Store Page
Burning Daylight
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews

Burning Daylight

Store Page
Burning Daylight > Guides > ShowTime13's Guides
Not enough ratings
[Theory] Is this game connected to Nirvana in Buddhism?
By ShowTime13
So I've got a crazy idea that this whole game is a representation of Buddhism's perception of what happens after death. From the beginning to the end.

I hope the developer can answer to this and tell us if it's true or not. This is very interesting!
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Created by
ShowTime13
Online
Category: Story or Lore
Languages: English
Posted
4 Dec, 2021 @ 2:39pm
303 Unique Visitors
3 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Game's events as a soul's path to Nirvana 
Comments
Game's events as a soul's path to Nirvana
As I know in Buddhism the soul is kept by the thoughts that populated the human for the most of the time, so, if the person is a smoker, or has things tiying him to "ground" (life) they will reborn, but if one's mind is clean, they will reach Nirvana.
After death the soul does not have a clear mind and is like a newborn (in game we are born nowhere as no one) things that the person thought about the most of the time will take the control over his soul and make them return back to life (reborn). But if the person's soul isn't held by things like greed, lust or anger he will break the cycle of rebirth and raise over everything.

Wikipedia: "In the Buddhist tradition, nirvana has commonly been interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires", or "three poisons", greed (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (moha). When these fires are extinguished, release from the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra) is attained."

SPOILERS.
The character is born as a nobody, nowhere, we can say. I find this similar to the soul state in Buddhism after a person's death. Then the character moves through all the sins and overcomes the "fires" that are presented in the game as greed, lust and anger. The character seems to be indifferent to everything that the world offers him.
He finds that there is more than those things that keep people down on Earth, and raises to a totally different place. After he raises from the sins, we face two options, take the seat or choose the apple. If we take a seat, we will continue the cycle, but choosing the apple breaks the cycle.

Another thing that convinces me with the relation is that when the old man comes down from the seat, he takes the meditation pose! If this is a thing, I think choosing apple is to reborn again, and choosing the seat is to take the place of the god. This is complicated...

In buddhism anyone can reach Nirvana. This is just like in game!
In the game the gates are there and are always open for anybode to enter. The gates to reach the god were always open, the god just waited until someone replaces him. Nothing held us back from reaching the god, it was just everyone else were too distracted by sins of the Earth to even think about raising above them.


I think this might be a part of the game's idea. I am convinced this is related to Buddhism or similar ideas, especially seeing the pose the god takes.

Also, I think the god (person on the seat) becomes Buddha after stepping off the seat.
"A Buddha is one who has attained Bodhi; and by Bodhi is meant wisdom, an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection which can be achieved by man through purely human means. The term Buddha literally means enlightened one, a knower."
5 Comments
< >
da B man 31 Aug, 2023 @ 7:19am 
really cool theory! I see the similarities and wonder as well. Though he greed for knowledge would tie one to samsara as well! So be careful and be at peace to wonder :)
soul.fly 28 Sep, 2022 @ 7:40pm 
Hi there!

1. I think the apple symbolizes Enlightment .
Remember the apple from the Edem garden in christianity, that was eaten by Adam and Eve? The Devil as a Snake has tempted the First People. The've got a Knowledge, but became mortal and were forced to leave Heaven.
Here we get an Enlightment by choosing apple, and also overcome the Ignorance, one of the "fires / poisons' mentioned.



2. I've also noticed two symbols:
the Mountain . The main game logo, our alter ego has it on the back.
two apple leaves . E.g. we can see it on the cafe ("...nutritious, and vegan!").
What if the Mountain stands for our purpose - to reach the top of the Mountain and meet the Oldman there? It is one option. Another is to choose the Apple. What means the Choice of the chair -- I don't know honestly:steamsalty:
ShowTime13  [author] 27 Dec, 2021 @ 8:36am 
As I said, we can never say certainly what author meant, and there is a lot of space for interpretation, but, even if it's a coincidence, I find it similar to buddhism's principles somehow.

What I think ultimately is that it's all mixed up. You can easily throw away any ideas that things aren't going any beyond typical cyberpunky dystopian world, but there is a lot of symbolism in the second part of the game.
I think authors often put a lot more than we can see in the art.
ShowTime13  [author] 27 Dec, 2021 @ 8:36am 
Hi Lunarul, thank you for your comment!
We cannot know what Author meant either than asking them directly (they don't reply).

First of all, I did not mean to become or replace the god is Nirvana. And I do not agree this is different, Nirvana is interpreted differently, and the basic interpretation I found said that Nirvana is to become free of the ground feelings and buslte of life.

Secondly, he certainly took a meditation pose. This is not just falling when you can see so distinct meditation pose in his "dying". There are gazillion ways to fall and dye, but only certain way very similar to meditation was shown in the game.
lunarul 15 Dec, 2021 @ 11:57am 
Reaching Nirvana is to become one with everything (including the Buddha), not to become/replace the god. It also looked to me like the old man was going to take up a meditation pose there at the end, but by the end of it it just looked like he fell into a heap. I don't think the story is about Buddhism at all and I don't think just anyone can take the old man's place at the end. You can see growing tanks in his anteroom and one that looks identical to the character (which you have the option to release). I believe the guy is creating clones of himself to replace him at the end of his life. The rest of the world that you travel through it's just the typical overused dystopian world where people are controlled through VR and consumerism with no deeper meaning than "omg look where our society is heading".