Western interpretation of Buddhism is seeing monks dressed in very elegant robes, being tranquil, as if nothing can bother them, and the most sincere people in the world. While I agree with this, there is more insight to the whole situation, there are two sides to everything. Our limited view of Buddhism, and for the most part, other religions is the stereotypes that we see in the media. Buddhists being poor yet enlightened and have the whole idea of reality under their belt, Muslims being enemies of the state, Indians sole focus on cows and extra extremities, and so on, the looking glass in what we allow to see closes our perception of the world.
In “Anger Management” there is a scene in where David encounters his childhood bully, but now his enemy is a Buddhist monk. The scene shows Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson hesitant to instigate anything, even though they do, based on the fact that he is a monk, so he forgave and forgot, he is calm, he does not care about anything else but enlightenment. The scene escalates into a full out brawl because of name calling and hilarity ensues, and that is where the stereotype kicks in. The reason the scene is funny because the last thing a viewer would expect is for a monk to engage into a fight because it is not in the nature. Even though that is the truth, the positive stereotype of Buddhist monks by Westerners makes the viewer see the ugly side of good.
The comparison of analysis to the book, Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate, shows even more insight of what Westerners see about Buddhism. On page 27 it states that it is silly to think that one can reach enlightenment instantly, as in the movie, the monk did not grow out of his old ways. The book also states that some things can never change, and back to example, is true. In the rest of the chapter it states that one can not reach enlightenment overnight, and in US society, achieving enlightenment is damn near impossible. The way Americans are hard wired in the go, go, go lifestyle, conning a person to achieve enlightenment before lunch, as stated in the book, is easy, but for all intents and purposes, the movie clip shown can best describe a stereotypical outlook on Buddhism mixed with the American attitude of never gonna happen.
I think this is such a good example of the point you are trying to get across. The clip is not only funny but it connects well to Warner's point about enlightenment is not a process reached overnight.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of a positive stereotype, I had trouble thinking of one so I just went with negative. Typically, stereotypes are negative so there are just naturally more of them. I also agree with achieving enlightenment in the United States is almost impossible. There are so many distractions, thats why I was amazed to see that Brad Warner was a white man from America. I guess maybe that is a stereotype in its self, all monks are not foreign.
ReplyDeleteI also think this great example brings up another point. It shows that enlightenment must not only be reached but maintained. The bully in this example walked around in his robes with a serene smile but when he encountered his past, his past behavior re-emerged which contradicts with the Buddhist practice of letting go your own personal egos.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are two sides to the story with Buddhism, and we only see a limited view of the religion. I also agree with Akta that once you reach enlightenment you must maintain it.
ReplyDeleteI liked the analysis and comparison you made, not everyone who is on a "path to salvation" reaches salvation right away. Everyone screw up and saying that someone "should" act a certain way is hypocritical. They know they need to act a certain way but it really shouldn't be a surprise when a person just happens to embrace their internal "beast."
ReplyDelete