Theos-Talk Archives (December 1994 Message tl00001)

Hello all:

After seeing Bernardo Bertoluci's film, "The Little Buddha", I
wondered what Buddhists and theosophists thought about it.  For
myself I was pleasently surprised at the freewheeling retelling
of the historical or mythic-historical life of Gautauma Buddha
also know as Siddharta.

The film is a glorious spectacle.  The past is all in golds and
reds of a warm fire and the present is in cold blues as if
photographed through an ice cube.  Some have complained that the
present day search yield not THE buddha but a buddha.  I thought
this was the strenght not the weakness of the film for it point
to the possibility that we are all Buddha, we just have woke up
yet to who we really are.

The three children represent three different reincarnating aspect
of the buddha, body mind and emotions.  The fact that one of them
is a girl is a real hoot! Who would ever guess a girl, or a white
male for that fact, could be the Buddha (I'm being sarcastic, of
course).

The really exciting thing is that the film points to the
possibilty that we don't reincarnate intact everytime, but we
kind of get mixed up and recycled through the system in very
complicated ways.  That is my mind is reincarnated over there, my
emotions over there and my physical attributes over there.  You
get the idea.  I think this is what is really meant by all the
focus on the seven levels and that many have chosen to blind this
under pages and pages of well you know .  .  .

An obvious support for this 'mixed bag" karma can be found in the
modern revelations of genetics.  Few theosophists care to tread
over this minefield (those that due risk being labeled Nazi's or
worse I fear).  But John Algeo in the current "American
Theosophist" dares bring up this controversial subject that won't
go away and is likely to come more and more to the forefront.

In brief, it strikes me as likely that my genetics has alot to do
with my karma and can provide clues as to how we are really the
whole human race reincarnated, but with just some traits dominant
this time (accented) and some traits recessive this time (stopped
down).  Any geneticist out there????

Anyway the idea that I am not a specific reincarnation, but share
in the total human karma is at once deflating (I'm really nothing
special) and inspiring (I really am a lot more that I think).

What did you think about the movie?