Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

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catmoon
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Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

Buddhists do the strangest things. Like me for instance.

As a longtime practitioner of Buddhism and Minecraft, it had to happen. One day it occurred to me, why not build a stupa? The benefits are inconceivable, after all. I play a lot on a public server and soon found some prime real estate and started collecting building materials and researching the finer points of stupa construction. The project is more than half done now and the building measures 36 meters on a side and somewhat taller than that.

But this raises an interesting question. A carefully built stupa in Minecraft has just as much inherent reality as one in the real world, that is, none at all. So If I make sure the details are all correct, will it actually confer karmic benefits on people? Is it worth circumambulating in game? Has anyone else ever tried this? Do I need a lama to "activate" it?

I could even charge admisson in game currency and covert it to real world cash on EBay!

No. NO. BAAAD Catmoon. No 'nip for you today....

Btw I'm working from Lama Zopa's writings on the subject, so it's being done in the Gelug tradition. It's actually an Enlightenment Chorta. I believe I need, at a minimum, four rolled mantras as part of the filling. but I have only been able to find two of them in non-Tibetan script, the Stainless Pinnacle mantra and the Stainless Beam mantra. Anyone know where I can find the others?

I am also considering relics. A chest of in-game bones is ok, I guess, but what I really need is relics from a real dead Gelug holy man. But I hear killing monks and lamas to get relics is somewhat frowned upon. Fortunately people in Minecraft die and resurrect on a regular basis, and sometimes when they die a copy of their head drops as a collectible object. So all I need to do is find a monk or Lama who plays Minecraft and has a few heads he doesn't want. Bingo problem solved. :)

So, anyone want to come see it?

-Catmoon
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by 明安 Myoan »

How funny, catmoon. In the world my husband and I started, I built golden human-shaped structures facing from the west to represent Amitabha. Also made a little altar in our castle with the cake block as the offering. :smile:

I love messing with the redstone and the music boxes. There's some real cool stuff you can do with basic circuitry principles.
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

It's been a few months since I've played Minecraft, but I love the game. Have never done multiplayer before. Can you post a screenshot of the stupa?
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

2018-02-15_12.36.25.png
2018-02-15_12.36.25.png (407.04 KiB) Viewed 3638 times
Sorry having an awful time with oversize images, stupid Win 10. This is the best I could do.
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

catmoon wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:48 pm 2018-02-15_12.36.25.png

Sorry having an awful time with oversize images, stupid Win 10. This is the best I could do.
Awesome!!!

:bow: :bow: :bow:
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

Thanks :) There is a little dock just out of sight so people can take a rowboat out to visit. Or, if they want to circumabulate, just stay in the boat and row your way around at high speed. The interior is not yet open to the public, but I have finished a nice inlaid floor and some smaller Buddhas. I did them in solid primary colors. One is a very good lapis blue so I gave it a flower pot in one hand and a tree in a flower pot in the other. Presto, Medicine Buddha.Another is green for Tara and there is a red one and a yellow one that may end up being styled after Buddhas from the Medicine Buddha practice.

There are chests for the rolled mantras... well written books actually and I am slowly filling them up. Thank goodness you can copy them. There are offering bowls... well more flower pots actually, but it looks ok. Not sure what to put upstairs with the big gold Buddha. What would normally go there?

It's quite impressive to approach it in-game. Those four middle ledges are over six feet high each and the Buddha scales to about 45 feet high. If Lama Zopa ever sees it he will surely build it in the real world - I don't see how he could resist! Mind you he'd do it on solid land. He's good, but I don't think even Lama Zopa could make a half million tons of marble float.
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by MatthewAngby »

catmoon wrote: Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:56 am Thanks :) There is a little dock just out of sight so people can take a rowboat out to visit. Or, if they want to circumabulate, just stay in the boat and row your way around at high speed. The interior is not yet open to the public, but I have finished a nice inlaid floor and some smaller Buddhas. I did them in solid primary colors. One is a very good lapis blue so I gave it a flower pot in one hand and a tree in a flower pot in the other. Presto, Medicine Buddha.Another is green for Tara and there is a red one and a yellow one that may end up being styled after Buddhas from the Medicine Buddha practice.

There are chests for the rolled mantras... well written books actually and I am slowly filling them up. Thank goodness you can copy them. There are offering bowls... well more flower pots actually, but it looks ok. Not sure what to put upstairs with the big gold Buddha. What would normally go there?

It's quite impressive to approach it in-game. Those four middle ledges are over six feet high each and the Buddha scales to about 45 feet high. If Lama Zopa ever sees it he will surely build it in the real world - I don't see how he could resist! Mind you he'd do it on solid land. He's good, but I don't think even Lama Zopa could make a half million tons of marble float.
So I suppose u copy the precious mantras and paste them on the books. Then u put the books in the chest?

Btw that’s so cool man. You should probably have a multiplayer realm for dharma buddies ! :)
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

MatthewAngby wrote: Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:13 am
So I suppose u copy the precious mantras and paste them on the books. Then u put the books in the chest?

Btw that’s so cool man. You should probably have a multiplayer realm for dharma buddies ! :)
I like being out among the general public too much to confine it to dharma buddies.

So you were close on the copy procedure. What I do is create a written book with the mantra in it, then go over it and over it looking for errors. When I have it right, I then copy the entire book on a crafting table. This methods yields infallible copies, eight at a time. Barring computer bugs!

-Catmoon
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

I have some more screenshots and will slowly, agonizingly , using the arcane and ridiculous procedures of Win10, try to post them. For instance:


[media][/media]
2018-02-16_18.24.45.png
2018-02-16_18.24.45.png (350.62 KiB) Viewed 3586 times
Of all the screenshots I took, this is the only one small enough that DharmaWheel will accept it.
All the rest are a little over the limit which seems to be a paltry half megabyte or so.

Hey there admins, it's 2018 not 1980 maybe it's time to up the limit a tad? Sheesh.

Anyhoo the screenshot shows a view of an in game printed book containing one of the relic mantras, page 1. The background shows some of the glowstone decoration as seen from inside the stupa.

-Catmoon
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

catmoon wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 4:15 am I have some more screenshots and will slowly, agonizingly , using the arcane and ridiculous procedures of Win10, try to post them. For instance:


[media][/media]2018-02-16_18.24.45.png

Of all the screenshots I took, this is the only one small enough that DharmaWheel will accept it.
All the rest are a little over the limit which seems to be a paltry half megabyte or so.

Hey there admins, it's 2018 not 1980 maybe it's time to up the limit a tad? Sheesh.

Anyhoo the screenshot shows a view of an in game printed book containing one of the relic mantras, page 1. The background shows some of the glowstone decoration as seen from inside the stupa.

-Catmoon
That's awesome! Can you post the album to https://imgur.com/ and embed or link here? Pretty please? :anjali:
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by MatthewAngby »

catmoon wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 4:15 am I have some more screenshots and will slowly, agonizingly , using the arcane and ridiculous procedures of Win10, try to post them. For instance:


[media][/media]2018-02-16_18.24.45.png

Of all the screenshots I took, this is the only one small enough that DharmaWheel will accept it.
All the rest are a little over the limit which seems to be a paltry half megabyte or so.

Hey there admins, it's 2018 not 1980 maybe it's time to up the limit a tad? Sheesh.

Anyhoo the screenshot shows a view of an in game printed book containing one of the relic mantras, page 1. The background shows some of the glowstone decoration as seen from inside the stupa.

-Catmoon
That’s...that’s beautiful. * gaze in awe *
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catmoon
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

Sadly I am having no luck at all with Imgur. Apparently the deal they are offering is free image hosting in exchange for extensive data mining of your personal information.

However there is another alternative. You can come visit the stupa and wander around in and on it. Here's how.

1. Buy Minecraft if you haven't already. Are there still people who don't own Minecraft?
2. Log in to Empire Minecraft.
3. Complete their rather irritating but necessary tutorial.
4. Hit T to open chat
5. Type in /SMP3 to get on the right server. (There are a dozen or so within EMC)
6. Type in /wild n to leave town.
7. Turn left.
8. Start swimming, it's about 30 seconds to the stupa.
9. For internal access you will need to catch me online (not difficult)
10. There is a chest at the dock that has free boats in it. You can grab one if you want to do circuits around the stupa.
Remember the minimum is three laps and you travel clockwise.
Which is odd, if you think that when they built the first stupas, clocks had not been invented yet. :)
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catmoon
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

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catmoon
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

I posted the screenshots you asked for....
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

catmoon wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:06 pm Sadly I am having no luck at all with Imgur. Apparently the deal they are offering is free image hosting in exchange for extensive data mining of your personal information.

However there is another alternative. You can come visit the stupa and wander around in and on it. Here's how.

1. Buy Minecraft if you haven't already. Are there still people who don't own Minecraft?
2. Log in to Empire Minecraft.
3. Complete their rather irritating but necessary tutorial.
4. Hit T to open chat
5. Type in /SMP3 to get on the right server. (There are a dozen or so within EMC)
6. Type in /wild n to leave town.
7. Turn left.
8. Start swimming, it's about 30 seconds to the stupa.
9. For internal access you will need to catch me online (not difficult)
10. There is a chest at the dock that has free boats in it. You can grab one if you want to do circuits around the stupa.
Remember the minimum is three laps and you travel clockwise.
Which is odd, if you think that when they built the first stupas, clocks had not been invented yet. :)
Cool, thanks! I will try to drop in sometime soon for some circumambulations :anjali:
Last edited by Thomas Amundsen on Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

catmoon wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:36 pm More images at http://cubeupload.com/codes/30f4cc
Thanks! :bow:
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by catmoon »

Hmm. Nobody ever answered any of my questions about how to set up a stupa. Curious.
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Re: Taking the Dharma to ... Minecraft? Rly?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

catmoon wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2018 12:43 pm Hmm. Nobody ever answered any of my questions about how to set up a stupa. Curious.
I have zero experience building stupas. My teacher, however, has plenty of experience and was basically the key architect for this stupa garden. I can put you in contact with my teacher if you have serious questions about stupa construction and consecration.
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