Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

It was a FRUITFUL day yesterday. I had two good meetings (one in person, one by telephone). I got to remembering a film I had seen shortly after I had moved to Phoenix. A friend from Minnesota, Robin Rusboldt (such an evocative name) told me about Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. A look at the darker side of religious zealotry. Given the events of 9/11, most everyone is now aware of the dangers. The film (and book upon which it was based) is the more personal, human side of religious righteousness. It is available on DVD.

Which led, of course, to Killing The Buddha, a site about using wisdom and critical investigative thinking in studying and following religion.

The idea of “killing the Buddha” comes from a famous Zen line, the context of which is easy to imagine: After years on his cushion, a monk has what he believes is a breakthrough: a glimpse of nirvana, the Buddhamind, the big pay-off. Reporting the experience to his master, however, he is informed that what has happened is par for the course, nothing special, maybe even damaging to his pursuit. And then the master gives the student dismaying advice: If you meet the Buddha, he says, kill him.

Why kill the Buddha? Because the Buddha you meet is not the true Buddha, but an expression of your longing. If this Buddha is not killed he will only stand in your way. Killing the Buddha is a metaphor for moving past the complacency of belief, for struggling honestly with the idea of God. Their site has some interesting iconography and religious kitsch.

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.”
    Dorothy Day (1897 - 1980)
    U.S. Editor and Reformer The Long Loneliness, 1952