Hello everyone,
I would like to clear this up for you. I believe, being a lover of Chaos and having recently been introduced to Buddhism, Chaos is an inverted form of Buddhism. It is Buddhism backwards. If Chaos is black, Buddhism is white.
Let me explain...
In Buddhism, the human mind (and all other minds) suffer from 3 "poisons" or defilements. Those 3 are craving/desire/greed, hatred/aversion, and delusion/ignorance. Each of these defilements are portrayed in the form of the 3 Chaos Gods. Slaanesh for desire; Khorne for hatred; Tzeentch for delusion. Nurgle is, in fact, the Buddha. Nurgle appears to be the complete opposite of the Buddha, and he even is usually seen sitting in a meditation-like posture. Nurgle's appearance (physical, mental, all aspects of who he appears to be) is an illusion of Tzeentch. Because Tzeentch's delusions is so intwined with our minds, we cannot perceive Nurgle as he truly is, and instead, he appears to be an evil being. But, it is in fact said that Nurgle loves all life, from the tiniest microscopic bacterium to any other larger creature.
Nurgle is the God of Death, Decay, and Despair.
The Buddha teaches that there are 5 things which none can escape: Illness, Aging, Death, separation from loved ones, and being the owner and heir of your karma. The last one does not translate to Chaos. But, Illness, Aging, Death, and separation are perfect translations to Nurgle's domains. Illness = disease and sickness, Aging = decay, Death = Death. Separation is despair.
In Buddhism, the absolute worst offense one can commit is to kill, worse than that, is to kill out of hatred or anger. Killing out of hatred is worse than killing out of greed or jealousy. This is why Khorne is the most powerful of all the Chaos Gods. To kill out of hatred is the most powerful evil.
Chaos, as a religion, is the complete opposite of Buddhism. In so, so, so many ways, I've seen so many parallels. I've been obsessed with Chaos ever since I was introduced to it years ago. And, for 6 months now I have been studying Buddhism (very rapidly and with great enthusiasm) and I have seen that they are so incredibly similar in their invertedness.
A big idea in Buddhism is the idea of impermanence. Constant and everlasting change. The whole cosmos is subject to change, and, ironically, change is the only constant in the universe. This brings in to mind the power Tzeentch holds over the realm of existence, and, again, the idea that the only power that overcomes this change, truly understands it and sees it as it really is, is through Buddhism, Nurgle. Nurgle is the opposite of Tzeentch; Nurgle is stagnant, unchanging, and permanent. Nurgle is the truth, the Dhamma (truth of reality in Buddhism), seen through the deluded eyes of Tzeentch.
And, just FYI, the symbol of Buddhism, the 8 spoked wheel... has nothing to do with the 5 precepts, or the 8 monastery precepts, as you explained earlier. The 8 spoked wheel of Dhamma is in reference to the Buddha's teaching, the core of Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path incorporates 8 steps that must be taken both simultaneously and subsequently in order to reach Awakening.
The 8 pointed Star of Chaos is very similar. I've looked into the meaning behind that symbol vastly, and have come with a few conclusions. The one I believe is the most substantial is that the Star of Chaos is, in fact, the cosmos or the universe. In latin, Khaos means cosmos. The symbol for Khaos, I believe, is the 8 arrows shooting from within the circle. This "star of Chaos," in fact, is both spinning (like a wheel) AND expanding outward. It is a metaphor for the universe, as it spins and expands outwards through space-time.
Thank you, I hope this was helpful.
