[Buddha-l] nytimes review of pbs The Buddha

[Dan Lusthaus]

The trailer is interesting for several reasons. It confirms the NYTimes 
review opinion that the piece will not say anything anyone with even a 
modicum of familiarity with Buddhism will find new.

It is presented in a spacey, gee whiz, mood.

What the review doesn't say is that the white people are practicing a form 
of hagiographic elevation that makes the Asians look like rank amateurs. 
There is an interesting tension in the trailer. HHDL is actually trying to 
humanize the Buddha. He insists that when Buddha heard about the brutal 
massacre of his clansmen, he was sad. Yes, Buddhas are allowed to be sad. 
They are human, according to HHDL. The word he searches for to describe 
Buddha in that situation is "fail." Buddha was a failure. But then the 
hagiographic impulse kicks in, and he adds that the failure is (not the 
Buddha was sad but) that he failed to save his brethren with a miracle. 
Superheroes never get a break.

Then the white people get in on the death story. They avoid the question of 
what sort of food it was that brought on Buddha's end -- unlike we on 
buddha-l who have argued whether it was some sort of food FOR pigs, or 
actual pig meat, etc. -- and simply say it had "gone bad." Not just that, 
Buddha KNEW it had gone bad and prevented everyone else from eating it, so 
that he alone would die, since he was tired and worn out, and it was his 
time to die. One could twist the canonical account to imply that, that is 
not what it claims in any direct or overt way. The white people's Buddha is 
a Buddha who exits stage left with a self-imposed kavorkian hospice 
gesture -- while remaining the superhero who saves the lives of his 
traveling companions without them even knowing it.

If I was crankier, I'd probably find that nauseating (and go out in search 
of comparable pig food). If I were younger, just insulting. At the moment, I 
half find it amusing (what a bunch of predictable dummies white people 
are!) -- the other half is deeply disappointed that we can't raise the level 
even a bit above bedtime fairy tales, and find something intelligent to say 
about Buddha and his life.

Oh, Joanna, as for a good film on religion -- I think Goddard's "Hail Mary" 
is brilliant.

Dan