Thursday, January 10, 2013

My Two Cents about Jeff Bridges on "The Daily Show"

Ok,  I'm not posting this from non-discriminating mind.  Or maybe I am, because ultimately it's just not that important at all.  

Jeff Bridges' portrayal of practicing Zen as kind of being like a stoner with a clown-nose saying "Wow, everything's interconnected" and "Bernie is a real Zen master" because somebody said so just isn't that important.

That's not to mention the Dudist sayings as "really being about Zen."

I wonder what was going though Glassman's head when he went through with this exercise.  I mean, Glassman's  written some good things.  But does Glassman realize that this stoner-association thing is hardly a ringing endorsement of why one would focus the mind on just doing what it's doing or focusing the mind on the mind before the koan?  Does Glassman realize that by portraying Zen solely as a jokey, lighthearted endeavor he's not putting forth the real power and depth that this practice can be? Couldn't Glassman have just said, "Look, Jeff, if anyone asks what Zen is, after the first bit from the 丹田 at least mention about the Buddha, Bodhidharma, ..."

Jeff Bridges is a pretty good and well known actor, a rich man, etc. etc. etc. He can get a gig on The Daily Show because of that. 

But is this really going to help transcend suffering? 

On the other hand, I suppose that if Hakuin had been watching the Daily Show with me, and Bridges responded with the clown noses when Stewart asked about what Zen is, he'd likely have turned to me and said, "Is that so?"  Or called  me a pit dwelling fool or something.

It's completely ridiculous, but it's just not important.


4 comments:

willyh said...

You're right, it's not important. And I hated it.

willyh said...

You're right, it's not important. And I hated it.

Algernon said...

Not important and I cannot yet bring myself to watch or to check out this book, which I imagine will sell really well and make a decent amount of money for its writers.

sftex said...

Well, it works for ME and Jeff Bridges:

http://www.whythenose.com

Tex Allen