a big deal, and it makes me furious.
Now you might argue that Naoe's doing this because he has to, but then you encounter him using Kaizaki's body to have sex with Takaya...which is, um, rape. And wholly gratuitous. Again, the non-consent from Kaizaki is treated as a non-issue.
So yeah...right now I don't even think Naoe's a very good human being, let alone Kannon-material.
(On the other hand, the deities of Mirage, including Kannon, don't really seem to care about morality at all when they manifest to help one or another summoner--see: Kannon vs. Ujiyasu. So what do I know?)
Thanks for chiming in. :-)
My memory for Mirage details is poor, but I thought it was Benzaiten vs. Ujiyasu? Or maybe that was a different time. I'd be interested to see the Kannon bit you're referring to.
I pretty much agree with all your statements about Naoe's present-day obsessions and selfishness, and, yes, I think most/all of his kindnessness outside of Kagetora fall within the realm of normal human goodness. (Kaizaki got a really bum deal.)
I want to be careful about going too much into later volumes, because I know you don't like spoilers (though you probably got some in this post), but I'll offer my tiny, baby Buddhist ramblings in a general Mahayana sense, as far as I understand it.
It's generally understood that achieving Bodhisattvahood takes many, many lives, like hundreds of thousands or other big Vedic numbers. Kuukai put an asterisk on this, so to speak, by suggesting that enlightenment is possible in this very life, but while he said "possible," he did not say "likely"; that's my understanding.
The sensei of my Shingon temple has also noted that it's a common theme in looking at the lives of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that their past life histories involve some very bad deeds. This was one of the earlier pieces of information that led me to think Kuwabara-sensei might be pointing Naoe toward the Bodhisattva path.
Maybe the most famous example of this from traditional Buddhist lore is Milarepa, who even in the same life, was a murderer before he became a learned monk and teacher.
There are also a number of stories about the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta, who conceived a desire to murder him, based on jealousy over the Buddha's being a more successful teacher. In (at least?) one version of this tale, the Buddha remarks that in a past life Devadatta had been his teacher, reminding us (a) that people can really backslide and (b) that everyone is somewhere on the path to awakening.
This seems a general Mahayana tenet: that everyone is inherently already enlightened, and our vision is just obscured, that practicing the Dharma allows us slowly to clear our vision. Our sensei gave the analogy of having a pair of glasses that are correct prescription to provide 20/20 vision but are covered with mud. The practice is the process of cleaning off the mud.
Now, here is where I get a little hazy. If everyone is ultimately on the path torward enlightenment, why are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas so rare? My best guess (and it is a guess, as I don't think this question has directly come up in my study--maybe someone else can chime in?), my best guess is that it just takes so darn long for most of us that the ones a rather closer to enlightenment stand out at any given time as those few. Perhaps for me and you, our time will comes in another 100 kalpas or something. :-) Perhaps Naoe's time will come in only one kalpa. (BTW, a kalpa is 4.32 billion years.)
I would say this about Naoe: he's a slow evolver, for sure. In Mirage terms (I'm not sure how much this maps onto Mahayana Buddhism or Buddhism generally), it seems like there's a sense that people who are destined in the "short" (i.e. 1 kalpa?) term for greatness may signal this early on just by having a lot of power. There are a million things I don't understand about Miroku, but I think this may be one thing the text is going for? He's "supposed" to be the next Buddha is ~5 billion years, according to Shingon. So "waking" (sorta) in the 20th century just means he's way overpowered and Tetsuo-like. (That's my best read.)
Similarly with Naoe, I think just the fact that he has a lot of power--I mean raw spirit powers--and a lot of will (suffers greatly, flails greatly, etc.) might be a sign that he's headed (faster than most of us) toward Bodhisattvahood. In my psychological terms, I think it's the same affect that makes good drug counselors out of past addicts: nothing is so good a teacher about other people's pain as having been there, and Naoe has put himself through enough pain to intimately get what that's like (see, again, his insight into Narimasa, for example).
I just realized I said above that Naoe was both fast and slow on his path to enlightenment. I think what I meant was slow in normal human terms but possibly fast(er) than us in actually achieving Bodhisattvahood terms.
(I do have a pet theory that Naoe and Kagetora also somewhat represent the slow and fast paths to enlightenment. Absolutely, neither gets there, nor close, within Mirage. But Kagetora seems to accelerate fast near the end, and Naoe'll just keep plugging along... and along...)
I'm taking this opportunity to vent some of my frustrations with the way the story is going, so please don't mind me. I love your thoughtful essays, as always!
I think we might separate your thesis into two parts:
1. Whether Kuwabara-sensei is putting Naoe on the path to Bodhisattvahood
2. Whether Naoe on the (relatively fast?) path to Bodhisattvahood is reasonable from a Buddhist viewpoint
You know much more than I do on both of these topics; my thoughts are really from a narrative and humanist viewpoint.
1. Sure, I accept your thesis that Kuwabara-sensei is putting Naoe on the path to Bodhisattvahood. I can only point out that Kuwabara-sensei herself doesn't seem to think what he's doing to Kaizaki is a big deal, which subtracts from my investment in this path narratively-speaking.
There are other problems originating from Sengoku-era warlords operating in our present age. Honestly, at this point in the story I'm rooting for Takeda/Mouri, etc. to be right about Kenshin's intentions to take over the Yami-Sengoku as supreme ruler (which I know will never happen). The reason? I believe the strategy of fighting fire with fire (i.e. the Yasha-shuu fighting other ghost-generals) has failed miserably. You see it in the way the modern world and modern people don't seem quite real to our heroes. They still refer to places by their old provincial names. They understand and empathize with their opponents more than the people they're supposed to be protecting. The modern obsession with the value of every single life (an absolute good!) is prissy and "woke" to them, to be broken at will. To perform "kanshou" on someone masks the horror of a person being murdered and a stranger taking over their body--yet even though the Yasha-shuu sometimes agonize doing this themselves, they seem to have no emotional reaction to other people doing it. If Kenshin had wanted modern people to be saved, he should have instructed the Yasha-shuu to guide and teach modern-day physics to defend themselves instead of having the Yasha-shuu try to do everything themselves.
My point is that the morality of our heroes actually feels retrograde; they certainly don't feel like they're further along on the path to enlightenment.
(By the way, from my meager understanding the "value of every single life" is a thing with Kannon, too. I seem to recall a story about Buddhist monks sweeping the path before them to avoid stepping on ants...)
2. Thank you for expanding on your thoughts about Buddhist lore! I loved your analogy about the drug counselor.
The thing is, though, the vast majority of people never have a problem with drugs in their lives. They've exercised discipline and self-control, and were lucky enough never to be put into a situation where they would need or be tempted to take those kinds of drugs. The drug counselor wouldn't be able to teach them much. So...these people who've been reasonable and responsible are relegated to the slow path because they're never done anything to cause major suffering to others or to themselves?
I think this is a huge problem with the stories humanity tells about itself: full of villains and heroes, and blind about the masses of ordinary people just living their lives--who, if they play any part in the tale, are relegated to the role of victim. Our media is operating on the same impulse when it focuses on mass shooters instead of their victims--which at least some of the time leads to copycat killings.
Sure, in a story we all focus on the interesting characters--and that means outsized heroics, villainy, mistakes, suffering, atonement, etc.
But I think it would be pretty sad if a religion operated on the same principle--that the "interesting" people are somehow privileged over the rest.
Here's the Kannon vs Ujiyasu (Rairyuu vs Takaya) scene: https://www.asphodelshaven.com/translation/novel/mirage-blaze-volume-12-...
Yay, in depth discussion of Mirage and Buddhism! I hope you don't mind if I reply at length because I have just about no one to discuss Mirage with anymore and I've been wanting to chat about these things for years.
1. Sure, I accept your thesis that Kuwabara-sensei is putting Naoe on thepath to Bodhisattvahood. I can only point out that Kuwabara-sensei herselfdoesn't seem to think what he's doing to Kaizaki is a big deal, whichsubtracts from my investment in this path narratively-speaking.
I totally agree here. Poor Kaizaki. Mirage definitely has its flubs as a text. I personally think it flubs with the noncon in later volumes. Though Katinka makes a pretty good point that it's in character, I still think it's not handled as seriously as it should be. Ditto Minako as a person overall, who (like women in general) is definitely given short shrift. So I agree, it's a flawed text.
There are other problems originating from Sengoku-era warlords operating in our present age...
Also good points. I don't know how much you want to steer clear of spoilers, so I'll be very vague, but later volumes do address the idea that the Yashashuu's core mission may miss the mark. I don't know if they'll address it to your satisfaction. I myself am still somewhat confused about what the heck is happening at some points, but the validity of their mission as exorcists is definitely a large thematic issue.
That said, I think they are somewhat retrograde (good word) in that their values are somewhat Sengoku values. Personally, I don't regard that as a narrative problem. We're all deeply shaped by our formative years, and it makes sense to me that some of their core assumptions would remain "Sengoku" even centuries later. (This is one disadvantage of being a kanshousha vs. reincarnated.) It reminds me a bit of Anne Rice's vampires, who also stay somewhat rooted in the cultures they grew up in.
In terms of moving toward enlightenment, I think all the debates people usually have about normal human morality pretty much occupy about stages 1-3 of Kuukai's 10 (don't quote me on that; I'm being impressionistic). So in terms of that scale, whether you show X amount of regard for an individual human life or Y amount may be a fairly small gradation.
(By the way, from my meager understanding the "value of every single life" isa thing with Kannon, too. I seem to recall a story about Buddhist monkssweeping the path before them to avoid stepping on ants...)
Oh, definitely. Buddhism explicitly cites care for all sentient beings, which basically includes all living things, spirits, gods, etc. Whether that translates into being vegan or actively trying not to step on ants, I think, depends on how one interprets the teaching, but the sense that all lives matter is definitely present.
The thing is, though, the vast majority of people never have a problem withdrugs in their lives. They've exercised discipline and self-control, and werelucky enough never to be put into a situation where they would need or betempted to take those kinds of drugs. The drug counselor wouldn't be able toteach them much. So...these people who've been reasonable and responsible are relegated to the slow path because they're never done anything to cause major suffering to others or to themselves?
Let me preface this by saying I am an extreme layperson, so this is just my best fumbling to field this question. That said, let me attempt it in a couple of different ways.
One tenet of Buddhism is that Dharma gates are numberless. A Dharma gate, as I understand it, is an obstacle one encounters and finds a way through, which leads to a higher level of understanding. So overcoming drug addiction could be a Dharma gate. I would posit that, for Naoe, his whole experience with Kagetora is a Dharma gate. Your grievance on behalf of those who never have a problem with drugs reminds me, in spirit, of the good son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and I would say (pardon the mix of religions) that the good son's umbrage at his father's killing the fatted calf for his wayward brother could be seen as a potential Dharma gate too. I think Soseki's novel, Mon, explores explicitly the idea of the Dharma gate with his protagonist who goes to a Zen (?) monastery to find peace and gets stuck, unable to find it: if he were to get through that experience and recognize something of that peace, that would be a Dharma gate too. All of which is to say, are people who aren't drug addicts condemned to a slower path to awakening? No, not necessarily. Everyone's journey is unique.
But also, as our sensei would observe, it's not a race. I'm really fuzzy on the details here, but in the Lotus Sutra, the different Mahasattvas have different experiences on their journey of learning the teaching: one is more inclined to forget it across different lives and one is more inclined to remember (because remembering is the vow that set him on the Bodhisattva path, while the other has a different vow). The one who remembers better may reach enlightenment first, but that doesn't make his vow better; it just means he may get there first.
On a more mundane, observational level, I do think that people who have been through intense suffering often have an (accelerated?) insight others don't. I remember once when I was going through a hard time, I joined a sort of hippie group where we got together and practiced having authentic interactions. And in one small group, this person was talking about this traumatic experience they had (don't remember what), and this young woman, about 20, said something to the effect of, "That sounds really horrible. I'm really sorry you had to go through that. I've been very lucky that I've never had to face anything like that in my life, and I think I probably can't fully understand it." And she was right. It had been striking me throughout our group talk that there was something "flat" about her, this lovely, kind, smiling girl. She was a sweet person; she was doing her utmost to be a good, supportive person, but she had not experienced much suffering (compared to some), and some part of her just didn't get it. It slipped off her. There was no look of understanding in her eyes. See, 20th-century Naoe would understand. That might or might not be of help to the other person, but understand it he would. In that sense, the English word "compassion," is etymologically correct, I think, that compassion requires some ability to "suffer together."
To take it back to Buddhism, this one reason the lotus is a powerful image: because its roots are in the mud and its blossoms blooming above the water's surface. That's one image of the Bodhisattva, maintaining that thread to suffering in order to help others. I see this too (pardon my bopping all over the place) in character like Vash in Trigun. (You are the one who told me to give Trigun a second try, and I owe you more than I can ever repay for that; it changed my life.) Vash hasn't really done terrible things, but he's seen terrible things and he also assumes (in a somewhat Christlike way) much of Rem's guilt for genuinely being in involved in terrible things. Ex. He never interacted with Tessla, but he can vicariously understand pretty well what it's like to be someone who let horrible things happen to her; in that sense, he carries that weight. And that insight is a central reason he is able to be so saint-like.
I think this is a huge problem with the stories humanity tells about itself:full of villains and heroes, and blind about the masses of ordinary peoplejust living their lives--who, if they play any part in the tale, arerelegated to the role of victim. Our media is operating on the same impulsewhen it focuses on mass shooters instead of their victims--which at leastsome of the time leads to copycat killings...
Totally agree about the media focusing on mass shootings. I wish they'd just stop. I know their business model won't let them, but I wish they would.
As to the broader point about heroes, villains, and forgotten NPCs, I agree: we do have too much hero/villain worship, but I also see it a somewhat different way. Believe it or not, I'm going to expound:
I have an ethical stance ("ethics" in the sense of a broader social framework for morality) that I share with Buddhism and I think it's one of the reasons it appealed to me to become a Buddhist. Here it is: All people are basically the same. Of course, we have individual uniqueness, but that's pretty superficial compared to the similarities.
Now, as someone strongly influenced by materialist, Western science, I might allow some exception for a few folks like genuine psychopaths. I think Buddhism would say that such differences wouldn't matter across many lives (one would eventually overcome being a psychopath), and I don't have an active belief in reincarnation in that sense, but I find the general idea/metaphor useful that we are all basically the same.
It, therefore, follows that the "drama" of heroes, villains, peasants, extras, etc. is potentially equally dramatic. There's the Odyssey of Odysseus facing down monsters and such for ten years, and there's the Odyssey of Leopold Bloom navigating a day in Dublin, but the mental framework can be similar. The lessons learned can be similar. The depth and meaning of what is happening can be similar. A literary genius like Victor Hugo can give us the story of an impoverished pruner who becomes a saint.
But it's true that it's easier to excite our sympathy over big deeds by "big" people. I think this is why Aristotle said tragedy should concern people "nobler" than we are. That's fundamentally because, in daily life, it's very easy for us to belittle each other's problems—and I totally agree with you that that's a problem. If someone says, "I'm miserable because my mom snapped at me," we might say, "Sorry," and think, "Don't be so sensitive." But if someone says, "I'm miserable because my dad just died, and my mom doesn't even seem to care; in fact, she just married my uncle!" we immediately understand that there's a good reason to be upset because that's so outlandishly atypical; it's so oversized as a problem relative to our daily lives.
And that is why I firmly believe that epic (like Mirage) has a very real place in our current world. It paints events big because that makes it easy for us to care, but what we're caring about is essentially the human experience—all of our experience.
I agree there's a problem when our only access point for that experience is kings, queens, nobles, superheroes, etc. That's why I'm also glad that Les Misérables exists and The Grapes of Wrath and so on. But I tell you, I don't get the same hit off them that I get off Mirage—not even Les Mis—and part of the reason is its metaphoricity. It's broad play with onryou and onshou and centuries of battles provides a powerful language for expressing how hard our real daily life actually is, like slaying vampires as a metaphor for high school.
But I think it would be pretty sad if a religion operated on the sameprinciple--that the "interesting" people are somehow privileged over therest.
I don't think Buddhism says that some people are inherently privileged over the rest. I think it's actually rather the opposite: that all sentient beings are ultimately on the same path. That said, Buddhism grew up in very hierarchical patriarchies, so its imagery is certainly laced through with privileging of kings and rich men, etc., but I'm inclined to interpret this as metaphor.
As a point of clarification (if helpful), in its assessment of people, I would Buddhism is more descriptive than prescriptive. That is to say, it doesn't really say, "Naoe, you deserve to go to a hell," but more "Naoe, the type of attitude you're cultivating is going to put you in a hell." Irobe takes a very conventional Buddhist line when he tells Naoe his obsession with Kagetora is going to destroy them both: it sure does look that way. Thus, I don't know that it "privileges" anyone inherently, except for respecting how advanced one is as a teacher. One could say the great innovation of Buddhism was ceasing to privilege people according to caste. (Side note—sorry, I just can't stop: One of the Buddha's students, Sariputra, was a brahmin, which means a brahmin became the student of a kshatriya, which I just find really sweet!)
Here's the Kannon vs Ujiyasu (Rairyuu vs Takaya) scene:https://www.asphodelshaven.com/translation/novel/mirage-blaze-volume-12-...
Thanks for the reference. Hm. Here's the best I can do with that... and I'm not sure it's very good, but here goes.
I think that when the text talks about a bunch of "Kannons" attacking what it means is that a bunch of spirits/energies in the shape of Kannon statues are attacking. I say that partly because, as far as I know, there's only one Kannon. (I mean, very broadly speaking, there's, like, a near infinity of different worlds across trillions of years with almost identical reiterations of all these figures within Buddhist cosmology, but within our realm—the time of Gautama Buddha—there's only one Kannon, though s/he has different names and manifestations.)
My best swing at coming to grips with the weirdness of the Ikkou sect is, again, borrowing from our temple's sensei: To understand the teaching requires both study and practice. I think that's a general esoteric Buddhist tenet. In other words, it is not enough to simply study the sutras, nor is it enough to simply do practice, like chanting, breathing, silent meditation, etc. One must do both to internalize the teaching. Our sensei notes that people who do a lot of practice without study can, in fact, develop some pretty impressive powers (say, in real life, being able to withstand really cold temperatures without frostbite), but there's a danger that they won't use those powers for the benefit of sentient beings, and may use them for harm. (Naoe strikes me as someone who has a lot of study without practice. I mean, he has practice in the sense that he knows how to use his spirit powers, but not in the more mundane sense of calming his own mind; he directly eschews that. But he certainly knows the theory inside-out.)
I tend to read the Ikkou sect as an exemplar of practice without study. They certainly have tons of power, but they are also plainly utterly stupid in their general desire for just, well, more power, I guess? vengeance? Thus, when Ikkou folks are flinging around "Kannons," I tend to read this as their accessing a power they have tapped into through practice but without a proper purpose. I don't think they're really channeling Kannon.
Mind you, in a story in which Maitreya is a petulant teenager, I wouldn't put that past Kuwabara-sensei, except that she is generally so consistent in her true reverence for all things connected with to Kannon.
(I will say Mirage has something to answer for in giving me a knee-jerk revulsion to Amida Buddha. Every time he is mentioned in our Dharma talks, I inwardly recoil. Mirage, you have made me afraid of a Buddha!)
Sorry this got so godawful long, and thanks for your indulgence.
Speaking of Mirage doing weird things with Buddhism, the sensei of our temple was a monk on Kouya-san, and every time Mirage starts talking about the fightin' monks of Kouya-san, it just makes me laugh.
Fighting monks are freaking awesome. The image will never not make me grin. "We deliver holy smackdowns! We may not step on ants, but we will step on you if you cross us!" Tee hee. Sorry, I know it's not really like that, but still.
It makes me think: Buddhism has done a pretty good job with its PR by positioning itself as a religion of peace, huh? Even though like every major religion, it went through some bloody phases of history. Which the next Mirage arc points out.
I don't mind at all! Thanks for bearing with my grumblings.
Yeah, don't even get me started on how badly women are written in Mirage. They might as well be caricatures. There's no reason Ayako has to be the weakest of the group, but I get the distinct feeling that she is regarded as such.
And Mirage certainly fits the stereotype of mountains of noncon and dubcon in Japanese slash, sigh. And somehow you're supposed to find that sexy, double sigh. It's written as part of Kagetora's character that he "actually does like it"--despite his rape as a teenager!--and that just makes me so uncomfortable. It's not impossible, given our complex sexualities, but Mirage would need to do a lot more work to convince me of the fact that forcing him is somehow better than getting his enthusiastic consent. Besides, how does he ever get to say "no" and mean it? Ditto for everyone thinking that Kagetora needs to be pried open emotionally. They need slaps upside the head from certified psychologists.
On a tangent to that, I found this sequence of events in 14-10 (+11) unexpectedly hilarious:
1. Yoshiyori lays it out in no uncertain terms that he thinks Kagetora was sleeping with Kenshin.
2. Takaya likens Kaizaki's affection to a father's love (as he does constantly with Naoe).
3. Takaya and Kaizaki have sex.
What subtext are we supposed to take away from that? XD
I agree that it makes sense that people born in the Sengoku are still rooted somewhat in that culture, but I personally think this question of the Yasha-shuu's mission is a huge narrative problem which boils down to: if they're not fighting for us (the modern world that we readers live in), then why are we rooting for them? If they're just a bunch of people fighting a centuries-old feud with each other, why should we care? The introduction of modern-day psychics like Kaizaki and Reiko, though interesting, weakens the central narrative because now we know we're not limited to whatever help our Sengoku friends are willing to provide. Thus the cost-benefit analysis starts, and so far the result (for me) is tilting towards "not worth it"--taking into account all the suffering our heroes have undergone, the collateral damage, and what seems like increasing dissonance between their values and ours.
On that point, it boggles my mind and frustrates me to no end that at no point do any of our heroes state what they think is worth preserving in the modern world. It could even be something stupidly obvious like--fantastic healthcare! Or the fact that ordinary folk can walk down the street without having to fear that some asshole samurai will randomly pick them to "test out their sword," which was very much a thing! Or (and I know this one is far-fetched) that the US government asked the Japanese government to spy on its people and the Japanese government said fuck off (in the polite Japanese way XD) because their constitution forbids it.
You said Mirage deals with this thematic issue--does it do so to your satisfaction?
My grievance on behalf of ordinary people living their lives the best way they know how is that it would be pretty sad if a religion were to treat them as the background extras in a movie--unworthy of consideration because they're uninteresting. That's pretty much it. I have no stake in any religion, and I'm afraid as soon as the discourse moves beyond the realm of reason, there's nothing more I can contribute.
I have to point out, though, that if enlightenment is not a race, then it doesn't matter how fast either Kagetora or Naoe are moving towards it, right? :)
Re: suffering: funny, one of the characters in my long-ass HP fanfic suffers a lot, but learns nothing from it (and I'm damn proud of his character development all in the wrong direction). XD If we were all limited to only--or even primarily--gaining insight from our own suffering, then slavery would still be legal, women wouldn't be able to vote, marriage equality wouldn't exist, etc. I've seen too many games of "trump my trauma" to believe that suffering will necessarily lead to compassion. Indeed, there are some who will use their suffering to justify harm to others (see: J. K. Rowling's transphobia and its roots in her own rape).
I love your description of the lotus flower, and I think our worldviews are pretty similar (though wow!--I should do another read-through of Trigun. :) )
Speaking of stories: I'd be the last person to say we don't need stories with our heroes and villains! For one thing, it would make all my translation efforts meaningless. I would just very much like it if we human beings were more aware of our collective blind spot when it comes to considering the faceless multitudes. It's a known failing of human psychology that we have difficulty conceptualizing large numbers--this is why pamphlets of aid organizations usually feature a single (usually photogenic, usually a child's) face instead of leading with something like "40,000 people are facing famine this year."
I can only read your interpretation of the many Kannons with fascination. I kinda love the Ikkou Sect--again, fighting monks!--but also wickedly, because their very existence (resurrection as onryou) is an irony. And now your mention of a knee-jerk revulsion to Amida Buddha. Hee hee! Sorry! <3
Yeah, one thing I do enjoy about Mirage is the (semi?)intentional hilarity of a lot of its shenanigans.
I spent way too much time thinking about your brief comment on Buddhist peace PR. Some upshots of my thinkings: (1) Mirage as a text definitely has people warring with/for Buddhas, etc. (2) Outside of Mirage weirdness (or other pop culture), are their historical examples of people warring in the name of Buddhism/Buddhas? I really don't know. I know a lot of Buddhist people go to war, but by the same token, a lot of Christian people went to war in WWI, which is different from saying it was a war for Christ.
I was thinking specifically of the Tokugawa persecution of Japanese Christians, which is mentioned in the Karin arc. But there's also, sadly, the Buddhist Power Force (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodu_Bala_Sena) in Sri Lanka and the 969 Movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/969_Movement) in Myanmar. Both of them incited violence against minority groups (Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc.) in recent times.