"Buddha 2" of trilogy at The Louvre (video)

Dhr. Seven (trans.), CC Liu (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Louvre; AnimeAnime.jp; Yushi Makari (OtakuMode.com); Kevin Ouellette (Eigapedia); Domenico (Debris2008); Ashley Wells (ed.)

Osamu Tezuka's "Buddha 2" (Owarinaki Tabi)

 

The official website dedicated to the trilogy "Buddha" is bringing out Toei Animation's adaptation of the famous eight-volume comic (manga) by Osamu Tezuka.

 

"Buddha" was created by the Japanese master in the 1970s and dedicated to the life of Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha. Toei has finally released the first full length trailer devoted to the second chapter, the completion of which has been postponed until 2014.

 

The second video is a long form manga, about nine minutes, which recaps the first movie and anticipates the next with some pictures of the second published last year.

 

(See full below) （主題歌：浜崎あゆみ）『手塚治虫のブッダ－終わりなき旅－』予告編 (MC)

 

Jess and Sid "Saintly Young Men" manga (Geraldford)

In the first chapter of the trilogy we saw a young prince wonder about the social differences between people, differences that led him to a better position among them. He falls in love with a bandit girl, Migaila, and learns some hard lessons about life, love, and about himself. He is starting to find his own vision of life and disappointment (dukkha, "suffering").

 
In the second part, we see the comeback of Sayuri Yoshinaga, interpreter, and Kanze Kiyokazu (performer at the Noh Theater) in the role of Siddhartha's mother and father, the latter always having been played by Hidetaka Yoshioka. 

 

The returning Nana Mizuki, Kenichi Matsuyama, is a thief seeking revenge. And the comedian Tetsuo Nakanishi plays the role of Brahmā, who appears to Siddhartha in the guise of an old man in a position to offer him a path to enlightenment. (Who better to play the role of a supreme cosmic deity than a comedian?)

 

"Buddha 2" (full-length trailer)

 (Animeanimeno1) BUDDHA 2: 手塚治虫のブッダー終わりなき旅―2014年公開決定 (AA)

 

(otakumode.com)

In both movies we hear the original song by Ayumi Hamasaki from the second film, entitled "Pray." This is the first time in 12 years that this author, who is well known in Japan, returns to do the music for a work of anime.

The film's release is scheduled for Feb. 8, 2014. The world premiere will be launched in Paris. For the event, the French capital will open one of the halls of the Louvre Museum. This is the first time for a preview of this type at the Louvre. There have been lectures and even screenings but never a world premiere. The film's cast and the staff will be present. Commendably, the manga "Buddha" was published in Italy by Hazard. 

 

Italiano 

"Bouddah 2" (Debris2008/flickr.com)

Il sito ufficiale dedicato alla trilogia, che la Toei Animation stà realizzando per adattare in animazione il celebre manga di Osamu Tezuka, Buddha creato dal Maestro giapponese negli anni settanta e dedicato alla vita del principe Siddharta, il Buddha, ha finalmente diffuso un primo lungo trailer dedicato al secondo capitolo Buddha 2: Tezuka Osamu no Buddha ~ Owarinaki Tabi (Osamu Tezuka's Buddha: Awakening) la cui uscita era stata rimandata al 2014.Il secondo video è un lungo filmato, circa 9 minuti, di ricapitolazione/anticipazione riferito al primo film con alcune immagini del secondo pubblicato lo scorso anno. Nel primo capitolo della trilogia abbiamo visto un giovane principe interrogarsi sulle differenze sociali fra gli uomini, differenze che pure lo hanno portato in una posizione di supremazia fra di loro, innamorarsi di una banditessa, Migaila, ed imparare alcune dure lezioni sulla vita, sull'amore e su se stesso iniziando a individuare una propria visione della vita e della sofferenza. 

 

Nella seconda parte torneranno Sayuri Yoshinaga, interprete ed Kanze Kiyokazu (interprete del teatro Noh) nel ruolo della madre e del padre di Siddharta, quest'ultimo sempre interpretato da Hidetaka Yoshioka, la stessa Nana Mizuki, Kenichi Matsuyama, un ladro in cerca di vendetta, ed l'attore comico Tetsuo Nakanishi che interpreterà il ruolo di Brahma, che appare a Siddharta nelle vesti di un vecchio in grado di offrirgli un cammino verso l'illuminazione...( a chi, d'altronde, meglio di un comico il ruolo di una divinità cosmica?) In ambedue i filmati è possibile ascoltare la canzone originale canta per questo secondo film da Ayumi Hamasaki, intitolata "Pray", è la prima volta, dopo dodici anni che questo autrice, molto nota in Giappone, torna impegnarsi su una musica per un'anime. 

 

L'uscita del film è prevista per l'8 febbraio l'anteprima mondiale del film sarà realizzata a Parigi, e la capitale francese per l'occasione aprirà una delle sale del Museo del Louvre, è la prima volta che si tengono anteprime di questo tipo al Louvre, conferenze, proiezioni vi sono già state ospitate ma non si era mai avuta un'anteprima mondiale. Sia il cast che lo staff del film dovrebbero essere presenti al completo. Il manga di Buddha è stato meritoriamente edito in Italia da Hazard.

If I were the Buddha (video and cartoon)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Great Buddha, central Buddhist Island, Kandy, Sri Lanka (Tam Church/flickr.com)

 

Photog Tam Church in Sri Lanka

If I were a buddha the first thing I would do is enjoy it. When the historical Buddha gained great enlightenment -- maha bodhi, the awakening of a supremely enlightened teacher rather than just the liberation of a disciple arhat -- he is reputed to have said:

"I who wept with all my brothers' tears laugh and am glad for there is liberty!" There is a way to the "end of all suffering," to nirvana.

There is a problem: things are unsteady, unreliable, aching, heart breaking, disappointing, unfulfilling, lacking any kind of lasting satisfaction. That is a big problem. Is there a bigger solution? If there is there has to be a cause(s) of all this disappointment (dukkha).

(SubscriptionFreeTV) David Grubin documentary, narrated by Richard Gere, about the Buddha's life, full of great art and sculptures across two millenia. There are insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and the Dalai Lama. Learn more about meditation, the history of the Dharma, and how to incorporate the Buddha's teachings on compassion and wisdom into daily life.

Buddha drawing (Arkiharha/flickr.com)

The ascetic Siddhartha rediscovered that there is a cause (craving rooted in ignorance) and therefore a way out. There is a solution: nirvana, freedom, liberation (moksha), emancipation.

If I were a buddha, the second thing I would do is formulate my own Four Ennobling Truths. Real nobility is not a Boston Brahmin birthright. It is based on one's actions in this life. Some karma ennobles us, some debases, some is neutral and leaves us just the same.

• What's a Boston Brahmin? (Slate) The Boston dialect

Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Magadhi -- the Buddha's languages and dialects might have readily understood negatives. English cannot. Their connotations are too pessimistic, gloomy, emphasizing the wrong thing. For example, when in English we say, "It's not that we don't like you..." we don't like you, even as we're saying we don't dislike you. Double negatives confuse the mind, which does not seem to happen in these Asian languages. So my Four Noble Truths would become:

1. There is liberation from suffering.
2. There is a Way to liberation.
3. There is a big problem (suffering).
4. There is a cause of the problem.

The medical establishment of the day, Ayurvedic or Allopathic, might not like it. But I think the people would appreciate the emphasis on liberty.

The Buddha cartoon

The third thing I would do after enjoying it and formulating my Dharma dispensation in a nutshell is start kicking some reptilian (naga) butt and demonic (yaksha) derriere like Saint Sakka/Saint Michael, not violently but rather like Maha Moggallana's display to subdue a disgruntled dragon when the Buddha and others ascended into space.

Institute preserves the Dharma (cartoon)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Chancellor Ashin Nanissara, S.I.B.A., Burma 

(Bemineto99) Looking down from the Tusita world, the Bodhisat decides to take rebirth on Earth, strive for enlightenment, and establish the Dharma to relieve beings of suffering.

 

Burmese monastic (Perakman)

Siddhattha Gotama (Sanskrit, Siddhartha Gautama) was born in approximately 623 B.C.E. He achieved buddhahood (maha bodhi) at the age of 35. He freed himself from all rebirth and suffering by attaining final nirvana in 543 B.C.E. at the age of 80. 

During the intervening 45 years he taught, toured the “Middle Land” (Northeastern India) -- expounding the Dharma (Doctrine, sutras, Conventional Teachings), Abhidharma(Ultimate Teachings), and Vinaya (Disciplinary Code) for the benefit of all humans and devas.
 

Dharma forms the guiding light of daily practice. The Abhidharma is the systematic treatment of Buddhist psychology and physics in language more precise than the discourses. The Monastic Disciplinary Code is a collection of rules, their origin and explanations, etiquette guidelines, and disciplinary (parliamentary, democratic) procedures for monastic living.
 

Long after the Buddha made an end of suffering, the Dharma, Abhidharma, and Vinaya live on to guide others wishing to also make an end of all suffering. As long as they remain in practice, we to that extent a supremely wise teacher with us. The Buddha taught by extraordinary perception, revealing what he directly saw as helpful and harmful on the path to enlightenment (awakening from delusion) and liberation (nirvana).
 
This is of great benefit to all humankind and to beings on adjacent superior and inferior planes of existence. To promote the quality of conceptual understanding of sometimes very subtle teachings, he and later commentators taught the Abhidharma, which are the Ultimate Teachings abstracted and systematized from the conventional language of the discourses (sutras).
 
To help all who would help themselves overcome disappointment and misery and gain satisfaction and peace, the Buddha taught a path-and-practice we now call the Dharma [always capitalized to distinguish it from the multivalent Sanskrit term dharma]. Most of what we know about what the Buddha taught comes from ordinary discourses -- surviving in standardized form appropriate to oral transmission and memorization rather than writing and reading.

BotanischerGarten Hamburg, Germany, KleinFlottbek Buddha (JinxHH/flickr)

  
These sutras -- recorded in Pali, Sanskrit, and Prakrit (Magadhi) -- often appear to us as stilted, artificial, and redundant tautologies more than actual instructions or natural threads (sutras, sutures, i.e., strings of related ideas). This is because they were never meant to stand alone the way a book might today. They were chanted, explained, and studied; they make sense as shorthand reminders of the teachings, which are much broader and detailed instructions the Buddha and early disciples provided.
 
The Nuns' Teachings

Most of what the nuns taught does not seem to have survived or been preserved following the lapse of their Monastic Order. (Or it is only temporarily lost to most scholars, hidden away in the origin stories accompanying the Bhikkhuni Vinaya, where few male scholar-monks seem intent to search. Or it may be found in Central Asian storehouses (and treasure troves in and around Afghanistan, formerly Gandhara, Greater India) where Buddhism flourished before moving north and east to China). But there are a few scraps to be found in the Bhikkhuni Samyutta and inspired utterances (Therigatha). 
 
This is a tragedy because the Buddha designated two chief female disciples, Khema Theri and Uppalavana Theri, who must have taught just as his chief male disciples Sariputra Thera and Maha Moggallana Thera did.

• The Buddha brought people to the Path, then newly ordained monks were brought to stream entry by Sariputra and arhatship by Maha Moggallana. It then makes sense that the wise nuns Khema and Uppalavana served these functions for female disciples. 

The Vinaya, or Monastic Code of Conduct, was taught for self-discipline and the peaceful coexistence of intensive practitioners on the Path.

 

These three major collections are known as the “Three Baskets” (Tri-Pitaka). These divisions have, in the absence of the Buddha, been rightly viewed and regarded as teacher, trainer, mentor, and guide to enlightenment (bodhi) and the final end of suffering (nirvana). They may be likened to the invisible presence of the Buddha as a universal teacher existing wherever these three are preserved and put into practice.
 

Those who esteem the Buddha are therefore well versed in these three main divisions of the teaching.

The Six Buddhist Councils

Studying monk (ChristyB30/flickr)

Three months after the Buddha's final nirvana, the First Buddhist Council was convened in Rajagaha (Rajgir, India). The congress was attended by a large number of monastics, all fully enlightened (arhats) with the additional analytical knowledges (patisambhida). Maha Kassapa led this Council of Elders (theras and theris). He offered three major points:

1) Teachings (Doctrine or Discipline) the Buddha not taught should not be offered by monastics. 2) Those teachings taught by the Buddha should neither be deleted, augmented, nor edited by monastics. 3) Those teachings the Buddha taught should be followed by monastics.

Therefore, the knowledge, belief, and practice of strictly following the historical Buddha's Doctrine and Discipline became known as Theravada (“Teaching or School of the Elders,” the “Elders” being the enlightened monastics of the time. The Noble Sangha is, of course, composed of many accomplished laypeople as well, but these are not considered elders since they have not gone forth into monasticism).
 

The Second Council was held in 100 B.C.E. in Vesali and was attended by 700 monastics. It was co-led by Sabbakami Thera and Yasa Thera.
 

The Third Council took place in 236 B.C.E. in Pataliputra (which Dr. Ranajit Pal places much farther to the west) and was attended by 1,000 monastics. It was led by Tissa Thera.
 

The Buddha, Indonesia (Luxquarta/flickr)

The first, second, and third of these councils were held in greater India and were attended exclusively by enlightened "Indian" monastics. (How far did Greater India extend, did it encompass modern Iran or only come up to its eastern border?)
 

The Fourth Council was held in Sri Lanka in 540 B.C.E. and was attended by 500 monastics. It was led by Dhammarakkhita Thera. Another significant difference between the previous councils and the fourth one was that up until this time, the monastics had put the Tripitaka (Three Baskets) down in writing on bundled ola palm leaves.
 

In 240 B.C.E., the Fifth Council was held in Mandalay (Burma) and was attended by 2,400 monastics. It was led by Jagara Thera. The outstanding fact was that there was no Sangayana for 2,000 years between the Fourth and Fifth Councils. During the Fifth Council the three divisions of the Dharma were carved on giant marble slabs, filling 729 of them, each measuring six feet by four feet.

The Fourth Council had been attended only by Sri Lankan monastics. The Fifth was attended only by Burmese monastics.
 

Most of the modern literature that attempts to explain the Buddha’s teachings is merely the interpretation and inference of respective a author(s). This is a great loss for those who have never tasted the “authentic” teaching.
 
Consequently, Sitagu International Buddhist Academy (S.I.B.A.) has Romanized and translated the authentic Three Baskets of the Sixth Council, in which learned monastics from five Theravada countries participated along with monastics from some Mahayana countries. This has been done for worldwide dissemination for the benefit of those interested in tasting the essence of the Dharma.

Sabbadanam Dhammdanam Jinati

"May knowledge, belief, and practice of the truth shine forth in every corner of the world!"

S.I.B.A. - Sitagu International Buddhist Academy

S.I.B.A. formed a governing board, a Board of Admonishing Masters, consisting of 15 Burmese monks to provide spiritual guidance: U Sobhita, U Kumara, U Vimalabhivamsa, U Supannindabhivamsa, U Pandita, U Vimalacara, U Acinna (the most venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw), U Janinda, U Agghiya, U Sumangala, U Sajjanabhivamsa, U Samvarabhivamsa, U Narada, U Jotikabhivamsa, and U Kavisara.