How buddhist themes in JJK frame Satosugu
(This is actually the author's note from chapter 86 of my stsg fic, but I felt like sharing it on Tumblr, because why not.)
ICYDK, A bodhisattva is someone who reaches enlightenment but chooses not to fully transcend, staying in the cycle of suffering to help others reach it too. Sort of a "buddha-to-be."
This is just me studying the idea I think Gege was trying to convey of Gojo being a true Bodhisattva, while Geto is a corrupted/fake one.
Suguru's reaction after he killed everyone in that village can be seen as a sort of transcendence, a final understanding, but he takes that feeling and reduces everything into one answer: eliminate the source of suffering. It feels like enlightenment because it removes doubt, but it’s actually just fixation. He doesn’t let go of attachment, he replaces it with ideology. And the key thing is, he never questions that interpretation again. He clings to it because he needs it to be true. If it isn’t, then everything he’s done since collapses. So his “non-self” becomes the most rigid version of himself possible.
Satoru goes through that state for real after Toji. He could’ve gone down the same path, the story even puts him in a position where mass killing (destroying the source of suffering) would be effortless and, in a twisted way, justifiable. But the difference is that Satoru rejects it because Suguru is there to tether him. Because of him, he understands that it's not just freedom from suffering, it’s freedom from connection, from responsibility, from other people’s weight. And that’s the part he refuses. He chooses to come back down, to feel, to carry things that would be easier to drop.
So where Suguru’s “enlightenment” is about escaping suffering by eliminating its source, Satoru’s becomes less about escaping suffering and more about reducing it, by helping others grow strong enough to carry their share.
That’s where the Bodhisattva parallel comes in. He could detach, could live above everything, but doesn’t. He stays, like a true Bodhisattva would.
And it ties back to a core JJK idea: people can only really transcend when they’re aligned with who they actually are. We see this a LOT with Yuji, Sukuna, Mahito, etc.
Suguru isn’t aligned with himself. He’s someone who loves deeply, who forms bonds easily, who cares A LOT, and he turns himself into someone who doesn’t. That contradiction undermines him, his twisted ideology is the only thing holding him together.
Satoru, on the other hand, is aligned. He’s someone who protects, who invests in people, who acts freely according to his own will. Even when his life is a complete mess internally, his actions still move in that direction. That’s why he stabilizes instead of spiraling.
So yeah. Same starting point, same “enlightenment” feeling.
One becomes obsession.
The other becomes purpose.
Mind you, I'm not a Buddhism expert at all, this is just my two cents after a lot of research and hours of non-stop thinking about them and narrative themes.
Then this also ties to Sukuna being the only other person who truly found enlightenment in the whole narrative, turning him into Gojo's equal. But he has an extremely different approach to the cycle of suffering because he didn’t know love. Essentially, Sukuna didn't have his own Suguru, so he's not a complete bodhisattva because he is still untethered.
“The loneliness that comes with unrivaled strength. The one who will teach you about love is…”
There's so much more, but that’s a discussion for another day.
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