"Buddhism and Modernity"
a Fall 2007 film series at Duke University
Buddhism is predominantly perceived in modern societies in two ways. It is either experienced as an enriching spiritual practice that is particularly important in our secular age, or it is misconceived as abstruse philosophy, an exotic religion, or a detached and impracticable way of life. Relatively little is known about the real-life struggles of Buddhist practitioners with the issues of alienation, filial and social conflicts, confusion, consumerism, and frenetic existence. The films in this series inhabit these struggles in order to complement or challenge the two predominant perspectives on Buddhism.
How do values and practices that urge mindfulness and compassion bear on living a life in the modern world? What is it like to be awake in hyperreality? What is the continuing significance of signs, rituals, and teachings for modern Buddhist practice? In answering these questions, these films invite you to witness Buddhism as philosophy, as religion, and as a way of life.
Films will be screened in the Griffith Film Theater
in the Bryan Center on Duke's West Campus,
or the Richard White Lecture Hall on East Campus,
and are free and open to the general public.
Sponsored by
the Buddhist Community at Duke,
the University & Cultural Fund,
the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute,
the Duke University Libraries' Lilly Library,
and the Film/Video/Digital Program
W 10/24 Richard White (7pm) |
Come, Come, Come Upward (Aje aje bara aje)
(dir. Im Kwon-taek, 1989, 134 min, South Korea, Korean with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
A thought-provoking, elegantly filmed religious tale from award-winning director Im Kwon-Taek, focusing on the lives of two very different Buddhist nuns and their separate journeys toward personal enlightenment. In intertwining these two stories, the film successfully explores issues regarding a woman's role in Korean society and the place of religion in the modern age.
The main character of Come, Come, Come Upward, Sun-nyog, is expelled from high school after she is accused of having an affair with her teacher and decides to join a nunnery. The head nun has doubts about Sun-nyog's sincerity and devotion to the Way and casts her back into the real world after a crazed man becomes obsessed with her and starts to cause ripples in the serenity of temple life. The narrative eventually splits into two separate storylines, one following another young, more ascetic nun as she, too, is forced by the head nun as a test of devotion to face the evils and temptations of the outside world. One woman is destined to return to the monastery, and the other to live forever outside.
Awards:
Best Film - 1989 Grand Bell Awards, South Korea
Best Actress (Soo-yeon Kang) - 1989 Moscow International Film Festival
Co-sponsored by the Department of Asian & African Languages & Literature, and the Center for International Studies. Made possible by the generosity of Taehung Pictures.
M 11/12 Griffith (7pm) |
Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint
-- North Carolina Premiere!
(dir. Neten Chokling, 2006, 90 min, India/Bhutan, Tibetan with English subtitles, Color, 35 mm)
Milarepa depicts the humble beginnings of the man who was to become Tibet's greatest saint. A true story based on centuries-old oral traditions, a youthful Milarepa is propelled into a world of sorrow and betrayal after his father's sudden death. Destitute and hopeless, he sets out to learn black magic - and exact revenge on his enemies - encountering magicians, demons, an enigmatic teacher and unexpected mystical power along the way. But it is in confronting the consequences of his anger that he learns the most. Photographed in the stunning Lahaul-Spiti region of Northern India, Milarepa offers a provocative parallel to the cycle of violence and retribution we see consuming today's world.
Winner: National Geographic Audience Favorite Award for Best Feature-Length Film
About the director: Neten Chokling Rinpoche, born in Wandipodzong, central Bhutan in 1973, was recognized and enthroned by both the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa and Kyabj Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, from whom he received many teachings and transmissions. Renowned as an accomplished practitioner, he is the spiritual head of the Pema Ewam Choegar Gyurmeling Monastery in India and Tibet. Neten Chokling Rinpoche's lineage is that of the great terton (treasure finder) Chokgyur Lingpa, and traces itself back to the Tibetan king, Trisong Detsen, who invited Guru Rinpoche to Tibet. Neten Chokling Rinpoche is fascinated with the power of cinematic art and the emotional influence of storytelling through sound and moving pictures.
He greatly admires the directors Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Chen Kaige, and Zhang Yimou. His rigorous training in Buddhist meditation and philosophy, combined with a deep interest in the film medium, make him well-suited to bring the teachings alive in a way that is accessible to a modern audience.
W 11/14 Griffith (7pm) |
Why Has Bodhi Dharma Left for the East?
(dir. Bae Yong-Kyun, 1989, 137 min, South Korea, Korean with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
This unique Korean film explores the relationship between an elderly Zen master, an orphaned boy, and a young monk named Ki Bong. With little time left before his impending death, Master Hyegok teaches his two students all he knows about Zen Buddhism, which he has devoted his life to.In order to learn, both Ki Bong and the orphan Hae Jin must face and overcome their feelings of guilt for past deeds. Ki Bong left behind his blind mother and family when he came to the monastery; Hae Jin accidentally caused the death of a bird. After the old man's death, the monk and the orphan attempt to use their master's teachings to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
“The images of the mountain, streams, forests and rawness of nature in all its abundance are stunningly beautiful and held up as examples of what is perfect in the world. For those who have the will and ability to extract the rich meanings from the depths of the film, which is layered in simple visual analogies, they will be deeply rewarded by a film that attempts to express what is inexpressible and does it better than any previous film of this type.” – Dennis Schwartz, Ozu’s World Movie Reviews
Trivia: This was the first Korean film ever to receive a theatrical release in the United States!
Distributor's note: Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? has been acclaimed by critics and audiences throughout the world as a film of remarkable power.This magnificent film, quietly powerful and astonishingly rich in formal beauty, is not only a cinematic gem, but an evocative meditation on the cyclical nature of existence. Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? does not seek to explain the tenets of Zen Buddhism so much as illuminate the mysteries of life that lie behind them.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Asian & African Languages & Literature, and the Center for International Studies
W 11/28 Richard White (7pm) | Short Film and Feature Film:
Yonder and Enlightenment Guaranteed
(1) Yonder (dir. Mika Johnson, 2006, 20 min, USA, B/W, DVD)
The story of Yonder follows a man who is lost in his dreams. There, in a world that mirrors his sense of loss and isolation, he comes face to face with his spiritual double in what becomes a quest towards the re-creation of his identity.
(2) Enlightenment Guaranteed (Erleuchtung garantiert) (dir. Doris Dörrie, 2000, 109 min, Germany, in German, Japanese, and English with English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht) and Gustav (Gustav-Peter Wöhler) could hardly be more different as brothers: the former is an utter slob and the latter a practising feng-shui expert. When Uwe's wife leaves him suddenly, taking the entire contents of their flat and the children with her, he turns to his brother for a shoulder to cry on. As Gustav is about to embark on a Buddhist retreat to Japan, Uwe has no choice but to tag along - much to his brother's alarm. En route, their midlife crisis turns into a midnight crisis when they get lost in Tokyo's neon jungle and can't find the way back to their hotel. It's down and out in Asia's brave new world. With no papers, credit cards, directions, and with no Yen in their pockets, they wander through a kaleidoscopic alien environment where the simplest everyday things become major, often comical, challenges. They have to survive by their wits and certainly never expected the Zen concept of "leaving everything behind" to be like this.
Life in the monastery is an immersion of a more subtle kind. The mundane and the sublime - where does the one stop and the other start? What does cleaning the floor have to do with cleansing your heart? Still, the enigma of enlightenment keeps them going. But although it often seems just within their grasp, it continues to elude them. And yet, even if they don't fully realize it, at the very core of their being, it's changing them...
W 12/5 Richard White (7pm) | Short Film and Feature Film:
The Mountain of Signs and The Wheel of Time
(1) The Mountain of Signs (dir. Mika Johnson, 2003, 30 min, Japan, in English, Color, DVD)
A young woman moves to Tokyo. Her quest to find spiritual values hidden in the modern city leads her to take photographs and ends in a pilgrimage to an ancient Buddhist cemetery in the mountains of Koyasan. Set amongst the neon lights and crowds of Tokyo and the graves and forestry of Koyasan, The Mountain of Signs explores the relevance of Buddhist values to modern-day spiritual practices. As its protagonist assimilates into the hyper-accelerated pace of life in Tokyo, she adopts the practice of photography as a coping mechanism. Following the zuihitsu literary tradition of Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book and the Buddhist priest Kenko's Essays in Idleness, the film traces the subtle links between ostensibly random subjects through images, aphorisms, anecdotes, and observations. From the lurid maze of urban desires to the sanctuary of Buddhist tradition, The Mountain of Signs reveals not a path to enlightenment, but rather a transformation of ideals.
(2) The Wheel of Time (dir. Werner Herzog, 2003, 80 min, Germany, in German, English and Tibetan, Color, DVD)
Noted German filmmaker Werner Herzog's (Grizzly Man/The White Diamond) marvelous documentary gives us an eyewitness report on the annual Buddhist pilgrimage gathering of some 500,000 of the faithful in May of 2002 (the Year of the Horse) in Bodh Gaya, India, the site where the Buddha some 2,500 years ago found enlightenment under the bo tree. Herzog (who claimed to have once walked from Munich to Paris) magically captures their lengthy pilgrimage to the Holy Mt. Kailash in Tibet (covering more than 3000 miles) and the monks' creation of the intricate sand mandala (“the wheel of time”) along with many secret rituals that have never been seen before on film. Herzog also takes us to a considerably smaller gathering in a convention hall in Graz, Austria, during the same year, where the Kalachakra ("Wheel of Time") ritual was presided by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The Wheel of Time delivers a personal and introspective look at what Buddhism really means to its most ardent followers, as well as gives outsiders an intimate look into a fascinating way of life.
About the director: One of the most eccentric figures in the New German Cinema, Werner Herzog has been characterized as the "romantic visionary" of the movement as well as its most notorious self-promoter who possesses an almost legendary need to confront danger in making his films. His well-documented production difficulties - dragging a ship over a mountain, attempting to film the eruption of a volcano, hypnotizing an entire cast - may well be extra-filmic means of establishing the authenticity of his films, but in Herzog's case they threaten to become the real event of which the actual film is merely a record.
Th 12/6 Richard White (7pm) | Reception + Guest Speaker + Short Film & Feature
Conclusion of the film series, with:
Present and How To Cook Your Life -- with guest speaker Sandy Gentei Stewart!
About the guest speaker:
Born in 1938, Sandy Gentei Stewart became interested in Zen when he was 16 and heard Alan Watts speak on the radio. At age 29 he heard a radio interview with Joshu Sasaki Roshi and immediately knew he had found his teacher. In 1971 he was ordained as a Zen teacher (Osho) and became Vice-Abbot of the Cimarron Zen Center (now Rinzai-ji in Los Angeles). In 1975 he was appointed abbot of the Jemez Bodhi Mandala (now Bodhi Manda) in Jemez Spriongs, New Mexico. Three years later he moved to North Carolina with his wife Susanna and step-daughter Lara. Sandy has been the guiding force behind the North Carolina Zen Center since its inception in the early 1980's.
Schedule of Events:
- 5:30pm: small reception in lobby of Richard White lecture hall
- 6:00pm: a talk on "Buddhism and Modernity" by guest speaker
Sandy Gentei Stewart, Abbott of the NC Zen Center at Pittsboro - 7:00pm: film screening - one short film and one feature film (see below):
(1) Present (dir. Jacqueline Kim, 2006, 11 min, USA, in English, Color, DVD)
Part metaphor, part pun, part cautionary tale, Present depicts a futuristic and surreal café experience for a young couple. The film juxtaposes a sterile, calm dining area ("Welcome home" is the waitress' refrain) with a noisy, threatening and chaotic scene outside.
(2) How to Cook Your Life (dir. Doris Dörrie, 2007, 93 min, USA, in English, Color, DVD)
"The food will taste better when the cook is joyful" pretty much sums up the Buddhist philosophy explored in the new film How to Cook Your Life. The quote comes from Edward Espe Brown, a California Zen teacher, one of the founders of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. Filmmaker Doris Dörrie follows Brown in culinary action, surrounded by clearly adoring disciples, at Austria's Scheibbs Buddhist Center and, in California, the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara Mountain Center.
This last venue is where the younger Brown began cooking as a self-described "arrogant, bossy, short-tempered know-it-all" and from where he first conceived and wrote his landmark The Tassajara Bread Book. Brown eventually united his love of cooking with the teachings of Zen priest and mentor Suzuki Roshi, whose early advice was "when you wash the rice, wash the rice, when you cut the carrots, cut the carrots, when you stir the soup, stir the soup."