Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

After services one Sunday, the members of my sangha (sangha= Buddhist community; In this context it means 'congregation.') began discussing ways to attract members of the public.

Our usual events are public talks featuring a senior teacher or visiting monk/priest; Most of these are poorly attended due to a bit of subconscious racism -- All our speakers, (even when the abbot of our sponsoring zen center comes to speak), are all white and most Americans expect Eastern wisdom to come from an Asian mouth !

We then hit upon an idea: Rather than have a guest speaker blather on, we should illustrate Buddhism instead; To that end, we thought a mini-film festival would best attract an American crowd.

As we are specifically a Japanese Zen sect (Sotoshu), we're seeking movie suggestions that not only illustrate Buddhism but also Zen and Japanese history. We expect to sprinkle our one-day event with a bit of anime and, of course, some chimbara.

Keeping in mind that Kurosawa films are an obvious choice, does anyone have any suggestions ?

i have seen it a long time ago, and i didn't see long version but have a look to :
Hsia nu (aka "a Touch of Zen") but it occurs in China. So we should talk of Tc'han rather than Zen. But it clearly have buddhist elements.

but, hum, chambara to explain buddhism

you should only do zazen during your saishin...

Fanfan wrote:i have seen it a long time ago, and i didn't see long version but have a look to :
Hsia nu (aka "a Touch of Zen") but it occurs in China. So we should talk of Tc'han rather than Zen. But it clearly have buddhist elements.

but, hum, chambara to explain buddhism

you should only do zazen during your saishin...

"Zen" is merely the Japanese word for the Chinese word "Ch'an" ("Tc'han" as you have written it) The Koreans and the Vietnamese have their own words for "Zen" but they all mean the same thing.

So, your suggestion is a good one and is most appreciated.

There's a great, very visual film called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring that has a lot of Buddhist symbolism and subtext, but it's Korean, so I don't know if that would disqualify it for you.