Film review - Unmistaken Child

Here's the website.

The Buddhist concept of reincarnation, while both mysterious and enchanting, is hard for most westerners to grasp. UNMISTAKEN CHILD follows the four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at age 84. The Dalai Lama charges the deceased monk’s devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa (who had been in his service since the age of seven), to search for his master’s reincarnation.

I had mixed feelings about this film. I was surprised by the intimate footage captured: the old monk's funeral, where they scavenged pearl-relics amongst ashes; personal interviews between the disciple, Tenzin Zopa, and heavy-hitting lamas such as Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama; and the inner workings of the divination and search for the reincarnated master. The divination section of the film was revealing. Tenzin Zopa hired a Tibetan monk in Singapore to carry out the ritual. Tenzin and a senior lama watched the proceedings live on a humble, little TV from their apartment in India. The divination read that the father of the reincarnated monk’s name will begin with “A”, and he’ll be located in an area that begins with “Tz”. That's all the information Zopa had to go on.

The search crew reckoned that "Tz" must be the valley of “Tzum” which is where the deceased master spent most of his time meditating in caves. Tenzin Zopa wanders from house to house and through rice fields asking people who has a child from 1 – 1.5 years old. At this point I’m wondering how much information you expect to get from a one year old child. “Are you Lama Konchog?” The boy drools and shakes his rattle.

It’s clear to the villagers what the visiting monk is up to, which makes you wonder how many of them prime their little tikes to act the part. I got the impression some parents would jump at the chance to have their child recognized as a great reincarnated lama, while others were not so enthusiastic to lose their first-born to a system which they may have doubted or even resented. This brings me to the part of the movie with which I had the most trouble.

Tenzin Zopa finds a child who fits the bill. They take the child to a monastery and have him pick out several items from the former lama – the child apparently does it perfectly, though we’re not conversant if he had a 100% success rate. Afterwards, the Dalai Lama is notified via letter, he gives his consent after a divination (cough, cough b.s., cough), and the monk returns to the village to inform the parents that they’ll be losing their precious first-born son. This scene for me was heart-wrenching, perhaps because I’ve just had my own first child.

The parents of the boy comes across as a kind-hearted, simple villagers. They appear perplexed and anxious at this monk who comes strolling into their lives unannounced, taking an unusual, and I’d say unhealthy, interest in their two-year old son.

A big, anxiety-ridden smile is plastered across the father’s face. The mother appears wary, uncertain, and anxious.

“How do you feel about me taking him? Is it okay?”

The father laughs nervously. (What’s he going to say? No? And deny the world another great Lama? How selfish he’d appear to the villagers and ungrateful to the monk.)

When no answer is forthcoming, the monk reminds them “Your son would just grow up here, get married, and work the fields. If I take him, he’ll be a great teacher, a benefit to countless sentient beings.” The father is suddenly motivated. “Well, if he can benefit many people, then I suppose he can go.” The mother speaks nothing. The pain in her eyes says enough.

You have to wonder and question a system where children are snatched from their families and brain-washed to believe they are former great teachers and treated like royalty. Time and time again in the movie Tenzin Zopa reminds the boy what he was like in his former life. The boy is already being treated like a king by everyone. People are bowing to him and wrapping white, silk scarves around his neck. If he’s not really the former Lama Konchog, he will be soon.

It’s a movie well-worth seeing for its intimate, behind-the-scenes portrayal of an esoteric practice that’s been taking place in the Himalayan region for over six hundred years. The grief of Tenzin Zopa at his master’s death turns to joy upon finding the child. The grief is transferred to the family who must return to their empty home. I hope the boy will indeed turn out to be a benefit to countless sentient beings.

Literally

It literally drives me crazy when people literally use the word literally wrong. I never noticed this before I returned from abroad, so it may be a Michigan thing. People say literally instead of "really" or "actually". But literally means just that -- literally. It's in contrast to figuratively.

My opening sentence is wrong, because one cannot literally be driven nuts. How would you actually drive nuts? To be driven nuts is a figurative expression. So, next time you want to say "I literally..." stop and ask yourself -- did you really do that? Try substituting another word, or better yet, see if you can find a new phrase to express exactly what you mean, like: It drove me up a wall. Hell, throw the f-bomb in there if you must to get your point across.

It's so common that lately I find myself using it and cringing -- literally!

More on Free Will

One of my favorite blogs, which you'll find on my sidebar, is Think Buddha. Since I wrote a bit about free will in my half-arsed eulogy of Ramesh Balsekar, I thought I'd continue with the theme by linking to this excellent and interesting blog entry at Think Buddha.

A little tidbit to whet your taste buds:

So leaving philosophy on one side, I have over the last few years been practising having no free will. That it to say, I have been giving up on the thought that some little homunculus in my head is responsible for directing me, and instead I have been having the thought (or the thought has been having me…) “What if my actions arise not out of some kind of personal freedom, but merely out of various interacting conditions at play in the world as a whole?”

Ramesh Balsekar died

Who's that? "Who cares", Ramesh would say. Balsekar was a teacher in the Advaita (nondual Indian philosophy) tradition. He was/is an important spiritual influence on my life. The first time I read him was back in 2003 while I was living in San Diego. I thought he was insincere, that his ideas were controversial for the sake of being so. However, after that encounter, I couldn’t let go of his claims. Is there really no individual, no free will, no choice? It seemed absurd and anti-intuitive.

In those days I was undertaking heavy meditative questioning, such as, what is this “me”, where is the center of what I call “myself”, is there really free will, etc. Through such questioning it became obvious that Ramesh was at least partly right. If there is free will, it’s severely restricted. It’s clear that our lives are made from our desires. It’s also certain that we do not choose our desires. At every moment our choice is made based on a desire. For example, you may not want to clean the toilet, but you do so. The desire to have a clean toilet outweighs the aversion to cleaning it.

His ideas, which are ancient by the way, and found in all spiritual traditions, create a calming effect on the individual. They take the anxiety and stress out of decisions and situations. The border between “me” and the rest of the world out there becomes a bit more porous. Our place in the matrix of all that is, the infinite mass of cause and effect, becomes more apparent. Every moment of being is the culmination of infinite causes and effects from the beginning of time, if there is such a thing. It’s laughable at how much control we believe we exert.

Some may criticize such ideas as escapism. The notion that we are being lived rather than living is anathema to western civilization and classical Buddhist thought, and by “classical”, I mean Southeast Asia Buddhist thought. In later Mahayana developments, one begins to see an increase of nondual teachings. I imagine the Buddha objecting that such teachings are “unskillful”, because they foster of sense of helplessness and undermine his teachings on karma and individual choice, which is the backbone of Buddhist thought.

Whatever one concludes regarding the utility of these ideas, it is clear that Ramesh will be missed by thousands. I’m sorry that I never had the chance to meet him, as he played a fairly significant role in my life. He leaves a legacy of books, recordings, and videos which will inspire, help, and confound countless others in the future.

Balsekar Wiki
Ramesh was in a long line of respected Advaita Vedanta teachers

Korea, America -- Same, same

I’ve been back now for over three months, and I believe the reverse culture shock is settling down. I’m not even sure that there is such a thing as “reverse culture shock”. Real or not, it’s the only way I can understand the occasional, furious outbursts at Americanisms, like stark individualism, rampant narcissism, constant fear and anxiety, an absurd media, a broken health care system, and a legal system which suffocates its citizens. There’s a thick atmosphere of mistrust and fear among people. One example will have to suffice: after spending eight hours interviewing for an entry level position at my current job, and after having three professional references checked, background checked, credit checked, this checked, and that checked, I was still, after all that checking, required to have my employment contract notarized, because, apparently, my employer doesn’t trust me enough to sign my own contract.

While in Korea I had come under the mistaken impression that the Koreans were somehow uniquely irrational. As a daily mantra –OM THEYRE IRRATIONAL SVAHA -- it provided a lens through which I could dismiss rather than make sense of a culture that proves opaque to even the most astute cultural epicureans. Where they were emotional, we were cool, calm, and logical – a whole nation of Dr. Spocks, deciding from their brains rather than their bellies.

What an irrational and mistaken notion! One need look no further than the still, ongoing coverage of Michael Jackson and the nutjobs now disrupting town hall discussions about health care with middle school tactics, tantrums, and empty slogans: What? We’re going to be like Russia if we all have health care?! Why is government involvement ALWAYS bad? I heard many of Spock’s offspring proudly trumpet that they would no longer be buying GM cars because they were government owned now! The ghost of communism still haunts these here corridors.

So, no, Americans are not more rational. We’re the same. We reveal our ignorance and emotion in different ways, clearly attributable to conditional factors, such as, history, geography, and all the of the minute, learned behaviors that comprise a culture. As the Buddha said: because of this, there is that; when this arises, that arises.

And finally, one thing we can all agree on: all people just want to be happy. And most of us do our damndest to prevent that from happening.

New Life Beginning - Traverse City, Michigan

Almost packed, about 16 boxes. This interminably long liminal stage is finally coming to an end. Two months in Korea, three months living at my mom's; our new home is one day away. We're driving early tomorrow morning up to the northern most point of western Michigan -- Traverse City. Surrounded by seas, lakes, rivers, and trees, beautiful, quiet, and it's even got a hip little downtown. Some twenty-something year old guy plopped on the sidewalk and strummed a sitar. I'm not even sure if he was collecting money. The lefty bookstore across the street had lots of eco-nature-save the planet books. The religion section was amusing. All ten Jesus books were of the conspiracy stripe. Not a single mainstream respectable scholar! Lefties and religion never mixed well. I sat down with a book about the Great Lakes, promising myself to buy it later, so as to get myself in the spirit of my new home.

I took the job at Interlochen Center for the Arts, a prestigious boarding school for children who love the arts and for parents who are willing to sell of both arms and legs to afford their child's dream. An incredible campus -- nestled between two mammoth glacial lakes. There's dozens of little stone huts where one student can practice his instrument. The cacophony of everyone playing spreads out through the seemingly endless birch, maple, and pine forests.

Insook and I are excited to start our new life. We rented a condo overlooking a petite valley, which marks the beginning of a gargantuan, superbly manicured golf course (The Crown). Our new two-bedroom has a brand spanking new washer and dryer and dishwasher. I've already imagined how when the first snow falls, I'm going to open the sliding patio door and sled down the hill into the golf course! She thinks I'm kidding, but I'm not. I guess they don't do this kind of thing in Korea.

I think we'll be able to get in touch with nature more. I'll be working in a giant forest and we're surrounded by water. This will help. Also there's not a whole lot of big-city distractions.

This is all kind of a haphazard blog-post, but I just wanted to update my few readers about the goings-on in our lives. I'll start writing much more next week after we settle down and a normal, post-liminal life begins to emerge. Look for lots more religious, philosophical, and political posts -- the ideas have been fermenting and brewing like crazy, I just haven't had the clarity or desire to put them down! I'm also going through a serious bout of reverse culture shock. More later.

Traverse City, Michigan

Update: Back the USA

It's been a long time since I've written. I've been busy, as I'm moving back to the US this month -- in 8 days, actually. Lots of packing, thinking, ruminating, wondering, fearing, and exciting! What will I do? Time to get serious about making decisions regarding career, job, income, all the hard decisions I prefer to avoid by contemplating the empty nature of all phenomena and whether Jesus actually resurrected. I don't have time for these questions. Well, I do -- but the fact is, I only have so much energy everyday. I tend to scatter it in ten thousand unproductive directions. It needs to be focused now.

I'll be living with my Mom and step father for some time, while I scope out possible neighborhoods to live in, look for jobs, talk to graduate school programs, and consider business possibilities. Here's what I'm thinking:

I have two major options. One is going to grad school. I narrowed it down to a few possibilities. In each case, I will need to attend school full-time for 3 to 4 years. The financial toll will be somewhere around $35,000 - 60,000. Throw in the amount of potential money lost since I won't be able to work much during this time, and it rockets to around $200,000.

Three to four years and $200K. Isn't there something better I could do with that time and money? Sure is. That's why I'm considering different business options. We'll see what happens. Will write more later when the ideas become clearer.