It had always been self-interest, not altruism.

Buddha in a Traffic Jam (2014)
Written and Directed by Vivek Agnihotri

What would Buddha, being a pacifist, would do when he is caught in a bad traffic jam? Instead of cussing and cursing explicitly or under His breath, He would probably, wait patiently, not to upset the already tense atmosphere, but instead deal the situation calmly. Mere mortals around him would probably jump at the chance to pounce on his non-aggressive way of handling his machine to squeeze to ahead by at least a few cars. For mere mortals that would mean a big deal, they would retaliate, but not Buddha. 

The storyteller is trying to equate the Adivasis (aborigines) to Buddha whilst the capitalists and the communists as mortals try to bribe their way to usurp the Adivasis' rightly owned lands for personal interests.

For a movie that Agnihotri had so much difficulty trying to secure financial backings from the movie stalwarts in the initial stage and abandonment by financiers later, it sure did fan a lot of excitement, protests and even riots. It is said to have popularised the term 'Urban Naxalites'. It was the academia where it hurts the most. For a long time, people in higher learning institutions have been looked upon as socialist, leftists or communists' sympathisers. Many have been accused of joining the breaking India forces to cripple the nation from within. Even during the Raj era, educated locals would wag their tails to the beck and call of their colonial masters. They continued as sepoys, and now as journalists, academics and God-men continue their dog and master relationship overseas and even in India.

Even though this film had repeatedly been dismissed as trash by mainstream media and online reviews, one wonders why it obtains raving reviews from others. It hits out at the leftists who have spread all over the institutions of higher learning. With their revolutionary and anti-establishment way of thinking, the young are the most suitable targets to lay their red agendas.

The capitalists are no different from the socialist in the way they expect the masses in their agenda of making money. Nobody actually cares for the underprivileged and the marginalised. It is just dollars and cents.

The films tell of a group of free-spirited MBA students challenged by their professor to develop a business model to help an NGO sell aboriginal pottery. It is allegedly to be siphoned back to the community for their upliftment. The protagonist realised that the setup is a sham to hoodwink the government subsidies for their private coffers. Helping the tribes is the last thing on their mind.

A refreshing look at the real world of philanthropy. It is filled with revelry, intoxication and hedonistic entertainment at the expense of the poor. It had always been self-interest, not altruism.

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Introspection is king!

Genius of the Ancient World (BBC Four)
#1. Buddha

Centuries before modern man came up with the concept of cognitive psychology and self-discoveries, there walk a man in flesh and blood who questioned the ritualistic practices of the people in the name of the Protector. At a time when Brahmin sages performed sacrificial rites to appease the Maker so that man can be taken care in the next life, he stood to question the relevance of these.

Leaving his comfortable life in the courtyards of the leader of the Sankya clansmen in Southern Nepal, he wandered to the buzzing city in Maghada state. People of the cosmopolitan town of Patna were alive with many questions and ideas about life and its purpose. Siddharta Gautama queried the concept of samsara and the cycle of life. If rituals could change the fate of the high caste in the next life, what happens to the traders and workers rank. Are they destined to be trapped in miseries forever?

He sought for his answers with a sage named Alara Kalama who tried to unite the microcosm of the inner self and the macrocosm of the universal soul, but Gautama was not impressed. He then joined the renouncers who felt that material attachments impede liberation. After six years of extreme self-denying penances which almost killed him, he abandoned it as well.

He finally chose the path of moderation. In an ever changing external world, our permanent selves do not exist. Nothing is permanent. Everything is contextual. The fundamental reason for suffering is our trapping in materialism and our obsession with the delusion of self. The realisation comes when we know ourselves - know yourself and the world is yours.

At the age of 35, under the shade of Bodh Gaya, every puzzle of the jigsaw fitted perfectly. He was enlightened, he found nirvana. From then, He discovered the Four Noble Truths and the 8-fold paths to end all sufferings. He revolutionised ethics by saying that the intention of our action is more important than the ritual of action. Irrespective of our caste, gender or class, we are the master of our fate. To find answers, we first must look within.

Buddha then ventured to the Central Indian plains. His group of followers formed the Sangha. They received donations from well-wishers. A bamboo retreat was donated by Bimbisara to start a monastery.  Nuns too formed part of the Sangha. This was something revolution for the time when the female gender was looked upon as a burden to society.

Even though on the exterior, the Buddhist teachings may appear to be focused on self-improvement, its ambition is for collective wellbeing. Buddha finally meets his death after feasting on a blacksmith's tainted food.

Two hundred years after his death, a despot reactivated his fledgeling religion and brought it to greater heights. He spread it to East Asia and the Middle East. Ashoka, after his trail of killings and torture, one day had a realisation. He built stupas and sculptured stone carving of Buddha's teachings. In the 5th century AD, India had the first university in the world in Nalanda. It did not last long. Muslim invaders from the north burnt it to the ground in an inferno which last three days.

You cultivate the mind by cultivating it, not torturing it. Change is inevitable, but we have the power to direct the change. At one glance, these sayings look benign. Given the correct over-analysis and coercion, one to bound to think that it is alright to bear arms to injure a fellow human being. After all, we are just directing the change as he deems fit. That could provide the explanation for the somewhat combative stance of Buddhist monks in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand of late. Points to ponder...

Unchain my soul?

Some say that the mere fact that we are born on Earth is torture. It is a punishment of sorts. All the aches, the physical pains, the emotional pains, the disappointments, the cheats, the fall and loss of function may be just an ellipse of what a man faces in his lifetime. Saying all these, even the wisest of men, would like to hold on to his last breath not matter what in exchange for all the wealth in the world.

Many religions that promote themselves as a way of life suggest that the relationships that we develop along the way in our life are the cause of most of our problems. We should either not to take to heart all the miseries that develop in our daily interactions with our friends, colleagues, and loved ones or cut ourselves from these relationships. In the other words, renunciation is the word. 

Renunciation can be done, it seems, in two ways. In the first instance, one can choose a life of self-sacrifice and self-avoidance from the time of adolescence or at coming -of-age. In other words, inner primordial animalistic desires of the flesh and worldly yearnings can be suppressed before new bonds build. He may retreat to lead a recluse life trying to find the real meaning of life and plan for a promotion in his next life form. In short, he is absolved of his worldly duties. But, what happens to his elders and siblings who may look at him as neglecting his human duties for the relationships that he already developed when he was brought into this world as a living creature? Has he not duties to perform to repay his existence? Is he not being selfish of concentrating on himself? Is it not the nature of man to help one another? What better reason could there be if not for filial piety?

The second form of renunciation may be done after his duties are seemingly complete. He could produce offsprings, guided them through the nuances of life for them to stand on their own feet. But is it really over? Is it ever over? In the modern times, it appears to me that one has to be constantly working to maintain sanity. Once, he recoils from being productive or at least self-sufficient, he is deemed a burden to society. People cannot wait for him to go to the other side. 

The Circle of Life

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (봄 여름 가을 겨울 그리고 봄, Korean, 2003)

This is a very quiet movie with hardly any dialogue set in a serene lake surrounded by mountain. The message it carries, however, is ‘earth shattering’. In very few words, it narrates with symbolisms by using animals (rooster, cat, snake, tortoise) which refer to particular virtues in Buddhist and Eastern traditions. It is divided into seasons, not all in a year, signifying the life cycle that seems to repeat itself.

A very young boy (maybe six) grows up in a floating Buddhist monastery in a lake deep in the wood with his sifu, an elderly monk. Their daily routine is laid out - daily walks, plucking herbs and chanting. The boy, mischievous as he is, ill-treats little animals in the forest, fish, frog and snake. The master was watching his every move, teaches him that every cruel deed would be carried by the heart forever.

In the next segment, the boy grows into a young man. A mother brings her daughter (a young woman) for a mysterious illness, probably the mental kind. The young man with his bulging hormones is head-over-heels in love with the lady. They were caught embraced in sexual activity. The girl is sent off as she seems to have recovered. The young man, longing to be with her, follows her back to civilisation. He is warned that lust leads to the desire for possession, and possession leads to murder. A colourful rooster, which signifies desire and craving, is featured in this segment.

In the ‘fall’ component, the monk reads from an old newspaper wrapping that the apprentice had killed his wife for infidelity and that he is at large. Expectedly, he arrives at the monastery. The cat is featured here. Cats are thought to be able to cast away evil spirits in Korean culture whilst they denote decadent lascivious life in Far Eastern scriptures.

The apprentice, regretting the turn of events, attempts suicide but is stopped by the monk. He is made to carve out some holy scriptures. Police later arrived to apprehend him. Sifu then performs self-sacrifice by burning himself on a pyre.

Winter... Many years later, the apprentice returns as a changed man. He rejuvenates the temple. A lady turns up to leave her son. Spring... the child does the same thing that the apprentice did before, torture animals...

That is the circle of life. Things happen cyclically; the world is a stage with the same play. Only the props and actors differ. The plot may vary slightly. The outcome may vary, but the trend is the same.

Listen, do you want to know a secret?

Tariq Ramadan, a liberal Islamist, once asked the Dalai Lama, "Why do you recite your chants at 4 o'clock in the morning?". The wise one replied, "It is for my self discipline!"
That, I think, my dear friend, lies the secret of mankind. The secret of all secrets is now out in the open. The rationale for people to do what they do as somewhat ritualistic, obsessive and compulsive like is actually to instill self discipline in one self. The purpose of prayer is not to request the Creator for wealth, health, happiness and protection for a pain free life and after life but rather to instill this human value so that he can think out rationally his next course of action so as to ensure he leads the path of least resistance. The quiet ambience in which one partakes his meditation and prayers must be the cornerstone for his to rationally think out his actions and act accordingly without rash.
The ritual of allocating one day in a week for spiritual work, faithfully doing seemingly repetitive actions several times a day, sitting in a literally in a spine and leg breaking postures are all for the sole purpose of self discipline.
"Self discipline for what?" you may ask....
Self discipline to do what you are suppose to do on earth - a butcher, baker or tin-can man. Whatever you may do to maintain that equilibrium on the big jigsaw puzzle that is a fragment of events of the butterfly effect of life.
But remember, too much of self discipline can also be self detrimental. As Buddha (before Enlightenment) was finding for the ultimate truth to relieve Man of the tortuous repetitive cycle of life, he discovered that meditation was the way to go. He dwelled into high level spiritual form of meditation where one can control autonomic nervous system of body where Hone can go into  a vegetative state without food and water for days. If not for a young girl who fed him forcibly, he would have been history without leaving a mark!

N.B. Did you know that the trace of Buddha had disappeared from face of India, no thanks to the attacking Hindu and Muslim kingdoms? It took archaeologists of the colonial masters from 1860 to 1890 to locate his birthplace as Lumbini and Kapilavastu where his father's Shakya kingdom palace used to be. They pinpointed it to be located in Nepal.