Buddhism and the Theatre *raises hand in a dramatic fashion*
Vastmind
Memphis, TN Veteran
Off shoot from the game thread.
Is theatre wrong/unskillful ? This scripture was presented in that thread
theatre:
“Thus the actor — himself intoxicated & heedless, having made others intoxicated & heedless — with the breakup of the body, after death, is reborn in what is called the hell of laughter. But if he holds such a view as this: 'When an actor on the stage, in the midst of a festival, makes people laugh & gives them delight with his imitation of reality, then with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of the laughing devas,' that is his wrong view. Now, there are two destinations for a person with wrong view, I tell you: either hell or the animal womb.”
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn42/sn42.002.than.html
I present this
THE BUDDHA’S GREAT THEATER OF LIFE
BY TONEN O’CONNOR
Not a long read
https://ancientwayjournal.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/the-buddhas-great-theater-of-life/
“ ….. Also with reference to the apparent conflict between the early Pali scriptures and the importance of theatre to our lives, it is important that we not attempt to use Buddhist scriptures as immutable teachings, with the sometimes mistaken notion that the earlier they are the truer they are. The idea that any and all early sayings retain a higher truth throughout centuries of change contradicts the Buddha’s original teaching on the impermanence of all things. “
“ … I have found my answer to the question as to the nature of the relationship between the theatre and Mahayana Buddhism: empathy. Empathy is the ability to experience what others are feeling, to put oneself in another’s place. This is what we need if we are to fruitfully live our Buddhist understanding of our responsibility to the whole. Empathy is essential for the development of compassion. And this is what we experience as we sit in a darkened theater, experiencing the unfolding of lives, of situations, of emotions that we may perhaps never experience in any other way. An audience and actor connect in this mysterious exchange of understanding”
🎭
Comments
I'm doubly cursed. I play TTRPGs and they incorporate both elements of acting/story and gaming. I'm a bad Buddhist who is practicing wrong and will no doubt, if I'm lucky, be reborn among the laughing devas and if not as an animal or in hell.
If it makes you feel any better… musical theatre is a hill I will die on!
To be cursed by the Buddhas ignorance is better than being blessed by the worldly and wordy wise (allegedly)
We keep the dharma updated, the lady buddhas evolving, the sangria sangha sobered. Us so cursed to do be extra goodly.
Back to the beginners corner with us...
Yeah, that… for me it’s a contrast between on the one hand the ascetics view, that the theater is bad because it leads to intoxication and heedlessness, and the Buddha’s wisdom, where earnestness and sobriety and mindfulness lead to truth and Nirvana. Is the ascetic right to think that he is wise, and so to condemn the theater as a path to lower realms?
I think we should not discard this out of hand because it is unpalatable to our entertainment-soaked brains. There is a lot to say for sobriety and earnestness and not getting carried away in the fever of story and drama. But I do think we should consider the ascetics path as one of extremes.
As another view on intoxication and laughter, Osho always held that laughter was a very spiritual experience, because in the moment of laughter the mind is caught by surprise and for a short while we are free of thinking. That is also why laughter is such a pleasant experience, that it releases tremendous lightness of being.
In a way, earnestness and sobriety and mindfulness are stances of concentrating the mind. Buddhism tries to allow you to reach Nirvana by manipulating the mind and digging deep into it. Osho says it is not necessary, you can go beyond just by focussing on witnessing, non judgmental awareness, and the experience of laughter helps with this, which is why he always told jokes in his lectures.
So it really depends on how closely you want to follow the Buddhist prescription for enlightenment through a sober mind. Perhaps you want to avoid the extremes and take a middle road, partaking some of comedy and laughter, and some of seriousness?
Last night, I saw a stage production of Murder on the Orient Express. 👏 🚞🔪
It was great, so of course I had to watch the 2017 film this morning before work. Cleansing tears while drinking my coffee. The Compassion, the revenge, the people of it all, hahaha. . It’s always the experience of it all!
🎭
If the Buddha said that about theater, you can imagine what he might have said about television or cinema, which are ten times worse as far as inducing heedlessness and intoxication are concerned. Who doesn’t know the feeling of starting to watch a film and getting so sucked in that you forget who and where you are…
Seems to be my current reality. In fact it seems the current reality for a lot of people...
I was just reading about meditative concentration from the 6 paramitas of Mahayana Buddhism. In the section about meditative concentration they talk about the virtue of a monastery compared to the householders life. A monastery was defined as 500 armspans away from a town (an earshot). I think that theatre could be spoken of as a negative if they are keeping someone away from having a very peaceful life where it's easy to reach meditative concentration. So the problem of theatre might be that it's one of the things in the householders life that keeps them away from a monastery life. I also read that even walking 7 footsteps (symbolic or literal?) towards a monastery was a very virtuous offering to the Buddhas, even more virtuous than making extensive offerings of food, drink, flowers, and so forth.
From my reading (translation of the Jewel Ornament of Liberation):
The Good Qualities of Solitude. Escaping from agitation and staying in monasteries for the sake of enlightenment and of sentient beings has many good qualities:
a) It is an excellent offering to all the Buddhas,
b) one will renounce samsara, will be free from the eight worldly concerns, and will not encourage the afflicting emotions
c) meditative concentration will arise
Hi @Jeffrey… nice to see you again….yeah, I would agree there’s a huge difference between theater for the monastic and theater for the householder. The list of things that keep householders/lay from the monastery is pretty long, I’m sure. 😁
In that vein tho, one of the temples I used to attend was in a very rough neighborhood (gang territory) and we were taught to meditate with gunshots going on outside..that the “goal” was not to be distracted and continue on.
BTW…the roughest people there were so nice and would often come in just out of curiosity and wonder about these foreigners and ask questions.
The few monasteries I’ve been to here in the US are waaaay out in the woods and far from city or nearby distractions… though I did see Monks a few times in Sam’s club getting food and supplies, haha
@Vastmind @Jeffrey
If you can not meditate or offer picnics in the hell realms you might be stuck in the Purelands for a very long time. Could be worse. Could be better...
I wonder if the role of theatre was not different in Buddha's time than it is today. Maybe something more like clubbing is today: a place for intoxication, sensual desire, and cheap laughs, as the sutta suggests. I assume this is quite possible.
Surely something like "Les Miserables" (which I like very much) is good and wholesome, at least for most of us ordinary non-monk and non-advanced people?
I believe people go to such and similar theatre shows precisely because they "enoble the soul" and can thus be seen as supporting the Dharma.
And sure, there are banal and debased shows. But when I hear the word "theatre" I don't imagine those shows and assume they are in the minority these days.
Sorry Buddha, IMHO, this sutta did not age well!
I’ve long had an appreciation of cinema (and to a lesser extent theatre) as art forms, but often they have amusement value but little to no spiritual backbone. There are exceptions I’ll admit. But this is what I feel the Buddha was getting at.
I still watch films every once in a while, and this afternoon I went into my backlog and watched a part of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’, and for a while, a good hour or so, I lost all awareness of my surroundings. It’s the opposite of mindfulness. That it why I think the sutra on theatre references “intoxication and heedlessness”.
On the other hand, at times my concentration on the film was near total. Such levels of concentration I’ve only otherwise experienced while programming. So while I was being heedless of my physical surroundings, I had a lot of concentration on the story.