[MD] a view

[David Thomas]

On 4/8/10 1:49 AM, "MarshaV" <valkyr at att.net> wrote:

> I wonder how was the PBS program on Buddhism.  Anybody watch it?

Pretty simple and shallow. Kind of a Grimms fairytale approach interspersed
with a religious travelogue of India and Tibet overlaid with dialogue by
sympathetic Western commentators.

Much more vivid (to use Tom's term) was the Independent Lens feature
"Unmistaken Child" that followed it. http://video.pbs.org/video/1444449040

A bittersweet but honest look at the Tibetian Buddhist practice of finding a
modern day reincarnation of a recently dead monk by his disciple. Imagine
someone coming into your house and interviewing you and your one year old to
ascertain if he is a reincarnation of a beloved monk by tempting him with
toys and prayer beads. Then running him through a series of "interviews"
with the church hierarchy until you finally give him up to that church to be
rename and raised a reincarnated replacement for that dead monk. Phew!

Dave