Buddhism and Film

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores how film can be a medium for practicing and realizing Buddhist values, from its philosophical view of the nature of reality to its ideal of contemplative seeing. Hence film is not simply another way of learning about Buddhism but potentially a way of putting Buddhism into practice. Many of the films screened for the course are from Buddhist cultures and suggest how such a practice might look, but we will screen popular Hollywood movies as well to focus on the inherent capacities of cinema as a medium, regardless of content or origin. The larger scaffolding for the course is the idea that cinema is an inherently religious practice (Buddhist or otherwise) in that it creates a ritual time in which alternative worlds are experienced as real, even though we know that the contents of the movie are make-believe. This raises philosophical questions about the nature of “real life” and whether or not cinema is so different from it. Buddhist teachings suggest that they are much closer to each other than the Western philosophical habit of distinguishing between truth and fiction.