- 12 Mar 2024 02:28
#15307549
August 8th, 2019
I watched the Aaron Bushnell immolation - specifically sought out an uncensored version. I believe that it was not the FULL full version of it, as I later accidentally saw a still not from it that was beyond really what I wanted to see.
The reason I sought it out was because I believe in the old imperative from Thich Nhat Hanh to not turn away from suffering, and my general lesson from this has been that war and violence in general are such profound hells that glorifying them even indirectly is a mistake. I never seek out gore - only once, while intoxicated and with a woman who wanted to see it, did I actually look for one, specific thing... But, nonetheless, I have seen it unwillingly from time to time, and now I see it in the reporting on Ukraine and Palestine from uncensored channels and it is truly difficult.
But going through those difficulties has been enlightening.
... and when it is relevant politically, I don't know, I guess I just wanted to see it.
It was, to be sure, difficult, and upsetting, and I think that @annatar1914 has said it best...
Death should be seen as natural but also as something we should not willingly wish upon anyone, including ourselves, and it cannot be used at will as some tool of protest for us Westerners who have no belief set that condones it. But, I now balk at saying that, because I think an increasing amount of Westerners are raised outside of the church and are alienated from traditional views of this, and so they are developing their own parallel culture which can include these elements...
But that culture is, to some degree, alien to me, and I do not think it has the metaphysical depth that the Buddhists have when they have done this in the past.
The reason I sought it out was because I believe in the old imperative from Thich Nhat Hanh to not turn away from suffering, and my general lesson from this has been that war and violence in general are such profound hells that glorifying them even indirectly is a mistake. I never seek out gore - only once, while intoxicated and with a woman who wanted to see it, did I actually look for one, specific thing... But, nonetheless, I have seen it unwillingly from time to time, and now I see it in the reporting on Ukraine and Palestine from uncensored channels and it is truly difficult.
But going through those difficulties has been enlightening.
... and when it is relevant politically, I don't know, I guess I just wanted to see it.
It was, to be sure, difficult, and upsetting, and I think that @annatar1914 has said it best...
Death should be seen as natural but also as something we should not willingly wish upon anyone, including ourselves, and it cannot be used at will as some tool of protest for us Westerners who have no belief set that condones it. But, I now balk at saying that, because I think an increasing amount of Westerners are raised outside of the church and are alienated from traditional views of this, and so they are developing their own parallel culture which can include these elements...
But that culture is, to some degree, alien to me, and I do not think it has the metaphysical depth that the Buddhists have when they have done this in the past.
August 8th, 2019