Friday, February 20, 2009

Mulian

okay. we are considering the Chinese opera that tells the story of Mulian, the Buddhist monk that descends into hell to rescue his mother. The details are still a bit murky and, from what I've read, thay are also a pretty serious topic. For instance, the people that fall into this version of hell are men and women who've committed murder in past lives, women who died after childbirth, women who've transgressed taboos, women and men who fornicate during forbidden periods, etc. Also this is a specific kind of Hell, call the Blood Pool or Blood Lake or Blood Pond Hell.

So, we want to talk about Blood Pond Hell, particularly the Daoist version of Blood Pond Hell because it includes men and women (not just women like the Buddhist version).

All this is referencing the Blood Bowl Sutra, which is originally a Buddhist text.