Buddhism and American Cinema by Storhoff Gary Whalen-Bridge John

Author:Storhoff, Gary,Whalen-Bridge, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2014-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

SIX

Dying to Be Free

The Emergence of “American Militant Buddhism” in Popular Culture

RICHARD C. ANDERSON AND DAVID A. HARPER

When we first developed the concept of what we have termed “American Militant Buddhism” in late 2003 and 2004, the American reaction to the events of September 11, 2001, was unfolding before us. We were both faculty members in the English and Philosophy Department of the United States Military Academy, West Point, teaching cadets who would join the then-named “Global War on Terror” in a few short years.1 The news from Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay constantly permeated our discussions with students, colleagues, and friends. Michael Moore had just released the controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11, extending the thesis from his 2001 film, Bowling for Columbine, which examined the Columbine school shooting and posited something was awry in American culture. With hindsight, it is clear how profoundly that time and that place influenced our developing ideas about how American popular culture was expressing a uniquely American brand of redemptive violence framed by ostensibly Buddhist images and concepts. In the decade that has passed since we first noticed and named this phenomenon, we’ve seen increasing evidence that it is here to stay. For better or worse, American popular culture has appropriated an enlightenment ideology that is primarily identified as “Buddhist” and reworked it in a way consistent with an American mythos that often attempts to alleviate suffering and provide liberation through violence. It is this resulting mash-up of philosophies and ideologies that we termed “American Militant Buddhism” (AMB) in 2003 and that we often find as we tune in to American popular culture today.

Buddhism has proven highly adaptable to every culture it touches, producing various vehicles that all strive in common for the cessation of dukkha, or suffering, while emphasizing compassion toward all sentient beings. Even in its many forms found throughout the various vehicles, Buddhism adheres to its primary precepts summarized in the Four Noble Truths, which maintain that 1) life is suffering, 2) suffering arises from attachment, 3) liberation from attachment brings the cessation of suffering, and 4) it is possible to bring about the cessation of suffering. Moreover, the Buddha provided his followers with teachings of the Eightfold Path, which are directions for relinquishing attachments and eliminating suffering. Among the paths taught to Buddhists, a most notable one is the path of “right livelihood,” as it encodes one of the main tenets of Buddhism that one should not intentionally cause harm to any living being. The Buddhist belief in karma, or the law of causation and return, demands that one would pay a heavy price in future existences for killing another being.

However, unique aspects of American cultural heritage seem to have combined with traditional Buddhism to produce what appears to be a paradoxical and potentially virulent misinterpretation of the Dharma within popular culture. We suggest that this development is the natural result of introducing Buddhist doctrine into a society steeped in ideas of Manifest Destiny, millennialism, and Puritanism. Collectively, these aspects

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