u/Early-Photo9784

I would say both minds have different resolves.

A skillful mind abandons what is unskillful, and maintains what is skillful. And what is skillful? Renunciation, non-ill will, and harmlessness.

Yet a released mind relinquishes what is both skillful and unskillful.

For these effluents of sensuality, becoming, and ignorance, when seen with discernment, develops dispassion for them. With dispassion, these effluents come to cessation.

And what exactly is dispassion? That these qualities, these very effluents, are worthy of relinquishing, not picking up.

Even when touched by these effluents, a person doesn't become agitated because of that direct knowledge.

Thus a skillful mind leads to becoming going along with those effluents, siding with merit, but a released mind is free from that very becoming, seeing the fault in effluents.

So where do those resolves stem from?

Skillful: "There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are contemplatives & brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves."

Released: "Whatever has been brought into being, is fabricated, willed, dependently originated: That is inconstant. Whatever is inconstant is stress. Whatever is stress is not me, is not what I am, is not my self. This is the sort of view I have.”

A released mind is harder to achieve compared to a skillful one, but it is possible. And that possibility is given to you and everyone else too, thanks to the Buddha, the Sangha, and the propagation of the Dhamma.

I think for me that realization came when even clinging on to this Dhamma was stressful. When I read this line from Venerable Sariputta, "Indeed, it seems that the One Well-Gone speaks to us of the relinquishing of each of these qualities through direct knowledge," I came to realize that too. So look into your practice, and aim for a released mind. The teachings are here and now, well-translated, well-taught, for those who wish for release.

Let me preface this and say empathetic joy is difficult to develop because we have to step out from our own experience to understand another.

When we look at our friends, partners, or associates, they all live very different lives and experience many different things. Those who are engineers, accountants, doctors, parents, lawyers, etc. will unlikely experience what these occupations provide. This is why we must ask what we don't know and why the Buddha was an excellent teacher.

This Dhamma is not applied to every situation, this is why there is development of multiple awareness-releases such as empathetic joy, equanimity, compassion, and loving-kindness. There is not one fit-all solution, and if there was then the Buddha would have found it. I think the eightfold path is much like that, it leads to developing numerous skillful qualities but in the end it has to be let go to achieve unbinding.

Despite the joy that arises in the development of these awareness releases, the Buddha points out that joy or feeling is fabricated. That these very mental qualities are worthy to be relinquished, not clinged onto. So when you look at your practice, ask yourselves, "Why do I keep picking up these things that lead to becoming, stress?"

This is what leads to unbinding within.

When we surround ourselves with unpleasing people, it is easy for the mind to be blemished. Whether it be family, friends, or coworkers, when they speak, act, and/or live harshly, disagreements become common. When one disagrees, this conceit arises in them "this is true, anything else is worthless." And it is because of that conceit, one fights with their family, friends, or coworkers. One raise their voices, their fists, and/or go on to do unskillful things.

But when we chasten ourselves, we look at the real problem. It is because we surround ourselves with unpleasing beings, these disagreements arise in us. But it is because we find these disagreements true, upholding them, it leads to conflict. Seeing that drawback, seeing how it leads to one's affliction, one abandons it right then and there.

With the ending of conceit, comes the ending of I-making. But there is more work to be done, do not forget friends. It is through the ending of that craving, we experience the ending of stress.

I have an opportunity to venerate the relics of the Buddha and his disciples, what is the proper procedure, how should one approach?

And what exactly is dullness? It is marked by a lack of motivation, a heavy weight on the mind, cloudiness, and a lack of pleasure or pain in life. It is because someone has dullness, their minds are not in the best position to hear and learn the Dhamma.

So what causes this dullness? It is formed by fabrications, exhausting oneself until one's body is tired and one's mind becomes easily disturbed or agitated. When one is bounded by fabrications, it is difficult to follow the path. Whether you are a parent, caretaker, a student, or a worker, there is always much to be done.

So what leads to the ending of dullness? With the stilling of fabrications, one's body is able to relax, one's mind becomes centered. And when the body is relaxed, and the mind centered, one can direct it to hearing and learning the Dhamma.

When asked about the reward of concentration, the answer is a pleasant abiding here and now.

Because concentration has cessation of feeling and perception as its end, when a monk comes out from that, they dwell in seclusion. This doesn't mean someone becomes enlightened as a result of concentration, but it the effort they put they are rewarded such.

This now begs the question, how important is the cessation of mental effluents? And returning to seclusion, how does one regard mental effluents?

The cessation of mental effluents is pleasant, one can make the discernemnt, "birth has ended, the holy life has been lived" but falling away from that, a person feels pain and because of that pain, craving arises in them. It is because of that discernment, they can become conceited due to that feeling. Passion, aversion, and delusion intensify because of that change in feeling.

But when a person seeing and discerning that the cessation of feeling and perception, the reward of concentration, is inconstant, then they relinquish that. When they relinquish that, they achieve unbinding within.

So when asked about the rewards of concentration, it is the cessation of mental effluents. When asked about the drawback of that reward, it is inconstant, fabricated. Because it is fabricated, it is worthy to relinquish right here and now.

When we ask ourselves what belongs to us, a few things arise.

This discernment I have for phenomena, this concentration I have built, this virtue I have perfected.

But the door to deathlessness doesn't open when you have these belongings with you. But why is that? Isn't the goal, the practice, for the sake of perfecting the path? Why would I give up what I have built from following this path?

And the answer becomes a paradox of sort. It is because one has this perception, delights in it, and clings to it, it leads to becoming, stress. But one who has this perception, does not delight in it, does not cling to it, does not lead to becoming, stress.

This is why these very qualities even how charming, alluring they are, are worthy of abandoning here and now. They are worthy of relinquishing, not picking up, not building again, for the sake of deathlessness, unbinding.

This is what it means to go beyond the door, rather than being stuck at the door step.

The practice is simple, mindfulness. This has always been the direct path because it gives insight to the true nature of our beings.

When mental phenomena arises, we watch it. This includes skillful and unskillful mental qualities. What is skillful doesn't lead to your affliction or others, while unskillful leads to that. A common unskillful quality we see is having passion or aversion for objects, people, and many obscure things. What I mean by that is object fixation, it needs to be perfect, fantasizing about relationships (lustful, or not). Obscure things can include certain points of the Dhamma.

A huge struggle that we perhaps can not understand is how much of a role the Dhamma can be in obscuring the goal of the path. If the goal is true unbinding, then why would you cling to the Dhamma to the bitter end? This is why there is a point in letting go of this very phenomena, going beyond it.

I think we all have gripes with this set, but my biggest gripe I have that I never seen anyone mention is this: But why two, and not three?

In the trailer, there are clearly three gods, not two. Meaning we are suppose to have three gods per game, three meaningful choices...sorta like portals? Y'all remember when we had a voting system, right before the game started? And imagine when you get pulled into the portal, you get pulled into that God's celestial realm like the trailer, truly cinematic.

Sometimes we forget the themes or purpose of each set, especially the vision, the tales we tell, of how the gods gave us tacticians blessings/gifts for epic space teamfights. So when we reflect on this set, we must ask ourselves what is the theme of this set and how can we live up to it?

And that answer is: Play the song "Gods" in game please! So I can brain wash myself thinking only we only need two, not three.