Review Of ' Buddhism ' Movies '

Beginning in the 5th century, Buddhism became a very popular form of religion throughout Asia. Because this was such a diverse and widely followed religion, it introduced many different architectural and innovational developments that had influence from Buddhism, but depending on the region, the styles changed. Also, High officials, like Ashoka, whose’ primary influence came from Buddhism, created practices for his people to follow and live by to bring peace to his kingdom. As this religion was gaining popularity throughout Asia, the transformation that it took was very diverse and long term.

From my perspective it’s the judgement of homosexuality that is portrayed in the movie. Riddled throughout the movie is drugs, other deities and violence. Even the main character Che is an alcoholic bully who’s been to prison. How they wrap their heads around these

What is Buddhism? According to the Oxford Dictionary religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” But Buddhism does not believe in a creator god , rather Buddhism is a religion that follows different philosophies to attain the ability to awake from this world and attain enlightenment. In society, Buddhism is respected throughout the world as a religion known for its peaceful and kind nature. In the western side of the world many of the individuals are unfamiliar with the Buddhist philosophies. To further justify the belief of Buddhism to its audience of the year 1993, Bernardo Bertolucci uses material from Buddhism doctrine. The film The Little Buddha by Bernardo Bertolucci portrays an adventure of Lama Norbu (Ruocheng Ying) trying to find the reincarnation of their late teacher Lama Dorja, as they teach the set of Jessie (Alex Wiesendanger), Raju (Raju Lal) and Gita (Greishma Makar Singh) about the belief of Buddhism through The Story of Siddhartha in which Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves). At first Jesse's dad, Dean (Chris Isaak), and mother, Lisa (Bridget Fonda), are questionable of Buddhist philosophies, however following his business accomplice's suicide, a changed Dean yields and enables Jessie to go to Bhutan. As Jessie goes to Bhutan finds alternate candidates for the reincarnation of Lama Dorja and they all turn out to be great companions as they take in the importance of enlightenment together. The Story of

What role does religion play in the film? Describe the use of different religious symbols, elements or terms.

The Little Buddha is an amazing, and uplifting movie, and full of positive meaning, yet it also is full of religious meaning. Aspects of life and death are shown throughout the movie, but the film mainly explains three key aspects of Buddhism. Buddhist teachings of reincarnation, impermanence, and enlightenment, are connected deeply to each other and is illustrated throughout the film. The first Buddhist teaching of reincarnation is evident from the beginning of the movie. The audience starts to see these teachings when a Buddhist teacher is making it evident to his student (Lama Norbu) that he is ready to reincarnate, after he passes away. Lama finds out that there are three potential reincarnations of his teacher’s soul. These reincarnates

The Christian worldview is presented as simply one choice among many. Generally speaking, every religion is treated reasonably fairly, and every religion gets misrepresented to a certain extent. In the film Morgan Freeman and, the producers of the film admire, and respect the worldview of the eastern religions for instance Buddhism and Hinduism. It is evident in how much time is given to the various religious perspectives, can definitely be discerned in the concluding summaries, and is even sometimes apparent in Freeman's tone of voice. Even though this film was presented in class, and I do not know much about Hinduism or Buddhism, the film shows those two religions as monolithic, with most followers of those religions as sharing the same beliefs.

     In the film The Matrix Keanu Reeves plays Thomas A. Anderson, who is a man living a double life. One part of his life consists of working for a highly respectable software company. The second part of his life he is a hacker under the alias "Neo." One day Neo is approached by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and is taught that everything he thought was real was actually The Matrix, a computer program developed by machines in order to use human beings as batteries. Morpheus has been searching his whole life for “the one” to end the war between the humans and machines. Morpheus feels Neo is the chosen one, the one who will set everyone free from the Matrix. Neo is reluctant to accept this

Bigelow, K., Isham, M., lliff, W., P., Swayze, P., Reeves, K., &Busey, G., (writers ), &

During the Han Dynasty, Buddha’s teachings were introduced to China by Central-Asian traders and received little support from the Han dynasty rulers. However, after the collapse of the Han Dynasty, the country was fragmented. While northern China was dominated by invaders from the borderland and steppes, southern China was ruled by continuous “Chinese” dynasties. As a result, Buddhism appealed to people who felt baffled by the loss of an anticipated and durable society. Subsequently, in 581 CE, Sui emperor Wendi reunified China with this new religion and gained state support, therefore further spreading Buddhism. It was not until the Tang Dynasty did the Chinese rulers realize the threat Buddhism had posed on them. Consequently, during the

The racial tensions portrayed in the film revolve around the marriages and virginities of the daughters, and the battles are fought by their fathers. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are the largest religions in the world. The three of them share similar concepts and morals, however each of them believes to be the only “true” religion. During the time period of the film, there was conflict between the religions. Islam was making a harsh impression on the country, and there was pressure to convert.

The primary reading I am choosing to analyze comes from the book “The Experience of Buddhism” as written by John S. Strong. Strong examines the historical Palicanonical account as told to monks during one of the Buddha teachings on the “Signs of Suffering”. Buddha recalls his lavish upbringing in his father’s home stating, “O monks, I was spoiled, a very spoiled, an utterly spoiled, delicate youth” (Strong, 2008, 10). He goes further to explain that he had three palaces, “one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the rainy season” (Strong, 2008, 10). The Buddha expresses that even though he was so richly spoiled, this thought occurred to him: “Living as I do, it would not be proper for me to seek to avoid sickness, old age,

The Indian culture is built on upon religion. Though the movie that I chose to watch was not directly about religion it seemed that the camera could

It was so wonderful to see their dedication from their countless hours of worship. They showed their dedication by going and worshipping, and when they prayed everything stopped. I thought that was especially interesting when Hajj was taking place, and when they were involved in all their rituals. Next, I thought it was awesome how the day of their reckoning was their one on one day with God and then the next day they stones the devil. I also thought it was interesting when they were singing the theme song of Hajj, and that they were faithful to their one God. To sum up, the most attractive aspect of faith which was portrayed in this film, is their dedication and time given to their

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka provides an interesting perspective to the American experience through the eye of Japanese women around the time of World War 2. The author uses a number of unique writing techniques which originally confused me, but once accustomed created an immersive and intimate reading experience. Otsuka also inserts a number of metaphors and symbols throughout the novel with various possibilities for explanation depending on the opinion of the reader.

Buddhism      For over 2000 years Buddhism has existed as an organized religion. By religion we mean that it has a concept of the profane, the sacred, and approaches to the sacred. It has been established in India, China, Japan and other eastern cultures for almost 2000 years and has gained a strong foothold in North America and Europe in the past few centuries. However, one might ask; what fate would Buddhism face had Siddartha Guatama been born in modern times; or more specifically in modern day North America? Would his new found enlightenment be accepted now as it was thousands of years ago?