2011: Movie

I've been thinking lately about various cultural artifacts that came my way in 2011, fabrications that shifted my perspective or simply made life a little easier. You might appreciate some of these things as well, so I thought I'd write about them this week.

In the early autumn I saw the film, "Higher Ground," directed by and starring Vera Farmiga. The movie explores the development of a spiritual life and the ways in which community can support and hinder that development.

Although the film received mixed reviews, I was fascinated by it, in large measure because I've experienced a variation of the storyline in my own life. And Ms. Farmiga's performance is as subtle and heartfelt as any I've seen this year - really, she's one of the best actors working today.

Some in the Buddhist world might feel put off by the Christian basis of the story, but many (perhaps a great many) of our sanghas function in ways similar to this fundamentalist sect. "Higher Ground" might help us see the ground on which we stand.

Comments

[Ben]

Barry -

I haven't seen HIGHER GROUND yet, but I'm curious as to the ways in which it might reflect the functioning of a Buddhist sangha. I would have thought the differences would have been as apparent, or more so, than the similarities.

[Barry Briggs]

Ben,
In my experience, Buddhist sanghas are just as prone to mythologizing, group-think, and collusion as any other Buddhist community. As usual, my post goes at this in a pretty oblique way - it's a topic that deserves a much more detailed discussion. If you're interested in this, you might read Stuart Lachs' 1999 paper on the topic on The Zen Site.
Barry