Little Buddha

Little Buddha

Little Buddha was a movie staring Keanu Reeves about a boy named Jesse who was thought to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan teacher named Lama Dorje. In the movie, Jesse is given a book by Lama Norbu that explains how Buddhism originated. Followers believe that it was started by Prince Siddhartha, who was played in the movie by Keanu Reeves. According to the book, there were many signs from the beginning that indicate Siddhartha was a special being. Siddhartha was born in the forrest and his mother had him painlessly while standing up. When he was born, he was fully conscious. He could also fully stand and talk, where as regular babies can't do either. Whenever he would walk, lotus flower pedals would sprout up from below his footsteps. He also spoke of Nirvana before Nirvana was a thing. Siddhartha was born of royalty and he was protected from the world outside his palace. He got everything he wanted but one day he heard a song that was about everything he didn't know about the outside world. So one day he decided to leave the palace and finds out about all of the pain, suffering, and death there is taking place in the world and he discovers compassion. Siddhartha then moves out of the palace to try and find out more about the “Outside World.” After days of being away from home, he finds a tribe called the Ascetic Tribe. The Ascetic Tribe were people who had reached Enlightenment but they were not Buddha. The Ascetic Tribe had very gruesome rituals they practiced. They would only eat dirt, bugs, leaves, and fruits and vegetables they could find. Siddhartha soon became an Ascetic and was one for 10 years until he heard a passing musician tell his pupil, “If you pull the string too tight, it breaks, but if it's too loose, it won't play.” this led Siddhartha to believe the Ascetic life was too extreme, and he decided to go to the river to bathe. While he was bathing, a beautiful woman came up and offered him rice, and he took and ate the rice with the other Ascetics watching him. He was then banished from the Ascetic Tribe because he was disloyal to the religion. Siddhartha was now trying to find Enlightenment a different way. As Siddhartha was trying to find Enlightenment he meditated under a tree. The demon Mara didn't want him to progress and so he tried to distract Siddhartha by making him want his Five Daughters. The Five Daughters Of Mara are Pride, Fear, Desire, Ignorance and Greed. Siddhartha could not want any of these because if he did he would have to start the whole process of Enlightenment all over again. Mara tried to distract him with many images of discomforting things. For example, he had an army of soldiers light up flaming arrows and show them at him, but all that happened was that the arrows turned into flower pedals and landed all around him. Another example of Mara's distractions was a mirror image of himself talking about things he would want to desire but Siddhartha didn't listen and then Mara was overcome. Siddhartha then reached Enlightenment. At the end of the movie, it turns out that Jesse and two other kids were all the reincarnation of Lama Dorje. Lama Norbu said that it was extremely rare that a reincarnation can turn into three people, but he said it can happen, and in this case, it did happen. Lama Norbu said that when three people are a reincarnation, one person is “Mind,” another is “Body,” and the last is “Spirit.”
Part 2: Colors In the first paragraph of this essay, I explained that the movie Little Buddha is about.a boy named Jesse who was thought to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan teacher named Lama Dorje. Jesse lives in Seattle and we meet him when the Tibetan monks go to his house. Jesse's family life is going downhill because his Dad has basically just lost his job, his Dad's friend just died, and they are about to lose their house. This is maybe why it is always portrayed as being gray and gloomy outside all the time, because they were trying to express his family's feelings. Also, everybody was always dressed in dark and grim colors such as black, dark blue, etc. In contrast, whenever you saw Siddhartha, he always had a sunny, golden, and bright setting around him. For example, when you first see him, when he is being born, that is when the setting was the brightest. Also, almost everybody was dressed in bright colors such as red, gold, and silver. This shows that Siddhartha is the person who is going to be the person who is going to become the Buddha or the “Enlightened One” Or maybe since he was the “Enlightened One,” they try to deliberately put more light on Siddhartha always when we see him. However, during the period of time when Siddhartha is looking for Enlightenment, the light is a little bit darker than when he finds Enlightenment. But during the time he was trying to find Enlightenment with the Ascetics the colors were brown and gray, so in a way, that showed us that was not the right path to take. Then when he is tempted by Mara, the colors change to dark blue, gray, and black so we know that Mara is a bad omen. But then once Siddhartha conquers Mara, he reaches Enlightenment, and the colors are golden again. One of the ways we know going to Bhutan is a positive note for Jesse is that all the way up until when Jesse is flying to Bhutan and looks out of his window, it becomes very sunny and golden, even more golden than when they showed Siddhartha being born. Then when he was said to be the reincarnation of Lama Dorje, the colors were bright and golden as well. He is also in orangy-red robes so that is another use of the bright golden colors to suggest positivity and Enlightenment.