I need some elaboration on this. If it stands that 'chaos' is 'non-existence', existence 'flickers' within it, and this chaos can be warped or adjusted by these users to their benefit, then this would qualify as Void Manipulation. However, both your sources here and in the blog aren't totally clear on these premises. For one, the scan claiming that 'existence flickers darkly in the chaos' does not appear to say anything of the sort in isolation. The quote is "What I can create does not exceed the bounds of my own potential. The answer is always flickering darkly in chaos."
So that section was to outline the point that void (labeled chaos here) is fundamental to existence. Here is the full scan where we see Kenjaku states "sorcerers (those who can use CE), non-sorcerors, and cursed spirits,
all represent possibilities" which in the
next scan (the one you reference) we are given the visual motif of light flickering on a black background. When Kenjaku states he tried to "bring this forth" himself he is referencing his mixing between curses and humans which is why Choso is highlighted in that panel. So this would extend to ontology of the basis of life forms would have to due with the nature of reality (and we know this
extends to animals as well). This motif is something Gege does consistently when the manga addresses deeper ontological aspects.
For instance, making a
distortion in space time [2] reveals this same canvas of emptiness
While regular humans would just see Sukuna hanging around, Gojo is able to see past the material world and spot the
exact same canvas which houses Sukuna's and Megumi's soul [2] to see how Sukuna was adapting to his domain. We see this previously when Yuji entered Mahito's domain and forced
their souls to interact, we see the same exact void pictured to visually depict this. Mahito also being the one to expressly claim that Buddhist scriptures were textbooks to controlling the soul
based on his readings of the Heart Sutra ( a
sutra which touches upon Sunyata) and mentions the monk can "feels souls in the dark".
Notably, when Mahito is on the verge of death we also
see this background, and then immediately afterward, Mahito expands his domain and we see this same
canvas hit Yuji and exclude him from the domain.
Gojo separately also discussed seeing "
the core of cursed energy" during his near death which gave him
enlightenment and immediate insight into how jujutsu works that he didn't have prior to getting shanked.
Finally, we see this blank Canvas again when Sukuna discusses how he bypassed Gojo's infinity, with our starry empty canvas once showing up explicitly as Sukuna mentioned
targeting "existence".
I believe that should establish Sunyata being fundamental to the verse. Now as to how that relates to barriers and these upgrades?
Tengen (a verse god tier who laid the foundations for Jujutsu while also preaching Buddhism side by side) discusses with Yuki that she controls "Sunyata barriers" all across her land. She discusses that
"any person familiar with barrier jutsu" would be able to configure it's structure to some extent, with particularly proficient sorcerers being able to straight up reality warp. The first clause would indicate that all barrier users can inherently
interact with emptiness, hence why they'd be able to do so in the Sunyata barrier (just more freely as shown by Kenjaku) despite never being there before (remember we also saw this when
Mahito materialized his first domain barrier). The second clause highlights the extent by which this emptiness can be formed with Kenjaku's
reality warping and
constructing reality (see circular definition) in there based on logical concepts.
The translator note on the page also directly highlights to use that the Sunyata concept comes from Buddhism and does indeed represent the foundational emptiness of reality.
- without context, I don't see how you'd infer 'existence' as a whole from this statement. On a similar line of thought, these scans aren't overly clear that this 'chaos' is the inverse of existence, or non-existence. Even if these users can manipulate this chaos, it's not necessarily Void Manipulation without more to it. These scans largely circle around the topic without honing in on anything definitive. If possible, please provide something concrete regarding chaos being non-existence.
I forgot I quoted this section and answered this up top lol. I hope the above satisfies any concerns.
To be clear, what exactly is happening in
this scan? The phrasing sounds like they're warping reality to 'show one possible ending of events', which would be pretty straightforward reality warping, but it's not clear what's being depicted.
Yeah, Choso is meeting with Kenjaku to fight and initially, we only see the Sunyata barrier with white background and the tree in the background repeating. Kenjaki stops before the fight to reflect back on events that happened in the past and his projections for the future.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
This is what Tengen was referring to in this scan when discussing
Sunyata/barriers.
To be clear, this 'concrete image' is the idea of something tangible as manifested in one's mind and perception? If so (and it sounds like the case), this should be fine.
Indeed, the scan posted was discussing how it was seemingly impossible to condense Domains being superimposed over reality for hundreds of meters, into the space the
size of a basketball. Kusakabe muses this is typically impossible due to conceptualization issues, but that Gojo's time in the prison realm allowed him the experience of such and thus the foundation for his
"image".
Tengen also states their ability to keep their consciousness (personal concept) from merging with the universe is due to barrier jutsu.
This is fine, but I recommend you link to the
translation you provided in the blog, rather than the original scan. I, and likely most evaluators for that matter, am not fluent in Japanese.
Yeah I originally meant for people to come to the thread after the blog, but I do realize it'd be better to add the translations to this blog, so I will do that in a bit, although I did make an announcement of where the translations could be found at the beginning of the thread.
To be clear - you're saying people who can interact with cursed energy possess NPI for Type 2 concepts and Void because cursed energy is a type 2 concept (being an intangible 'possibility' that governs the form of all humanity) and also a void (existing between 'mind and matter')?
This would be a power for cursed energy in general, not all sorcerers. As mentioned in the blog, perception dictates what humans can interact with in the verse. So if someone can't interact with concepts, it's likely due to perception rather than a failing of CE. For instance, Maki could
see cursed spirits only after unlocking her awakening, regular humans can be impacted by Curses, but
won't know what is
actually happening and attribute it to
physical causes. Regular humans can also
"see" curses by using the Sunyata principle of "seeing what's not there".
So people would only get NPI for that they showed (concept type 3 for most sorcs) but it would be listed for cursed energy overall (NPI for the other aspects has been added in previous threads so these are just the newest additions.).
The scans seem to firmly support the former. The latter is a bit less clear. "The space between dream and reality is a curse." could mean more than just literally being cursed energy. I need some elaboration on the latter scan.
That scan is in reference to curses abilities to interact with the fundamental aspect of reality. That scan is Kenjaku entering a realm implied to be "the cursed realm" which exist between the spiritual and physical. This is why Kenjaku is able to enter through dreams and physically escort people from their abstract state into a separate place in physical reality from whence they dreamt (scans can be found in the dimensional travel section). This also has to do with the Sunyata stuff I went over earlier.
On a separate but related note, Death seems to heavily correlate with curses and what Kenjaku is talking about here, hence why he is able to access dream spaces sleep being when humans return to their innate domain and cut off from the external/sleep is the cousin of death yada yada), hence why multiple people experience accelerated development/enlightenment on the verge of death [
1/
1.25/
1.5/
1.75] [
2/
2.5] [
3], why regular humans can unlock the ability to see
curses close to death,
unleash CE when they die, and why people seem to go into "dream states" prior to dying, which is symbolized by the innate domain of a person (or their own personal mindscape shared by all sentient beings).
[1] [2] [
3/
3.5] [
4/
4.5]
[5]
Where do those scans say the things you're claiming they do? I would think the third scan may have some information, but I have no idea which translation in your blog it relates to.
Sorry this one is a pretty well known thing in the JJK verse, but when Sorcerors die,
they risk coming back to life as a cursed spirits. This has happened to several famous historical figures, and the
3 houses are founded upon each of those figures coming back to life as a curse.
Naoya, used to be a sorcerer. He was killed by Maki's mom after getting beat by Maki,
who used a kitchen knife with no cursed energy. Thus Naoya's hate festered and brought him back to life as a curse, until he metamorphized into his
final form (this scan doesn't have a translation it's just showing his final form).
It's not an active thing which is why I just wanted listed as an ability of CE. But apparently this was already added.
What type of nonduality are you proposing, exactly?
I actually wanted help deciding this.
Is this applicable to all sorcerers, or just Kairi? The scan is not clear on this point.
Kairi is just a young girl with a sixth sense, she has will power stated over the average human. Mai also resists the same thing Kairi resists, so it seems to be a willpower thing.
But while these are all things you would expect to see if the Dharma Wheel possesses causality manipulation, even all together, they don't prove the Dharma Wheel possesses causality manipulation; it's the difference between "A is true, therefore B is true" and "B is true, therefore A is true". Of all the things you have pointed to, what you haven't pointed to is any instance of the Dharma Wheel manipulating causality - rather, you've inferred it from a long list of things that can very well exist without the Dharma Wheel possessing such a characteristic. Until you can point to a direct feat or showing of this, or a truly deductive inference, this would be inappropriate to index.
Thanks for the breakdown! All the stuff you mentioned is quite important context! But there is indeed more to this via feats as well. To briefly go over the context you mentioned, it is extremely important. Since jujutsu is conceptial in nature, it's form (manifested by abstract thought) would indeed by related to it's function. To prove this notion we have Sukuna. Sukuna and Gojo separately point out that the form of the wheel symbolizing "
a perfect cycle and harmony" which is indeed a callout to the Dharma wheel in Buddhism representing the conditioned and
casual nature of reality (not ultimate reality, important note). Sukuna/Gojo use this as the basis (along with his experience fighting Mahoraga) to deduce what Mahoraga's ability means. Meaning we have two qualified sorcerers actively telling us the form indeed has to do with it's powers.
Looking at the mechanisms behind the wheel we also see that the "adaptation" is granted after receiving the effect from a cause. Sukuna an Gojo discuss this when breaking down how Sukuna is adapting to Gojo's domain. gojo surmises that Megumi took the
"process of adaption" (causal agent being adapted) but the "result of adaptation" was instead rerouted to Mahoraga/Sukuna. Looking at the definition of "cause and effect" we can see that mechanically the wheel is interfacing with this aspect of the phenomena it's interacting with.
Cause-and-effect
- noting a relationship between actions or events such that one or more are the result of the other or others.
To bolster this, we also have the direct mechanism by which the Dharma wheel grants adaptation after encoding information, and this is done via
"turning of the wheel" which also has great buddhist significance
The Buddha is said to have set the "wheel of dharma" in motion when he delivered his first sermon,
[12] which is described in the
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. This "turning of the wheel" signifies a great and revolutionary change with universal consequences, brought about by an exceptional human being.
Finally, we see the wheel itself has properties not shared by Mahoraga. Mahoraga was damaged by
Sukuna's domain (despite being quite tanky) and ultimately defeated by Sukuna's
large scale explosion. In both instances, the
wheel was completely fine, even though it did not adapt to the fire attack from Sukuna, the same attack vaporizing Mahoraga into nothing.
We only ever see the wheel be destroyed by
Hollow Purple, which has exotic characteristics that don't rely on OP via utilizing imaginary mass. Pointing out that even some of the strongest attacks in the verse cannot interact with the wheel (damage it) even if the wheel hadn't been exposed to said pheonema.
This scan doesn't say anything. Please elaborate.
That attack was the "blueprint" Sukuna spoke of when discussing how he learned how to target the concept of existence to hit Gojo, Mahoraga is doing the same thing to bypass infinity here.
Information Analysis is fine. Information Manipulation is a bit more contentious - merely being able to adapt one's essence or capabilities on the basis of information doesn't inherently entail manipulating the information itself. Can you expand on this?
JJK is already accepted as having Info type 2 as the basis of the spiritual and material split for the verse. Mahoraga isn't utilizing type 1 information as the means for bypassing causality, hence why
he actually has to be struck by the essence of said thing he is adapting too. So the information in that context would be type 2 as Mahoraga isn't learning info and then using a separate power. He's downloading the fundamental information and using that as the basis for his adaptation. Which is why Sukuna states the first way Mahoraga beat Infinity was impossible and the second was
"nearly impossible".
I'm not sure I fully understand what you've said here. If my understanding is correct - Toji 'overwriting' the soul information of Ogami's grandson prevented him from inhabiting his body?
Yeah, basically Ogami summoned Toji's material information while leaving out his soul. Toji's body information, despite being physical, overrode the soul information of her grandson, and later also overrode the technique itself, as Toji was supposed to kill the strongest person around until he collapsed, but upon fighting his son was able to just kill himself instead of carrying out the order.
I believe that is all that needs to be evaluated, but as I have mentioned, there are several points I would appreciate clarification on.
Once again thank you for taking the time to make a detailed response. I also wanted to address the Tengen immortality stuff since I saw that was something you mentioned wanting to hear about from me. I touch upon that subject here.
Tengen is a buddha, who
spread japanese buddhism, and
become one with everything.
This Raw
言っただろう てんち 天地そのものが 私の自我なんだ わたし
It is as I said. I am heaven and earth itself
Clearly within the context, becoming one with the Earth would not make much sense. The concept of Nirvana also entails one's
ego dissolving into
the world, which is what expressly happened to Tengen. She is only around by using barriers jutsu to keep her consciousness and individuality solidified and by
incarnating into a star vessel every so often. Nothing about this context points to Tengen becoming one with Earth, that would make no sense based on the scope of ontology touched upon thus far.
The whole "existing and not existing" is a call back to the Heart Sutra's main theme where "Form is emptiness and emptiness form" which was also touched on by the random non sorcerer human who could see things by not seeing them.