Simpsons and Buddhism

Sadly it's in Spanish, I think, Couldn't find one with subtitles. But the dialogue helps some.

For this project I picked the Simpsons, more specifically the episode in season thirteen where Lisa converts to Buddhism “She of Little Faith”. The reason she does this is because Homer and Bart’s experiment into rocketry sent the rocket into church destroying it. After that Burns show’s up and is willing to help the church rebuild. Seeing the gluttony, the use of the church being turned into basically a big billboard sign, with this it sends Lisa off. She’s tired of the fact her church is selling their soul for a cause.

Lisa: I'm leaving this church forever!
Marge: Oh no!
Homer: I don't know how to feel!
Marge: You should be very upset!
Homer: Got it! :cries loudly: how was that?
Marge: A little much!
Homer: :sobs gently:

 Later on after Lisa looking at a few different religions, she settles on Buddhism.  Now after Lisa chooses Buddhism she meets Richard Gere.  After this interaction Gere and Lenny get into it over Buddhism mainly because Lenny isn’t the brightest on the show.

“Lenny: Who's Buddha?
Richard Gere: It's a good thing Buddhism teaches freedom from desire because I've got the desire to kick your ass!”

“Lisa: My family tried to trick me into celebrating Christmas!
Richard Gere: Y'know, we are meditating.
Lisa: Oh, sorry.
Richard Gere: No that's alright. I was only about to achieve enlightenment. But who'd want that?”

With Gere saying this, it shows that not all Buddhist are hippie peace loving beatniks that everyone thinks they are. Now later on in the episode Marge, Lisa’s mom tries to bribe here into going back for the winning team and start being a Christian again. Marge bribes her with a pony something that Lisa has always wanted.

Just like in Brad Warner’s book “Zen Wrapped in Karma dipped in Chocolate” on chapter four “Money Changes everything” where he explains the money his grandfather had saved up changed the plan forever. Mainly for the reason his father wanted to use the money to help his mother, also to ease her pain. His grandmother wanted to leave the money while his father was fighting tooth and nail over it.  With this it created problems and the fact that Lisa was being bribed into coming back to Christianity even though she just started out. Bribing someone just creates problems, just as well as the thought of someone having money in a bank just sitting there like in the case of Brad’s grandmother. Brad says to his father a old Buddhist saying “If someone wants to take something from you, you should give it to them. “Dealing with the money, that is his grandmother wants the money that bad then let her keep it.

                I found that the stereotypes that most people have are always wrong, even with Buddhists. Warner is the type of person have thought all of what he is saying through and tell you his thoughts on what he read or has been taught. Be it either him calling something bullshit like in the case of someone teaching “Tantric Zen” in his description that’s like “saying you teach Jewish Catholicism.”   So he is the type of person to respect Buddhism and defy basically from what I see him say is all the idiots that think being a Buddhist is someone who  is a “ therapist or a yoga instructor” which he shortly after says this is bullshit. So in the end though we as American’s  just sort skim the top of something and if it sounds good we run with it. 

Quotes http://www.lardlad.com/assets/quotes/season13/DABF02.shtml

Warner, Brad "Zen Wrapped in Karma, Dipped in Chocolate" Ch3 pg.10-13 Ch4 pg. 21-23

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