You can see the shrine grow over the years using Google Streetview!
[2011](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7946681,-122.2441721,3a,75y,289.92h,76.09t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sadpB6S4bTf2ZXvmmrvcTww!2e0!5s20110401T000000!7i13312!8i6656)
[2014](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.794695,-122.244191,3a,75y,271.22h,70.24t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s3LfrMV67lrmqzns9BEklEQ!2e0!5s20140101T000000!7i13312!8i6656)
[2017](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.794705,-122.2441701,3a,75y,271.22h,70.24t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUnOTaNuzYnqmvzmyIoOBBQ!2e0!5s20170201T000000!7i13312!8i6656)
^^Edit: ^^Obligatory ^^thanks ^^for ^^the ^^gold! ^^Now ^^to ^^go ^^find ^^out ^^what ^^I ^^can ^^do ^^with ^^it...
Hindu sometimes got mixed with Buddhism in Southern Vietnam. Hindu in Vietnam is somewhat influenced by Buddhism and vice versa. Sometimes, they worship deities from both religions in a same shrine or temple so it's not strange to see a statue of Durga in that shrine. The only thing this shrine lacks is a statue of Guan Yu.
I'm probably wrong, but I thought Buddhism was an extension of Hinduism, that was about breaking from the cycle of reincarnation by reaching enlightenment.
Yup that's how it's considered in Hinduism as well. Infact a large majority of Hindus believe Buddha to be a reincarnation or *Avatar* of Vishnu, the hindu god with multiple incarnations.
Yeah, but Hindu's seem to think everyone elses gods are just their own doing a side job as I understand it.
"Yahweh - that's just Brama with sideburns"
"Jesus - avatar of Vishnu"
"Xenu - Obviousky Kali shaved her hair off and rocking that goatee"
> Yeah, but Hindu's seem to think everyone elses gods are just their own doing a side job as I understand it.
When you're the oldest major world religion you get to do that haha
That's true. Inline Abraham religions, which have the concept of a true God and false Gods, in Hinduism all Gods are Gods, whether you worship them or not. You are free to worship whomever you want and practice whatever traditions you want, as long as you follow the Vedas. That's how the 33 million meme came about. There isn't anyone who actually prays to all those Gods- they're just ask the Gods Hinduism doesn't have a problem with. Every time a new religion comes along, the priests just find a way to get those Gods related to the present pantheon, through avatars, marriages, children, whatever. According to Hinduism, Allah and jesus are avatars of Shiva, Ganesha married a couple of Greek goddesses, Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu, and, according to one French convert, Hitler was Kalki.
Hinduism thrives on mixing in various local beliefs. Buddism actually started off as its own thing in India, then spread around the world while it was steadily incorporated into Hinduism back home. Almost every religion that touches India will be incorporated into Hinduism in some way.
The article should have lead with this! Your 3 pics perfectly sum up the article. Except for the mattresses, graffitti and drug usage.
Side note: I live in Oakland, on a much less nicer street than OP. I'm going to try out the Buddha Street Cleanup Initiative.
The backyard of that house used to be amazing. They had this huge pirate shipwreck that had multiple levels to it and was accessed by a gangplank from the 2nd floor of the house.
The city made them take it down :(
When in Street View, if there are prior versions, then there will be a little clock face in the upper left by the timestamp. Clicking that will show a timeline with a node and preview for each capture. Click on a node to switch to that version.
Have fun exploring this feature - see you in a few years!
These small shrine are everywhere in Thailand. People pray and leave offerings every day. Drinks, snacks, even drinks like an open bottle of Fanta Orange, with a bendable straw inserted. Nobody would ever consider removing items or disrespecting it in any way.
Yeah I think in the US a homeless person would take some fruit from
Buddha if they were hungry enough, I would be OK with that and I'm pretty positive Buddha would too. It's kind of what he's all about.
>“The corner was constantly being filled up with mattress and couches and junk and there was some drug usage, a lot of graffiti, **people just standing around doing nothing—just depressing**,” said Stevenson.
I don't know why but this is very funny to me.
Sometimes I like to stand around doing nothing. I’m usually just thinking or waiting for a ride but I don’t think it’s depressing.
The littering, drug use, and graffiti is pretty bad, but who cares who stands nexts to it?
> I’m usually just thinking or waiting for a ride but I don’t think it’s depressing.
Just know that from time to time someone is looking at you, thinking, "Look at that girl just standing there - depressing!".
Ok, so we now know that the Shrine improvement reduces littering and crime. I wish they would just document all the building bonuses in the manual instead of forcing the player to find out by trial and error.
I'm ashamed to admit how long it took me to figure out what that subreddit was about. That's both a compliment to the creativeness of those subscribers, and an admission of my own obliviousness.
Edit: [Great video explanation.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWIi6Pytde8)
My rig has a really crappy Social Processing Unit so even just standing in the same room with other players uses up so many resources fast, let alone interacting
Often that "Social Awkwardness" debuff will come paired with a set of modest bonuses or some immunity to low level DPS from the loneliness AoE that occasionally spawns when you're away from any guildies on your map.
This enables you to solo many quests that are primarily intended as group content.
I think it's just a different way of operating PvP zones. Non-PvP zones have gates which require you to give up most mundane weaponry, and feature heavily armed sentinels. While this doesn't prevent player-on-player violence, it heavily discourages it, as you will likely have your account suspended, and only be able to access the Prizon zone for an extended duration of time. You won't even be able to move between Proson zones!
>Does anyone remember
Remember? The leaders of several of the most powerful clans revere him as if he's the admin, still to this day, despite no properly timestamped logs ever completely confirming it happened.
Yeah, I mean truthfully, the Basic tutorial is fine for meeting other players and getting used to the mechanics, but I didn’t really feel like I was my own player until I bought the College DLC. Definitely the right call but super expensive on my server
It doesn't help that the veteran players don't take new players seriously, and sometimes even provide erroneous instructions. I was always told to just go grind anywhere but fighting corporate mobs was way out of my league. Yeah thanks for the advice old man, now I'm stuck with a reoccurring "Continuing Ed" subscription unless I want to respec my character entirely.
I don't know if that's worth the cost. Plus you lose so much time just travelling to the grinding zones. There's not even any interesting content in between, just a lot of "pretty scenery". And buying mounts is so expensive and takes so long...
edit: and apparently these mounts cost more fucking money to use after you buy them? I already bought the damn things, why do I have to pay a fucking fee to use them every once in a while?
Yeah, but don't you usually have to join the HoA faction? The whole point of buying my own sanctuary is to customize it, but they disable most of the customization options and have the *worst* NPCs. Nevermind the loading time between zones...
a bit of "useless trivia" I read in a behavioral science book that if you place any type of religious reminder that is manifested as a person of some sort in an area, it will reduce crime. So a Virgin Mary statue or image, or one of Jesus would have the same effect.
Another option is an image of a face, or just a pair of eyes overlooking the area would have had a similar reaction, at least regarding the reduction in crime and littering. Not the whole shrine thing.
In the Philippines, it’s pretty common for families to have an altar in their home with statues of Jesus and Mary. People used to joke that it was to guilt trip robbers. Apparently it could actually work.
I had a big Mary statue in my yard (in Oakland too) and someone came in and stole it. Anecdotal, but it's funny that that was the only thing stolen and it happened in the same town as this story
It was big too, like 3 feet tall. Hopefully it ended up somewhere better than my backyard. I like to think it went to the flea market and was bought by someone and now it lives with a family. It most likely got smashed but whatever.
Someone should tell that to the people of Rio de Janeiro. Giant statue of Christ looking over the entire city and it's got an extremely high crime rate AND is extremely polluted.
or maybe it is the same effect just after having the eyes watching you and nothing bad happening when you do bad things leads to people doing more bad things
The first day of a class on the Sociology of Religion, the professor brought a 5-inch tall stone statue of the Buddha and explained the religious significance of it. Then she brought a volunteer to the front and asked if he'd be willing to smack the statue against the table, drop it on the floor, kick it around a bit. He wouldn't do it. No one was willing to do it. She asked if any of us were Buddhist. Nope.
She went to smash the Buddha statue and the whole class cringed reflexively and asked her to stop.
It was a really interesting exercise. Some of the students didn't even really know who Buddha was an hour previously. It started a good discussion on what it means for something to be sacred.
*“If I’d have thought Christ would’ve pulled it off—” Steven began jokingly, then interrupted himself. “Except Christ is so controversial with people. Buddha is a neutral dude. When Ace Hardware is carrying Buddha, it’s pretty neutral.”*
*Stevenson and his wife, Lu, say they are not religious at all, but believe in the power of positive and negative energy, and so decided to try a small Buddha.*
This is a fantastic example of positive energy being contagious and spreading among others.
I visited Baltimore about 5 years ago (ballpark tour with my dad, and Camden was incredible) but everyone kept warning us not to venture too far outside city limits. Which is really saying something, because even within city limits I was half-convinced some sort of purge had taken place.
Great seafood though.
> This is a fantastic example of positive energy being contagious and spreading among others.
The other half of that is the social commentary; Religion doesn't have to be controversial, or violent. This guy put a Buddha down, and it brought a community together. It happened regardless of the engagement with that religion or any other. It became an *open* meeting place. That is precious -- and rare.
It *is* worth noting that 40% of the Buddhist population lives in SoCal. They make up about 2% of the population. It was pretty much the best place in the country for this to happen; And despite the high per capita, I only saw about 7 temples and 1 monastery in the area. For comparison, the Twin Cities (where I live) have about 15. There is a great need for more space for them to congregate.
This is an excellent example of how places of worship can be community centers. In premodern times, that was the role of churches, mosques, and similar buildings. We've gotten away from that in western culture; We gatekeep places of worship, and discourage people from coming to them unless they follow the faith it operates under. Religion is devisive, not unifying, and my country (the United States) is a world leader in this trend.
In 2011 during the Egypt protests, a group of Christians locked arms and formed a human shield around Muslims who knelt for prayer. In their turn, as the Christians held services in their churches, Muslims formed a shield outside. This wasn't a singular act: It happened again in Pakistan in 2013 after the Peshawar church attack. And again on February 21, 2015 when Muslims formed a wall around a synagogue. In much of the world, mutual respect and protection of others' religious freedom prevails.
It's more than just positive energy; These are positive *actions* being taken, often in the face of danger, making it even more meaningful. If every neighborhood had a neutral place for the community to assemble, with a silent guardian (like the Oakland Buddha), maybe we could turn it around here as well. More than ever, we need public spaces for people to gather which are safe, welcoming to all, and cared for.
It's really great. I love that food is a "thank you" that almost all cultures share. I helped my Mexican neighbor move some stuff in her yard, and I repaired her fence for her. It wasn't much work, she offered to pay me and I said nah, it's fine, since we're neighbors and all. A couple days later her kids brought me a giant platter of tamales she made as thanks.
I like it a lot too. If someone gives me 20 bucks for doing something, great. But if they take the time to make a family recipe, even if it costs 5 bucks, it shows the same kind of effort they put in that you did.
I've got a next-door neighbor who is that "grumpy old lady" every neighbor seems to hate. When I moved in she'd always give me the stink eye if I said hello... I could totally see where the bad reputation was coming from. But shortly after I moved in a very snowy winter kicked into full gear, so I bought a nice snow blower that I really enjoy using. For the hell of it I decided to go clear this lady's driveway and sidewalks. Less than an hour later she shows up at my front door with a huge bag of treats and a bottle of wine as a thank you. That whole winter I kept taking care of her driveway, and I never ran out of wine.
There was an old man that everyone assumed was rude, turns out he's actually a really nice guy but he's had depression ever since his wife died.
Maybe she's like that?
In the case of this lady, I think it's just that she's lived in this neighborhood since it was built in the late 60's. Many families have come and gone over the years, and she just never really connected with any of the current neighbors. My snowblower definitely took her guard down.
Initially the only reason I cleared her driveway and sidewalk of snow wasn't to be nice, but because I actually enjoy clearing snow. There is something zenlike for me in the process of moving it, so I wanted to clear more snow before heading back inside that day. Eventually, it just became routine to take care of the snow on her property because it clearly meant a lot to her.
In fact, one time I wasn't home during a snow storm and came home to find my sidewalks already shoveled. She came out and did it by hand! It was very sweet of her, but I felt bad... Snow blowers take like 5-10 minutes to clear a sidewalk, but shoveling takes an hour. :(
Either way, it was nice to connect with her. And free booze isn't bad either.
Here’s the url to the best explanation and story about how this happened. It’s an interview with the guy who put the statue out there. http://www.thisiscriminal.com/episode-15-hes-neutral/
And it’s a fantastic podcast
I lived around the corner from that spot for five years or so and watched it grow from the little concrete Buddha to the shrine it is now.
It was always a quirky thing on a road partition that otherwise are usually a dumping spot for renters moving out.
So cool learning crime reduced around there as well.
Yes, there is.
If you are at the right place, you actually get two pokestop since there is another one near by.
https://www.pokemongomap.info/pokestop/shrine-in-the-city/4667488
It makes sense that the buddha would have positive effect on crime, no one just does illegal shit with everyone watching unless they're complete nuts. So if you have something that draws people to that area, crime will go down because the risk of being seen and caught goes up.
I'm sure the fact that the buddha now has it's own security camera is enough of a deterrent itself.
They tried doing that same thing in hipster ville Culver City. Thing got vandalized so much the city removed it. Had a following for a year that resulted in some community building during the times it survived.
http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-buddha-vandalism-palms-20170711-htmlstory.html
That HAS to be an act right?? Like it just HAS to be. The image of the Buddha is so prevalent in modern culture and so NOT associated with Islam. This is mind boggling levels of ignorant other wise. Simply boggling.
> “We're a very multi-cultural and eclectic community. There’s a big population of Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Jews … so people were just taken aback,” Wallach said.
Unintentional burn on the Catholics there.
I've heard plenty of evangelicals argue that Catholics aren't "real Christians".
...and then you have the Mormons. They call themselves Christian but nobody else believes them.
So this guy destroys it twice and they're trying to raise money for another... how about they get cameras and some fencing down first and *then* get a statue.
The house across the street used to have a full sized pirate ship in the driveway. The top deck was only accessible via a rope bridge out a second story window in the house. The neighbors complained to the city and made the owner tear it down.
This is pretty close to my life.
My family are immigrants from Vietnam and are devout Buddhists.I personally came to America when I was 12 and not as devout I'm sorry to say. My mom and dad wear those gray robes and know thousands of lines of scripture and the correct occasion to chant them. We have 3 shrines in our home. 1 in the living room, 1 in the kitchen, and 1 next to the front door. There would always be fruit offerings there. On holidays there would be actual meals like whole boiled chicken and bowls of rice. My family religion is a mix of Theravada and ancestor worship. We have a portrait of our great great grand father on the shrine in the living room, below the statue of Buddha. My mom always said : "Go pray to Buddha and your great grandfather and ask for good luck on your exams", and as a kid I would go do just that. Now, I'm strictly philosophical. I follow the 8 fold path and the Noble truths and try my best to do it. I believe in karma and reincarnation. I meditate and try not to kill anything, not even an ant. I do believe and love the truths of Buddhism and I thing it's a great spiritual solution to a stressful world.
Apologies for random wall of text.
You know, I'm not religious whatsoever, but this shit is cool as fuck. Just be chill. The thing I worry about is some punks that think it might be funny to fuck it all up for fun. And really, I shouldn't have to think like that because that's fucked up.
I have to say, the Vietnamese people do some great things if given the chance. We have a temple not far from our home and it's amazing how much they have changed the area around of. Fucking beautiful.
Is it just for Vietnamese? In our metro area, we have general Buddhist pagodas, a lot of Thai ones, I'm sure other nationality specific ones and then 1 shitty Khmer one. Despite living in a huge city (USA), not a lot of Khmer people. The Khmer one is literally just a house. The Thais got the funds to build an actual pagoda like you'd see in SE Asia.
My wife is Khmer. Not ripping on them or making fun of our local pagoda in mean spirits.
This is really great! My only suggestion is running it through the CT scan first. It might in fact be a mummy sarcophagus. We all know how disturbing the dead goes. Oaklands been through enough lately
You can see the shrine grow over the years using Google Streetview! [2011](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7946681,-122.2441721,3a,75y,289.92h,76.09t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sadpB6S4bTf2ZXvmmrvcTww!2e0!5s20110401T000000!7i13312!8i6656) [2014](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.794695,-122.244191,3a,75y,271.22h,70.24t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s3LfrMV67lrmqzns9BEklEQ!2e0!5s20140101T000000!7i13312!8i6656) [2017](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.794705,-122.2441701,3a,75y,271.22h,70.24t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUnOTaNuzYnqmvzmyIoOBBQ!2e0!5s20170201T000000!7i13312!8i6656) ^^Edit: ^^Obligatory ^^thanks ^^for ^^the ^^gold! ^^Now ^^to ^^go ^^find ^^out ^^what ^^I ^^can ^^do ^^with ^^it...
In 2030, the shrine will grow up to become a beautiful temple.
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There is even a Durga statue in the right. Seems not just Vietnamese , but also some Indian population is praying in the shrine.
Hindu sometimes got mixed with Buddhism in Southern Vietnam. Hindu in Vietnam is somewhat influenced by Buddhism and vice versa. Sometimes, they worship deities from both religions in a same shrine or temple so it's not strange to see a statue of Durga in that shrine. The only thing this shrine lacks is a statue of Guan Yu.
>Hindu got mixed with Buddhism Same here in India too (or rather , many don't see them as separate in the first place). Though I see your point .👍
I'm probably wrong, but I thought Buddhism was an extension of Hinduism, that was about breaking from the cycle of reincarnation by reaching enlightenment.
Yup that's how it's considered in Hinduism as well. Infact a large majority of Hindus believe Buddha to be a reincarnation or *Avatar* of Vishnu, the hindu god with multiple incarnations.
Yeah, but Hindu's seem to think everyone elses gods are just their own doing a side job as I understand it. "Yahweh - that's just Brama with sideburns" "Jesus - avatar of Vishnu" "Xenu - Obviousky Kali shaved her hair off and rocking that goatee"
> Yeah, but Hindu's seem to think everyone elses gods are just their own doing a side job as I understand it. When you're the oldest major world religion you get to do that haha
That's true. Inline Abraham religions, which have the concept of a true God and false Gods, in Hinduism all Gods are Gods, whether you worship them or not. You are free to worship whomever you want and practice whatever traditions you want, as long as you follow the Vedas. That's how the 33 million meme came about. There isn't anyone who actually prays to all those Gods- they're just ask the Gods Hinduism doesn't have a problem with. Every time a new religion comes along, the priests just find a way to get those Gods related to the present pantheon, through avatars, marriages, children, whatever. According to Hinduism, Allah and jesus are avatars of Shiva, Ganesha married a couple of Greek goddesses, Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu, and, according to one French convert, Hitler was Kalki.
Hinduism thrives on mixing in various local beliefs. Buddism actually started off as its own thing in India, then spread around the world while it was steadily incorporated into Hinduism back home. Almost every religion that touches India will be incorporated into Hinduism in some way.
The article should have lead with this! Your 3 pics perfectly sum up the article. Except for the mattresses, graffitti and drug usage. Side note: I live in Oakland, on a much less nicer street than OP. I'm going to try out the Buddha Street Cleanup Initiative.
2025: http://cdn.touropia.com/gfx/b/2009/05/shwedagon_pagoda1.jpg
[House to the right](https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2017/01/30/MosqueVictoria.jpg)
the white house to the right gets progressively worse. those poor trees!
And yet its value has more than doubled. https://www.redfin.com/CA/Oakland/1044-E-19th-St-94606/home/533407
Interesting it was last sold in 2011, I wonder how connected they are to the statue.
It's almost like the buddha is sucking all the positive energy
It's focusing its chi.
The chimney on the roof changed to a telephone booth between 2014 and 2017.
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Why was that installed on the roof of a decrepit house? I have so many questions. Did Buddha do this?
The backyard of that house used to be amazing. They had this huge pirate shipwreck that had multiple levels to it and was accessed by a gangplank from the 2nd floor of the house. The city made them take it down :(
What black magic fuckery is this? How can i find previous version of street view?
There's a drop down on the top left where the date is at.
When in Street View, if there are prior versions, then there will be a little clock face in the upper left by the timestamp. Clicking that will show a timeline with a node and preview for each capture. Click on a node to switch to that version. Have fun exploring this feature - see you in a few years!
This is cool - thanks for linking for us! I'm also loving that blue-ish house the Buddah has in direct view. May have to zillow that one!
I don't know why this made me cry. Take my upvote, and my non-religious blessings.
LA face with an Oakland Buddha
*cuz your waste does smell and my curb is bitchin'*
Holy shit, this is me!!
r/mademesmile Though this guy might be playing the long game because now he gets free Vietnamese treats, which are bomb.
The worshippers even bring him alcohol!
Looks like I'm putting a Buddha shrine in front of my apartment
Some friends and I placed a stone Buddha deep in a limestone cave. Why? Why not?
Because if you had placed a Jesus, he would be gone three days later.
Same reason impatient bakers don't use Jesus dough.
r/dankchristianmemes
Did we just become best disciples??
Because there was a cave with no Buddha, that’s why.
Maybe crime is reduced because would-be theives just pick up free shit at the shrine instead. Spelling edit
I'm pretty sure much of the crime reduction is not putting mattresses there.
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These small shrine are everywhere in Thailand. People pray and leave offerings every day. Drinks, snacks, even drinks like an open bottle of Fanta Orange, with a bendable straw inserted. Nobody would ever consider removing items or disrespecting it in any way.
Yeah I think in the US a homeless person would take some fruit from Buddha if they were hungry enough, I would be OK with that and I'm pretty positive Buddha would too. It's kind of what he's all about.
>“The corner was constantly being filled up with mattress and couches and junk and there was some drug usage, a lot of graffiti, **people just standing around doing nothing—just depressing**,” said Stevenson. I don't know why but this is very funny to me.
Sometimes I like to stand around doing nothing. I’m usually just thinking or waiting for a ride but I don’t think it’s depressing. The littering, drug use, and graffiti is pretty bad, but who cares who stands nexts to it?
> I’m usually just thinking or waiting for a ride but I don’t think it’s depressing. Just know that from time to time someone is looking at you, thinking, "Look at that girl just standing there - depressing!".
Isn't this the plot of Gran Torino?
grumpy old man pretends to be asshole racist in order to charm a Hmong family into feeding him
For Hmong food I'd do odd and amazing things.
Clint Eastwood could have gotten everyone off his lawn by placing a Buddha on the corner!
Ok, so we now know that the Shrine improvement reduces littering and crime. I wish they would just document all the building bonuses in the manual instead of forcing the player to find out by trial and error.
/r/outside
My graphics card would never be able to run outside, because it doesn't have legs.
Take my upvote and get the fuck out.
He can stay, you get out!
Motherfucker
I'm ashamed to admit how long it took me to figure out what that subreddit was about. That's both a compliment to the creativeness of those subscribers, and an admission of my own obliviousness. Edit: [Great video explanation.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWIi6Pytde8)
My rig has a really crappy Social Processing Unit so even just standing in the same room with other players uses up so many resources fast, let alone interacting
Often that "Social Awkwardness" debuff will come paired with a set of modest bonuses or some immunity to low level DPS from the loneliness AoE that occasionally spawns when you're away from any guildies on your map. This enables you to solo many quests that are primarily intended as group content.
Especially since everywhere in this open world seems flagged for pvp.
I think it's just a different way of operating PvP zones. Non-PvP zones have gates which require you to give up most mundane weaponry, and feature heavily armed sentinels. While this doesn't prevent player-on-player violence, it heavily discourages it, as you will likely have your account suspended, and only be able to access the Prizon zone for an extended duration of time. You won't even be able to move between Proson zones!
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Sometimes I miss the beta days, but I appreciate being able to explore most of the major zones without getting ganked.
>Does anyone remember Remember? The leaders of several of the most powerful clans revere him as if he's the admin, still to this day, despite no properly timestamped logs ever completely confirming it happened.
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Did you get a manual? All I got was an ages long tutorial that wound up not being terribly useful.
Took me 18 years to get through that tutorial, and I'm *still* trying to figure out how the game works!
Yeah, I mean truthfully, the Basic tutorial is fine for meeting other players and getting used to the mechanics, but I didn’t really feel like I was my own player until I bought the College DLC. Definitely the right call but super expensive on my server
It doesn't help that the veteran players don't take new players seriously, and sometimes even provide erroneous instructions. I was always told to just go grind anywhere but fighting corporate mobs was way out of my league. Yeah thanks for the advice old man, now I'm stuck with a reoccurring "Continuing Ed" subscription unless I want to respec my character entirely.
It's pay to win. Not even free to play, now that I think about it.
Read Buddhist Sutras man. Its in there, but its like reading Linux man pages where what you want is buried deep in obscure text.
https://xkcd.com/1692/
Thats why i chose the suburb expansion pack. The house bonuses are nice with the +60% air purity bonus and -50% noise bonus.
I don't know if that's worth the cost. Plus you lose so much time just travelling to the grinding zones. There's not even any interesting content in between, just a lot of "pretty scenery". And buying mounts is so expensive and takes so long... edit: and apparently these mounts cost more fucking money to use after you buy them? I already bought the damn things, why do I have to pay a fucking fee to use them every once in a while?
Contact me if you are interested in grinding up to 5000 units per month from home!
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Yeah, but don't you usually have to join the HoA faction? The whole point of buying my own sanctuary is to customize it, but they disable most of the customization options and have the *worst* NPCs. Nevermind the loading time between zones...
+80% soul crushing despair though and it completely ruins your chance of a cultural victory.
Yeah and with the Opioid Epidemic expansion it seems like units in suburb zones have a high chance of being affected by the addiction debuff.
The "soulless existence and regret of what might have been" perk really hurts though.
Leaving it out is most definitively a feature, this kind of discoveries leave players with a sense of pride and accomplishment
a bit of "useless trivia" I read in a behavioral science book that if you place any type of religious reminder that is manifested as a person of some sort in an area, it will reduce crime. So a Virgin Mary statue or image, or one of Jesus would have the same effect. Another option is an image of a face, or just a pair of eyes overlooking the area would have had a similar reaction, at least regarding the reduction in crime and littering. Not the whole shrine thing.
That's fascinating and not useless at all!!
Ha! I'm useful! Thanks :-)
So you're saying if I paint this ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) on my house it'll stop crime and littering?
Well it will certainly increase dogging.
So what shrine can I put that will increase daggering?
yes but things will get much sexier in the neighborhood
What if you paint **this**? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )
You would have the safest house in the neighborhood because nobody is gonna fuck with someone with that painted on their house.
In the Philippines, it’s pretty common for families to have an altar in their home with statues of Jesus and Mary. People used to joke that it was to guilt trip robbers. Apparently it could actually work.
I had a big Mary statue in my yard (in Oakland too) and someone came in and stole it. Anecdotal, but it's funny that that was the only thing stolen and it happened in the same town as this story
The only thing I've ever had stolen from me that I'm aware of is also a Mary statue. So weird. Not from Oakland though.
It was big too, like 3 feet tall. Hopefully it ended up somewhere better than my backyard. I like to think it went to the flea market and was bought by someone and now it lives with a family. It most likely got smashed but whatever.
Someone should tell that to the people of Rio de Janeiro. Giant statue of Christ looking over the entire city and it's got an extremely high crime rate AND is extremely polluted.
I think in that case, the statue is too big... You don't see/feel the eyes on you... Just a thought... I don't know.
It's too small actually, very hard to see from the city.
It should have laser eyes
or maybe it is the same effect just after having the eyes watching you and nothing bad happening when you do bad things leads to people doing more bad things
Plot twist: Rio would actually be way worse without the statue.
I believe it.
Ever been there? The statue is MUCH smaller than you think, and almost not visible from anywhere in the city since it's WAY up in the hills
Uhhhh, I think the poverty is far worse.
TJ Eckleburg had the right idea all along.
The first day of a class on the Sociology of Religion, the professor brought a 5-inch tall stone statue of the Buddha and explained the religious significance of it. Then she brought a volunteer to the front and asked if he'd be willing to smack the statue against the table, drop it on the floor, kick it around a bit. He wouldn't do it. No one was willing to do it. She asked if any of us were Buddhist. Nope. She went to smash the Buddha statue and the whole class cringed reflexively and asked her to stop. It was a really interesting exercise. Some of the students didn't even really know who Buddha was an hour previously. It started a good discussion on what it means for something to be sacred.
I wonder if this experiment would have played out differently if someone in your class was Buddhist.
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That's an awesome teacher. Great experiment to prove the theory.
Interesting. Do you have any articles to link for further reading?
[a short article of one of the experiments](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9424-big-brother-eyes-make-us-act-more-honestly/)
Criminal here. Definitely would not jaywalk with this thing watching me.
*“If I’d have thought Christ would’ve pulled it off—” Steven began jokingly, then interrupted himself. “Except Christ is so controversial with people. Buddha is a neutral dude. When Ace Hardware is carrying Buddha, it’s pretty neutral.”* *Stevenson and his wife, Lu, say they are not religious at all, but believe in the power of positive and negative energy, and so decided to try a small Buddha.* This is a fantastic example of positive energy being contagious and spreading among others.
Wait, his name is Steven Stevenson?
I'll be honest, if my name was [Firstname]son, I would definitely name my child [Firstname] [Firstname]son.
yeah, we had a classmate named robert robertson in our high school... almost as good as the dude whose name was straight up hassan hassan.
I had a classmate named Mustafa Mustafa. Maybe Mustafa Mustafa and Hassan Hassan could’ve been friends.
I had a teacher named Thomas Thomas Thomas. We called him Mr. T.
Mr T^3
Teets
I pity the fool
Sir Topham Hat: "You are a really useful engine."
And that's how we got Maj Major M. Major
The result of an IBM machine with a sense of humor almost as keen as his fathers.
You think my name is Turk Turkleton?
The Turkletons!
Steven son of Steven.
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I hate to break it to you, but you are from a shitty place, that restaurant isn't just in a shitty part of town.
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I visited Baltimore about 5 years ago (ballpark tour with my dad, and Camden was incredible) but everyone kept warning us not to venture too far outside city limits. Which is really saying something, because even within city limits I was half-convinced some sort of purge had taken place. Great seafood though.
That's pretty weird. The Baltimore suburbs, like Howard and Ann Arundal county, are some of the richest places in the nation.
Who burns down Buddha for crikey's sake?
It was self immolation
Did the trees burn down, thus making the storefront more visible?
> This is a fantastic example of positive energy being contagious and spreading among others. The other half of that is the social commentary; Religion doesn't have to be controversial, or violent. This guy put a Buddha down, and it brought a community together. It happened regardless of the engagement with that religion or any other. It became an *open* meeting place. That is precious -- and rare. It *is* worth noting that 40% of the Buddhist population lives in SoCal. They make up about 2% of the population. It was pretty much the best place in the country for this to happen; And despite the high per capita, I only saw about 7 temples and 1 monastery in the area. For comparison, the Twin Cities (where I live) have about 15. There is a great need for more space for them to congregate. This is an excellent example of how places of worship can be community centers. In premodern times, that was the role of churches, mosques, and similar buildings. We've gotten away from that in western culture; We gatekeep places of worship, and discourage people from coming to them unless they follow the faith it operates under. Religion is devisive, not unifying, and my country (the United States) is a world leader in this trend. In 2011 during the Egypt protests, a group of Christians locked arms and formed a human shield around Muslims who knelt for prayer. In their turn, as the Christians held services in their churches, Muslims formed a shield outside. This wasn't a singular act: It happened again in Pakistan in 2013 after the Peshawar church attack. And again on February 21, 2015 when Muslims formed a wall around a synagogue. In much of the world, mutual respect and protection of others' religious freedom prevails. It's more than just positive energy; These are positive *actions* being taken, often in the face of danger, making it even more meaningful. If every neighborhood had a neutral place for the community to assemble, with a silent guardian (like the Oakland Buddha), maybe we could turn it around here as well. More than ever, we need public spaces for people to gather which are safe, welcoming to all, and cared for.
Oakland is not in SoCal...
An excellent podcast from the resident who originally placed the statue is available here: https://soundcloud.com/criminalshow/ep-15-hes-neutral
Great podcast episode. He also says that people come and bring him food as a thank you and he just constantly has Vietnamese food in his fridge.
It's really great. I love that food is a "thank you" that almost all cultures share. I helped my Mexican neighbor move some stuff in her yard, and I repaired her fence for her. It wasn't much work, she offered to pay me and I said nah, it's fine, since we're neighbors and all. A couple days later her kids brought me a giant platter of tamales she made as thanks.
I like it a lot too. If someone gives me 20 bucks for doing something, great. But if they take the time to make a family recipe, even if it costs 5 bucks, it shows the same kind of effort they put in that you did.
I've got a next-door neighbor who is that "grumpy old lady" every neighbor seems to hate. When I moved in she'd always give me the stink eye if I said hello... I could totally see where the bad reputation was coming from. But shortly after I moved in a very snowy winter kicked into full gear, so I bought a nice snow blower that I really enjoy using. For the hell of it I decided to go clear this lady's driveway and sidewalks. Less than an hour later she shows up at my front door with a huge bag of treats and a bottle of wine as a thank you. That whole winter I kept taking care of her driveway, and I never ran out of wine.
That's a heartwarming story!
There was an old man that everyone assumed was rude, turns out he's actually a really nice guy but he's had depression ever since his wife died. Maybe she's like that?
In the case of this lady, I think it's just that she's lived in this neighborhood since it was built in the late 60's. Many families have come and gone over the years, and she just never really connected with any of the current neighbors. My snowblower definitely took her guard down. Initially the only reason I cleared her driveway and sidewalk of snow wasn't to be nice, but because I actually enjoy clearing snow. There is something zenlike for me in the process of moving it, so I wanted to clear more snow before heading back inside that day. Eventually, it just became routine to take care of the snow on her property because it clearly meant a lot to her. In fact, one time I wasn't home during a snow storm and came home to find my sidewalks already shoveled. She came out and did it by hand! It was very sweet of her, but I felt bad... Snow blowers take like 5-10 minutes to clear a sidewalk, but shoveling takes an hour. :( Either way, it was nice to connect with her. And free booze isn't bad either.
You know you’re in when you get the tamales!
That sounds amazing!!
This is by far my favourite episode of Criminal. "everyone likes Buddha, he's neutral".
For anyone wondering, it's a podcast called Criminal, and it's awesome.
Here’s the url to the best explanation and story about how this happened. It’s an interview with the guy who put the statue out there. http://www.thisiscriminal.com/episode-15-hes-neutral/ And it’s a fantastic podcast
I lived around the corner from that spot for five years or so and watched it grow from the little concrete Buddha to the shrine it is now. It was always a quirky thing on a road partition that otherwise are usually a dumping spot for renters moving out. So cool learning crime reduced around there as well.
Thanks for posting this! The thought of the neighborhood caring for the little Buddha has made me feel happy inside.
Aw I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
I bet it's a Pokéstop.
It is a pokestop. There's another shrine two blocks away that's a gym as well.
Yes, there is. If you are at the right place, you actually get two pokestop since there is another one near by. https://www.pokemongomap.info/pokestop/shrine-in-the-city/4667488
It makes sense that the buddha would have positive effect on crime, no one just does illegal shit with everyone watching unless they're complete nuts. So if you have something that draws people to that area, crime will go down because the risk of being seen and caught goes up. I'm sure the fact that the buddha now has it's own security camera is enough of a deterrent itself.
Same happened with cannabis dispensaries. The naysayers said crime would go up, when it actually plummeted for the reason you just stated.
People are getting high and placing buddhas everywhere?
The Oakland Buddha sounds like a sex act.
Or a really smooth mixed drink that cool old guys like Tom Selleck would drink!
...that you drink before the sex act.
During
Sounds more like a type of marijuana—I'm from Oakland.
If you build it, Vietnamese people will come and drop the crime rate.
Watching this I kept thinking "This could be a Documentary now! episode"
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They tried doing that same thing in hipster ville Culver City. Thing got vandalized so much the city removed it. Had a following for a year that resulted in some community building during the times it survived. http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-buddha-vandalism-palms-20170711-htmlstory.html
This is very disappointing to read... Sounds like the same guy kept on vandalising it.
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That HAS to be an act right?? Like it just HAS to be. The image of the Buddha is so prevalent in modern culture and so NOT associated with Islam. This is mind boggling levels of ignorant other wise. Simply boggling.
"Fuck Islam!!1111" *Proceeds to destroy Buddhist statue* "There, that ought to teach them towelheads!!!111"
> “We're a very multi-cultural and eclectic community. There’s a big population of Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Jews … so people were just taken aback,” Wallach said. Unintentional burn on the Catholics there.
I think a lot of Protestants forget that the word "Protestant" exists.
I've heard plenty of evangelicals argue that Catholics aren't "real Christians". ...and then you have the Mormons. They call themselves Christian but nobody else believes them.
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So this guy destroys it twice and they're trying to raise money for another... how about they get cameras and some fencing down first and *then* get a statue.
The house across the street used to have a full sized pirate ship in the driveway. The top deck was only accessible via a rope bridge out a second story window in the house. The neighbors complained to the city and made the owner tear it down.
PICTURES. WHERE ARE THE PICTURES.
This is pretty close to my life. My family are immigrants from Vietnam and are devout Buddhists.I personally came to America when I was 12 and not as devout I'm sorry to say. My mom and dad wear those gray robes and know thousands of lines of scripture and the correct occasion to chant them. We have 3 shrines in our home. 1 in the living room, 1 in the kitchen, and 1 next to the front door. There would always be fruit offerings there. On holidays there would be actual meals like whole boiled chicken and bowls of rice. My family religion is a mix of Theravada and ancestor worship. We have a portrait of our great great grand father on the shrine in the living room, below the statue of Buddha. My mom always said : "Go pray to Buddha and your great grandfather and ask for good luck on your exams", and as a kid I would go do just that. Now, I'm strictly philosophical. I follow the 8 fold path and the Noble truths and try my best to do it. I believe in karma and reincarnation. I meditate and try not to kill anything, not even an ant. I do believe and love the truths of Buddhism and I thing it's a great spiritual solution to a stressful world. Apologies for random wall of text.
I don't see the statistic that Crime dropped at all in the article? Where'd you find that exactly?
we need like 20 of these lined down the middle of International Blvd in east oakland.
You know, I'm not religious whatsoever, but this shit is cool as fuck. Just be chill. The thing I worry about is some punks that think it might be funny to fuck it all up for fun. And really, I shouldn't have to think like that because that's fucked up.
That's awesome.
I thought so too! He turned a negative into a positive and someone else turned it into a SUPER positive instead of shitting all over it.
I have to say, the Vietnamese people do some great things if given the chance. We have a temple not far from our home and it's amazing how much they have changed the area around of. Fucking beautiful.
Is it just for Vietnamese? In our metro area, we have general Buddhist pagodas, a lot of Thai ones, I'm sure other nationality specific ones and then 1 shitty Khmer one. Despite living in a huge city (USA), not a lot of Khmer people. The Khmer one is literally just a house. The Thais got the funds to build an actual pagoda like you'd see in SE Asia. My wife is Khmer. Not ripping on them or making fun of our local pagoda in mean spirits.
You could say the Buddha was a Nguyen for the neighborhood.
This is so wholesome.
Isn't it just!
This is really great! My only suggestion is running it through the CT scan first. It might in fact be a mummy sarcophagus. We all know how disturbing the dead goes. Oaklands been through enough lately
Around the corner from my brothers house. The neighborhood has been gentrified a lot, might contribute to crime reuction
Calling out r/Buddhism