1. Concerning the following statement from a few posts ago (#105):
During his Jayanti and certain other festivities involving Him, the Daoists create a special Asana (according to specific standards) for the Daoist Devaraaja to come and sit in when he is invoked. The Daoists are devoted to making his favourite foods to offer to him during these occasions and also to feed his entourage - his accompanying host - when they arrive.
As their Divine Fathers and Mothers, the Daoist Gods procure all that is good for their Daoist children and protect them and provide them with prosperity and contentment. It is for this sake that the Daoists commemorate the festivals of their Gods and remember them and adore them.
Speaking of more Gods than I thought: some matters in Daoism have many Gods presiding over it apparently. E.g. the Daoists apparently don't have just 1 Thundergod. Their Thunder-Gods number somewhere in the mid-thirties :woo: (Reminded me of how there are numerous Maruts in Hindu religion, and Agni bhagavaan is said to have several bairns (at least a couple, IIRC) as well as a great many grandchildren who are all also of agni form. This is next to Agni himself coming in numerous forms.)
2. Also, next to the specific subset of 12 Nakshatras in Daoism (separate from one of their Amman-s who still seems to be a constellation to me, going by her name - from my limited knowledge of Astronomy), the larger set of Nakshatras in Daoism is .... 28! :grins:
I think the Hindus have 27 Nakshatra Devataas - but to be honest, I imagine that I once counted our Nakshatras to 28 (it's possible I just can't count very well, but even so: the number is definitely between a minimum of 27 and a max of 28).
Anyway, in the Daoist case, it has to do with the number of Nakshatras seen in the heavens from their POV (i.e. from China) and which they named. They count 7 in each of their subset of 4 directions, each associated with one of their 4 colours/directions/Animals. (There's a sacred animal associated with each direction.)
<snip>
5. Recently found a great analogy for aliens' total and permanent inability to know or understand heathenism (let alone others' heathenism).
A main theme of Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (a science fiction classic*) is supposed to be about how totally unknowable aliens (as in extra-terrestrials) must be to humans: how they can never be understood and how even communication with them must be difficult or impossible, because they are so alien from everything we know. In Solaris, the titular planet is supposed to be an intelligent life form itself. With god-like powers/intelligence - compared to humanity. But after a long time studying it (maybe a century?), humans still have no idea about its motivations and remain unable to communicate with it. [It's not that nothing happens: from the planet's end, the planet seems to monitor the humans monitoring it. While they sleep, it seems to be aware of their subconscious (the implication is it probes their thoughts and dreams) and generates from this copies of humans they know. But the humans are flabbergasted when faced with these copies of humans from their past who are essential to them. They wonder what the "motivation" of Solaris is in sending these characters to them - are its intentions malignant? - but the underlying point is that they will never understand what its motivation is, let alone if it has any real motivation in doing so. They assume its trying to communicate with them by this means, but don't understand its means of communication.]
Solaris touches on man's difficulty in properly understanding/knowing oneself and consequently the inability to know anyone else, even those close to us - then how would we know/understand aliens so far removed from our understanding (let alone a godlike intelligent life form like Solaris, that does not communicate by any means we know/comprehend)? To get back to the analogy:
Solaris - at the end just as in the beginning of Lem's work - remains unknowable to the humans. They can only ponder its motivations, knowing nothing at all more than Mere Speculation from their side (since its own side is unknowable to them, they can only attribute stuff to it, which is in all likelihood false).
Solaris' unknowability to humanity is quite like how aliens can never understand heathens and heathenism. Despite studying these. Despite dabbling and threatening to convert. Despite setting up chairs in alien climes and declaring themselves the experts on Hinduism, on Sanskrit/Vedic studies/Indology, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Philosophy etc. They'll forever be aliens looking on - talking at you, over you, through you. And never know anything more. Mwahahaha.
Quote:In the case of the 9 Emperors, Hindus already know of the very famous Jade Emperor.I'm no longer sure that Jade Emperor is one of the 9. I may be wrong (or I may yet be correct), not sure, since the Jayanti for all the 9 appears to be on the same day and this seems to be a separate day from the Jayanti of the Jade Emperor. What makes me think this is that the latter is celebrated around the New Year (of the Chinese, not the Roman calendar, obviously), whereas those of the 9 was much later in the year. If separate, then Daoism has more Emperor Gods than 9. Perhaps that means he need not be a Star (?) He's still the cosmic ruler of all the lokas in Daoism.
During his Jayanti and certain other festivities involving Him, the Daoists create a special Asana (according to specific standards) for the Daoist Devaraaja to come and sit in when he is invoked. The Daoists are devoted to making his favourite foods to offer to him during these occasions and also to feed his entourage - his accompanying host - when they arrive.
As their Divine Fathers and Mothers, the Daoist Gods procure all that is good for their Daoist children and protect them and provide them with prosperity and contentment. It is for this sake that the Daoists commemorate the festivals of their Gods and remember them and adore them.
Speaking of more Gods than I thought: some matters in Daoism have many Gods presiding over it apparently. E.g. the Daoists apparently don't have just 1 Thundergod. Their Thunder-Gods number somewhere in the mid-thirties :woo: (Reminded me of how there are numerous Maruts in Hindu religion, and Agni bhagavaan is said to have several bairns (at least a couple, IIRC) as well as a great many grandchildren who are all also of agni form. This is next to Agni himself coming in numerous forms.)
2. Also, next to the specific subset of 12 Nakshatras in Daoism (separate from one of their Amman-s who still seems to be a constellation to me, going by her name - from my limited knowledge of Astronomy), the larger set of Nakshatras in Daoism is .... 28! :grins:
I think the Hindus have 27 Nakshatra Devataas - but to be honest, I imagine that I once counted our Nakshatras to 28 (it's possible I just can't count very well, but even so: the number is definitely between a minimum of 27 and a max of 28).
Anyway, in the Daoist case, it has to do with the number of Nakshatras seen in the heavens from their POV (i.e. from China) and which they named. They count 7 in each of their subset of 4 directions, each associated with one of their 4 colours/directions/Animals. (There's a sacred animal associated with each direction.)
<snip>
5. Recently found a great analogy for aliens' total and permanent inability to know or understand heathenism (let alone others' heathenism).
A main theme of Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (a science fiction classic*) is supposed to be about how totally unknowable aliens (as in extra-terrestrials) must be to humans: how they can never be understood and how even communication with them must be difficult or impossible, because they are so alien from everything we know. In Solaris, the titular planet is supposed to be an intelligent life form itself. With god-like powers/intelligence - compared to humanity. But after a long time studying it (maybe a century?), humans still have no idea about its motivations and remain unable to communicate with it. [It's not that nothing happens: from the planet's end, the planet seems to monitor the humans monitoring it. While they sleep, it seems to be aware of their subconscious (the implication is it probes their thoughts and dreams) and generates from this copies of humans they know. But the humans are flabbergasted when faced with these copies of humans from their past who are essential to them. They wonder what the "motivation" of Solaris is in sending these characters to them - are its intentions malignant? - but the underlying point is that they will never understand what its motivation is, let alone if it has any real motivation in doing so. They assume its trying to communicate with them by this means, but don't understand its means of communication.]
Solaris touches on man's difficulty in properly understanding/knowing oneself and consequently the inability to know anyone else, even those close to us - then how would we know/understand aliens so far removed from our understanding (let alone a godlike intelligent life form like Solaris, that does not communicate by any means we know/comprehend)? To get back to the analogy:
Solaris - at the end just as in the beginning of Lem's work - remains unknowable to the humans. They can only ponder its motivations, knowing nothing at all more than Mere Speculation from their side (since its own side is unknowable to them, they can only attribute stuff to it, which is in all likelihood false).
Solaris' unknowability to humanity is quite like how aliens can never understand heathens and heathenism. Despite studying these. Despite dabbling and threatening to convert. Despite setting up chairs in alien climes and declaring themselves the experts on Hinduism, on Sanskrit/Vedic studies/Indology, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Philosophy etc. They'll forever be aliens looking on - talking at you, over you, through you. And never know anything more. Mwahahaha.