Zen and Pop Culture: Yesterday (2019_film)

Plot of Yesterday, IMDB:

• A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed.
  
• He realizes the success that has so far eluded him by re-recording their songs as his own, only find being true to himself is more valuable than fame.

There are many examples of Zen Masters ridiculing and rejecting people repeating Zen sayings. In fact, this nearly doctrinal element of Zen teachings is what ensures that Hakuin, and Hakuin Buddhism (née Japanese Rinzai Zen) are unrelated to Zen. This isn't much of a surprise, given that Zen Masters reject wisdom via words (as referenced in The Four Statements). Further, long standing disdain for plagiarism across cultures and a general recognition that claiming somebody else's words as your own constitutes a personal misrepresentation make the Zen view, in a way, an expression of a nearly universal human experience on one level or another.

So it is no surprise when the hero of the movie discovers that he loves the music and his personal integrity more than fame and money... especially given that his romantic life is thrown for a loop when he transforms himself into the Beatles, and is seen by others through the lens of their very personal music.

But look what happens when we flip the script:

Suigan, thinking he had attained something of Zen, left the monastery of Shishuan Chuyuan [six generations after Linji], when he was still a young monk, to travel all over China. Years later, when Suigan returned to visit the monastery, his old teacher Shishuan asked, “Tell me the summary of Buddhism. Suigan answered, “if a cloud does not hang over the mountain, the moonlight will penetrate the waves of the lake.” Shishuan looked at his former pupil in anger. He said, “You are getting old! Your hair has turned white, and your teeth are sparse, yet you still have such an idea of Zen. How can you escape birth and death?” Tears washed Suigan’s face as he bent his head. After a few minutes he asked, “Please tell me the summary of [the Zen Law].” “If a cloud does not hang over the mountain,” the teacher replied, “the moonlight will penetrate the waves of the lake. Before the teacher had finished speaking, Suigan was enlightened.

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"Fa-yen asked the monk Hsüan-tzu why he had never asked him any questions about Zen. The monk explained that he had already attained his understanding from another master. Pressed by Fa-yen for an explanation, the monk said that when he had asked his teacher, “What is the meaning of Buddhism?” he had received the answer, “Ping-ting comes for fire!” “A good answer!” said Fa-yen. “But I’m sure you don’t understand it.” “Ping-ting,” explained the monk, “is the god of fire. For him to be seeking for fire is like myself, seeking the Buddha. I’m the Buddha already, and no asking is needed.” “Just as I thought!” laughed Fa-yen. “You didn’t get it.” The monk said, “Well, how would you answer?” “Go ahead, ask me.” said Fa-yen. “What is the meaning of Buddhism?” inquired the monk. “Ping-ting comes for fire!"

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ewk note: So, what's going on there? Zen Masters can't be quoted, but they can quote other people? How is that fair?

Submitted October 01, 2019 at 05:12AM by ewk https://ift.tt/2nZHWMh