[Buddha-l] nytimes review of pbs The Buddha

[Richard Hayes]

On Apr 8, 2010, at 7:56 AM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

>> I loved the production.
> 
> I'm not surprised. It's your kind of warmed-over 60s gently-engaged 
> Buddhism.

Yes, it is. And what I especially liked about the presentation was that Buddhism was talked about by a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds. Rather than having only wordy professors from Ivy League universities, or only high-ranking lamas and Zen masters, or only smiling androgynous monastics, or only aging hippie poets who discovered Buddhism in their first hit of Lysergic acid diethylamide, we heard from a nice sampling of people who made it clear why they were attracted to Buddhism. The audience of PBS probably has a few non-Buddhists in it, and I appreciate a program that would help a non-Buddhist see what it is about Buddhism that makes other people dedicate their lives to studying it and practicing it. There was nothing in it that made me feel embarrassed to be a Buddhist, nothing that made me think "Oh gosh, I hope my Quaker friends or fellow philosophers aren't watching this and thinking 'So THIS is what that weird Hayes guy believes!'"

> Thanks for confirming it, then. This is the age of Mappo.

Is it? Guess I'd better go get out my copy of the Lotus Sutra and start chanting its name while saying nasty things about arhants. Or maybe I could put one of my copies of the Lotus Sutra in a blender with some peyote buds and drink it down for lunch.

> And thanks for reminding us of the viparyasas (reversals/perversities): 
> Seeing sukha in what is duhkha...

You bet (as we are wont to see here in the southwestern part of the disunited states). And thank you for reminding me of why I can't wait to retire from academia and the culture of incessant negativity and dissatisfaction that resounds in the ivory tower. What gives me sukha is gratitude that I don't have to live in a mind that can praise nothing and has no idea what muditā feels like.

Enjoying every minute of whatever age this is, I remain

Richard de jonger