Siddhartha and Buddhism in The Simpsons
Posted on 12. Nov, 2011 by jason in books
Siddhartha is the story about a man’s journey toward enlightenment. After having read this book, I realized that it has many parallels with America’s favorite family: The Simpsons. I wrote this quick summary and article to prove my long held point that The Simpsons may seem like a low-brow show on the surface, but watch and listen and you’ll see that there are very more high-brow and intellectual things about it. The Simpsons is was one of the smartest shows on T.V.
As a child Siddhartha is taught sacred rituals by brahmin which leaves him feeling unfulfilled spiritually all through his childhood. When he gets older, Siddhartha stubbornly pushes his dad into blessing his decision to go into the forest and train to become a shramana. Govinda, his friend, has decided Siddhartha is destine for great things chooses to follow him. After a few years pass, Siddhartha and Govinda have trained themselves in abstaining from the ways of the world. They have learned to fast, wait, and think. Despite gaining these skills, both men still feel spiritually unfulfilled. As the years go one, they hear a rumor of a buddha teaching in distant gardens. Govinda and Siddhartha decide to travel to this garden and listen to the buddha give a lesson. Govinda is enthralled with this teaching and stays to become a monk under Gotama, The Perfect One, while Siddhartha is not persuaded that this is the path he must follow.
It is in this way that Lisa Simpson is much like Govinda. She follows the teachings of others, including Buddha without going out on her own to experience it for herself. Govinda follows Siddhartha into the desert. Lisa follows her family to church. As soon as she makes a decision on her own to become Buddhist, she goes as far as planting a bohdi tree in the family’s backyard so she can achieve enlightenment, exactly as Buddha did.
Homer on the other hand, shows many traits of Siddhartha, and Siddhartha of Homer. Siddhartha stumbles upon the Buddha and tells him why he will not stay and become a disciple: “You have found liberation from death. This came to you as a result of your own seeking on your own path, through thought, through meditation, through realization, through enlightenment. It did not come to you through a teaching! And that is my idea, O Exalted One–nobody attains enlightenment through a teaching.” Homer parallels this by telling Lisa “Stupid risks are what make life worth living. Now your mother, she’s the steady type and that’s fine in small doses, but me, I’m a risk-taker. That’s why I have so many adventures!”
This heuristic approach to life is one that leads both Homer and Siddhartha into making many mistakes, all of which they ultimately learn from. Homer takes a risk with the cherry picker to find Lisa and succeeds despite getting his head stuck in between a bridge. Siddhartha learns how to pleasure a woman, make money, gamble it all away, drink wine, and enjoy all the worldly pleasures. Siddhartha makes these mistakes and realizes he is miserable so he walks away from it all and begins to live the life as a humble ferryman.
As a ferryman, Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha how to listen to the river. Upon mastering this he comes across Govinda. Govinda is seeking a wise ferryman to listen to the lessons he has to give. The lesson Siddhartha gives Govinda, “For him the river was a god. For many years he did not know that every wind, cloud, bird, or beetle is equally divine and knows and can teach just as much as the venerable river”, is exactly the conclusion Homer comes to when he decides to stop going to church, “Hey, what’s the big deal about going to some building every Sunday? I mean, isn’t God everywhere?”.
Both The Simpsons and Siddhartha teach us to experience life on our own path. Doing so will enrich our lives with experiences that cannot be taught.
Get yourself some enlightenment:
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Spence
