Houseki no Kuni / Land of the Lustrous

Most of the things you really need some Buddhism knowledge to get is compiled on the archive.

Do you mean just scattered as random posts?
Or is there actually a compilation?

If you want a simple and broad comparison, is a Ship of Theseus story, at what point Phos stops being Phos while body and mind changes drastically during the story?

That much I got.

Will be anything left of original Phos at the end of the journey?

This is where it got tricky, Phos changed so much so many times that I was under the assumptions that it wasn't Phos already even before getting Lapis head, but especially after that.
But reading the link I put in OP it seems like most posts there claim that's not the case at all and something about inclusions being karma vibrations?
And how memories and being is forever and Phos was always Phos no matter what.
I don't really get that.

Is it worth it?

That's really the part I don't get the most.
What was any of it for and what did we accomplish by the end?
From what it seems to me on the surface it feels like it really wasn't.
Phos wanted to know why we fight Lunarians and if Sensei is working with them, but in doing that he really didn't learn why they were REALLY fighting Lunarians because Aechmea's motives seemed to be a lie? So not only did Phos not get an answer but in the process everybody fucking died and suffered.
So for fucking what exactly?

Do you mean just scattered as random posts? Or is there actually a compilation?

Both, the link you posted with Buddhanon ramblings is a good enough intro into Buddhism with a lot of theorycrafting (that didn't happen, of course).

This is where it got tricky, Phos changed so much so many times that I was under the assumptions that it wasn't Phos already even before getting Lapis head, but especially after that. But reading the link I put in OP it seems like most posts there claim that's not the case at all and something about inclusions being karma vibrations?And how memories and being is forever and Phos was always Phos no matter what.I don't really get that.

I agree, it's tricky and open to personal interpretation. The way I saw it, Buddism entails a sense of disconnection to the world, to its pleasures and to its suffering, eventually even to oneself. Phos achieved a disconnection to itself, but never fully, even as GodPhos, it spells to us clearly, everything it did was out of a need of love and it did the best it could to earn it.

everything it did was out of a need of love and it did the best it could to earn it.

That can't be true though, Phos started the whole thing out of need for answers to questions.
There was already love there, but Phos chose to reject it and pursue truth over love which is what caused all this suffering and death.
If Phos just wanted love then all she needed to do was just keep the status quo and keep being loved by sensei instead of doubting him.

That can't be true though, Phos started the whole thing out of need for answers to questions.

Phos believed that was something that would help everyone and in return make Phos beloved and useful, Phos was in too deep when it noticed that might not be the case.

If Phos just wanted love then all she needed to do was just keep the status quo and keep being loved by sensei instead of doubting him.

Phos had selfdoubt thanks to its many years of doing nothing or fucking up everything. Even Sensei's love was to be doubted (which kickstarted everything really).

Sensei is harder than diamond.

Phos believed that was something that would help everyone and in return make Phos beloved and useful, Phos was in too deep when it noticed that might not be the case.

That also can't be true, both padparadscha and shinsha told phose before laphos (and right after laphos too) that looking for answers will only cause problems and that every gem already knew sensei was shady and literally asked phos "well what if you do find out? then what? what if sensei is bad? what good will that bring?".

Phos had selfdoubt thanks to its many years of doing nothing or fucking up everything. Even Sensei's love was to be doubted (which kickstarted everything really).

Well that's true but again then that means she didn't want love, she wanted truth.

I am also quite tired and was supposed to go to sleep like two hours ago, so I am going to type up a brief explanation, and then after I wake up (if the thread is still up), I will type a longer one or answer any additional questions that you have.
By the way: you are not stupid, and trying to understand something is a virtue. Not knowing or understanding something is not a problem, but refusing to look it up or try to understand is. One more thing: just because I explain something does not mean that I philosophically agree with it, or that I think you should. I think that one can learn a lot from a piece of art without having to agree with it morally or ethically. Also, this is just my interpretation.
Essentially, in Houseki no Kuni, humanity was going to be destroyed. Humans split their souls from their bodies and became the immortal Lunarians so that they could be prayed away instead of dying without prayer. The Lunarians were arranged in order of sinfulness, with the most sinful last in line to be prayed for. While Sensei/Adamant prayed most of the Lunarians away, he broke before he could pray away the most sinful. The Prince/Aechmea was not one of the most sinful but was originally simply a manager who chose to stay behind with the Lunarians he had been assigned to manage instead of going in his place in line. One of the aspects of a Buddha is someone who could move on to Nirvana but chooses to stay behind in the suffering of the cycle of reincarnation order to help others achieve this.
The other aspects of humanity (bone and flesh) spun off to become the gems and the admirabilis respectively.

Phos gains the head of Lapis Lazuli. Lapis is essentially dead; the person who was Lapis is no more, but others retain the expectations of a Lapis-like person. This idea of projecting expectations comes up repeatedly, most notably in the big gem conflict resolutions: how Pad was tired of the expectations on them from Rutile, or how Dia could not come to terms with the expectations they projected into Bortz that were no longer true, and so on. Phos inherits some of the powers and desires of Lapis. Phos initially wants to stop the war with the Lunarians and so goes to the moon. On the moon, Phos learns about the nature of the Lunarians and how they simply wish to be prayed away by Sensei. Phos brokers peace with the Lunarians by agreeing to try to make Sensei pray in return for the Lunarians not attacking the gems anymore -- note that Phos is intending to help the gems at this point. Phos is not trying to become human. At no point during this is Phos trying to become human.
Phos attempts various things to convince Sensei to pray. Fundamentally, Phos is at this point trying to solve the war between the gems and Lunarians through various methods, in part because the Lunarians agree to work on returning/restoring the gems that have been destroyed up to this point.
Among the things Phos tries include: taking various gems up to the Moon to get them peacefully away from Sensei, trying to stage a raid / show of violence to try to corner Sensei, and then simply begging for Sensei to pray. However, Sensei is fundamentally broken, and nothing will restore this.
Aechmea actually had another plan, which was to turn Phos into a sufficiently human entity that Phos could pray for them instead. The final stage of this plan involved Phos receiving memories of humanity from Sensei, encompassing the final treasure.

Of note, this occurred when Phos was at their absolute furthest point from their pure self, in the depths of despair, unable to even recognise themself or remember anything about the promise that they had had to Cinnabar. By that point in their slow descent, Phos was no longer doing it out of a desire to help the gems, but simply lashing out. This serves to demonstrate the idea that the drive for self-improvement can be destructive. Phos wanted to stop feeling useless, but this desire to feel useful and to have power eventually led them to lose everything. (Of course, they were also being manipulated.) Phos had gained many treasures, but had lost so much of what made them themself.
The Lunarians work to make everyone into Lunarians at this point, since that human soul will be recognised and thus able to be prayed away. A big theme at this point is the idea of bringing along humanity to the new world. Human desires mucked up this world, according to the professor who designed Sensei, and so created significant suffering. The Lunarians, Aechmea, the gems, the admirabilis: all of them want to peacefully move on and to no longer be tied to this cycle of immortality where nothing ever happens.
Cinnabar has a moment of reflecting on Phos and realising that, even though they once felt so much for Phos, they no longer really feel that way due to how much time has passed and how many experiences have changed them. The idea of these transgressions and wounds falling aside on such scales of time will come up again.

Significant time passes, and life begins anew. Phos worries about not tainting the new world with these human ideas about having to be useful or needing to have a role. The conversations with the rock friends keep teaching Phos that no one has to have a role at all. Even when the rocks do things such as sing or dance, some rocks do absolutely nothing except exist. Even though Phos initially wants to give the rocks more senses (like Sensei did), they decline. When Phos tries to come up with a role for each rock in the dancing/singing/etc., the rocks gently dissaude them. While Red Dia displayed envy and a desire to emulate Sensei, the rocks are content.
It turns out that the planet will eventually be swallowed by the sun, but Aechmea and Sensei had wanted to leave Phos a gift, which turned out to be a spaceship so that Phos could escape if they wanted to. Phos refuses to go because they do not want to taint the world. But Brother (the machine) rejects this idea that Phos deserves suffering and takes a small piece of Phos with him onto the spaceship. The explosion melts the rest of Phos away, as they finally smile, because existence under such constraints is suffering in the worldview of the manga. But Phos does not deserve to suffer. Instead, Phos is able to have a peaceful life on the new world.
The new world where the rocks go bears visual motifs of the purelands of Buddhism, with gems and flowers and such. This is the true houseki no kuni of the title, as the land of the lustrous refers to a quote from Buddhist texts. (To give an example, a Christian version might be Land of Milk and Honey, that kind of thing.)

While the manga was discussing how much Phos had changed, the truth in the worldview of the manga is that Phos is Phos and had always been Phos, a kind child. Phos is able to finally be genuinely content and happy without any concern about usefulness. When Phos is clumsy in the ending, breaking again as they broke at the start of the manga, no one chides them or views them as powerless, instead simply accepting them as they are and seeking to help or accommodate if necessary, but never implying that Phos is not good enough or needs to be more than they are.
The manga opens in what appears to be a Land of the Lustrous: a kingdom of similar gem people who are free of many of the things that give humans suffering, as they do not have sexual desire, nor need to eat, etc. However, they still suffer from the emotional injuries of humanity and most specifically the idea that people need to have roles and be similar to one another. Sensei tried to make them similar and also tried to give them specific roles out of a belief that people need to feel useful to be fulfilled. This appears to be a paradise as some would believe the purelands to be. The manga critiques this view of the purelands as a place where humans can have anything they want or be without the physical aspects of suffering, showing how the Lunarians and the gems both continue to suffer since their psyches and souls are fundamentally human.
The mangaka noted that part of her inspiration came from her the Buddhist school that she attended and that she was surprised to learn that, even in paradise, gems and such were still being used as treasures. From her comments, it seems to me that she was surprised that gems would be objectified in this way literally and also that humans would still have such desires as to covet gems and decorate themselves with them, which seemed to be at odds with the giving up of material pursuits.

Thus, the true land of the lustrous, the true houseki no kuni, the true paradise is not one where human-like figures can bask in coveted gems, but one where human-like desires are entirely gone, and instead beings can live as themselves without any need to feel useful or indeed have any obligation whatsoever other than simply to be.
Note that the manga does not appear to specifically critique Phos for trying to be useful. Indeed, the manga has a lot of sympathy for Phos and others in their position. The manga appears to be critiquing the overall idea that we expect people to be useful and project expectations, which then lead to so much suffering.
I welcome others to share their own thoughts and interpretations. And, like I said: happy to answer any questions or clarify anything.

That also can't be true, both padparadscha and shinsha told phose before laphos (and right after laphos too) that looking for answers will only cause problems and that every gem already knew sensei was shady and literally asked phos "well what if you do find out? then what? what if sensei is bad? what good will that bring?".

Phos was too invested already postAntarc, won't stop, can't stop and doesn't want to stop. Trauma changed Phos and it was clear to see.
This is one of the more interesting stretches of the series because even us, saw the "dead" of dumbPhos and were seeing new sides of Phos, some people theorized that the Gold/Lapis corrupted Phos. While no one claimed that for the Agate legs.

You need to be autistic to "get" this story?

No problem, if the thread dies I'll make another tomorrow.

Humans split their souls from their bodies and became the immortal Lunarians so that they could be prayed away instead of dying without prayer.

Okay so they ARE souls?
From reading the imgur posts the buddhanon was claiming that lunarians couldn't be souls and that it was Aechmea's misinterpretation of what they were actually.

encompassing the final treasure.

This is another one I vaguely remember mentioned, what are those treasures exactly?

Okay, but what stops the rocks in houseki no kuni from following the same pattern all over again and succumbing to the same stuff as godphos feared would happen?
What's the difference now?

And for that matter, what about the gems who were content with their life?
Didn't Phos cause a lot more suffering by their actions than it was worth to create this paradise?

angry/resentful = bad

calm/forgiving/at peace = good

living things = okay... ish maybe

thats all you need to know to get it

be aechmea

be angry/resentful

win anyway

???

Did we finally get the extra books or we still don't have them?

No, just remember that humanity will always want more, and will always be unsatisfied with the state of the world (including itself).
Unlike RockChads that are one with the universe but also manage to retain their own self, they flow with the currents of life, while humanity constantly fights it.

I MIGHT be gay for a rock

No problem, if the thread dies I'll make another tomorrow.

Please do. Last reply before I sleep.

Okay so they ARE souls?
From reading the imgur posts the buddhanon was claiming that lunarians couldn't be souls and that it was Aechmea's misinterpretation of what they were actually.

I need to go back to the raws and see what Japanese term was used, but the answer is that it is complicated, and the Western concept of the soul differs from the Buddhist idea of the self. I think this is largely a matter of semantics. The Lunarians represent a form of humanity who taken on the cognitive and mental suffering of humanity as the ones who bear the memories of what it meant to be human. They are no longer human themselves, which is why they do not have the capacity to pray themselves away. One really note is that Buddhism in general, including Japanese purelands Buddhism, does not believe in an unchanging single nature of a soul or spirit. When people say that Phos has always been Phos, sometimes they are interpreting it through a Christian lens of an unchanging pure essence or soul, which does not exist. What instead I mean by this is pretty much the opposite: that Phos, like all beings in the Buddhist worldview of the manga that deliberately extends to non-human beings, is capable of being content and at peace, but was thrust into circumstances which made them suffer due to thinking that they needed to be loved / recognised / useful.

Accidentally messed up the quotes in my previous post.

This is another one I vaguely remember mentioned, what are those treasures exactly?

The specific lists of the seven treasures actually vary because the words do not always have exact translations, but they are seashell (actually their first upgrade: they became part of the Admirabilis seashell which allowed them to understand the Admirabilis tongue), agate (legs), gold (arms), lapis lazuli (head), pearl (Lunarian eye), silver (Cinnabar poison that coated Phos and gave them skin), and vajra (sometimes given as carnelian, but Adamant literally has vajra in his actual name and the one more commonly used in Pure Lands Buddhism; this is the eye of Adamant that was the final treasure). Some readers seemed to conflate silver with the platinum that Phos got on the beach, but Ichikawa was careful to write each treasure as a distinct upgrade, and the poison that Cinnabar exudes was specifically called silver poison repeatedly using the same kanji as the treasure.

Okay, but what stops the rocks in houseki no kuni from following the same pattern all over again and succumbing to the same stuff as godphos feared would happen?

What's the difference now?

The manga posits that the rocks, even millions of years into the future, are content simply being. Nothing specific is stopping the rocks from succumbing to that, but they appear to not have done so after so many years. The manga is basically saying that there is a possible world and society in which people do not have to suffer the idea of usefulness or roles. Furthermore, the manga argues, based on Phos and Brother, that association with humanity does not obligate someone to succumb to this pattern. Brother was made by humans and knew humans personally (even loving their chips), and Phos of course inherited the memories and suffering and such, but both of them were still welcome and even key parts of the world to come. This involved deliberate rejections of what made humanity humanity (in the negative sense) on their parts, seen most especially with Brother. The manga shows two distinct societies (the gems, who suffered from being moulded into humanity by Sensei who only wanted the best for them, and the rocks, who rejected being moulded and whom Phos did not mould). The difference is that Phos listened to the rocks instead of assuming what they needed, and the rocks did not feel the need to develop roles themselves.

And for that matter, what about the gems who were content with their life?

Such as? Even though many gems showed on the surface that they were content, the manga goes on to demonstrate their issues which go beyond the Lunarians or their grief over their partners. The gems who were softer or more easily broken felt poorly about it. Cinnabar felt unable to be with the other gems (which also turned out to be fake news borne of not being sufficiently accommodating at first). Rutile wanted to make Pads be awake, while Pads did not want this. Dia was jealous of Bortz for factors outside of their control, and so on and so forth. Even in the flashbacks, we see the beginnings of jealousy and malcontent stirring with Red Dia and others who were vying for the love and attention of Sensei. Euclase, who generally tries to be a good leader, nonetheless caused significant suffering in their efforts to broker peace.

Didn't Phos cause a lot more suffering by their actions than it was worth to create this paradise?

I do not think that the manga is saying that suffering is great actually or that suffering is worth the paradise created. Rather, the manga is saying that people are suffering because of this stuff right now, but that it does not have to be this way. When Phos was not around, the gems were still having their insecurities and misgivings on the moon for ten thousand years. Rather, Phos could have perpetuated even more suffering, but deliberately chose not to do that. It is not the suffering that made Phos a godly figure, but the fact that Phos chose against perpetuating suffering, both against the Lunarians, and later against the rocks (by not moulding them into their image).

Okay I gotta sleep now. Please feel free to throw in more questions.

Alrighty, thanks anon.
I'll have to think about this before I can come up with more questions.

I feel like I'm too retarded to understand the story.

Authors often try to make you feel that way. I think it's pretty clear the mangaka lost motivation long before finishing the story and that it became very meandering and disjointed. Having frequent breaks that last months including one that lasted several years (definitely less than 10000 but more than 2) did not help anyone either. It looked good at the start and sort of interesting after that and it was certainly mysterious and fun to read throughout. But I wouldn't worry too much about "getting it".

That aside, I want to cherish, protect and HUG Yellow Diamond.

What an embarrassing post. Authors certainly make mistakes and drop plot lines all the time. HnK has issues as do all works. But there is a clear thematic resonance in the work whether or not you personally agree with it. You not understanding it and so chalking it up to the author not caring, when she went out of her way to prepare special expeditions and the party art book and the alien encyclopedia and such, is profoundly sad. I hope you get better and can engage with your own ignorance.

You're terrible for being a human and having a hagiarchy, ambitions, needs, and generally just being alive.

You should "let go" and and let other people(literal fucking rocks and dirt) take you place because they are so much better and purer in spirit than you sinful fleshbags.
No i will not specify how.

Just burn the bridge and stop asking questions, mkay?

I love HnK but the more i think about the last couple of chapters the more i genuinely start to hate it
Buddhistscholar anon's schizotheory is how the series really should have ended.

just hopping in here to say that your opening paragraph would enhance communication between people tenfold if kept in mind, beautiful and correct framework to maneuver thru information with. Thank you for all the writing I'm pouring over it now as someone who binged HnK on a stormy porch last year stoned to the gills.

You're terrible for being a human

Sextuple dubs anon, you got it all wrong.

It's just that terrible things are tied to being human, not that you're terrible for being one,
Phos/Rockbro were human but rejected the terrible part to let Rockbros thrive.

It's been a while. What was the gist of the schizotheory? I hope Buddhaanon is doing well.

Existence is suffering, either kill yourself or end the universe.

What was the gist of the schizotheory?

Phos was going to bring everyone to the Pure Land (slugs, gembutts, moonbutts) and restore Earth.

Well... we did get Pure Land.
Just with rocks.

This would have been terrible as an ending because it just perpetuates the things that already made them miserable and just regurgitates Buddhism. The story as it is, with a thoughtful critique of the what the houseki no kuni passage is and the human centric worldview of Buddhism, is significantly more poignant to me personally. You do you dawg.
That's real cute. I hope sleepy anon sees your post. I'm curious to hear what else you're gonna say when you pore over his post.

I just think moon Phos was really hot

This would have been terrible as an ending because it just perpetuates the things that already made them miserable and just regurgitates Buddhism.

I mean... that's why we called him Buddha-anon.

the houseki no kuni passage

Is there somewhere I can read it in english?

I mean that it just regurgitates Buddhism as it is, while the actual ending is more interesting and makes a statement.

you got it all wrong.

No i really haven't.
I have read this shit to death and i can firmly conclude that the message of the entire story is simply "humans bad" because there are elements to us that are undesired/bad and therefore we need the ubermench rocks that Phos raised to save the story. Because Phos after unknowingly taking part in everyone else schemes, is still a product of the human "spirit" so she can't even go along with them.
That's why the whole last goodbye part where Aniki suddenly realizes that despite Phos not having any human malice or whatever in her anymore she still blows herself up to be reborn as a purebred rock.

I tried to cope about it for the longest time but there really is no other way to intemperate it.

The manga was following Buddhist theory closely with the 7 treasures, Adamant (Vajrablahblah), and Enma so I can't blame Buddha anon for thinking it would follow the rest of the scripture too.

Because Phos after unknowingly taking part in everyone else schemes, is still a product of the human "spirit" so she can't even go along with them.

That's why the whole last goodbye part where Aniki suddenly realizes that despite Phos not having any human malice or whatever in her anymore she still blows herself up to be reborn as a purebred rock.

Aniki lived with the Rockbros for an infinite amount of time, and he also had Humanity on him, the love for his mother and respect for Phos.

Not all of Humanity is bad, but Phos felt that it was.

great series of posts anon. i have a few questions too if that's ok.

i've seen aechmea and sensei described as being bodhisattvas, that is, those who have attained enlightenment but have delayed it to help others achieve it. however, i never got my head around the particulars.
i clearly remember Sensei being called one, his middle name is literally Jizō Bosatsu. But then he "breaks", ostensibly due to the feelings of attachment he gains for the gems. so.. is he no longer a Bodhisattva when the gems come into his life? is that normal in (mahayana?) buddhism?
Then there's Aechmea, he is a high caste lunarian who decides to delay his purification via prayer-machine; which I assume is the same as enlightenment, to help the low caste lunarians at the back of the queue. he has Bodhisattva qualities but at the same time, he hasn't achieved enlightment himself. what gives?

Here's one translation I randomly found on Google. It's not the one I read but it's basically the same thing. bdk.or.jp/document/dgtl-dl/dBET_ThreePureLandSutras_2003.pdf
Here's a translated quote from a 2016 interview with Ichikawa that explains it:
"During these lessons, through Buddhist scripture I learned of the ‘Longer Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Muryo Jukyo)’. One line states ‘the Western Paradise is made up of gems’. The Western Paradise is apparently comprised of gems, you see. [...] ‘Muryoju’ means an immeasurable amount of light. Whilst it teaches the basic principles of Buddhism, it also talks about just how magnificent and sublime the Western Paradise is.

Having been made to read these sutras throughout high school, I eventually began to think that even in a place like ‘Paradise’ where each and every thing experiences salvation, the gems can only ever be decoration." The passage she's referring to starts on page 68 of that PDF I linked I think.

The fact that Aniki was exempt from any kind of scrutiny makes the ending even more retarded because if there was anyone in the series that had bad human elements literally programed into them it would be him.
Shit doesn't make sense but i guess he's exempt because he's an AI?

Phos felt that it was.

No she really just wanted a place to belong to and concluded that the easiest way to do that was to not exist at all.
She even laments not being able to go with the gems after vaporizing them.

Nowhere in the story does she go "humanity bad" she just realizes she's a complete retard after it's too late

NTA but Aniki is there to prove that humanity wasn't a bridge that needed to be burned. Phos still has inclusions inside but chooses not to bring that. When Aniki burns away humanity, they're talking about that desire for hierarchy and usefulness and shit.
The ending isn't that humanity sucks but that humanity has to let go of the desire to be needed or useful and social roles if it wants to be free of suffering and Pure Land Buddhism where you make someone else suffer to pray for you is utterly cringe.

The fact that Aniki was exempt from any kind of scrutiny makes the ending even more retarded because if there was anyone in the series that had bad human elements literally programed into them it would be him.

Aniki worked against humanity because they were bullying her mom, he acted out of pure love. He didn't acted out or talked shit against the slugs, gembutts or moonies per se because they weren't the ones that bullied his mom. He was only mad when he detected their humanity.
Aniki was as human but he knew damn well the flaws that comes with it. He gets angry at itself when it behaves like a "human" (being attached to Phos and jeopardazing the escape to get a piece of Phos).

No she really just wanted a place to belong to and concluded that the easiest way to do that was to not exist at all. She even laments not being able to go with the gems after vaporizing them. Nowhere in the story does she go "humanity bad" she just realizes she's a complete retard after it's too late.

Phos wanted the Rocks to get a "clean slate" and thought itself wasn't the correct one to accompany them, so Chad Aniki got that role.

NTA but Aniki is there to prove that humanity wasn't a bridge that needed to be burned

I guess you could look at it like that yea.

When Aniki burns away humanity, they're talking about that desire for hierarchy and usefulness and shit

This is the utterly retarded part because this is just how humans work.
Telling people to get rid of that shit is just as retarded as making someone else suffer on your behalf because it's not possible and pointless.

I thought the whole point of Buddhism was that knowing something is unarchivable but still trying makes life worth it in the end?
That's not really what i'm getting from this ending at all.

Your belief that this is just human nature and that humans can't ever learn to just exist and accommodate people as they are is what this work is critiquing.
Also, what? that's not what Buddhism is at all.

Yea, that's why i find it retarded.
There are plenty of other, lets just call them "liberal ideologies" that lay out much better critiques of society and human behavior than whatever HnK is trying to do.
Mainly because HnK asks a lot of questions, they are good question about hierarchy and ability n shit but it never comes forth with any kind of solution.
It's all just

LOL Aechmea solos!

And while i do find that deeply funny it's not really something that has any meaning.

Also, what? that's not what Buddhism is at all.

Gonna be honest, all i know from Buddhism is from this series and Sekiro...

This is like learning about Christianity by reading Paradise Lost or playing Doom as your first and only exposure. I'm not saying this to be elitist or anything, just, what you said is more suitable for a fortune cookie. I don't think you need to know Buddhism to appreciate or have an opinion (even negative) on HnK. Just want to make it clear.
Aechmea didn't even solo. He got what he wanted (nothingness) while the rockbros get to exist in the Pure Lands truly content and without suffering. You're right that Ichikawa didn't write down a manual of how to live a better life, but she does certainly have answers. Her answers are that we have to accept people as they are instead of trying to find roles for everyone or trying to make them fit our image of what they should be like. No one is saying that this is easy to do. But just as living a life free of sins like pride or lust or greed is also insanely difficult for a Christian, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. It's fine if you're fatalistic and think that humanity just can't do any better, but calling the manga retarded because you don't agree with its view on humanity is in of itself retarded. The story is making a statement about Buddhism and its major malfunctions, and providing an example of a different path forward. You can dispute its conclusion and still recognize the internal conference of its argument.
I don't think it's perfect. Her lust for old bald men with giant hands and shoulders is fucking hilarious. Her randomly introducing characters like Melon and then not developing them is funny. I do think the other gems not getting development / closure was intentional but the dropping of several arcs from the middle of the manga wasn't.

I feel like I'm too retarded to understand the story.

This is very possible.
I would say Land of the lustrous is pretty straight forward though. Things happen literally an theirs very rarely an shift in point of view so you either read to fast or you are that dumb.

So for fucking what exactly?

I might be repeating what someone else has said, but fuck it, I don't have time to read the whole thread right now. So Phos's most defining characteristic is the ability to change, which is highly unusual as the gems are characterized by their rigidity. They are slaves to tradition, even when those traditions cause harm or are nonsensical. This difference is the first hint that Phos doesn't fit into gem society, which manifests in other ways that contribute to Phos feeling useless to their society. Her motivations and desires change too much to be effective at what the others do. She is much like an actual human in this way.

We also know from sensei that Phos has always had a kind heart. So her early motivations are 1) finding a fulfilling purpose, and 2) improving the lives of the gems. 1) is difficult because, much like humans, Phos's fickle nature's means that what is satisfying right now might change later. 2) is synonymous with wanting to resolve the Lunarian conflict because it is the only real source of suffering for the gems, and unlike the others who can only keep doing what they do, she has the potential to actually bring change - to break the (karmic) cycle.

Over time, Phos changes physically, psychologically, and philosophically, because that is her nature. Since these things all drive, well, everything about us, that means her motivations also change. The big turning point is the introduction of Lapis's inclusions, and thus part of her curious and skeptical personality. Now Phos's motivations turn towards finding the truth. Why? Well, now that's part of her nature, because she changed. She is still part Phos, so you can argue that this is driven by the thought that finding the truth will ultimately lead to a better gem society, but we can't truly know what her real motivation was. That's for the better, I think; it makes Phos a very interesting and realistic character, multifaceted unlike other gems.

(Cont.)
Unfortunately, change can be good or bad. We see that as Phos continues to change and strive, the suffering she experiences also changes her. Just like humans. Priorities realign. She grows bitter. Her thoughts turn progressively towards stopping the pain, snuffing out everything she used to be and believe in. This is visualized viscerally in how monstrous her body and how cruel her intentions become. In how she can't even recognize a faint memory of her old self. She is so close to being human at this point, and knows intimately the human experience.

Why go through it all if this was the result? The same reason every single person who has ever lived does the same thing. To live and strive is to suffer, and we do it because we must. The only relief is the peace of nonexistence. By the end, Phos knew this better than anyone, knew that the conflict resulting in her suffering was just one pebble in the avalanche of collective suffering that is living, so she chose to end the suffering by praying for their release.

Phos is flawed. Phos is broken. Phos is trying. Phos is changing. Phos is human. And in the end, Phos is still kind.

I don't even feel like the others gems were unable to change. It's just that they all had their set roles so they didn't need to. We know that other gems changed for example Rutile used to be a delinquent and then settled down. Phos didn't have a Job so she naturally changed more than the others in her search to not be the weakest. agree with your post otherwise and very beautiful

That's true, they can change some, but are very, very, very resistant. They are the bone, sturdy and stable but will shatter before bending. Another example is Bort changing from warrior to jellyfish farmer. I can't recall what directly brought that change, but I'm pretty sure it was a result of Phos helping Achmea in exchange for the Lunarians ceasing to bother the gems, since they were only doing it to provoke Sensei anyway. Bort's job literally didn't exist anymore.

agree with your post otherwise and very beautiful

Thank you.

The theme of the story is that suffering builds character which leads to suffering which builds character which leads to suffering which builds character which leads to suffering which builds character which leads to suffering which builds character