ASTRO Yoon Sanha, Cha Eunwoo and Moonbin are the sole guests for the upcoming Running Man episode that will air on the 22 May, 5PM KST. The episode will feature various interesting sports activities, including Bin vs. Jong Kook Ssireum match. (youtube)
I recently saw on ask directed at @chaoticsandstorm (who posts awesome stuff btw) about whether Azula could become a Buddhist. I want to give my thoughts on that since those two topics are my main interests and preoccupations.
Firstly yes, the Air Nomads seem to be the only explicitly Buddhist culture in the show but Tibetan Buddhism isn’t the only form of that religion that exists in our world so it’s possible that other forms exist in the Avatar world. I don’t consider the Tibetan tradition heretical or unorthodox but I will hone in on the tradition I personally study and follow, which is Zen. I will presume some familiarity on the reader’s part with Buddhism overall as I continue.
Firstly I will say that I genuinely believe and feel justified in thinking that religion and spirituality are some of the most powerful tools ever created for influencing human thought and behavior for good or for ill and I think the concept is underutilized or ignored in the vast majority of Azula stories I’ve encountered.
Firstly, why would Azula even consider a different philosophy from the one she was raised with? I’d say it’s a mixture of desperation and pragmatism. She’s shown capable of appreciating the talents of non benders and the strength of earth benders. As a fugitive in the Earth Kingdom or the Colonies she might encounter a temple or monastery and use the charity traditionally provided to wanderers for a night, learn a little what it is about and decide to try their brand of meditation just to see what happens, she has nothing to lose.
The thing about Zen meditation when properly instructed is that it provides a small yet very tangible feeling of peace and comfort very early on, something Azula hasn’t experienced in a very long time at that point and something she’ll likely come to crave very quickly. So, she stays to figure out just enough to deal effectively with the turmoil in her head.
This would be her first lesson and goal, to realize that all the stuff going in her head and heart no matter how upsetting and horrible cannot last forever, that it’s transitory and impermanent and that there’s something deeper inside her that cannot be destroyed or disturbed so easily, something that is GOOD.
This something is usually called Buddha nature or original enlightenment and all beings posses it. That’s the key part, her redemption and healing wouldn’t be about destroying who she is but realizing there’s more to her than she thought. It’s about her genuinely and first hand experiencing that she was and is capable of being more than a monster. In her initial meditation practice she would learn to neither suppress her feelings nor let them control her, not to condemn herself for feeling what she feels nor abandon the desire to overcome them. Being aware of your thoughts and emotions in a truly attentive way for long enough does lessen the power they have over oneself. Over time you learn an important trick when it comes to resisting your bad tendencies and impulses, instead of letting the pain of denial torture you you learn to take pleasure and delight in the act of resisting temptation which I can see Azula taking great pride in.
Now that she can better resist doing what she should not do there arises the question what she SHOULD do. Fortunately monasteries have thought of that. Azula is a person who works well in an environment of structure, discipline and clear hierarchy, something Zen monasteries emphasize. Clear codes of conduct exist even down to detailed explanations on why something is good or bad. More importantly, if the rules are broken there are clear procedures on what has to be done to be forgiven. Moreover, Zen ritual and prayer is designed to help students internalize both the desired behaviors and the mental attitude that goes with it. Being a good person is a teachable skill and not something nebulous and ineffable and I feel such an assurance and blueprint would be a great blessing for Azula. Plus being in a community full of people who want to be the best they can be would positively kindle her competitive instincts. Also Zen teachers do not shower students with flowery praise, a nod of the head of a respected master feels greater than all poetry in the world.
Now, the goal of Zen isn’t to give you the chance to feel high all the time, that’s not what enlightenment is. It’s about realizing that your normal conscience is perfectly ok, you don’t need to feel one with the universe at all times, that you’re not defective for being human. The sense of peace one feels eventually isn’t as sparkly as what we usually think of as happiness but it’s way more effective, beneficial and sustainable. It can be described as a state where you neither feel craving, nor repulsion nor indifference. At glance it seems paradoxical but life and reality are paradoxical and the goal of Zen is to help you deal with it successfully. Which leads to the next aspect, the intellectual.
Many may be familiar with the concept of koans, sayings or questions that are designed to break you out of standard patterns of thinking and let you see reality in a new way. They actually tend to work better and have more effect on people who are very good at being very logical. If presented with such a challenge Azula likely wouldn’t give up until she found a solution that would impress her teacher. Yes, she’d totally try to be the teacher’s pet xD Though, Zen is firmly based on the treatises of ancient Indian masters but in practice they are often condensed into proverbs. Knowing Azula’s distaste for vaguely wise sayings she’d insist on reading the full long texts, memorize them fully and come up with her own summaries.
Also there IS something very fire bender about Zen, it values and often requires absolute and fierce dedication. One of the standard prayer chants is basically a creed of badass:
My flaws are endless, I swear to fix them all. The suffering of beings is endless, I swear to help them all. The teachings are immeasurable, I swear to learn them all. The way of Buddha is unsurpassable, I swear to walk it to the end.
Also I want to add that despite some unfortunate history of sexism women still are considered capable of full and complete enlightenment, there’s veneration of women who achieved that state and texts that firmly reject that women cannot achieve the ultimate goal.
There is more I can add and talk about but I might save it for another time. I do not however claim to be an absolute authority on Zen. I’m merely an Eastern European who feels greatly indebted to what little I know about Zen for it definitely and tangibly changed my life for the better and is still improving it.
Hope my pet idea of Azula becoming a Zen practicioner was entertaining to read.
Park ranger travels back in time to the Paleolithic and accidentally prevents the domestication of dogs by telling the cave people not to feed the wolves.
