#mylittlepony - #Impermanence, Buddhism and the yaks.

Impermanence, Buddhism and the yaks.

So recently, I watched the episode Uprooted for the first time... It was terrible, but that's a different matter. However, there was a single line at the very end of the episode, that made my brain go wild.

"Yaks know things not forever. That's why smash and rebuild."

I maintain the opinion, that the yaks are the best non-pony culture in the whole show. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but they really do seem to be the ones to understand the magic friendship. And not only that, have their own twist on it and their own wisdom to share with ponies.

Many are disconcerted about how the ponies always seem to be the ones to teach another creature a friendship lesson, making it seem like they are automatically right by sheer force of being the protagonists. But more than once now, the yaks have relayed their own friendship lessons to ponies.

Now I want to get back to Yona's line, because I greatly appreciate just how much accidental genious there is in that single comment of hers. There's basically an entire foundation of a culture inside it. A culture where children are taught about the nature of impermanence, through playful traditions involving breaking things into tiny pieces.

Because life is like the satisfaction of smashing a rock. It's momentary, it's short, it's meaningless. But it brought a moment of happiness, and every second of that needs to be celebrated.

(I wonder what their funerary traditions are.)

I remember, in one episode Yona talks about their not-christmas traditions. Obviously it involves breaking things, but there was also something about building an effigy, that symbolizes friendship or something. And it is the only thing they don't break.

Do you see it? They see that physical things are impermanent, they understand that loved ones are impermanent as well. But they know love is a constant. Even if everything and every-creature ceases to exist, love will always remain.

No wonder they sometimes teach friendship lessons to ponies; their whole ideology revolves around it. Ponies may treat love as a force with physical power, the yaks see it as the only thing that will remain forever. And that's a great power on its own.

I bet there are many religious parallels to make here as well. Could the yaks be closer to Buddhism than we thought? Maybe they grew out of an aztec-like warrior culture.

(I bet the yaks make amazing mandalas into the snow, only to watch it melt in the summer.)

Anyway, I don't really have much else to say about the subject. I just wanted to indulge myself and be a little positive about the late-show for a bit.

What do you think?

Submitted August 01, 2019 at 10:38AM by JesterOfDestiny
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