Buddhism

God in Buddhism

• do not believe in a creator God

• Cosmos = web without a weaver

• problem of suffering and it must be solved, do not need a God to help you

4 noble truths

1. 1. Truth of suffering:

2. - No one can deny suffering (dukkha)

3. - condition of all existence

4. 2. Truth of origin of suffering

5. - Suffering comes to human beings from posessiveness, self-centeredness, and greed

6. - suffering has a cause: depending on our attachments as they are finite

7. 3. Truth of solution to suffering

8. - egocentrism, posessiveness, and greed can be understood and rooted out

9. 4. truth of the path leading to solution to suffering (Magga):

10. - noble eightfold path provides practical means to end suffering

11. - change of viewpoint will manifest itself in new outlook and pattern of behavior

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring title significance

• cycle of seasons mirroring cycle of samsara

• with the change of seasons we have the cycle of a year but the narrative shows much more: starts with him as young boy and watches him grow up

• events in his life aligning with seasons: his karma plays out in all of them

main characters SSFWS

older monk and younger monk

• intentionally unnamed: depersonalization and deindividualization

• rooting out of egocentrism

• universalization of message of their story; their suffering is the suffering we all experience

shot reverse shot SSFWS

take on monk’s eyes and buddhas eyes, as well as womans eyes and buddhas eyes

• woman has suffering of ailment, monk has inner suffering of everyone

• buddha looks down on all of them as they kneel before him, we look through eyes of suffering and buddha

monastary setting

small busshist monestary on island in middle of pond only accessible by boat

modern world comes in: mother brings sick daughter, permeable boundary between sacred and modern. monk leaves with girlfriend and takes statue of buddha with him

FOR ALL ITS ISOLATION, EACH CAN PERMEATE EACH OTHER

• doctrine of nonduality: buddhism resists temptation to draw boundaries around self

• represented in film by doorframes with no doors, gates but no fence, etc

progress?

film says we do not make progress, nirvana is not a separate place to “get to”, you experience nirvana just as you experience samsara

at the end, huge walk with rock, ends with his vision being aligned with buddhas who sees everything: Not separated from this life but nirvana found within it

buddhist understanding of evil

Nonduality

• monk is nonjudgmental to young monk, looking and perspective

• one thing is always emerging from another

• no stark lines between God and Evil

• issue is not relationship or law based how it is in christianity, it is matter of looking at the world differently

transformed way of seeing the world

teacher sees young boy tying rocks to animals, gets a rock on his back

• introduces suffering and karma, paying his dues doesn’t work out until the end as karma impacts him for a lot of his life, learns compassion and understanding for suffering for those around him

man kills his partner “if i cant have her no one can”

• told to carve out characters with a knife, patience with tedious task and time to reflect, teaches discipline and looking within to know truth

younger monk not going thru door to sneak to woman

• doing something he know he shouldnt do, doors = discipline, his desire is clouding his mental focus here

young monk apologizing for affair

• old monk says its natural and does not punish, to the young woman says it was just the right medicine, would have expected some type of judgment

buddha vs jesus (Clark)

Jesus:

• Gives humans freedom they cannot achieve themselves

• Jesus saves by love that reestablishes relationships giving fullness of self

• offers sacrafice for saving of human beings: is a revelation of love

• Jesus IS the revalation

Buddha:

• his person doesn’t matter as he teachings do

• with his teachings, one can SAVE THEMSELVES

• he does not come down to save like jesus does

• regular person who saw suffering and wanted to gain enlightenment and passes this understanding on

Both:

• self emptying movement as jesus reasserts divinity in resurrection and buddha has erasure of the self