A CYS where you learn about Greek Mythology while trying to survive in the maze. Please base your ratings off of what you learned instead of the writing.

Scores range from -50 to 300.

Features:

*35 pages

*115 links

*A riddle

*5 Items (they can all be used at least once)

*5 Unique item defaults

*3 Monsters

*Lots of learning

Second island attack. Now an escape. I noticed that there wasn't much cool technology in the last game, there is more this time. A few things about the game. Health is the most important variable. If you run out of health you die. Also there are awards you can get and at the end of the game you can turn them in for points. If you want to use an item then you have to press the use item button. I won't give you links to make it easy for you. Also there is a hidden ending that you can get that will give you a code to a sort of sequel (hint of you want to get the secret ending you have to get an item by stealing his keys. Lastly if you played Island Attack One then this game will be easier because you will know not to do certain stuff. Now you can play.

Sci Fi, Serious, Distant Planet Adventure

A dramatized story about soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich for the Manifest Destiny Contest..

Endmaster's Myth and Religion contest entry.

My entry for the 2016 Riddle Storygame Contest.

Honorable Mention: Riddles & Puzzles 2016

For EndMaster's Manifest Destiny Contest.

Dedicated to Chairwoman Mizal, Benevolent Dictator of this fair website.

A young child ventures into the underworld to save the soul of his dog.

I'm quite normal I think.

Same.

People that are saying that the goblins are basically Jews are the ones I'm worried about.

21, thanks.

חנוכה שמח

Merry Christmas/happy holidays.

I will be eating Chinese food which feels a lot less special now that I live in China.

I wrote an essay on the integration of Chinese deities into Buddhism for one of my classes on Chinese history. Here it is for anyone interested. I got a B+.

During the Tang Dynasty an influx of immigrants and traders from the west brought new ideas, goods, and religions to the Chinese people.The Early Tang dynasty’s tolerance of foreigners and new ideas allowed the Tang Dynasty to become the most important cultural center in the world, a society in which followers of traditional Chinese folk religions and Taosim lived alongside Buddhists, Jews, and Zoroastrians. The wealthy elite of the Tang Dynasty prized imported goods and art, causing Chinese artists to be influenced by the aesthetics of western artwork. The combination of a multicultural society with various religions and an influx of western art led to the popularization of the Guanyin Bodhisattva, a Chinese religious figure exalted by both Chinese Buddhists and Taoists, which combined an Indian Mahayana Buddhist figure with the legend of a local Chinese deity. As the Tang Dynasty reached its end, it began to suppress non Taoist religious iconography, however the originally Buddhist symbol of Guanyin remained popular and was deemed to be Chinese, avoiding the suppression that plagued other Buddhist symbols. For centuries after the initial popularization of Guanyin as a deity, hundreds of depictions of the deity were carved in the Dazu Rock Carvings. These unique sculptures represent the Chinese tradition of adopting foreign beliefs, synthesizing the beliefs with local customs, and maintaining an adherence to Confucian values.

A Bodhisattva in Budhism is one who has achieved enlightenment, but delays their departure into nirvana out of a desire to help others reach enlightenment. The Guanyin Bodhisattva is but one of many Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist mythos. Originating in India as the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the tales of Avalokiteshvara reached China during the introduction of Buddhism in the Han Dynasty (206-220 CE). There, the name Avalokiteshvara was translated to Guanyin. Originally appearing as a male Bodhisattva (as in the Indian tradition of Buddhism only males can achieve enlightenment), the Chinese version of Guanyin was transformed into a female figure in the next few centuries. “As early as 483–493 CE an emperor had a vision of a feminine GuanYin” (Wang).
The feminization of Guanyin has no one explanation but there are many factors that could have led to Guanyin’s status as a woman. “Guan Yin traditions are clearly rooted in Buddhist goddesses such as Tara, archaic shamanic Chinese goddesses such as The Queen Mother of the West, and Daoist goddess such as Ma Tzu” (Wang). Most notable of these deities is The Queen Mother of the West, 西王母, who is described as the most important female deity in China prior to the feminization of Guanyin (Wang). From the Han Dynasty onward, Confucianism played a much larger role in Chinese society than the Daoist religion. In Daoism there is a separation between the female Yin and the masculine Yang, both Yin and Yang are positive forces that need to be in balance. In contrast to Daoism’s views on women, Confucius describes women as being strictly lower than men, as most clearly stated in Analects 17.25 “Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave to. If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. If you maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented” (Legge, 150). Due to the adoption of Confucianism as the state ideology of China during the Han Dynasty and the dynasties that followed, the influence of Taoist gender roles diminished. “despite women’s stronger roles in Daoism, and ancient traditions such as the Queen Mother of the West, their needs went largely unmet until they were filled by Guan Yin” (Wang). It is possible that Buddhism, despite the misogynistic original tradition of Buddhism in which women were “taught to detest their bodies and could only hope to be escape Hell by being reborn a man” (Wang), replaced Daoism as the philosophy of gender equity. The adoption of the female Guanyin influenced by Daoism and folk religions, and ignoring the explicitly misogynistic rules of Buddhism which would have prevented a female Guanyin from being created, exemplifies the Chinese philosophy of appropriating ideas from other cultures and using them in new ways to fit within traditional values.

The Guanyin’s popularity was greatly increased during the early Tang Dynasty due to the rapid expanse and state acceptance of Buddhism. The Tang Dynasty’s ring of peace and prosperity obtained through the silk road brought many traders and travelers from Central and Southeast Asia to China, especially to the populous Tang capital Chang’an. Despite the continuation of Confucianism as the state ideology, these traders and travelers enjoyed “an atmosphere of rare religious tolerance” (Sullivan 133). Monks from the west travelled to China to spread their religions, and Buddhism quickly gained more followers. “Never before had buddhism stood so high in Chinese history” (133). Among the new Chinese followers were many people of wealth who sponsored the construction of Buddhist art and temples, further spreading its influence, and the influence of the Chinese-Buddhist deity Guanyi. Among these wealthy Buddhists was Wu Zetian, who would become the first female emperor of China, subverting traditional confucian policies of the state. However, this period of religious tolerance and Buddhist popularity did not last. Due to the Arab conquest of the Tang Dynasty’s territory in Central Asia, the prosperity of the empire dwindled. “As so often happens in history, China became less tolerant as its power declined” (135). Due to the belief that foreign religions were corrupting confucian society, the Tang Dynasty enforced a ban on foreign faiths, including Buddhism. Guanyin is unique in that it was not considered to be a Buddhist deity, but rather a native Chinese goddess, “Of all the imported Buddhist deities. [Guanyin] is the only one who has succeeded in becoming a genuine Chinese goddess. So much so that many Chinese... are not even aware of her Buddhist origin” (Yu, 223-224). Beyond the culture of appropriating ideas from other cultures, the Chinese adoption of Guanyin as a native Chinese deity represents the domestication of foreign ideas into Chinese culture, changing them from their original form into something originally Chinese. This practice continues today with China’s adoption of “communism with Chinese characteristics”.

During the Tang Dynasty’s period of religious tolerance, a project was started in the Dazu region of China. Many statues of Buddhist figures were carved into the mountains and caves of Dazu, a site known today as the Dazu Rock Carvings. While it started as a Buddhist religious site, after the fall of the Tang Dynasty many confucian and Taoist carvings were also created (UNESCO). While religious tolerance was not restored to China following the fall of the Tang Dynasty, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE) a reemergence of esoteric Buddhism developed. Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were simultaneously taught within China, due in large part to the efforts of scholars who endorsed the idea that goodness can be found through the unification of the three philosophies (Zhao,19). However, Confucianism remained the dominant force in this new unified ideology.

“Guitang Jushi stood for the unification which Confucianism stayed in centre while Buddhism and Daoism served as assistants... and claimed that a lay Buddhist should hold the Confucian classics as the guide of life although they might live a Buddhist life,” (19).

Within the northern mountains of Dazu are hundreds of carvings of Guanyi alongside various Buddhist and Taoist deities as well as carvings depicting Confucius and his students. These carvings often contain acts or descriptions of virtuous filial piety, one of the core doctrines of Confucianism. The hundreds of depictions of an altered Buddhist figure among traditional Daoist deities in service of Confucianism is the culmination of many generations working together to make a concept Chinese.

While the Guanyin Bodhisattva is present in many Asian countries, the level of change the deity received in China is unparalleled. While other cultures may add or reject elements of other cultures, China alters the idea to fit Chinese values. The Guanyin carvings among Confucian and Daoist carvings within the Dazu Rock Carvings is a perfect demonstration of how China adopts ideas and turns them into something Chinese, adding the new sinicized version into the Chinese identity.

Sources:

“Dazu Rock Carvings.” UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/912/.

Legge, James. The Chinese Classics: With a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. London, Trübner, 1861.

Sullivan, Michael. Arts of China [AC], 6th edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018.

Wang Minqin. “Guan Yin.” Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, edited by David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, Stanton Marlan, Springer, Boston, MA., 2010 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71802-6_792

Yü, Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteshvara. Columbia University Press, 2001.

Zhao, Zhou. The Unified Three Teachings in the Rock Carvings of the Song Dynasty in Chongqing and Sichuan. 2010. Heidelberg University, PhD dissertation. Core, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32581588.pdf.

My religion is less cringe than whatever yall have down in texas. 

Alma is a fairly common girls name in the Hebrew speaking world. The primary association (in modern context) is definitly is not of a virgin but rather an unmarried young woman (which in the Torah would be a virgin incedentally but not explicitly).

Purim is by far the most fun Jewish holiday.

We didn't get genocided, we get to eat donuts, we get to wear costumes, and we are required to get drunk.