For practicing Buddhists, Siddhartha Gautama was just the first Buddha …
At the time I write this, I have watched eight other films by David Grubin – and I am a fan of all of them. These include Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, LBJ, and RFK (a lot of initials there). Every film on this particular list is a biography, and David Grubin is very good at making them. But as you may have noticed, all of these other biographies are about Western individuals; and few of his films cover more Eastern topics. As far as I know, this was his first foray into Asian history; but seems to have been a good one despite this lack of prior experience with the region. It is a good introduction to understanding Buddhism, because it examines the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the man whom Buddhists revere as the first “Buddha.” In the Buddhist religion, any good person can become a “Buddha”; so he is only held to be the first of them. Nonetheless, there’s a reason that most people think of Siddhartha Gautama when they hear a phrase like “the Buddha.” He was the founder of the religion, and one of the world's great religious leaders.
Siddhartha Gautama taught in India, although his religion had more success elsewhere …
Siddhartha Gautama was born in what is today Nepal, some five or six centuries before Jesus Christ. He walked the earth at roughly the same time as Confucius, another of the world’s great religious leaders. But though he was born in Nepal, he did most of his teaching in India. Thus, although the Gautama Buddha himself was born in Nepal, his Buddhist religion was born in India. India’s dominant religion has long been Hinduism, and that was also the dominant religion there during the Gautama Buddha’s lifetime. Buddhism has strong roots in Hinduism, in much the same way that Christianity has strong roots in Judaism. Thus, it owes much to its roots in India. But Buddhism never really caught on in its birthplace of India. Rather, it spread to East Asia via the Silk Road, and found its first real success in places like Ancient China. In fact, nearly half of the world’s contemporary Buddhist population is in Modern China, and significant Buddhist populations live in many other places (including Japan). This may be why this film – unusually for a PBS film – has optional subtitles in Mandarin Chinese, the most spoken language in the Buddhist world today (or anywhere else, for that matter). It is a significant minority religion in India as well, but nowhere near as dominant there as Hinduism or Islam. Nonetheless, certain parts of India are sacred ground to Buddhists, because of its being the place where Siddhartha Gautama lived his life. Thus, this film visits some of that sacred ground, and helps you to understand the life of the primary founder of Buddhism.
Marker stone, at what is purported to be the exact birthplace of the Gautama Buddha
This film is more of a biography than a presentation of Buddhist beliefs …
This film contains interviews with Buddhists, from White Westerners to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Among other things, the Dalai Lama says that Buddhists do not believe that desire is always bad – a belief that is commonly misattributed to them. Rather, they just believe that certain kinds of desire are bad; and in this respect, I am on common ground with them. Although I am not a Buddhist myself, I admire the good works and people that this religion produces, and support the interfaith causes that they perform alongside my own religion. (In case you’re wondering, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I will not try to dismiss the differences in our beliefs, or say that they are unimportant; but the common ground between us is also important, and helps us to be good neighbors despite our differences.) Some information about Buddhist beliefs does appear in this film, particularly in the animations of the more “supernatural” parts of the Gautama Buddha’s story. Nonetheless, this is not really a film about Buddhist beliefs – although some information about them does appear anyway. Rather, it is more of a biography – like many of Mr. Grubin’s other films. This prevents the film from being overly abstract, and allows PBS to stick to just telling the story. These things make for a fascinating film, as you might expect.
A statue of the Buddha from Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India, 4th century CE
Buddhist attitudes towards bodily appetites, and the need for moderation …
One of the central themes in the Gautama Buddha’s life was his shifting attitudes towards bodily appetites. In parts of his life, he pursued pleasures of various kinds, from food to drink to sex. Since he was born a prince in that part of India, he was born with many opportunities to pursue these things. But later on, he went almost to the opposite extreme, living the life of a poor ascetic – or one who allows himself virtually no bodily pleasures of any kind. Asceticism often involves going for days (or even weeks) without food, and Siddhartha had many companions at this time who were trying to outdo the others in abstaining from pleasures. Siddhartha eventually came to believe in a need for moderation in bodily appetites, neither wholly pursuing them nor wholly denying them to oneself. This, indeed, was his final belief; and the belief rightly associated with him today. Again, I can see some common ground between the Buddhist beliefs and my own here. I do not believe in denying oneself all bodily pleasures, but rather pursuing them in a more moderate way.
The gilded “Emaciated Buddha” statue in an Ubosoth in Bangkok representing the stage of his asceticism
Buddhist attitudes towards suffering, the physical body, and nirvana …
Another major theme is in the Buddhist attitude towards suffering. Buddhists do not believe in heaven or hell (or any kind of god), but their belief in nirvana may resemble heaven in some ways. For Buddhists, one who attains nirvana will be free from the limitations of a body, since Buddhists tend to see bodies as something of a liability. For Buddhists, one who attains nirvana will also be free from the pains and sicknesses associated with having a body. They believe that they can only attain this nirvana by being good, so they also believe in eternal rewards for goodness, and continued punishments for evil (similar to the Jewish and Christian beliefs in a just afterlife). The fact that many religions believe in an afterlife suggests that a lot of people want to live forever, and this belief is among the most universally held of all of the world’s religious beliefs. If I may say so, few of the world’s religions actually have the power to motivate people to do good without some belief in an afterlife, where good will be rewarded and evil punished. Some have suggested that this is among the most practical functions of any kind of religion. (If you beg to differ, I hasten to add that this is quite okay with me – I am just giving my own views here, and am not trying to force them upon anybody else.)
The eight spoke Dharma wheel symbolizes the Noble Eightfold Path
Conclusion: A good biography of the influential founder of Buddhism
It is estimated that when you measure religions by the number of adherents, Buddhism comes up as the fifth-highest on the list, with more than 500 million followers – roughly 7% of the world’s population, or half a billion people. (See this page for further details.) As measured by these numbers, Siddhartha Gautama was one of the most influential people in world history, and has done much to shape (at least part of) the world that we live in. Students of world history thus cannot afford to ignore his life, it would seem. If you want to understand this fascinating life, this film is a reasonably good introduction to the subject. It may not tell you much about the core beliefs of Buddhism (books are better for this sort of thing), but it may give you some good biographical information about the founder of the religion. It may also teach you something about how the religion was founded in the process, and why this story has moved so many people all over the world.
“The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers [or the Gautama Buddha], as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.”
– A statement by the three highest-ranking officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as quoted by James E. Faust in 1980 (and again in 2006)
DVD at Amazon
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If you liked this post, you might also like:
A review of David Grubin's “The Jewish Americans” (PBS)
A review of Michael Wood's “The Story of India”
A review of Michael Wood's “The Story of China”
Why Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan didn't go communist (when mainland China did)
A review of “Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire” (PBS Empires)
See also the audiobook series
Religions, Scriptures, and Spirituality
Others to be covered later
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