Mastodawn

a Christmas carol makes more sense from a Buddhist perspective than a Christian one

the actual mechanism of Scrooge's transformation is way more Buddhist than Christian

there's no salvation through grace, no acceptance of a savior, no forgiveness of sins through faith

what happens is he's forced to see clearly.

he witnesses the causes and conditions of his own suffering and the suffering he creates. he sees dependent origination in action - how his choices ripple outward, how Tiny Tim's fate is entangled with his own actions

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Void Chicken Dec 24

the transformation isn't "I accept Jesus and am forgiven" - it's "I finally see, and seeing clearly, I naturally want to act differently." that's awakening, not salvation

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Void Chicken Dec 24

and Jacob marley is in the realm of hungry ghosts

its clearly not Christian hell where's being punished by a judge

his chains aren’t imposed. they're self-assembled. each link is a habit of grasping

he forged them while alive, which is exactly how hungry ghosts work

he wants to help Scrooge. he wants to warn him. but wanting is still wanting.even remorse can be another attachment if it loops back into self-fixation. his suffering isn’t that he can’t act; it's that he can’t rest

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⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe

@Taweret i've recently been reminded, through a lovely reading in a podcast, that we see *other* ghosts in chains, desperate to help the people they should have helped when alive, but can't because they are dead and those people can't see them.