Lucid Dreams and Saturn Skies The Life and Writing of Andrew Kincaid

Tag Archives: Buddhism

Buddhism is the religion/philosophy founded by Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha) more than 2500 years ago. Buddhist philosophy focuses on relieving the suffering of individual humans by the cultivation of wisdom and insight, often through meditation and other such practices. Buddhists follow the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Paths, and believe that constant practice can bring a person to a state of perfect bliss, called Nirvana.

Bizarre Buddhism– The Tulpa

March 21, 2013 2:02 pm / Leave a Comment /
Friar Tuck, carrying Robin Hood on his back. Alexandra David-Neel claimed to manifest a tulpa in the image of Friar Tuck

Friar Tuck, carrying Robin Hood on his back. Alexandra David-Neel claimed to manifest a tulpa in the image of Friar Tuck

Imagine being able to create a being or object with only your thoughts. No, not in the way that writers do when they conjure a story; rather, an actual physical manifestation that others can see. Does it sound far fetched? Maybe, but adherents of traditional Tibetan Buddhism believe it is possible to do so, if a person can attain enough sustained concentration. The resulting beings are called tulpa, or thought-forms as we in the West might call them.

It was said that the practice of manifesting tulpas was a feat that could be performed by bhodisattvas, or practitioners who have attained a level of spiritual enlightenment just below that of the Buddha. The goal of doing this was to project phantom versions of themselves into many worlds, all at once, to shine the light of the Dharma there. However, one did not have to be the Buddhist equivalent of a demi-god to perform the feat; really, anyone with the right knowledge and practice could do so. Precisely what practices are performed aren’t clear, but allegedly some of them could be found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a tome full of cryptic Tibetan practices and religious rights.

However, like many things, just because you can do them doesn’t mean you should. Accounts from Tibetan mystics of all stripes claim that manifesting a tulpa is not a process to be undertaken lightly, that the process can be dangerous or even deadly for those who lack deep spiritual discipline. After a certain point, when the tulpa has manifested and grown strong, it will outgrow its master, and begin to slip the leash. It can become a menace at that point, even killing its master.

A woman by the name of Alexandra David-Neel gives an eerie account of her own attempt at making a tulpa. She is credited with introducing the tulpa to the West, where it later became folded into extant occult traditions as a ‘thought-form’. David-Neel was one of the first Westerners allowed into Tibet to study their traditions and culture. She became fascinated with the various mystical practices among the Tibetans, particularly the tulpa. She decided to try the practice for herself, and claimed she manifested a tulpa who looked like a jolly Friar Tuck.

However, the monk began to take on a life of its own. She claimed it appeared when she was not thinking of it, and that others in the camp began to ask her who the robed stranger was. Over time, she noticed the once jolly monk creature began to slim down and grow malevolent in appearance. She decided it was time to do away with it at that point, and after a six month struggle she was able to absorb it back into her own mind.

Does it sound like something out of a fantasy novel? Certainly. But then, we know the capacity for the human mind to deceive itself. Cryptids of all stripes live on in the conscience of society at large, taking on a life apart from their dubious biological existence. You could consider beings like Bigfoot, the Beast of Bray Road, and otherstulpa, who exist only because the human imagination gives them life. In that way, tulpa are very real.

Posted in: Abnormal Psychology, Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Death of a Kitty Cat

March 19, 2013 1:26 pm / 2 Comments /
It's Cuddles! Kind of an old picture, but this was how he looked before he became sick--sleek and shiny :)

It’s Cuddles! Kind of an old picture, but this was how he looked before he became sick–sleek and shiny :)

A week ago yesterday, we had to put down Cuddles, our oldest cat. Over the last year or so, the old geezer started to lose weight. We were concerned, but when animals get old their digestive systems don’t work quite as efficiently, and they start to slim down a bit. When we started feeding him richer foods (canned food mostly), he did start to recover a bit. Then last October my land lord died, and my brother and I wound up moving back in with my parents. That meant the old man cat had to leave the place he called home for fifteen years.

He seemed to adapt to his new surroundings pretty well, and he set about happily tormenting the girl cats. There were some strange things though, as he was still scrawny and he would walk around and cry at night. About a week before we put him down, he started to vomit and refuse food. We knew that the jig was about up when that started to happen–he never refused canned food. We couldn’t even get him to eat yogurt, another favorite. It turned out that his little kidneys were failing. There were things we could do to extend his life, but we decided it best to put him down. My mom and I stayed with him while the injection worked. It was very peaceful–he fell asleep, and then his suffering ended.

I do not believe in taking extraordinary measures to save an animal. They cannot consent to what is being done to them. All they know is that they don’t feel well and you are poking them, prodding them, and forcing pills down their throat. The modern world seems to have strange views about Death. It is almost as if we believe on some level that Death is something that can be defeated, or at the very least should be fought at all costs.

It wasn’t pleasant to put Cuddles down, but that was what was best for him. He was suffering. He lived a long, happy life. It was his time–pills, injections, and special diets would have only staved off the inevitable. There are times that it is best to let go. Clinging too tightly only brings more suffering to all involved. Living and dying are one–there cannot be life without death. If something is alive, it will eventually age, sicken, and die. It cannot be any other way, because we live in an impermanent, imperfect world. That behooves us not to take our loved ones for granted, be they furry and four-legged or human, because they are only here for a little while.

I’ll miss the old man cat, but it is better this way. He lived a good, long life. Frankly, he lived better than most cats and probably a lot of people. In the end, what more could a cat ask for?

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Wrestling With Ghosts

February 5, 2013 7:49 am / 4 Comments /
The famous photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Probably not a good idea to try a flying elbow drop in this instance...

The famous photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Probably not a good idea to try a flying elbow drop in this instance…

I have problems with anxiety. Sometimes even the silliest thing will become a massive, overwhelming problem that fills me with a sense of dread. It could be something as simple as a friend spontaneously calling me to see if I want to hang out. Maybe a school calls me early in the morning wanting me to sub. Actually ANY time the phone rings it gives me a pang of anxiety, as does any loud buzzing noise.

Now none of this is new–I’ve known for a long time that I have anxiety problems, among other things. But only recently have I realized just how deeply anxiety is entwined into my life. And not just anxiety, but other negative emotions and mental constructs that I’ve managed to pick up over the last quarter century of life. But that’s all they are–emotions and mental constructs. Real, but not as real as they seem. While the suffering they cause is very real, they themselves are like illusions; existing, but not as they seem to. It reminds me of watching the show Ghost Hunters on SyFy (fun show by the way).  Usually the guys go in skeptical, attempting to debunk claims of paranormal activity by finding a pragmatic cause for the phenomena their clients describe–leaky pipes, air flow problems, and other such things that could sound like a ghoul going bump in the night.  More often than not, they find some sort of common explanation for the so-called paranormal activity. The phenomena are very real, but the cause is not what the clients thought it was. They are simply mistaken, in many cases.

It is the same with our mental life. We deceive ourselves, seeing a ghastly ghost where there’s only a billowing curtain. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know that in my life I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with ghosts. I think a lot of people do. They’re the ghosts of our own faulty perceptions of ourselves and the world around us. And we’re so busy wrestling with them that we don’t really live.

So breath deep and don’t shy away from that scary spirit clanking chains and moaning through the halls of your mind. A closer look might just show a billowing curtain and a bit of faulty plumbing.

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , ,

Stuebenville, Anonymous, and the Rape Epidemic

January 7, 2013 8:38 am / 2 Comments /

Recently, photographs and a video of suspects in a Stuebenville, Ohio rape case went viral after being leaked onto the Internet by the hacktivist group Anonymous.  Being that I live not too far from the town where the alleged rape occurred, I’ve been hearing a good bit about it lately.  People are rightfully outraged by the case, and suspicious of how it is being handled as the two suspects are members of the Big Red football team with a lot of community ties, including some in the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, apparently.  Just so you know, rural Ohio’s devotion to high school football isn’t too far behind Texas.  That explains in large part why the photos and video were leaked.  Now, the Attorney General is looking into the case, so here is hoping that state intervention will lead to an unbiased investigation (if there can ever be said to be an unbiased investigation in a rape case).

But that is not what this post is about.  The case will go one way or another.  If things are done how they ought to be done and there is enough evidence against them,  the suspects will be convicted.  If there is not enough evidence, they won’t be.  Right now they are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, even if they are guilty as sin in the court of public opinion.

Let’s say though for the sake of argument that these two suspects are indicted and convicted on the charges, and put in jail for however many years.  Justice will have been served by the court.  But that doesn’t change the fact that their victim has been victimized again by the police, courts, and public.  Any time a rape case is reported, people immediately blame the victim.  They ask questions like: “What was she wearing?”, “Was she drinking?”, “Was she somewhere she shouldn’t have been?”.  Her sexual history is also called into question, even though it is not legal to do so.  Rather than being treated like a victim of a violent, unspeakable crime, rape victims are treated with more suspicion than the perpetrator.  In this particular case, the girl in question has gotten death threats from the community at large.  It seems some are upset that she might have ruined Big Red’s chances at going state because she had the audacity to report her violent sexual assault.

In the vigilante fervor that often accompanies these cases, I’ve seen people say we should simply kill rapists.  Fine.  Let’s say the rapists are executed, if they are convicted.  That does not change the fact that about one in three (if not more) women in America will be raped in their lifetimes, more often than not by someone they know.  It does not change the fact that many men will be raped as well, often by other men but sometimes by women.  Killing a rapist, or castrating a rapist, or raping a rapist does not change the fact that men who report being raped are often laughed at by responding police.  It does not undue the trauma victims endure by being victimized again by a system and a society that fails them.

Killing or jailing an individual rapist will stop his crimes, but it does not stop the circumstances that produced him.  As I type this I can already hear objections, saying that criminals are responsible for their actions and should be punished.  I do not recall saying that they weren’t or shouldn’t be.  Individuals are responsible for their own actions.  That is why blaming the victim is so despicable–it is shifting the responsibility for the crime away from the perpetrator and onto their victim.

However, that does not mean that there are not causes and conditions in the broader society that influence the individual.  Individuals influence society, and society influences individuals.  We all live in our societal context, and our society and our relation to it in part makes us who we are.  When a problem is as massive in scale as rape is in the United States (and around the world, as the recent gang rape in India showed), it is a problem for all of us.

As individuals, as communities, and as a society we must all come together as one and try to ferret out the causes behind this epidemic.  We must have the courage to speak out against so grave an injustice that destroys so many homes and families, and the societal norms that allow and encourage it.  And we must have the conviction to make changes, both as a whole and as individuals, that will bring safety to our homes and communities.

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It’s Now 2013, and Now is as Good a Time as Any For Some Goal Setting!

January 1, 2013 10:52 am / 6 Comments /

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.  Or at least, I didn’t until this year.  Rather than resolutions, maybe it is better to call them goals.  That’s a much more open ended term.  Resolution is so…binding.  Not to say that I don’t fully intend to meet my goals, but let’s face it; we live in a wild, crazy, contingent universe.  Which is a fancy way of saying that things happen, and you have to be flexible.  Being all about this whole self improvement business, I recognize this, and set practical, achievable goals for 2013.  Well, part of it anyway.  It’s very possible many of these will be fulfilled by about the six month mark, especially the writing oriented goals, but let’s worry about that when the time comes, shall we?

Without further ado, these are my goals for 2013 in no particular order:

–Write the first draft of Calafel Cycle Book 1 (and come up with a name for the freaking thing!).  This, by the way, is the novel I am currently outlining.

–Finish outlining the ghost story I’ve been stewing over for about two years now (and come up with a name for it!)

–Finish revisions/rewrites of Aral-Kahn, the first fantasy novel (or novel of any genre, for that matter), I’ve completed since middle school

–Become a better practitioner of my faith.

–Continue my current work out routine, and expand as necessary.  No  more 3-6 month lapses where I never touch a weight or walk a single mile.

–Cross three things off my bucket list, no matter how small or insignificant they might be.

–Related to the previous, go visit Gettysburg this summer (been meaning to for a long time).

–Obtain my alternative resident educator license.

–Find full time employment (be it teaching or elsewhere).

–Learn a new skill, whatever it might be (could tie into the bucket list, as I’ve a few things I’d like to learn to do before I croak)

–Meditate at least fifteen minutes a day, every day (normally do that anyway, but lately I’ve been slacking).

–At least once a month, go somewhere I’ve never been, be it a restaurant, town, or historical site.

–Watch Trumpet in the Land’s “Tecumseh!”.  I like plays, and been meaning to see this one.  High time I do it (when it’s playing anyway).

…that’ll do for now.  I actually added a few more from what I originally had in mind.  These goals are definitely doable, and as I said it’s quite possible that most of them could be achieved by the six month mark of this year.  That’s the funny thing about goals–they don’t have to be enormous.  If they are TOO big, it pretty much defeats the purpose of setting them, as they’re unachievable and you wind up getting discouraged and giving up.  Not to say that big goals are bad.  Break them into smaller goals and you’ll have a much easier time.

So those are mine.  What are yours?

Posted in: Life & Writing / Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

My List. Bucket List, That Is!

December 4, 2012 6:15 am / 10 Comments /
This. But in list form.

This. But in list form.

This weekend, I turned twenty-five.  A few days before that, I was Freshly Pressed.  While one has no relation to the other, I find both fairly astonishing.   I never expected to be Freshly Pressed, while I fully expected to turn twenty-five barring something unfortunate.  As to why they are fairly astonishing, they are that way for different reasons.  Nobody expects to be Freshly Pressed: it just kind of happens.  It’s not something you can really make a goal of, because you can’t really control it–that’s up to the editors here on WordPress.  As for why turning twenty-five is fairly astonishing, well, think about it.  Being a male, my lifespan will be, on average, about seventy-four years.  So, I am about a third of the way through that now.

If that’s a bit of a gloomy way to look at things, well, it is.  That could partially explain the funk I’ve been in for awhile now, although the real reason behind that is not so much age but rather dissatisfaction.  I tend to hold myself to ridiculous standards, and according to those I’m a twenty-five year old screw up.  After all, I barely work part time, I’m single, and I live in my mom’s basement.  You have to understand that by now according to these expectati0ns for myself that I picked up from Lord knows where that I would have a Career (whatever it may be),  be married, and be living on my own by now.  However, the Universe does what it does and for a variety of reasons (including that giant economic meltdown four years ago) none of that has come to pass.

Despite all that, I’m happy.  I wasn’t for awhile, but now I am.  Sure I spent some time wallowing in self pity (I’ve done that a lot over the years, believe me), but one day last week it all just kinda clicked into place.  It was nothing I didn’t already know of course, but every now and then we need a reminder.  Mostly, I realized that continually beating myself up over expectations is silly.  They’re things in my own head, not based on any kind of reality.  I was drowning myself with shoulda, coulda, and woulda’s and thus neglecting the life I have right now. Are there a lot of things that I’d like to accomplish?  Yes.  Sitting around and whining about my life and being all woe is me about things I can’t control doesn’t help accomplish them though!

So, I’m in the process of making some rather large changes.  First, I am on a dating hiatus.  I have spent so much effort looking for that someone special that I am now quite literally burnt out and sick of the whole process.  It’s not like I’m completely bitter and hate women or anything; guys who are like that are just childish, and so are their counterparts among women.  Rather, I realized two things: what I was doing was making me unhappy, and that forming a romantic relationship is largely out of my hands.  If something is voluntary, making you unhappy, and not netting the desired results, why keep doing it?   Dating is quite literally a crap shoot, and although you can slightly weight the dice in your favor (by not being a complete slob, for one),  the results are still basically up to chance (i.e. whether you find a person in the right time in their life to date, whether they meet your needs/desires, whether you meet theirs, etc).

Instead, I am devoting myself to myself.  Now, this does not mean I’m not some completely self centered bastard who is out to screw people over every chance he gets. Rather the opposite, actually. This is a program of self improvement.  I have recommitted myself to the Way, and am practicing better, being more mindful of myself and others.  Second, I am doing everything I can to advance my career (and not griping nearly as much about it!) in the teaching field.  Currently, I’m  halfway through my course work to get my Alternative Resident Educator License.  Third, I am committing myself to my personal projects, such as this blog and my novels.  I have two novels in the works, although the fantasy novel has taken priority, and of course my blog.  To this end, I make a daily list of goals such as “outline two scenes for Calafel Cycle 1″. As for the blog, I’ve begun a new series called “Visions of Hell” about Hell in various mythologies from around the world.  So check out Visions of Hell #1–The Nine Circles of Dante’s Inferno this Thursday!

However, at the same time I am not killing myself for my hobbies.  If something doesn’t get done because the spirit is willing but the flesh is week, I’m no longer going to beat myself up for it.  That illustrates the fourth part, a part of my practice of the Way–being gentler with myself.  That isn’t to say that I don’t have high expectations, but rather it is to say that I’m becoming more mindful of my inner dialogue.  Too often we are way too hard on ourselves, and it is to our detriment.  I know that I personally wouldn’t speak to a dog the way that I sometimes talk to myself in my own head.  Being gentle with oneself is a process of recognizing these negative thought patterns, gently rebuking and refuting them, and replacing them with healthier ones.  Instead of “well that was stupid.  You’re a complete idiot for having done [insert thing here]“, think “No no, that wasn’t stupid.  People make mistakes.  That certainly was silly though, and I should be a bit more mindful in the future”.  And then, this is important, laugh at yourself.  It helps a lot to be able to laugh at yourself, so long as you know when to be serious and when not to be!

A journal--like a therapist, but cheaper!

A journal–like a therapist, but cheaper!

The final point gets us to the titular Bucket List.  This is in conjunction with my new habit of keeping a daily journal  I use the bucket list to mark my place in the journal, so I get a chance to look at it every day, review it, and add to it as I think of things   As for the Bucket List, I really have no idea if there are “rules” to making one and frankly don’t care if there are.  It is a grab bag of random goals, some huge and some tiny.  I have everything from “learn to swim” to “Visit Easter Island” and I am adding more almost every day.  My thought was to put in small, attainable goals alongside the huge, long term goals.  So I can potentially begin checking off some of the smaller stuff in the short term.  For example, I wrote “Read Moby Dick” in there, and as we speak I’m on page fifty in said book.

Finally, and on a related note, I decided that I’m going to start going on mini-adventures on the weekends.  Being a substitute teacher, I have guaranteed weekends off, so might as well make the most of them!  Even if all I do is go to some random town and walk around its downtown a bit, or visit some shop I’ve never been to,  I want to visit new places within about a two hour radius of where I live.  There’s a lot in this area, so that’s not a tall order.  A fun trip doesn’t have to be huge and expensive.  It’s mostly just a matter of getting out, seeing new things, and meeting new people (the latter of which I do all the time during my work week, but still).  Now I do have bigger trips in mind, as I said, starting with one to Gettysburg at some point this summer.  But for now I’m going to content myself with getting in the habit of going out more weekends than not to go run around having random miniature adventures.  The one I had planned for last weekend got cancelled because I forgot my own birthday was Sunday (whoops!) but this weekend, my brother and I are going to see to that one.  We are going to visit Warther Carving Museum…I might put up a post about it (haven’t decided yet).

Call it a pre-New Years resolution.  So far, it is working because I am much happier.  Having a list of awesome things to look forward to and goals to reach is very helpful.  That which was vague before seems more concrete.  While I was skeptical before, now I would recommend everyone at least try to make a Bucket List!

How about you?  Do you have a Bucket List?  Care to share some entries if you do?

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The Myth of Certainty

October 18, 2012 11:19 am / 5 Comments /

I use the word “probably” a lot.  It isn’t an extremely popular word, and I’m pretty sure that it drives my friends and family crazy.  “Probably” isn’t the only word I use a lot–more often than not, I hedge my statements, allowing for some uncertainty (as you probably noticed in that statement….and this one =P).  Is it a lack of confidence that leads me to do this?  A lack of certainty?  Or maybe just an overwhelming pessimism?  No.  Well, yes to some extent for all of them, since they’re all true to a greater or lesser degree.  But what really leads me to speak in uncertain terms is nothing more than simple honesty (that and my background in the sciences).

Like it or not, but uncertainty is a part of life.  It is quite literally built into the fabric of the universe in the form of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  The principle states (I’m paraphrasing here) that you cannot know both the velocity and the location of an electron at the same time.  The more you know about one, the less you know about the other.  Einstein hated this fact, famously saying in response that “God doesn’t play dice with the universe” but unfortunately for old Einstein that seems to be the case.

The Heisenberg Principle, among other discoveries, revealed that we live in a contingent, probabilistic universe.  Put in plain English, we can never be completely certain of things.  Rather, we understand things within a range of probability.  Let’s say that I dropped a pen on the ground.  I’m certain that, if the rules of physics as we know them hold true, it is going to fall straight to the ground.  It is more accurate to say that I am 99.9% certain the pen will fall straight down.  That might seem a bit pedantic, but with enough tries (i.e. if I dropped the pen a trillion trillion times) it could go up or do some other wonky thing.  Physics is weird like that.

A less esoteric example can be found in your daily commute.  You wake up in the morning (maybe) and go out to start your car.  It could start, but it might not.  Let’s say it does.  There’s no guarantee that you’ll make it to work.  Your car could die.  You could get in an accident and be hospitalized.  A satellite could fall from the sky and flatten you as you sit in your driveway.  Any number of things could intervene to prevent you from getting to work, and yet you set out in the morning with the assumption that you’ll reach your destination.  Ninety-eight to ninety-nine percent of the time, you’ll pull it off with no problem.  That doesn’t mean those things I listed above CAN’T happen, but rather that they’re highly unlikely to happen.

Not a pleasant thought, is it?  Our brains don’t process probabilities well.  That is why so many people prefer driving to flying when, statistically speaking, driving is more dangerous.  That’s why people fork out ridiculous amounts of money gambling, under the mistaken assumption that eventually, their luck has to be in.  Be that as it may, we live in a world of probabilities.  Like it or not, that’s just how it is.  Absolute certainty is a myth that results from human’s need for order in a wild, random world.  It is no more real than Santa or the Easter Bunny.  I’m almost certain of that.

Posted in: Life & Writing, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , ,

After a Brief Existential Crisis, I’m Back!

September 4, 2012 10:57 am / 2 Comments /

This is post almost didn’t get written.  This isn’t the post I had planned, but then Tuesdays are are like that around here.  You might be wondering about the title.  First and most importantly, I found it humorous.  Second, there is some truth to it.  Although it wasn’t so much an existential crisis (being an existentialist though that kind of thing is bound to happen now and then) as it was a nasty bout of depression, brought on in part by the remnants of Isaac currently dumping themselves dry on this part of Ohio.

That was part of it, but not the whole shebang.  You see, like many of you I too am caught in a nasty catch-22.  I hold a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Business from Muskingum University.  I pursued said degree in the hopes of using it to teach high school Biology.  My mistake was not seeing what I classes I needed to take in order to get an alternative certification.  So, now I have to take courses through the state to get my alternative certification.  But that’s okay–it doesn’t look like many schools are looking to hire any teachers right yet, and besides I’d have to probably wait until next year or so to get into one anyway since school has gone back.  Finishing my business degree was supposed to be a contingency against such an occurrence, giving me a skill set to fall back on.

In better times, that might have been sound thinking.  What I didn’t count on was just how bad the job market would be, and the fact that even entry level positions want anywhere from  two to five years of experience in addition to a degree.  Now I have five years of experience working retail, but not in anything else.  And I can’t get hired in retail either.  This is the catch-22–I don’t have enough experience to get a decent paying position, but at the same time I’ve overqualified for burger flipping or cash register running because of my degree.  Which is why, after sending out about thirty odd resumes and applications in four months, I’m still unemployed.

It’s frustrating.  I feel as if I’m stuck and that nothing I do will help.  And there is some truth to that; after all, one person can’t change the economy.  You don’t have to have a business degree to know that our economy is broken, and that nobody is doing anything to fix it.  Mostly because a broken economy benefits the right people.  You and I, my friends, are not the right people, if you catch my drift.  But that’s enough economics and politics for today, since that isn’t the topic of my blog nor of this post.

The point is that despite my situation, I’m largely content.  Anger and cynicism don’t help anyway, so why entertain such useless thoughts and emotions?  This morning I spent about and hour and a half meditating, and I feel much better.  It is only by being centered, happy, and in the moment that a person can act with their full power to better their situation.  With that in mind, I’m going to continue to do the best I can.  I’m working on another novella I intend to publish in the next couple of months, and I have several novel ideas to work on in addition to the urban fantasy I’m currently writing.  Between my urban fantasy trilogy (The Free-Lancers), my epic fantasy trilogy (Gods and Emperors) and two stand alone horror novel ideas I have about seven books to write.

Who knows?  Maybe when I build my back log up enough, that could be my living.  Until then, I’ll continue to shoot of resumes and applications.  Hopefully I will find something to ease my financial situation while I build my writing business.  Who can say?  I certainly can’t.  In the mean time, I’ll continue to be content.

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Bizarre Buddhism–Tibetan Sky Burials

June 8, 2012 9:58 am / 4 Comments /
Drigung Monastery

A photograph of Drigung Monastery, a site famous for performing sky burials.

The rites and rituals surrounding death can tell you a great deal about a culture: their religion, their values, and their general view of the world.  Some of the most famous funerary practices come out of ancient Egypt, namely Egyptian mummies.  The mummification ritual sprung out of a complex mythology that informed the entire Egyptian view of the universe.

In America, death is confined to the hospital, the hospice, and the nursing home.  An entire industry has sprung up around death in America and other Western countries, involving morticians, funeral homes, casket makers, and several other groups.  Often, the corpse is only glimpsed, if at all, during the wake and the funeral itself.  Morticians take pains to make the body appear as if it is in calm repose.  Once the funeral ceremony is over, the bereaved leave and the burial is performed by graveyard caretakers, out of sight of the family.

The arrangements vary according to religious and personal taste, and of course due to economic considerations as well.  For example, cremations are on the rise because on the whole they cost less than having to buy a burial plot, a casket, and a tombstone.  Still, most often Americans prefer burial in a cemetery.  This is no surprise given the strong Christian influence on our culture.  In Christianity, there is a pervading belief in bodily resurrection.  As Jesus himself was resurrected, so too will everyone who walked the Earth be resurrected into new bodies come Judgement Day (this of course varies by denomination and tradition–I’m simply generalizing for the sake of brevity).

As it is in America, so it is in Tibet.  The strong Buddhist tradition in that country influences its death rites, resulting in a funerary practice that to most Westerners would seem barbaric–the Tibetan Sky Burial.  Known as jhator in Tibet, it is a practice of ritual dissection wherein the body of the deceased is exposed to the elements and scavengers until their body is completely disposed of.

How precisely the ritual is performed varies depending on the economic status of the family of the deceased–it can be an expensive procedure, so sometimes the body is simply left exposed on a high rock shelf.  In other instances, the so-called “body-breakers” (rogyapas ) go about the process of ritual dissection after appropriate prayers have been performed by Buddhist monks.  How the dissections are performed can vary: sometimes the body-breakers allow vultures to feed on the body until only a skeleton remains, after which they take sledgehammers to the bones and pound them to dust.  The powder and pulp is mixed with flour and the whole mixture is fed to smaller birds.  Sometimes the body is stripped of flesh and the body parts spread around for the vultures to feast on before the pounding bones to dust part is done.

…pretty gruesome, right?  Why in the heck would anyone want to be disposed of this way, and why would a family allow it, much less come to witness it?  To understand the why’s, first we must look into who Tibetan Buddhists view life and death.  Tibetan Buddhists (and many others) believe in rebirth.  This is related to the cycle of samsara we discussed a bit in a previous entry in this series about Buddhist hell.  The deceased’s rebirth is determined by his or her karma.  So where does the body enter into this equation?

Well, it doesn’t.  Once the life is gone from a body, it’s nothing more than a lump of flesh.  The sky burial reflects this belief, and another deep belief held by Buddhists of all stripes–impermanence.  Buddhists do not believe in a bodily resurrection, nor in an eternal rest.  Nothing is eternal in Buddhism, save for maybe samsara itself and nirvana (but now’s not the time to go into all that!).  This life and our bodies are all impermanent.

There is another facet to the practice that might seem odd to Westerners.  Jhator is seen as an act of compassion on the part of the deceased and their family toward the birds that feed on his/her corpse, and toward the animals who would avoid being eaten because the vultures and other birds were sated from feasting on human flesh.  Indeed, sometimes these birds eat quite well for themselves.  Jhator is performed at designated charnal grounds, often near monasteries.  The largest ones can attract huge flocks of vultures, who must be fended off with sticks while the rituals are being performed.

A sky burial site

This is Yerpa Valley, a site designated for sky burials. Notice the barrenness of the land. Likely the locale as much as religion prompted Tibetans to adopt the practice of jhator.

Lest you think all of this (what we’d call over here) weirdness is for religious reasons, I must add that there are some very practical economic reasons to perform sky burials.  The Tibetan Plateau lay high in the Himalayas, above the tree line.  So, wood is scarce, and what little bit there is probably isn’t going to be used to perform a cremation.  Furthermore, the soil on the plateau is very rocky and in many places contains layers of permafrost, making burials impractical for all but the highest officials (some llamas or priests are given burials to honor their accomplishments).

Really, sky burials developed from practical economic concerns long before Buddhism came to Tibet–there’s some evidence to suggest that similar rituals occurred 11,500 years ago in that region. That does not mean of course that the religious aspect is any less important to the people of Tibet, any more than the religious aspect of our funerary rituals in the West are no less important due to economic factors.  People are people no matter where they live or what faith they practice.

Still, I’m thinking I’ll pass on having my body go to the birds.


Posted in: Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World, Weird Travel / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Yurei: Japan’s Lost Souls

May 19, 2012 2:20 pm / 7 Comments /
Yurei are Japanese ghosts, derived from Shinto folkloric tradition.

The Ghost of Oyuki, an image depicting a traditional Yurei.

Several months ago, I did a post about Aokigahara, Japan’s suicide capital and a purportedly haunted forest.  It is widely believed that the forest is haunted by Yurei, which are essentially Japan’s version of ghosts.  These differ from the traditional Western style ghosts.  On our side of the ocean, ghosts are ephemeral things that can only interact with the physical world with great difficulty.  They knock and creak and moan, but they’re generally harmless; in fact, they’re usually little more than annoying, at least according to the lore.  Their goal is usually to attempt some sort of communication with the living, in order to fulfill some sort of unfinished business, after which they can pass on to the other side.  Some are more malevolent, intending to scare folks away from their haunts or just to generally be pains in the butt.  In general, they’re said to be tied to our world by strong emotions, often negative.

Yurei, on the other hand, are entirely different beasts.  There are some similarities, of course: both are tied to the world by strong emotions, and both seek to interact with humans.  Other than that though, there are few similarities.  For one, Yurei are often depicted the same way: they’re women dressed in white with long black hair.  Yurei are predominately believed to be women, because the Japanese believe that women experience deeper, stronger emotions than men and thus are more likely to become Yurei.

The differences don’t end there, but in order to understand the Yurei fully we must understand traditional Japanese beliefs about the afterlife.  Shinto doesn’t have heaven or hell the same way the West does.  When a person dies, their soul leaves the body and enters a kind of purgatory.  When the proper funeral rites are performed, the soul can go to the ancestors and thus become a protective spirit.  However, if the proper rites are not performed, or if the person dies by suicide or murder, their soul may become a Yurei.

That isn’t too different from the Western conception of ghosts, nor the conception of ghosts the world over.  There is a prevalent belief the world over that if people are not laid to rest properly they will somehow haunt the living.  Yurei, however, are more corporeal than their Western counterparts.  They are not see through, although in their traditional depiction they are shown hovering over the ground, with only their hands and face visible.  Yurei also, possibly due to their corporeal nature, have no problem interacting with the physical world, much to their victim’s dismay.

You see, Yurei can be incredibly dangerous.  They are said to seek vengeance against those who wronged them in life, and little can be done to stop them.  The Yurei will only disappear when their desire for vengeance is sated, either by the Yurei itself or by its family members.  In some cases, the Yurei may haunt a lover until its passion is fulfilled (not sure what that means, but to me that sounds pretty ominous).  Sometimes a Shinto or Buddhist priest may be able to exorcise the Yurei, but more often than not the spirits are unstoppable until they fulfill their desires.

It should be noted that not all Yurei are malevolent.  Yurei are tied to the Earth by strong emotions, but they do not necessarily have to be negative.  Some Yurei are motherly figures, who come back to watch over their children.  Others might return to keep a business appointment or some other sort of obligation.  While they might be frightening to people who happen to bump into them, these types of Yurei are largely harmless.

The worst kind of Yurei become a curse.  Their desire for vengeance is so strong that even destroying the original object of their fury cannot sate it.  They will destroy anyone who enters their territory–Yurei are typically, but not always, bound to a specific site–and will do so until exorcised or otherwise removed, a dicey proposition at best.

American has come to know Yurei in recent years through movies.  The Grudge, The Ring, and Silent Hill all feature Yurei style ghosts.  While these depictions aren’t always accurate in terms of the traditional folklore, they’ve definitely made waves in American horror.  Like it or not, it seems the Yurei are here to stay in American horror.

Have you seen The Grudge, The Ring, or Silent Hill?  What do you think of the Yurei or ghosts in general (keep it civil, please)?


Posted in: Ghost Stories, Monsters & Mythology, Our Weird World / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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