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The Dhamma Brothers (2008)
The Dhamma Brothers
"The Dhamma Brothers" is a documentary film directed by Jenny Philips. This film shows the prisoners' experience of Vipassana meditation at Donaldson Correctional Facility, which is located in Alabama state. This facility is a maximum security prison, where most of its inmates are serving life sentences. The introduction of Vipassana meditation in this prison, which is located far away from the origin of this Asian tradition, led to positive consequences and changes in prisoners' further life. In this movie review, I will analyze the influence of Vipassana meditation on prisoners whose behaviors were deviant until the introduction of this practice.
In most cases, when a person is committing a felony, he feels hatred, which is one of the components of craving. The person who does not know Four Noble Truths does not know the true meaning of life. Feelings such as hatred, delusion and greed cause craving, which, in turn, is the origin of sufferings. Murdering is one of the consequences of craving. Therefore, murderers are true representatives of people who do not know the true meaning of life. In the moment of committing a crime, a criminal earns bad karma of course. After their death, this bad karma will lead to their rebirth in lower realms, maybe even in a Hell realm. However, the true meaning of life is to achieve nirvana and liberate yourself from sufferings. Therefore, criminals due to the commitment of a felony deprived themselves of escaping samsara and the attaining of nirvana. In prison, they have no opportunity to rethink their life, bad deeds. However, prisoners from Donaldson Correction Facility had this rare opportunity to practice mindfulness under guidance. It is a very amazing act, to introduce Vipassana meditation in prison, in the West. Not so many people, actually, would take an initiative to introduce a meditation which is commonly practiced by the Asian community, in such an insecure place, which is full of criminals. In 2002, Vipassana meditation was introduced in this prison. Although it is a Buddhist traditional practice, most of the prisoners agreed to participate in 10 days of intensive retreat, which is a surprising fact. The reason for such decisions can be interest in a new experience in their lives, as they do not have so many opportunities to diversify their life experience within the walls of this correctional facility. After practicing Vipassana meditation for some days, they experienced physical pain and they could not break the silence. Such conditions seemed to most of them to be harsher even than prison's conditions. For example, one of the prisoners, Grady Bankhead highlighted that practice meditation is harder and tougher in comparison with his 8 years of serving the life sentence. For a time, a life in prison seemed to them more comfortable in comparison with a retreat. However, after some time, after adjustment of the body and mind for a retreat, after coping with physical pain, they could concentrate on themselves. Their mind became concentrated, most of them concentrated it on their breath. With a flow of time of meditation, their behavior has changed to the good side, even guards highlighted that there was no such silence in a prison before the introduction of meditation. Such amazing perception by criminals of Vipassana meditation shows that Vipassana meditation can be practiced by people who are following other religions, or even by atheists. The reason is that the true meaning of practicing Vipassana meditation is to show the true nature of mind for its practitioners and to practice mindfulness. The Buddha itself achieved the enlightenment by the means of Vipassana meditation. So, Vipassana meditation is a technique by practicing which a practitioner will become aware of his life experience, will have a new insight into his life. The mindfulness is the most important component in humans' lives and they should practice it to understand the true meaning of life. After this meditation, many of the prisoners changed their behavior, some of them even were liberated from the prison, and were given a second chance to live their lives outside of the prison. From this, it can be concluded that Vipassana meditation, undoubtedly, had a positive effect on prisoners' mindfulness. Therefore, prisoners in need of practicing Vipassana meditation, as they have a chance to purify themselves and their karma.
In conclusion, Buddhism is a humane religion, namely, it is widespread, and can be followed by anyone regardless of being a good or bad person, as prisoners, for example. Buddhism can be practiced by everyone, regardless of their social class, citizenship, age, gender, religious belonging. Buddhism shows its practitioners the true meaning of life and by the practice of meditation, people can liberate themselves from sufferings.
Little Buddha (1993)
Movie Review
Little Buddha is the film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1993. Surprisingly, Bernardo Bertolucci received a degree in philosophy, which helps him to create films with deep, philosophical meaning. In this movie, one of the main ideas of the director is to show the contrast between secular and religious lifestyles.
Bernardo Bertolucci by using symbols of material values shapes the identity of the character, Dean Konrad. For example, Dean is an engineer, he has built a big, white house on the hill, on the other hand, it is, also, can be interpreted in a way that Dean is a builder of his own life, and he chose to build a prosperous life. However, life is full of unexpected events. So, Bertolucci has chosen the right time to introduce religion in the life of this character, when he feels anxiety. From the movie, it can be seen when monks enter his house, it is equivalent to say that Buddhism entered his empty inner world. For instance, Mrs. Konrad while greeting the monks says that, even if the house is big and beautiful, it is half-empty because it is not fully furnished. Moreover, the director is using cold shades in the movie to portray the unspiritual life of the family of Konrads. On the other hand, on the background of the house, the bright colors of the monks' clothes (Kashayas) symbolize the beginning of spiritual advancement in their lives. However, Bertolucci shows obstacles which hinder to this character to practice spiritual life in the form of cultural stereotypes such as a stereotype that the Western people cannot share the Asian countries' values and religion. Bertolucci depicts it in the movie cadre when Dean meets with Lama Norbu in Dharma center and says that he does not believe in reincarnation and that his son cannot be a reincarnation of Lama Dorje. Bertolucci shows that the way of acceptance of religion is hard, but when human faces with the harsh reality of the life which is that all people share a common fate such as death and all things in our lives are impermanent, the person accepts religiosity or at least becomes interested in teachings of the religion. The life-changing point in the life of the main character is when he experiences the death of his friend, and loses his job. His previous material values collapsed and this is the main impetus for the devotion of his time on spiritual advancement. In the movie, Bertolucci uses details to represent this transitional state from materialistic to the religious life of the main character. For instance, when Dean with his son Jessie is aboard, Dean reads the book of John F. Avendon called In Exile from the Land of Snows, which is about Buddhism. When he arrives in Bhutan he witnesses the cultural values of Asian people, especially that there is no need to be rich or to have a big house in order to be happy. Rather the purpose of human existence is to find harmony, a balance between spiritual and unspiritual lives. Bertolucci uses warm colors to represent Buddhist society, who have harmony and know about the true meaning of life. When Dean experienced spiritual life by seeing temples, the death of Lama Dorje, Buddhist symbol of impermanence (mandala), he achieved spiritual advancement by understanding and realizing the true life values. At the end of the movie, from the scene where the family of Konrads is in the boat surrounded by water, symbolizes their spiritual advancement and rethinking life values. Unexpectedly, in the last 10 seconds of the movie there is a sunset in the background of the scene and the colour gammas gradient change from cold shades to warm ones, probably representing that this family achieved that balance between unspiritual and spiritual lifestyles.
In conclusion, I found this film as a fascinated piece of art in a way that by using symbolism and different gammas, Bertolucci depicted, in his movie, the contrast between spiritual and unspiritual lifestyles. Also, I agree that such contrast could be showed by presentation of Buddhism because Buddhism is a religion of positive, one of the brightest religion in the world. The art, temples, symbols, traditional clothes of the Buddhist community are very bright and colourful, inspiring and encouraging people to reach spiritual advancement and to understand the true meaning of human existence. After watching the movie what fascinated me impressed me the way how movie director contrasts unspiritual and spiritual life, how he achieves that by using his unique artistic methods.
Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003)
Movie Review
Kim Ki-duk's film named "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" depicts Buddhist society's concept of a cycle of life, death, and reborn. The film shows a connection between the cyclical pattern of humans lives and nature's four seasons of the year. The main character is a monk who lives together with his master in a Buddhist monastery surrounded by a lake and lofty mountains. Moving along the path of life, the monk goes through different stages of development of his personality, consciousness, and soul. This movie review will examine an analogy between the spiritual and physical development of human and seasonal changes of nature.
In the spring, nature is waking up, spring buds are blossoming and blooming. So, a child, whose soul is pure, is getting acquainted with an environment through contact with nature. His first contact with nature was when he touched poisonous snake without any thoughts that this snake could bite him. This moment shows that the child did not know about any danger, with which he faced. However, a child has no understanding of the surrounding world, he is in need of a master, who knows about life and who can teach this child the right way to live. In the film, the child did not distinguish between herbs and poisonous plants. However, at that moment the master shed light on this difference between good and bad things. The second time the child tied small stones on amphibians while not thinking about bad consequences due to his deeds. So, only when the master tied a stone on child's back and asked to see what happened with those amphibians, only at that moment, when child witnessed the death of snake and small fish, he realized that he did bad deeds toward nature. The child realized that heavy stone on his back is nothing in comparison with a weight upon his heart.
Summer is a wonderful time when the weather is hot, the sun is shining, sunny days and short warm nights create an incredible atmosphere of peace and happiness. For humans, this is the time of a blossom of life. The child becomes an adolescent with his own dreams, wishes, and values. Peculiar to this period of life, he is in captivity of his desires (passion), therefore, when he meets with a girl for the first time, his desires for pleasures take over him, meaning that he and she both had chosen a wrong way. In the film, this is depicted in the cadre when in the monastery the girl seats on the sacred statue of a lion, and the young monk let her seat there, even if the master would see such deed, he would have severely punished him. Furthermore, in the film, master holds a cock in his hands, when he finds a young monk with a girl lying in the boat. This moment shows that young monk's such deeds are symbolized by a cock, which is also represented in the wheel of life (Bhavacakra) as a symbol of passion, which turns the wheel of samsara. Despite of admonitions of his master, he escapes from monastery with this girl to a new environment.
Fall is the time of harvest. In the fall period, a person also reaps the fruits of his deeds. At one time, the teacher warned his pupil that "lust leads to a desire for possession, and possession leads to murder", but he did not listen to him and was self-indulgent to his desires. Therefore, a monk, after murdering of his wife due to his feelings, avoiding from justice, runs back to the monastery to his spiritual master in search for shelter. However, he wanted to commit suicide, but the master again guides him in the path of righteousness through purifying his karma by humility, patience and praying. So, human in the fall of his life receives the results of his deeds, which are not always positive. So, when human sees his bad result, he did not accept it, trying to avoid punishment. However, at this moment, the right way will be clearing karma and accepting inevitable punishment.
Winter in a person's life is the awareness and analysis of past mistakes, their acceptance, and spiritual enlightenment. After serving the term, the monk returns to the monastery with a calm spirit. He already understood that his teacher passed away. The monk collected the dust of his teacher and wrapped them in a piece of red material, which he then put in place of the third eye in the Buddha's statue, which was painstakingly cut from the ice by him. Throughout his life, the teacher was a wise man for him; he saw what the monk could not see as he was blinded by earthly life, rather than a spiritual one. After this, he remembers and returns to childhood, to the beginning of his life, when a woman came with her newborn son to the monastery. Her face was covered with a material, probably meaning that she felt her guilt that she leaves her child there. At this moment, the monk realized that he was also abandoned by his mother in childhood. This cadre may mean that he returned to the beginning of his life, that all life is a cycle. The end is another beginning.
In conclusion, I recommend watching this film to familiarize yourself with one of the basic concepts of Buddhism, such as the cycle of life. In this film, there were many hidden Buddhist symbols, which are closely related to the life of the main character. This film makes you think and reflect on the actions committed by a person at different stages of life.