inq: What's a Zen movie?

[ATSAT at ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU]

My understanding of what Zen is is based on the work of Robert Scharf and
especially one paper he delivered at the American Academy of Religion a
couple of years ago.  To whit, the purpose of studying Zen is to become
a Buddha and one's competence is publicly demonstrated in certain ceremonies
involving a sermon delivered by the abbot whose status is indicated by
mastery of a particular diction (Zen talk).  Zen's survival into the
premodern period was based on its ability to convert its strategies for
turning humans into buddhas into a pedagogy for converting apprentices into
masters of just about any performing art--flower arranging, calligraphy
(just what Zen art is is made clear by going to a museum exhibit of a
sumie master with 10 or 20 surviving copies of the same cartoon, performed
in the presence of an audience and then presented), swordsmanship, you name
it.  Thus, I think, we should look at Zen film less from the perspective
of the product than from the perspective of its production and reproduction
of its tradition.  I don't think there is any such thing as Zen film.  There
is however a process for training filmmakers and performers characterized
by a preconceived model of form and diction and a rigorous apprenticeship
under a master.

SYBIL THORNTON
HISTORY-ASU
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