"Doctor Strange" is not a Buddhist movie, and the plot is not directly related to Buddhism, but it does not prevent interpretation from the perspective of Buddhism, and it is very interesting.
In the Himalayas, a place called Kama Taj lived with practitioners. They can use magic power to instantly change from the Himalayas to New York, London, Sahara Desert and other places.
In Buddhism, this is called Shenzutong. However, it is not like the movie, which requires wearing a ring and drawing a circle of fire. Shenzutong is kung fu of meditation.
Sometimes you sleep, dream of being in another city, wake up in a flash and find that you are in bed. If a person can control dreams and want to dream about where to go, he will dream about where he is going, whoever he wants to dream about, what he can do, he can dream about who he does, and what he does is a bit close to meditation. With this skill, you can dream about a 10-day trip to Europe during your half-hour lunch break without buying a plane ticket. But this is not meditation, meditation is much more powerful than this.
The dream is too vague, and it is not a film. I forget it when I wake up. There is no color yet, and it can't even achieve the effect of a 3D movie. And meditation can create the desired realm and achieve a better experience than VR, an experience that has no sensory difference from the real world.
Because of this, only after meditation can one truly understand what "like a dream bubble" means. We tend to think of the world we see as solid and real. When you can create an experience that is exactly the same as the real world, and you can create an experience that is more enjoyable than the real world, the real world becomes less real and more like a VR game.
However, meditation is not the ultimate pursuit of practice, and spiritual power is even less important. External Dao concentration can also obtain spiritual power. The purpose of Buddhist meditation is to gain wisdom through meditation.
2. When
Stephen Strange was practicing in the Himalayas, Master Gu Yi drew four walls in the void and told him that practicing inside would not affect the outside world.
This kind of void and transparent wall is called "no appearance" in Buddhism. It is the concept of "saying that everything has a part". In the later consciousness-only system, it was classified as "the color of the place of law." Simply put, it is the "ring body".
The act of Dr. Strange being brought into the transparent wall of the void by the ancient master, in Buddhist terms, is ordained.
Once you take the precepts and can protect them, you will get the precepts. When the ring is broken, the ring body breaks. Ring body belongs to "Material Dharma". In Buddhism, color means "substance impediment." Anything that will go bad and impeded is color.
Quit has the function of preventing non-stop evil. Because of the ordination, people are protected. Just like if you live in the same room with your parents, you will not worry about them taking a knife at night, but if you live in the same room with your enemy, you will have this kind of worry. The parents are not formally ordained, but kinship hinders certain behaviors and feelings.
The void and transparent wall, physically, has no barriers to entry and exit. But its function and effect are real.
3. What
is the dark god and ultimate boss Domam in the film from the perspective of Buddhism?
Gu Yi said to his disciples: The stronger your fear of death, the more powerful Domam will be.
Domam is like the visualization and personification of the Buddhist concept of "ego." Using the expression in the film, it is called ego. Dr. Strange had just gone up the mountain and suspected that the black brother who led the way was wrong. The black brother said, come here, you need to give up self-righteousness and give up ego.
Gu Yi said repeatedly, you want surrender. Chinese subtitles translated into enlightenment. This translation is very good. Enlightenment is ego's surrender.
In the film, Domam wants to destroy the earth. Those who follow Domam are motivated by the desire for immortality and the fear of death.
Gu Yi said to Doctor Strange that our mission is to protect the earth so as not to be destroyed by Domam.
This statement does not fit the world as we know it. ——How many monks hiding in the Himalayas does the earth need to guard? joke.
But from the perspective of Buddhism, it has profound meaning.
The sky will not fall. But in any person's life, there are times when the sky falls. When disaster strikes you, your family, the sky falls. However, the sky of the neighbors did not fall across the wall, and they lived well.
So you know that saving the earth is just an illusion. The earth that Doctor Strange wants to save is not someone else’s earth, but the earth in the eyes of Doctor Strange.
Although saving the earth is an illusion, illusion is necessary. Only through illusion can we be willing to accept the shortcomings of life.
Without saving the planet, Dr. Strange would never be able to face the reality that his hands were abolished after a car accident. Before the car accident, he was a genius surgeon who didn't put everyone in his eyes. That kind of ego is the reason he will experience disaster.
After the car accident, his world collapsed.
Everyone has an illusion of saving the world. It's just a different expression. For example, it is called changing the world. Or euphemistically, call it "make life better". Or to exaggerate a bit, it is called "saving mankind".
In essence, they are all consistent. They all come from arrogant and arrogant hearts. It comes from ego. It comes from the disregard of "life is suffering" when there is no frustration and pain.
Nothing in this world is eternal. Only imperfections are eternal, flaws are eternal, imperfections are eternal, and fear of death is eternal.
As long as you don't accept the shortcomings and the blemishes, you will suffer pain forever.
In this sense, the world saved by Doctor Strange is not the world of others, but the world of his own. His Kama Taj journey is to heal his world from collapse.
In the end, Doctor Strange's hands were not good, but he was willing to accept it.
4.
From the other side, the process of Dr. Strange saving the world seems to reflect the great compassion of the Bodhisattva.
How did Doctor Strange save the world? Through being killed by the dark god Domam time and time again.
In the eternal existence beyond time and space, every time Doctor Strange faced Domam, he would be killed instantly, or a sword would pierce his heart, or his body would be broken to pieces. Like a game with countless lives, every time Doctor Strange dies, a new Doctor Strange will appear in front of Domam.
When the scene repeated to the fifth time, the audience began to laugh. But this shot is exactly what moved me deeply.
The laughing audience saw it as a game. After all, in a game with countless lives, it is not painful to die. But it should be noted that every time Doctor Strange is killed by Domam, he will suffer great pain.
In order to save all beings, I am willing to give up my life again and again. Such things have not only been done by Doctor Strange, but also by Buddha Shakyamuni in the land of bodhisattva, sacrificing himself to feed tigers, cutting flesh to feed eagles... The Bodhisattva has used his life to donate countless times because of the land, and he has experienced the three great triumphs of a monk. Buddha.
It's not as simple as it is in the movie.
In the limited few minutes on the screen, there is no way to show the endless confrontation between Doctor Strange and Domam.
Domam is the God of Darkness who has lived for hundreds of millions of years. Could it be annoyed by Doctor Strange who came three times, five times, ten times, and eight times?
Obviously it is impossible.
In fact, what Dr. Strange suffered was an infinite number of tortures. The suffering he endured was endless, life after life, and endless.
Did Domam agree to Doctor Strange's terms?
The movie was staged and finally agreed. But the "final" is after an infinite loop, just like the last digit of Pi, you will never find it.
In fact, Doctor Strange does not need Domam's consent. As long as he is willing to suffer pain again and again, the earth will not be destroyed. As long as he never gave up and stood up against Domam, it was enough.
In other words, the reason why our world, a world with many shortcomings and flaws, is still there, and has not fallen into the abyss of darkness amidst the ups and downs, is precisely because there are still people who are willing to be compassionate for others and willing to do something for all beings.
If there were no people willing to be good for others, the world would have been destroyed long ago.
Because of their presence, the world that seems to be crumbling is as stable as a rock. Only when all beings face the fear of the dark abyss can they see the light of comfort.
This is the Bodhisattva line. The Bodhisattva came to the world of Saha, giving charity, keeping precepts, and enduring humiliation; loving words, good deeds, and colleagues, always stay with all beings to help them face the endless regrets and sufferings of this incomplete world. Because of the presence of the Bodhisattva, all sentient beings never despair.
There is no way for sentient beings to leave the world of Saha. In fact, the world of Sao Po is created by sentient beings—the craving for self, the overwhelming of erotic desire, and the fear of death make sentient beings eternal life and eternal lineage bound in a world with endless shortcomings and flaws.
And the Bodhisattva who has achieved accomplishment in practice has the power to leave here and go to the world of supreme joy. Dhyana Kungfu makes it possible. But the Bodhisattva couldn't bear the heart, so he had to take advantage of his power to return to the flawed world. Although the world of Sao Po has flaws, it is a dojo for bodhisattva practice. All living beings regard it as Sao Po, and the Bodhisattva regards it as a pure land.
Where there is bodhicitta, generosity, precepts, and patience, it is the pure land of a bodhisattva.
The Vimalakirti Sutra says:
Bodhicitta is the pure land of bodhisattvas. When a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, the Mahayana sentient beings will live in their kingdom.
Generosity is the pure land of bodhisattva. When a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he can give up all beings to rebirth his kingdom.
Precepts are the pure land of the bodhisattva. When a Bodhisattva became a Buddha, he performed the ten virtuous ways and hoped that all living beings will rebirth their kingdom in the future.
Patience is the pure land of Bodhisattva. When a Bodhisattva became a Buddha, the thirty-two majestic sentient beings will rebirth their kingdom.
...
Bodhisattvas benefiting all living beings in the world of Sapo is better than practicing hundreds of thousands of calamities in the world of surpassing Miao Le. But the Bodhisattva came to the Sao Po world not to practice fast and to become a Buddha early, but to perform his duties. The vow to always accompany the suffering beings and save them is the reason why the Bodhisattva has become a bodhisattva:
"The world of all beings is exhausted, all the karma of all beings are exhausted, and all the troubles of all beings are exhausted. There is no end to this respect. Thoughts and thoughts are continuous, without interruption. Body, speech, mind and karma, without fatigue..."
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