A Memorial Day to forget (sutra)

Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy); Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Considering becoming a soldier?

Access to Insight on Wrong Livelihood (karma) edited by Wisdom Quarterly (Yodhājīva Sutra)

Einherjar with wolf served by Valkyries in Valhalla as Odin sits on throne (Emil Doepler).

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Expecting Valhalla and glory? No.

(SN 42.3) Yodhajiva the chief went to the Buddha, paid his respects, sat to one side, and said: "Venerable sir, I have heard this passed down by the warriors' ancient teaching lineage:

"'When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, if others strike one down and slay a warrior in battle, then with the breakup of the body, after death, that person is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle' [in a Valhalla or Buddhist Sārañjita*]. What does the Blessed One have to say about that?"

"Enough, chief, set that question aside. Ask me not that." But a second and third time Yodhajiva the chief asked.

Return to Valhalla (Ernest Wallcousins, 1912)

"Apparently, chief, I have not been able to get past you by saying, 'Enough, chief, set that question aside. Ask me not that.' So I will answer plainly.

"When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, that person's mind (heart) is already seized, debased, and misdirected with the thought, 'May these beings be struck down, slaughtered, destroyed, annihilated. May they cease to exist!'

"If others strike and slay that person in battle, then with the breakup of the body, after death, that person is reborn in a hell called the realm of those slain in battle. Moreover, if that person holds a view [such as the one you described], that is wrong view.

Valkyries carry dead warrior to Valhalla as they pass the god Heimdallr (Lorenz Frølich 1906).

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"There are two destinations for a person possessed of wrong view, I tell you, either [rebirth in a] hell or in an animal's womb."

When this was said, Yodhajiva the chief burst into tears and sobbed.

"That is what I could not get past you by saying, 'Enough, chief, set that question aside. Ask me not that.'"

"Venerable sir, I am not crying because of what the Blessed One said, but rather because I have been fooled, cheated, and deceived for so long by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors who said such a thing."

Brian becomes stupid, and Stewie tries to bring him back to his senses.

• God Odin
• Goddess Frigg
• Goddess Freyja

WAR POEM: Dulce et decorum est

Imperial British soldier Wilfred Owen (book)

Manuscript variant (ox.ac.uk)

This poem was written by Wilfred Owen during WWI. He was later killed in battle, and it was published posthumously in 1920. The title is Latin and taken from Ode 3.2 (Valor) of the Roman poet Horace. Dulce et decorum est means "it is sweet and fitting" followed by pro patria mori, which means "to die for one's country." One of Owen's most renowned works, it is characterized by horror as a condemnation of war. Drafted at Craiglockhart addressed Oct. 8, 2017 to his mother, Susan Owen, and later revised, likely at Scarborough but possibly Ripon.

POEM

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer,

Bitter [bitten] as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori (book) More

• *Sarājita: A niraya (one of the apayas) in which those who die in battle are reborn (S.iv.311). The Commentary to this sutra (SA.iii.100) explains that it is a purgatory rather than a distinctive plane of existence, a part of Avīci, the "Waveless Deep," the most hellish world. Sarajita is where fighters of all sorts fight on in their imagination. Compare with Sarañjita (G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names edited by Wisdom Quarterly).
• The idea of "Valhalla" or Valhǫll is strangely similar to the Eastern conception of the lower celestial ruler Sakka King of the Gods (devas). He is a peaceful warrior having to constantly fend off the titans (asuras), who rage on as antagonists in the "War in Heaven." There is not one heaven in Buddhism but many. These levels or planes of existence are progressively more refined and longer lasting. Sakka rules the World of the Thirty-Three and oversees the Realm of the Four Great Kings or sky-kings, regents, just above the human world. This human plane of existence extends far beyond earth and the worlds we know.
• "HELL"? Buddhism teaches that on account of the universality of impermanence, a life in a hell, just as one in a heaven, cannot last eternally. So they are more like purgatories. It ends after the exhaustion of the karma that caused that rebirth. It will necessarily be followed again by another death and another rebirth, according to one's other stored up karma (deeds, merit, demerit, intentional actions, conduct, behavior). Hellions have a very hard time that may as well be an eternity but, of course, they are not literally one.