Illuminating Prince’s Path That Led to Awaken-ness

By MIKE HALE

Published: April 6, 2010

David Grubin, a prolific maker of television documentaries, specializes in profiles of American presidents and other prominent Westerners: Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Truman, Napoleon, Freud. For his latest PBS project, making its debut on Wednesday night, he has headed East, offering a two-hour introduction to an Asian with a large Western fan base.

“The Buddha,” in keeping with its unadorned title, is a simple, straightforward introduction to the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Written and directed by Mr. Grubin, it’s broken into roughly equal parts covering the Prince Siddhartha story — decadence, despair and deprivation leading to enlightenment under a fig tree — and the subsequent history and precepts of Buddhism.

The cast of talking heads includes, on the one hand, theDalai Lama (projecting irascibility) and several other Buddhist monks, and, on the other, a larger and more prominently featured group of Western writers and scholars. Among them are the poets W. S. Merwin (compelling) and Jane Hirshfield (oddly intense) and the ubiquitous Columbia scholar and father of Uma, Robert Thurman.

The experts are often upstaged by the simple, slightly druggy animations used to tell the Siddhartha story and to illustrate concepts like the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Sometimes these explications, like a passage about the three poisons that cause human suffering, can run on a bit long, as if the two hours proved more difficult to fill than Mr. Grubin had foreseen.

We also get a lot of pretty footage of the Indian countryside and various Buddhist pilgrimage spots, as well as Buddhist art. Little if any of the art is identified or explained, reflecting a larger tendency not to put what we’re seeing or hearing in a specific context. And it’s never clear whether the narrator, Richard Gere, is reading Mr. Grubin’s words or excerpts from an unnamed Buddhist text.

This can lead, despite the erudition of everyone involved, to a slight “Buddhism for Dummies” feeling — it seems unlikely that anyone who has even a slight acquaintance with the Buddha and his teachings will learn much here. And those already inclined to see Buddhism as a loosey-goosey religion that attracts Western space cadets probably won’t have their minds changed by “When this is, that is,” and Ms. Hirshfield’s wide-eyed statement on the miraculousness of drinking coffee from a mug.

For the sympathetic and uninitiated, though, “The Buddha” should prove a diverting couple of hours, whether they see the man’s legacy in terms of philosophy and ethics or in terms of lifestyle, aesthetics and exotic tourism.

THE BUDDHA

On PBS stations on Wednesday night (check local listings).

Written and directed by David Grubin; Mr. Grubin, producer; Anna Bowers, associate producer; Deborah Peretz, editor; James Callanan, cinematography; Michael Bacon, composer; Asterisk Animation, animation; Richard Gere, narrator. Produced by David Grubin Productions.

First animation film in Nepali – Gautam Buddha

We had seen some animation in Nepali movies lately but there is not a single fully animated movie in Nepali movie history.

Tulsi Ghimire is planning to make a new record by producing a fully animated movie name Gautam Buddha. Ghimire has brought in students from Lalitkala Campus in a studio in Thapathali to start drawing the characters of the movie.

Ghimire told that the works for the movie has been going on for the last seven months and it is expected that the movie will take another six months to finish. The movie is targeted to the foreign audience and will feature the life of Gautam Buddha.

पछिल्ला नेपाली चलचित्रमा अभाव खडकिरहेको पूर्ण एनिमेसन् फिल्म अब केहि समयमा पुरा हने भएको छ | अहिले निर्देशक तुलसी घिमिरे ‘गौतम बुद्ध’  नाम राखिएको सो पहिलो नेपाली एनिमेसन फिल्म बनाउन जोडतोडका साथ लागेका छन् । सो एनिमेसन फिल्मका लागि ललितकलाका विद्यार्थीहरु थापाथली स्थित एउटा स्टुडियोमा ब्यस्त छन् ।

निर्देशक घिमिरेका अनुसार यो फिल्मका सबै पात्र, दृश्य एनिमेटेड हुनेछन् । यस फिल्म ले नेपाली विभूति गौतम बुद्धको जीवनगाथा, त्यतिबेलाको समाजलाई चलचित्रमा उतार्नेछ । बुद्धकालिन समाजलाई यथार्थ दृश्यमा देखाउन एनिमेसन बाट मात्र सम्भव देखिएकोले एनिमेसनको सहारा लिनुपरेको निर्देशक घिमिरे ले बताए | उनले उक्त फिल्म को  लक्षित वर्ग भने विदेशी 

Send us your religion news Your Community, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA 24010 or e-mail yourcommunity@roanoke.comParents say the meditation techniques of the Buddhist tradition are helpful for their kids.

Katie Clifton-Wright was looking for a spiritual center for her family when she began meditating at Roanoke’s Dharmapala Buddhist Center last summer.

The Roanoke mother enjoyed the peace that the practice gave her and wanted to share it with her two children, Harrison, 5, and Tallulah, 18 months. But there were no local programs for kids.

Buddhist children’s programs aren’t as easy to find as Sunday school for Christian children, Koranic school for Muslim kids or Hebrew school for Jewish children.

So Clifton-Wright, a teacher at Community School, decided to start one herself.

Last September, she began Dharma for Kids, a program that takes place on the third Saturday of each month at the Dharmapala Buddhist Center.

“Buddhism is really fun for children,” she said. “There’s so much love and joy and giving in Buddhism, and that’s what children are about.”

The type of Buddhism practiced at the Dharmapala Buddhist Center — the New Kadampa Tradition — has several programs for children worldwide.

The center’s educational program coordinator, Sherri Spain, said the Kadampa tradition is well suited for children because it’s accessible and geared to the West, and it focuses on simple instructions such as how to be kind or patient.

“I think this is pretty unique to our tradition,” Spain said about Kadampa’s number of children’s programs.

During each session, Clifton-Wright includes a brief meditation, teaching, story and art activity.

Clifton-Wright began a recent session by leading five children through a meditation about seeing and appreciating the things you have.

Then she read “Peach and Blue,” a children’s book about an adventurous peach who teaches a big blue-bellied toad how to appreciate the beauty of his home.

She likened the tale to how Buddha teaches people to see the joy and beautiful things around them.

Then she pulled out some bright foam glasses and glitter and asked the kids to make “Buddha glasses” to help them see the world through his eyes.

Parents send their children to Clifton-Wright’s program for a variety of reasons.

Some practice Buddhism and want their children to as well. Others are looking for other options for spiritual training besides formal religion and want their children to explore life’s big, universal questions.

Others send their children because of meditation’s power to relax and calm them.

Tracie Berra described meditation’s wonderful calming effect on kids and said she’ll ask her son Brian, 7, to breathe in and out when he has a temper tantrum.

Another mother, Traci Bitrick, said the program was good to introduce Buddhist concepts to children and said meditation helped calm her hyperactive son Eli, 10.

“When kids get quiet, they can realize that all the strength they need is inside them,” Clifton-Wright said.

She also believes that Buddhism has made her a better, stronger mother, especially after she separated from her husband seven months ago.

“I just think it saved my sanity and grounded me,” Clifton-Wright said. “Thank goodness for Buddha.”

GOOD GOVERNANCE