i'm tantric, i'd like to bring the funk to OA

[tantric]

but first maybe some future buddhism? the neurochemical vehicle, a neurochemist's approach to enlightenment, maybe? some sui generis american buddhist schools - ghetto buddhism. the blending of parliament/pfunk mythology with buddhism would be especially tasty.

i'm also an expert on bantu cultures and especially their myths and legends. grad student ecologist/epidemiologist - were there any great plagues? before earth stopped being earth?

[Rynn]

Welcome to the forums Tantric religions in OA have been a hot topic recently so I'm sure many will be interested to hear your thoughts. In regards to plagues in the early time line (I presume you mean before the great expulsion?) there are examples of artificial plagues that caused a lot of problems:

http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/55ad10b805422

[tantric]

Welcome to the forums Tantric religions in OA have been a hot topic recently so I'm sure many will be interested to hear your thoughts. In regards to plagues in the early time line (I presume you mean before the great expulsion?) there are examples of artificial plagues that caused a lot of problems:

http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/55ad10b805422

yes, in our near future - did the bird flu pandemic ever hit? any other outbreak? new diseases arising? things that have weird echoes, like we see children singing 'pocket full of poseys we all fall down' and having no understanding of the black death. india from that stage is pretty blank - a great dying? new religions? or perhaps a new virus sweeps through africa, killing those with compromised immune systes with great efficiency, and effectively ending the AIDS disaster. terrorist use of a prion weapon.

but that's all dreary awful shit. i want to keep the funk alive. Parliament/Pfunk came with a vibrant postmodern SF mythology, about the return of StarChild, his enemy, Sir Nose d'Void aFunk. etc. i want to work this into ghetto buddhism, with StarChild as the Maitreya.

this, basically, amended to fit the world as it is:

he next buddha will have skin the color of dirt, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. oh, yeah, and a freakin' righteous 'fro. and sunglasses - 'cause you gotta wear your sunglasses, so you can feel cool.

after he encounters nirvana, he will be tested. the MAN, lord of addiction and greed, will rise up before him and offer him all the moneys of the world. the buddha will look up and say "they are but ones and zeroes to my eyes, " and the money will burn and the gold will rust into dirt.

next the MAN will tempt the buddha with all the luxuries of the world, technology and gadgets beyond number. the buddha will glance at them and say, "they are but junk to my eyes, but please, recycle" and the luxuries and gadgets and stuff will dissolve into its component atoms, then rearrange as the trees, earth, ores and hydrocarbons from which they were made.

then the MAN will threat with all the armies of the oppressors. guns will be aimed, missiles will be armed, bombs will lock on target. the MAN will push his button and the weapons of hell will fly. then the buddha will look upon them and smile, and they will turn to flower petals and tabs of LSD and rain down upon the peoples.

at last, the MAN, knowing he has lost, will challenge "you are alone, who will know your accomplishment?" and the buddha will look towards the camera and smile, "the world is my witness".

[Rynn]

I'm pretty sure we don't have any pandemics in the early timeline, that's not to say there weren't epidemics at this time. Simply that there was nothing of major historical note along the lines of the Black Death. The early timeline is having an update at the moment but there's plenty of scope to fit in a "minor" epidemic. Feel free to write up a draft and propose it to the group

Hmm, I had to google pfunk, am I right in saying you mean a genre of music from 40/50 years ago? I'm not familiar with it myself, or ghetto Buddhism. I can't say I really understand what you're proposing lol.

[tantric]

I'm pretty sure we don't have any pandemics in the early timeline, that's not to say there weren't epidemics at this time. Simply that there was nothing of major historical note along the lines of the Black Death. The early timeline is having an update at the moment but there's plenty of scope to fit in a "minor" epidemic. Feel free to write up a draft and propose it to the group

Hmm, I had to google pfunk, am I right in saying you mean a genre of music from 40/50 years ago? I'm not familiar with it myself, or ghetto Buddhism. I can't say I really understand what you're proposing lol.

PFunk mythology

when buddhism moves into a new culture, new flowers bloom. what will american buddhism be like - which of our heroes will become bodhisattvas? what will sui generis american buddhism be like?

i propose that a sect takes root in the inner cities and merges with the funk - the good vibes, here - listen to this:



a buddhism that incorporates elements of popculture SF as mythology, but with the spirit of the Maitreya as in folk chinese religion, the happy fat old man, the good vibes buddha. sutras deconstructing Vulcan logic. it has its own school of martial arts, and it's practitioners are called 'jedi' (incorporates neurolinguistic programming for the mind tricks). they use high intensity laser lights as weapons - they can blind, the can illuminate, but not really cause harm. maybe not that much, but still, you get the point.

hey, stranger things have happened, we know this...and it is kinda glorious, assuming it never amounts to much in future history.

[Rynn]

when buddhism moves into a new culture, new flowers bloom. what will american buddhism be like - which of our heroes will become bodhisattvas? what will sui generis american buddhism be like?

Well Buddhism is already in the united states (admittedly with a low percentage of the population): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_i...ted_States. That doesn't preclude you writing up a proposal for a future sect

i propose that a sect takes root in the inner cities and merges with the funk - the good vibes, here - listen to this:

Not really my thing but pretty nice and chilled. Like I said if you want to write up a funk based buddhist movement go for it.

a buddhism that incorporates elements of popculture SF as mythology, but with the spirit of the Maitreya as in folk chinese religion, the happy fat old man, the good vibes buddha. sutras deconstructing Vulcan logic. it has its own school of martial arts, and it's practitioners are called 'jedi' (incorporates neurolinguistic programming for the mind tricks). they use high intensity laser lights as weapons - they can blind, the can illuminate, but not really cause harm. maybe not that much, but still, you get the point.

hey, stranger things have happened, we know this...and it is kinda glorious, assuming it never amounts to much in future history.

Hmm, few thoughts on this. One is that it would have to fit within OA canon and our general ethos of realistic technology and social development. Thus there would have to be a good rationale of why a modern religion would adopt a collection of popculture references into its rituals (are there any examples of this irl? Perhaps christian rock...). Another consideration is one of copyright, historically anyone trying to borrow terms from star wars open themselves up for legal action, a good example of this is the term "droid" which is trademarked.

[Drashner1]

Hi Tantric, Welcome to OA

I don't have much to add to what Rynn has already posted. We don't mention any near future pandemics/epidemics because no one has ever gotten around to proposing any. Similarly, we don't have much information on India or other parts of the world because so far no one has proposed writing more about these areas and how they might evolve over the history of the setting. We could probably just make something up, but generally prefer that someone with some familarity with the culture/religion/whatever do it rather than just pulling stuff out of the air that may be totally off base and have to be rewritten later. Again, if you have some expertise in some of these cultures then please feel free to propose some articles.

In terms of the future of Buddhism, by all means feel free to write something up for the groups consideration. Although to Rynn's point we are sensitive to issues of copyright where things like terminology are concerned. Also, we would probably want to see an explanation as to how a given faith or way of life came to be. It doesn't need to be a huge explanation. But we would probably want more than just saying that a religion merged with or arose out of a style of music and not saying why or how this happened.

Anyway, hope this helps, and once again Welcome to OA!

Todd

[stevebowers]

I'm sure that Alan would have written more about Buddhism and India if he had remained active in the project rather than concentrating on other projects. The buddhism of Proxima Centaruri for instance is somewhat underdescribed on the site, and could have influenced large numbers of other worlds and daughter colonies, many but not all of which could be in the Sophic League.

[QueElEs]

Hi tantric! Are you a tantrika, in fact?

I'd be happy to work with you on developing Buddhism. I am a Hindu myself, of a philosophy close to Buddhism.