I saw your post and I hope it's not too much to ask but could you explain some of the references?
hai anon!! gege akutami really loves his buddhism references and it shows in multiple ways in the jujutsu kaisen series, be it by just slamming the references into names or through the story telling and parallels in the story, i wont be covering all of em since yk theres way too much to cover. but here some ive compiled in one sitting:
(also excuse bad punctuation and formatting or whatever, as i said im doing this in one sitting and rushing ALOT)
i wanna talk abt gojo since im kinda obsessed w him lately due to the new season, so lets start w him.
gojo is pictured as a bodhisattva:
besides his first name literally meaning enlightenment, we know that in the hidden inventory arc, after getting his ass handed to him by toji, he is 'reborn' (yk, when he brought himself back from near death w RCT). he reached enlightenment and found + understood the core of jujutsu which led his rebirth as the TRUE strongest (like when the buddha reached enlightenment by understanding the core of dhamma and it marks the change from his previous life as siddhartha gautama to the buddha).
and as we all know, in the scene where he awakens, he utters the words "throughout heaven and earth, i alone am the honored one" 天上天下唯我独尊; which the buddha famously said while pointing to the heavens and the earth, after being birthed. (gojo does point both hands tht way, but finger wise he only points to the earth, not the heavens idk)
now i say he's more like a bodhisattva and not a buddha because of a certain detail, while the buddha became the enlightened one and ascended to nirvana (meaning he's free from the cycle of rebirth) he's more like a bodhisattva in which he does indeed become enlightened, just that instead of freeing himself from the cycle of rebirth, he chooses to spread his knowledge and continues teaching (the way becomes a teacher in order to raise new jujutsu sorcerers)
if anyone were to be the buddha it would be tengen, master tengen founded the jujutsu community, teaches sorcerers about jujutsu and is regarded as a deity (by some).
despite being a highly respected individual, tengen is not a much of a fighter, she's more of a teacher and is respected for their high knowledge on jujutsu
master tengen is also immortal, yet not able to exist in the outside world, instead tengen exists inside of the barriers they created (to mantain their self awareness and not yk go insane and destroy the world), which acts as a different realm. this might be a reference to how the Buddha is somewhat immortal yet not really, he lives on in his teachings (dhamma) and his students.
if tengen is the buddha, that would make kenjaku Devadatta, siddharta gautama's cousin and (self proclaimed) buddha's archenemy. i could say more but thats a story for another day.
buddhism references in the power system of jujutsu:
one of them is the etymology behind mahito's cursed technique, Idle Transfiguration - 無為転変 (Mui Tenpen)
the Mui means something along the lines of unchanging/absolute, yet it's also translated into idleness.
— on reddit someone said 無為転変 means to mutate the idleness of human affairs/to mutate the natural order, but idrk take what u will with this
in buddhism, there's a phrase called 有為転変(Ui Tenpen) which means impermanence / change, so his cursed technique is basically the opposite of the natural order
his domain expansion's name (self embodiment of perfection) has a certain buddhist ring to it i feel lol, besides that, the form of his domain might also be a reference to the thousand-armed thousand-eyed Guanyin Bodhisattva.
besides mahito, jogo and dagon's domain also have certain references in their naming (jogo's iron mountain refers to Mount Meru, which is often mentioned in buddhism and hinduism. the word 'Skandha' in dagon's basically means the factors that cause attachment)
the hand signs the characters do when casting a domain expansion are mudras; hand seals used in buddhism and hinduism(? i think), you'd often see them on statues/arcas, they're usually used during prayers (i think the most well know and the most used one is anjali mudra). for more you can check tempenensis's post, i love their posts alot LOL
there's also the whole thing about mahoraga (+ the other 10 shadows shikigamis), sukuna, toji, etc. but that would take too long and im writing this all in one go before i go to a family dinner so…
ANYWAYS i think thats all i'll talk about today, i might add more some other time but im gonna go eat dinner now bye
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in every possible way
in every possible way
(or: five things nancy wheeler learned about family by having her own)
for @jancyweek2022 day 5: family
this is set in my future perfect ‘verse, so that would be some good/necessary context for this, for what it’s worth. (and yes, i said they had 2 kids. this is just part of the first one.)
read it on ao3
oh my life is changing every day in every possible way
and oh my dreams are never quite as they seem
never quite as they seem
1. some big decisions feel very small
They toss it around for years, the idea of it. In fact, for a long time an idea is all it is.
She’s the lowest reporter on the newspaper totem pole, working the shittiest stories in the shittiest neighborhoods at the shittiest times of day. He’s trying to fully establish himself as a photographer and picking up bartending shifts on every night he doesn’t have a shoot booked.
And of course there’s the weekends they “go away” for some private time investigating thin spots in the world that may or may not be gates. Their friends think they have an extremely healthy marriage, putting each other first above all else.
Nancy thinks they have an extremely healthy marriage, because after you’ve fought monsters and saved the world together everything else seems like a piece of cake.
Well. Most everything else. That one thing her mother always brings up when she calls, that’s more daunting to her than any Demogorgon or gate ever was.
They’re in no rush, really. And the timing never seems right.
Do you think we should have a baby? She asks him after she says goodbye to her mother and he studies the stack of bills on the coffee table. He smirks at her.
I think we should make sure we can pay the light bill first.
Do you want to have a baby? He asks her as they tuck themselves into the corner of her office baby shower, her manager glowing in the center of a circle of otherwise hardboiled reporters and editors who are – slightly drunkenly, to be sure – oohing and aahing over a hand-knitted set of baby clothes.
I’m about to do her work and mine – when exactly do you think I have time to be pregnant? She shoots back, and he chortles into his glass.
It goes like that for a while, over months and months, until one night Nancy finds herself at their kitchen table, contemplating the brown paper pharmacy bag with the familiar egg-shaped plastic compact inside. That’s where Jonathan finds her, the light around her dimming as the sun sets outside their windows.
“Is everything OK or are you just enjoying sitting in the dark?” he asks, flipping on the light and taking the seat next to her.
She’s quiet a moment, considering approaches, and then just blurts it out.
“I think I wanna have a baby.”
She keeps her eyes squarely on the table, not daring to look at him. Every past conversation they’ve had – short or long – feels ephemeral to her, like they were just playing with hypotheticals. She means it this time. It’s been nagging in the back of her mind for weeks, for probably longer, manifesting in lingering looks at women with strollers on the street and on the L, with watching the toddlers at the playground in the park up the street when she’s taking a walk. In daydreams on her commute – still watercolor blurred and amorphous in their own way – involving Jonathan’s wide palms on her swollen belly, or tiny hands tugging on his shoulder length hair, a little body cradled between them as they sing pop songs to lull it to sleep that have gone from occasional to daily to more.
She had refilled her prescription without thinking, gotten home, and realized she didn’t want to wake up the next morning and take a pill.
His hand, warm and rough, on hers snaps her out of her thoughts.
“Yeah, me too.”
Her head snaps up so fast she nearly gives herself whiplash.
“Really?”
His face is open, his eyes warm brown and dancing. There is no hesitation to be seen. “Yep.”
A weight she hadn’t even realized she was feeling lifts off her all at once, and she lets the smile break over her face. The one she gets in return is just as wide.
His hand is squeezing hers hard enough to hurt but they’re both giggling and she is giddy, practically vibrating with it.
Then a thought strikes her. It stops the giddiness in its tracks. It must show on her face because suddenly Jonathan looks very, very worried.
“Nance? What?”
“Oh god. Does that mean I have to get pregnant?”
She can barely register his laugh before she’s being pulled out of her chair, tossed over his shoulder and is suddenly enjoying a very nice, close up view of his rear end as he sets off down the hall to their room.
“I’m trying not to take that as an insult.”
2. impending fatherhood is sexy
They’re not going to be the first parents among their friends, and Nancy is immensely grateful for that as she climbs the steps to the home Ben and Michelle bought six months ago, halfway through their own pregnancy.
Nancy wonders if they need to start thinking about things like a house or a yard. There are no cul-de-sacs in the city, thank fucking god, but there are dead end streets. If they do have to move, they sure as hell aren’t moving to one of those. That’s too damn close.
She rings the bell without thinking and immediately regrets it when she hears a piercing wail from inside. Stupid, stupid.
The cry gets louder as footstep approach the door and she’s all set and ready to apologize to Michelle but instead finds Jonathan behind the slab of oak, a tiny bundle of blankets cradled in one arm.
“The bell, Nance? Really??”
She doesn’t reply; she can’t. He’s in a t-shirt, his hair’s disheveled, he’s holding a baby, and suddenly every hormone in her body – and man, there are an awful lot of them right now – is rushing to straight between her legs.
He steps aside and she enters on autopilot, trying to figure out the best way to tell him he should give the baby back to Michelle and leave with her, right now, because she wants to climb him like a tree.
“Michelle went to take a shower,” he says, briefly snapping her out of her reverie. “I told her I’d keep an eye on Emma and to take her time. I think Ben’s on his way home but I had just gotten her to fall asleep.”
“Sorry,” she sidles up to his bicep, trying hard to ignore how good he smells, especially mixed with the soft scent of baby powder and freshly laundered blankets. “Hello, Emma.”
“Hello Nancy, thanks for waking me up from my nap so I can scream bloody murder in Uncle Jonathan’s ear again!” He bounces the bundle in time with his high-pitched response.
“Mmm,” she nuzzles his shoulder. “’Uncle Jonathan’ has a nice ring to it but I think ‘dad’ is a lot sexier.”
He raises his eyebrows at her, still bouncing the baby as she starts to calm. “Well we’re not quite there yet but I’m sure you’ll get to fulfill those fantasies someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later.”
“How about today?” She reaches into her purse, fishes around until she finds the little Ziploc baggie and pulls it out. Holds it up so Jonathan can see the pink and white stick with two parallel pink lines on it.
It is both immensely gratifying and incredibly attractive to watch his eyes widen so much she thinks they’re about to pop out of his head.
“Really?” he whispers, almost like speaking too loud would make it not true. “Nance, are you serious?”
“The lines don’t lie,” she looks up at him through her eyelashes. “How long until Michelle is done with her shower, do you think? Because I want to take your pants off with my teeth.”
3. unconditional love really means unconditional
The look on his face confirms to her she’s horrifying but to be totally honest she couldn’t give two shits.
“Did you get the salsa?” she asks as Jonathan closes their apartment door behind him. Eyes the paper bag he’s carrying like she suddenly has x-ray vision.
“I did.”
“And those Mexican candy spoon things? With the sour-sweet?”
“Tamarind,” he corrects absently, clutching the bag to his chest like it can protect him from something. “I did.”
She beams a him. “Thank you. I love you.”
“…Yeah.”
“Oh come on,” she rolls her eyes as he edges into the room. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Um,” he tries, stops, and then just gestures in her direction with his free hand.
She looks down at herself. It’s pretty standard for her lately, 32 weeks into this bullshit ordeal: a pair of Jonathan’s clean boxer shorts, her most comfortable bra, one of his rattier button downs that has long be moved from his work wardrobe to “painting the house” duty, and which is big enough to accommodate her suddenly quite large belly. She swears up and down she blew up like a balloon; after weeks of morning sickness where the smell of just about any food that wasn’t white bread or oranges turned her stomach, she finally got her appetite back. But even then her belly had resolutely refused to show until about two weeks ago; now she suddenly had a little shelf to rest things on whenever she sat down.
Honestly, it was kind of convenient, even if sometimes their son’s kicking knocks over her plate or her cup.
Right now that belly shelf is home to a half-eaten Sara Lee cheesecake she had picked up in the freezer section of the corner store.
“What?” she asks.
He gestures again, this time more clearly toward her left hand. She looks at it, considers, then pops one finger into her mouth so she can eat the pitted black olive off the tip.
“What?” she asks again, a little muffled as she chews. Swallows, then follows it with a bite of cheesecake.
“That is disgusting.”
“It’s good!” she protests as he hightails it out of the room. She hears the rustling as he unpacks her latest cravings and eats another olive. “It’s like, a little salty and a lot creamy and a little sweet. Opposites attracting, like us!”
“Which one of us is the olive and which one of us is the cheesecake?” She can practically hear his shudder. “Nevermind, I don’t want to know.”
That gives her an idea and she swipes another olive, this one on her middle finger, through the cake, scooping up some. Pops it into her mouth and chews thoughtfully. Meh. It’s OK. Not as good as she was hoping for.
When she looks toward the kitchen again he’s standing in the doorway, looking as disgusted as ever.
“Oh come on,” she rolls her eyes, sliding the cake off her stomach and onto the coffee table. Stands carefully, one hand still half-occupied with olives, the other going to the half-done buttons of his ratty old shirt. “I’m not that gross, am I? I mean, you didn’t seem to think I was this morning before I left for work. Or when I came to see you on your dinner break. I believe you thanked me for wearing a skirt, and god for fixing the lock on the women’s bathroom door.”
“You weren’t eating olives off your fingers with cheesecake this morning. Or at the bar.”
“Well,” she pops the last two remaining olives into her mouth and the last two remaining buttons free with her other hand. “I’m not now, either.”
His keeps his arms crossed, his shoulders stiff, as she slowly starts to walk toward him, hoping she can still pull off seductive when her belly’s this big. His eyes are full trained on her (now much more ample, thanks pregnancy) cleavage, though, so she’s pretty sure she’s doing just fine.
“That’s true,” he allows and finally reaches out to her, slides his hands up her side and over her breasts before drawing her close and brushing his lips over hers once, twice, three times. She feels her knees go a little weak. “And I love you no matter what. But would you mind brushing your teeth?”
4. what’s in a name?
Nancy wakes slowly, blearily rubbing at her face as she blinks back the afternoon light. Something feels strange, feels different, feels off—
The baby.
She bolts upright with a gasp, scrambling out from under the covers and skidding into the living room in a panic only to be confronted by the sight of Will sitting in the old rocking chair Jonathan had rescued from his mom’s house years ago and that is definitely coming in handy now.
Will’s got her beautiful baby boy held snugly in his arms, his head bent toward him and long still-bowl-cut hair hanging down like a soft curtain. She thinks it’s funny, all these years and he still gets his hair cut the way his mom used to do it.
She thinks Will maybe have been saying something to her son, or maybe humming, but he looks up when she arrives, a smirk already on his face.
“Forgot you have a kid now?”
“Honestly,” she says, hand on her chest as she tries to calm her racing heart, catch her breath, “I’m not used to getting so much sleep.” Approaches them. “Thanks for letting me nap, by the way.”
“No problem,” Will looks back down at his nephew. “Joe and I were having a great time together. Doing some rocking, singing some songs.”
“And what kind of taste in music are you trying to impose on my firstborn child, eh?” She reaches out and brushes her fingertips over the fine brown hair dusting his crown. She swears up and down every day that he looks just like Jonathan while he swears the opposite, but she does have to admit Joe got her coloring. His chestnut hair and bright blue eyes could come straight out of her own baby photos.
Will grins at her. “Oh, please, like I could ever displace his father’s influence.”
“And what am I chopped liver?” She hears the door open and close behind them, the thunk of Jonathan dropping his photo bag under the coat tree. Lifts her face to accept his brief kiss when he crosses the room. Doesn’t hide her grin when he does the same to the crown of Joe’s head.
“Want me to take him?” he asks his brother.
“You stink like chemicals,” she interrupts before Will can agree. “Go change, and then we’ll give Uncle Will’s arms a break. He let me take a nap, he’s earned it.”
“Excellent, I’ll be right back.”
“No you’re not chopped liver,” Will says like they weren’t even interrupted. “But, come on. You let Jonathan name him Joe.”
Huh? she thinks.
“Huh?” she says.
“It was my brother’s idea right?”
“Well yeah but, like, Joe’s a normal name,” she frowns at him.
“What were your other choices?”
“I liked Adam, but Jonathan didn’t, not for a first name. He also suggested Ian, which was nice, but I liked Joe more.”
Will’s smirk is bigger now, and it makes her suspicions rise.
“Joe?” he repeats. “And Ian?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with Joe and Ian?”
“You really don’t get it?”
“Get what?” Suspicion is quickly turning to irritation and she suspects Will can read it on her face because he stops smirking quite so hard.
“Joe Strummer? Ian Curtis? The—“
“--Lead singers of The Clash and Joy Division,” she finishes for him, eyes wide. Wheels around to find Jonathan standing in the doorway between living room and hallway, mid-frantic arm wave, as if he’d been trying to get his brother to stop spilling the beans. He freezes, then grins sheepishly at her.
“You like the name Joe, and anyway we already filled out the birth certificate weeks ago…”
“Jonathan!!”
Will cracks up as she huffs her frustrations at him, half-joking and half-not. Oh, she should have guessed. He was far too confident and clear about his name suggestions. Oh, she should have known.
Joe starts whimpering and whining as his own sleep is disturbed and as she chases Jonathan playfully around the room she hears Will still in the chair, singing through his laughter, “Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double…”
“So you got to let me know,” Jonathan joins in, cowering behind the rocking chair and his son and his brother. “Should I stay or should I go?”
When he stands up she makes sure the burp cloth hits him square in the face.
5. it is possible to be this happy
Nancy gives the pot of sauce one last stir, lifts the wooden spoon to her lips and carefully blows before giving it a taste. Mmm. Perfect.
Jonathan may be the better cook overall but she’s learned a trick or two over the years.
“Hey Jonathan,” she calls, turning off the burner and putting the lid back on before walking back toward the living room, already starting to unbutton her shirt, “dinner’s ready, do you wanna hand him over to me so I can feed him while you’re setting the—“
She trails off in the doorway, taking in the sight before her. Jonathan is sprawled on the sofa, the light of the television airing Wheel of Fortune flickering across his face. He’s got Joe on his chest, his hand securely at his back. They are both fast asleep.
She does the two buttons of her shirt back up, considering whether she wants to wake them up. After a moment, decides against it. Dinner can probably wait.
It’s a little complicated but she manages to ease the pillow out from under Jonathan’s head and then maneuver herself so that he’s in her lap. Combs her fingers slowly through his hair, soft dark blonde strands she’s been playing with for well over a decade now.
She’s not sure how she got here. She imagined so many lives for herself, from dreams of women’s college with Barb to dreams of being a front page Pulitzer winning reporter. She’s saved the world and had her heart broken, almost lost everything and gotten it back again.
Her chest, her heart, her soul feels so full, like she’s about to burst from all the love in there, for this man and this tiny creature they made together, this tiny little human she would do anything for; walk over hot coals, throw herself in front of a train. From the moment his blue eyes looked into hers her world has felt like it is so full of love that it’s overflowing into a waterfall of feeling and all she can do is be swept along with the current, content to drown.
She thinks maybe that’s what people mean when they say they’re so happy they could die.
She shakes herself out of her thoughts only to find two pairs of eyes staring up at her, one brown and one blue. She smiles down at them both, reaching out to cup Joe’s head, stroke her thumb over the soft crown. Jonathan switches the hand holding his son to his chest and raises the other to cup her cheek.
Yes, she thinks, dinner can wait.
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