Buddhiculous

I just saw Bill Maher’s mockumenarty, Religulous – the Catholics come out lookin’ pretty good thanks to a couple odd-ball priests, otherwise Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all take a severe beating.

I enjoyed the movie and found Maher’s emphasis on doubt and reason refreshing. But then I tend to like rough humor. The film underscored for me the importance of zazen as a practice for deep reflection and not for becoming a not-thinking zombie.

During dinner conversation, we turned to what a mockumentary of Buddhism, Buddhiculous, would include. Here’s a few ideas for scenes: a literal view of karma (“I kicked a dog in a past life so limp in this life”), magical thinking about the big E (“gonna have the big one and then no more problems the rest of my life”), fetishism about the forms (“If I do the forms exactly like Dogen, then I’ll be enlightenment”), and my teacher knows best (“but my teacher really does know best”).

What scenes would you include?