The Zen Mind
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Movie Reviews of The Zen Mind
Movie Review: Half-baked intro to Zen
Summary: 2 Stars
Filmmaker Jon Braeley did a couple of things right with this one-hour documentary on Japanese Zen Buddhism. He hired a skilled shakuhachi player for his soundtrack and as cameraman was able to take advantage of some wonderfully photogenic locations, including Sojiji, one of Soto Zen's main monastic training centers.
It's too bad he didn't get a decent scriptwriter or a narrator able to pronounce Japanese.
If you know absolutely nothing about zen, you might learn something from this film, though you're just as likely to get the wrong idea. The film begins with titles superimposed over monks doing zazen: "Zen. From the Sanskrit word, Dhyana. From the Chinese word, Chan." In fact it's the other way round. Zen is the Japanese word for Chan. You might also get the idea that zen has a lot to do with home and garden design. You surely won't come away understanding how zen is different from other forms of Buddhism. In fact you might not even suspect it has anything at all to do with Buddhism.
There's a lot of blather about one pointed concentration, freeing the mind, non-attachment, emptiness, becoming one with nature, living in the moment. But these ideas are tossed into the pot without rhyme or reason, like someone making a stew with whatever they picked up out of the refrigerator.
There is a short section on the technical details of doing zen (how to fold your legs, how to hold your hands, how to breathe), as well as demonstrations of formal, monastic style zen. But I really doubt anyone new to zen would be able to do much on their own with the material presented here.
The best parts of the films are interviews with zen roshis from both the Rinzai and Soto traditions. Unlike the narrated script, which is full of the platitudes you might find in an episode of Kung Fu, these gentlemen are quite practical and down-to-earth. The Godo Roshi at Sojiji (whose name is mistransliterated as Dai Tow) explains that satori, or enlightenment, is not a special power or state of being. It is simply becoming yourself. There is, he explains (contrary to the narration), no such thing as a mind without thought, that as long is there is mind there is thought, there are sense impressions. This is the nature of mind. The important thing, he stresses, is to accept what is, without fear and without favor.
Unfortunately, the interviews with the monks and roshis account for less than one quarter of this film's 60 minutes. Anyone seriously interested in zen would do well to skip this film and instead find a good book, or visit a nearby temple or zen center.
(Note that most of the 5-star reviews are from people with only one or two other reviews, most often other products from people who worked on this film. Looks like promotion from friends and relatives.)
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Movie Review: nice try, but....
Summary: 2 Stars
so this isn't a zen guy making the film, it's a martial arts guy making the film...he doesn't really know anything about zen practice. when people that don't practice talk about zen they really try to make it dramatic and magical...and they miss the subtlety of it. it's cool that he went to all the places that he did, and it's cool to see nishijama roshi in action. but the filmmaker is handing us the same misinformed stuff we've been getting from popular media for about 50 years now.
for some reason he goes to a swordman and interviews him and the guy is like "i don't really know anything about zen, i'm a sword guy." and the narrator is like "how humble he is!" but i think the guy was being serious, he's a sword guy, not a zen guy, why was he being interviewed?
and later when they go to soji-ji he interviews the godo roshi and the godo is trying to dispel all this nonsense about cessation of thought and the godo is like "you can't stop thinking, that's not the point" and right in the same scene the narrator is like "and the monks, in zazen, bar thoughts from entering the mind" WHAT!? weren't you listening?! the godo roshi just said that they are NOT doing that!
zen is boring and people aren't willing to accept that so they try to make it into a drama. i think the german movie "enlightenment guaranteed" provides a much more realistic look into japanese zen monastic life because the filmmaker doris dorrie actually knows what zen practice is. or better yet if you really want to feel what it's like to be a zen monk get yourself 5 hours of sleep, hit your knees with a hammer in the morning and go pull some weeds for 6 hours somewhere. there's your "quest for the truth"
Movie Review: Pretty, but no substance
Summary: 1 Stars
The Zen Mind has some beautiful footage of mostly Rinzai temples. Soto's Soji Temple is also included. However, comments on practice and what makes these temples alive is notably lacking and incomplete. Go to YouTube for equal, or more, footage of the temples and better teachings from teachers, especially Gudo Nishijima.
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