The Buddha on PBS

I got thinking about this while posting on Chris's "Happiness Is... thread." Another thing that's made me happy today is seeing this show "The Buddha" presented on PBS:

www.pbs.org/thebuddha/

I suppose I don't expect it to venture into any of the "Hardcore" Dharma or Dharma Geekdom of DhO or KFDh, or even basic aspects of various traditions that are more confusing or unpalatable to mainstream sensibilities (e.g. Tibetan conversations about the elements or Theravadan chants about filth of the body), BUT I'm really glad that a wide audience will have a chance to be exposed to the Buddha's life and teachings, especially young people.

I often reflect (with acute unhappiness) on how homogenous Dharma circles in the U.S. can be (especially when it comes to race and income-level and education-level), and my hope is that this sort of show could reach a wider audience than the usual suspects.

I'm really interested in how this will be presented. Since it is called "The Buddha" rather than "Buddhism" I wonder how much relgion will be involved.

From the website:

Experts on the Buddha, representing a variety of disciplines, relate the key episodes of the Buddha's life and reflect on what his journey means for us today. They include His Holiness the Dalai Lama; poets Jane Hirshfield and W.S. Merwin; scholars Robert Thurman, Kevin Trainor and Dr. Max Moerman; astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan; and psychiatrist Mark Epstein, as well as practicing Buddhist monastics.

I'm planning on watching this special tonight with my wife. She's generally supportive of my Buddhist geekiness

I'm curious to see how the material is presented. Based on the list of experts, I'm sure we're in for a broad range of interpretations. Though, given that the special is only two hours long, I'm hoping that the breadth is accompanied with some depth. I guess we'll find out tonight.

~Jackson

TIVO for me, but I'm curious to see how the material is presented, expecting it to be at a high level (little detail) and to see Buddhism presented as a world religion as opposed to a mind technology

I was wrong. The producers did a very good job of explaining the meat of the thing. I liked it.

"
I was wrong. The producers did a very good job of explaining the meat of the thing. I liked it.

"

I mostly enjoyed it. I always enjoying learning from His Holiness, Bob Thurman, and Mark Epstein. I also really enjoyed what Metteyya Sakyaputta and Bhaddhamanika had to say, as you could tell that their practice brought them happiness.

Jane Hirshfield got my nerves a little bit (and my wife's). I didn't really find anything she said to be all that insightful. And she has a sort of vacuous gaze, characteristic of a community college comparative religions professor with a New Age bent. It's like peering into a black hole. I'm not really being fair, because I'm sure she's a wonderful person and all. I just didn't really think she added much to the program, which is unfortunate, because they feature her more than they did any of the real experts.

It's definitely worth watching, especially for those who don't really know much about the Buddha.

I guess it was okay. Some beautiful images..
Truth is that I'm not very interested in "the Buddha" or "Buddhism." and pretty pictures of monks and the words of the qualified experts.
I want my dharma from awkward encouters with my bosses, while picking out cat food at Walmart, while realizing how badly I spell, while seeing me see me see me when I reach out to open the bathroom door, while trying to talk myself out of confronting someone I think is being a jerk.

When you see "the Buddha" on your TV:
a. Shoot your tv?
b. fast forward?
c. delete?
d. change the channel to American Idol?

d.

"I guess it was okay. Some beautiful images..
Truth is that I'm not very interested in "the Buddha" or "Buddhism." and pretty pictures of monks and the words of the qualified experts.
I want my dharma from awkward encouters with my bosses, while picking out cat food at Walmart, while realizing how badly I spell, while seeing me see me see me when I reach out to open the bathroom door, while trying to talk myself out of confronting someone I think is being a jerk.
"

Mike Monson for president.

Man oh man, I feel we've got a major disconnect here in terms of expectations. I suppose mine were much lower. It seemed to be aimed at a general audience, not me, Mike Monson or Kenneth Folk.

"It's definitely worth watching, especially for those who don't really know much about the Buddha."

Exactly.

"
It seemed to be aimed at a general audience, not me, Mike Monson or Kenneth Folk.

"

good point

"
Man oh man, I feel we've got a major disconnect here in terms of expectations. I suppose mine were much lower. It seemed to be aimed at a general audience, not me, Mike Monson or Kenneth Folk.

"It's definitely worth watching, especially for those who don't really know much about the Buddha."

Exactly.



"

Yeah, I am not expecting (mine is still on the PVR) a great deal of depth from a 2h show. But (factually correct) context is always nice, especially if it is well done, and it would provide some common language for discussing aspects of the practice with friends and family. I'll bet the only three-speed transmission you'll see, though, is in the odd car ad. Does PBS do car ads?

I watched this show with my wife. She was interested, but not that much. About the same level of interest she exhibits in my practice. She asked me what I thought afterward, "Did you like it?" "Yeah, I said, but it wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed at you and other folks who don't know much about the Buddha or Buddhism. Did YOU like it?" She turned over and went to sleep.

There are damned few people like us about in the world. People who eat, sleep and breathe meditiation, who don't want pablum or dogma. People who are willing to spend years after year in pursuit of something that starts out as a veiled, enigmatic, apparently impossibly remote thing. We're driven by some undefinable urge that seems usually to relate to pain. As someone said to me just this week, "You have to have a little desperation in you." We are, folks, the Olympians of seeking.

I have to give the people who created that show some props. After wll, how did the Buddha communicate his teachings? How do we? Do we want to keep this all to ourselves, like a secret society? I don't. I think shows like that might bring more interest to what we care about, even if it's just a few more. The exposure of the general population to this stuff we care about, this Middle Way, is nice. Not because it's Buddhism, to Mike's point, but because it's an alternative to dogma and Big Time Religion. And who knows? It might lead to a few more people with a little more compassion and a better understanding of what they are. Not such a bad thing, IMHO.

Oh yeah, Tom, there are no ads

there was a great mult-part documentary on eastern religion/spirituality on PBS several years ago. it had an English host/narrator who went all over the world to visit temples and monasteries etc. and would go into great detail on each location on each separate episode.
It turned into an unexptected spiritual journey for the guy.
By the end of the documentary he was very slowly and deliberately preparing a cup of tea using the mindfullness he'd learned during his travels. He was genuinely transformed.
I wish I could remember what it was called. It's probably on youtube.

"There are damned few people like us about in the world. People who eat, sleep and breathe meditiation, who don't want pablum or dogma. "

I think this is both a blessing and a source of great frustration for me personally. It is great to see someone else feels this way. It drives me a little crazy sometimes that people just don't care about liberation, awakening, enlightenment. Even many who are "buddhist" are a lot more interested in being buddhist than being free.

This is why I have mixed feelings about programs like this one. On one hand, it promotes the idea that there is this thing, enlightenment, and it has something to do with the end of suffering and it is out there. On the other hand, it also gives voice to so much of the mythology and superstition that people cling to. I just don't know what to think.

I just watched it and I was disappointed. And I didn't like it. Disappointed because it did not really give the context and common language that I mentioned above, but rather spent way too much time on mystical animations and, as Ron said, mythology and superstition. Yes, I could pick out stuff of interest to me that I could then show to someone but then again, I could just as easily (or more so) point at a Sylvia Boorstein book for a more engaging description of the Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

And I didn't like it because the animations made me crazy! What's up with that? But I did take something away, a wicked quote:

"Equanimity is base camp to the summit -- enlightenment".

The show can be seen online in its entirety here:

www.pbs.org/thebuddha/program/

"The show can be seen online in its entirety here:

www.pbs.org/thebuddha/program/ "

Unless you live anywhere but the US.

I dunno. I'm kind of happy with the program. It's not told as a western story. I get that. The language was poetic, epic almost. The images were a little odd, mystical and cartoonish. I'm not bothered by that. I do think the program points to a lot of the stuff we talk about here, though. Sitting under the Bodhi tree fighting off the armies of Mara? Dark Night! Defeat the armies of Mara how? Touch the earth, symbolically saying, "I'm right here, right now. You, Mara, can tempt me with emotion, spinning thoughts, pain, suffering, fear, anger, sadness. Yet I'm not going anywhere but... right here, right now."

Mythic? Sure. Ever read Joseph Campbell? Myth is powerful stuff.

Sorry, folks, to keep disagreeing with you but I really think the creators of that program did good.

"Sorry, folks, to keep disagreeing with you but I really think the creators of that program did good."

Yeah, I think it's interesting that most of us here have been reacting negatively to the program.

Personally, I'm a happy camper any time the Dalai Lama - that wonderfully compassionate exemplar of a human being - gets in front of a large audience like this and says, "Everybody, every human being wants happiness, and Buddha, he acts like teacher. You are your own master. Future, everything depends on your own shoulder. Buddha's responsibility is just to show the path, that's all." (4:18 into the video)

Now that's what people need to hear, even if it is coming from a somewhat watered down PBS special.

~Jackson

The show for sure was professional, competent, etc.
Lovely in many places.
It just also brings up for me so many of my favorite rants. The rants are true in and of themselves in that they involve my point of view on things but they don't really have anything to do with whether or not the show as basically well-made.

"Mythic? Sure. Ever read Joseph Campbell? Myth is powerful stuff.

Sorry, folks, to keep disagreeing with you but I really think the creators of that program did good.

"

And I don't want to be *overly* negative, but I was hoping that I could use that show to give my wife some background and language to then help me discuss my "quest", for lack of a better word. And at that I think it failed, and I promptly nuked it from the PVR. Armies of Mara? I'd be getting the hairy eyeball at that one!

For this thing right here to be "enlightenment for the rest of us", it needs to be in language that we understand and can relate to in this, the 21st century.

When I reflect on my own response I kind of think my reaction is a developmental thing.

Though I'm a grown up, in my spiritual development I'm more like an adolescent. I'm busy rejecting the magical thinking of childhood (or early spirituality) and am trying to step into a more mature and realistic personal understanding of the way the world works based on a true understanding of my own experience.

At this stage I am likely to reject out of hand things like that show, mostly because that's where I'm at in my own development.

Just a thought. People who are more mature on the path are likely to be more appreciative of a program like that, just like an adult can have a good time playing chutes and ladders with the kids while an adolescent would prefer to sulk in the corner (that's me - ha!)

ron

"When I reflect on my own response I kind of think my reaction is a developmental thing.

Though I'm a grown up, in my spiritual development I'm more like an adolescent. I'm busy rejecting the magical thinking of childhood (or early spirituality) and am trying to step into a more mature and realistic personal understanding of the way the world works based on a true understanding of my own experience.

At this stage I am likely to reject out of hand things like that show, mostly because that's where I'm at in my own development.

Just a thought. People who are more mature on the path are likely to be more appreciative of a program like that, just like an adult can have a good time playing chutes and ladders with the kids while an adolescent would prefer to sulk in the corner (that's me - ha!)

ron"

I think this is a fantastic point, Ron. Thanks for sharing it.

"I think this is a fantastic point, Ron. Thanks for sharing it.
"

I agree. And Ron, that fact that you're able to recognize this on your own appears to be a sign that you're spirituality is more mature than you might think

On a geeky note, aren't developmental models fascinating? The more I study them, the more I'm convinced that our Kosmos is a patterned one. I guess that would be a topic for a different thread.

~Jackson