Werner Herzog's "Wheel of Time" watches as Tibetan Buddhist monks embark on a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, India. Once there, they create sand mandalas and engage in a series of elaborate rituals.
"Everyone is the centre of their own universe," the Dalai Lama tells Herzog. "Wheel of Time" itself seems to, at times, view its monks as being supremely self-centred and myopic. They engage in rituals, ceaseless prostrations, meditation and contemplation, rituals which Herzog devotes large chunks of his film to recording. The goal, we're told, is to achieve a "blissful acceptance of the illusory nature of self", but when does such self-cultivation become selfish and when does detachment from the self become but a dangerous denial of the self? The typical Buddhist argument is that only when we undergo "enough self-transformation" do we begin to see "larger realities beyond the importance of our own personal well-being". But this tends not to result in saintly bodhisattva, but something else entirely. To someone who sees himself and others as unreal, human suffering and death tends to appear laughably trivial.
"Wheel of Time's" last act delves into the persecution of Tibetans and Buddhists. Elsewhere the impermanence of sand mandalas are likened to the transient nature of all things; humans vanish like dust in the wind. The film climaxes with crowds of Buddhists trampling over one another for gifts, sweets and "blessings", actions which ironically counterpoint the many communal, sacrificial acts routinely committed by the monks.
6/10 – Worth one viewing.
"Everyone is the centre of their own universe," the Dalai Lama tells Herzog. "Wheel of Time" itself seems to, at times, view its monks as being supremely self-centred and myopic. They engage in rituals, ceaseless prostrations, meditation and contemplation, rituals which Herzog devotes large chunks of his film to recording. The goal, we're told, is to achieve a "blissful acceptance of the illusory nature of self", but when does such self-cultivation become selfish and when does detachment from the self become but a dangerous denial of the self? The typical Buddhist argument is that only when we undergo "enough self-transformation" do we begin to see "larger realities beyond the importance of our own personal well-being". But this tends not to result in saintly bodhisattva, but something else entirely. To someone who sees himself and others as unreal, human suffering and death tends to appear laughably trivial.
"Wheel of Time's" last act delves into the persecution of Tibetans and Buddhists. Elsewhere the impermanence of sand mandalas are likened to the transient nature of all things; humans vanish like dust in the wind. The film climaxes with crowds of Buddhists trampling over one another for gifts, sweets and "blessings", actions which ironically counterpoint the many communal, sacrificial acts routinely committed by the monks.
6/10 – Worth one viewing.