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Buddhism (+ Avatar)

 

Did I mention there's a pandemic going on? I think we're in month 6 now. It feels so much longer than that. 

Anyway, I recently watched Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix, and now I'm watching The Legend of Korra. I never really had a desire to watch it: it sounded stupid and I'm not into that anime style (anymore). So even though many people had praised it, I ignored it. Until my old coworker Meg mentioned how amazing it was and was encouraging our other coworker, Erin, to watch it. It got me second guessing.

It kept popping up on Netflix (I now know that's because it's been #1 on Netflix for almost 3 months now. The highest ranked show on Netflix ever. Wow), so I decided to watch it after I had finished my other series. 

Holy crap. It is one of the most addictive shows I have ever watched, and every second of it is engaging. It has some of the best writing in media history, honestly. It's smart writing. It assumes the watcher is intelligent and proceeds appropriately. I'm totally hooked.

Around the same time that I was watching it, really resonating with the Air Nation monk-ness (I would totally be an air bender), I went down to Mitsuwa and found three books right next to each other at Kinokuniya (side note: that was a very interesting experience because of COVID. They closed of the main entrance, and everyone had to go in through a back door). Two of them were sketch travel books, one by the author of Tokyo by Foot. The other was a really cool book about artisans in Tokyo. All of them made me really want to go to Japan. If there weren't travel restrictions on leaving the country, I would be booking a trip to Japan right now. 

In one of the sketch books the author was talking about Buddhism vs. Shintoism. They mentioned that in Buddhism you don't pray to a god to take care of your problems, and they are not in charge of your life. Instead, you look to Buddhas for guidance, and you are fully in control of your life. 

This really resonated with me, hard. On top of the Avatar stuff, it made me wonder if I should look into Buddhism more seriously. So I picked up the book that Lynn Wilson gave me back when I stayed with her during the hurricane in New Jersey. I almost gave it to Goodwill; I'm glad I didn't. I remember reading the side a while back and thinking that it wasn't at all what I thought it would be about and that it sounded horribly boring. It sounded like an Eat, Prey, Love with Buddhism - some privileged white woman goes to India and becomes "Englightened" and is not an "inspiration" for Western white women. Ugh. But when I re-read it this time, I understood it different and was really drawn to it. It sounds to be about how a woman is blowing up gender roles in religion. It never really occurred to me that almost all religions do not allow women in leadership despite involving them. I support this woman 100% in shattering the patriarchy in religion. 


I'm not very far, but I'm really enjoying it. I've also talked to Jamie quite a bit, and she has explored Buddhism before, as well. It's nice talking to someone about it in a relaxed manner. 

I have no idea where this journey into research will take me, but I'm enjoying it along the way.

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