Loss of the Indo-European cultural matrix and separation between spirit and matter...
Among the differences in approach and expression that distinguish Eastern religions and those of Judeo-Christian origin, we must consider the adherence to life and the non-differentiation between spirit and matter, which prevails among Asians, while in Europe and the Middle East the condemnation of worldly pleasures and the separation between spirit and matter prevails.
The cause of this detachment from everyday life in Western culture is a consequence of the conversion to the dictates of the Bible (and its elaborations in Christian and Mohammedan terms) which has caused the progressive corruption and cancellation of the original Indo-European naturalistic vision. This substitution of values is also reflected in all artistic and cultural forms, in particular in the absolute Muslim iconoclasm but also in Christian moralistic fixations, whether Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox, which tend to describe the evil of life and sexuality, attributing to "worldliness" the reason for suffering - starting obviously from the so-called original sin - and proposing as a solution the mortification of the flesh, asceticism and renunciation (in order to be able to earn joy in an afterlife).
Among the representative manifestations of this "mortification" there are also public self-flagellation, climbing sanctuaries on one's knees, self-mutilation, infernal scenes, the Stations of the Cross, torture and holocausts inflicted in the squares on heretics, women, etc.
In short, the religious spectacle in the West can be defined as a "theater of horror", with a sadomasochistic background. But it is not my intention to continue describing the alienation that pervades Europe after the adoption of certain alien "religions". I can only regret the ancient Bacchic and Dionysian spirit banished (forever?) from our DNA.
Fortunately, religious representation in the East has maintained - despite the perfidious influences exported to India and China by Victorian and Catholic-Christian missionaries - its original characteristic of glorification and celebration of existence. Theater, dance, processions, art in general, everything overflows with sensuality and joy of living.
On Indian stages, Krishna's loves are represented, adivasis dance lasciviously in temples, processions are an orgy of colors, sounds and enjoyment. Even funerals are celebrated with great richness and expenditure of music and sumptuous meals.
Moreover, speaking of Indian "religious" theater is in a certain sense improper. Because it does not expose abstract metaphysical norms, precepts or episodes. It stages episodes from the classical epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for example, which could correspond to the mythological stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Stories of kings, of loves, of wars, in short of life experiences. Of course these representations also offer a "moral" but it is always a worldly morality, not religious as we understand religion. So much so that in India there is no exact translation for "religion", there is only the "sanatana dharma", the eternal law of correct action in the world. Because the word religion means "reuniting what is divided" while for Indian philosophy there has never been any division. The whole is always present in the whole.
This is also a true expression of secularism, a pure, natural secularism, not tainted by revenge against religious or spiritual thought. For this reason, during the theatrical performances I attended in India, sometimes lasting several hours, if not days, it seemed to relive in the present that "pathos" of the events experienced by the great heroes and heroines, divine incarnations, which was brought back to the stage. Scenes that were often the street, the temple, an ancient monument, a forest, rarely a theater (the latter an invention of Western culture that tends to enclose and abstract the experience from its natural context).
In a certain sense, the same model is also expressed in the "theatrical" functions of ancient China, based on music and ceremonies but not addressed to a hypothetical divinity, but rather to the ancestors or the forces of nature. On the other hand, we then witness the absolute lack of etiquette or formality in those "performances", if we can call them that, that took place in the Chan monasteries, in which everything was absurd recitation, with the aim of awakening the researchers to the conscious presence of the here and now. When we read the stories of life in Chinese monasteries we cannot help but recognize the spiritual "madness" that becomes "spectacle".
I remember, for example, the story of a beautiful nun, named Ryonen, who lived in a Zen monastery. A monk who was in the same monastery fell madly in love with her and one night he sneaked into her room. Ryonen was not at all upset and willingly agreed to lie with him. But the next day when the lover showed up again she said that at that moment it was not possible… The following day a great ceremony was held in the temple to commemorate the enlightenment of the Buddha in the presence of a large crowd and several monks who had come from far away. Ryonen entered the crowded room without hesitation and with total naturalness stood in front of the monk who said he loved her, she stripped completely and said to him: “Here I am, I am ready, if you want to love me you can do it here, now…”.
The monk ran away never to return while Ryonen with that gesture had cut the roots of every illusion. The story of Ryonen and his total adamantine adherence to the truth can be taken as a clear example of what "religious theater" is in the Zen tradition. With the Zen theatrical method, in fact, considering that everything is a "comedy", it is not worth hiding the flaws and defects, the antipathies and sympathies (often unmotivated). Making others complicit even "forcibly" serves to break that wall of ice that usually arises between people who do not know each other, or who struggle to express themselves freely.
In short, religious theater in the East still draws directly from everyday life, in a certain sense we could define it as a "street theater". In particular I think of that Japanese theatrical performance called Kabuki, which I believe is connected to the experience of Zen, and the meaning of this term is that of "provocation" that is, it is intended to provoke by "staging" even explicit sexual allusions. Ka which stands for song, bu is dance and ki is technical knowledge. So it is summed up in a whole by staging a play that in addition to respecting the origins (that is, provoking or being a realistic representation) includes sudden changes of clothes (which are facilitated by the "stage servants" and is a practice called bukkaeri) because under those worn, which are dropped, there are others, to signify the "change" (not only in the action but in the role of the actor) and therefore of the different vital functions.
Some time ago I read the autobiography of a Japanese actor (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten) in which he narrated the vicissitudes experienced to fulfill the excruciating destiny of the actor, the strange parts, the humiliations, the hunger, the fatigue, the inconveniences, the applause, the whistles and all the rest... it seemed to me like reading the life of a saint... I myself - who am an amateur actor and director - staged, on the street or in open spaces or in caves, several Zen stories that had the purpose of transmitting the awareness that the truth is present in everything that surrounds us. Of course, as Zen masters do, even through psychological or even real beatings.
This is because I have noticed that many people in Europe usually live with a label of respectability and artificial saintliness. People often assume false behaviors, highlighting the convenient aspects of their personality or obscuring others.
I hope that the freshness of the Eastern theater can once again infect the free minds of Europe, showing them the squalor of the fake transgressive spectacle of Hollywood cinema or even worse of the sanctimonious sacred representations of the pseudo Western culture. A culture corrupted first by religious perversions and then by a materialistic secularism that tends to transform the human being into a robot, erasing his "spirit".
Paolo D'Arpini - Committee for lay spirituality
The cause of this detachment from everyday life in Western culture is a consequence of the conversion to the dictates of the Bible (and its elaborations in Christian and Mohammedan terms) which has caused the progressive corruption and cancellation of the original Indo-European naturalistic vision. This substitution of values is also reflected in all artistic and cultural forms, in particular in the absolute Muslim iconoclasm but also in Christian moralistic fixations, whether Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox, which tend to describe the evil of life and sexuality, attributing to "worldliness" the reason for suffering - starting obviously from the so-called original sin - and proposing as a solution the mortification of the flesh, asceticism and renunciation (in order to be able to earn joy in an afterlife).
Among the representative manifestations of this "mortification" there are also public self-flagellation, climbing sanctuaries on one's knees, self-mutilation, infernal scenes, the Stations of the Cross, torture and holocausts inflicted in the squares on heretics, women, etc.
In short, the religious spectacle in the West can be defined as a "theater of horror", with a sadomasochistic background. But it is not my intention to continue describing the alienation that pervades Europe after the adoption of certain alien "religions". I can only regret the ancient Bacchic and Dionysian spirit banished (forever?) from our DNA.
Fortunately, religious representation in the East has maintained - despite the perfidious influences exported to India and China by Victorian and Catholic-Christian missionaries - its original characteristic of glorification and celebration of existence. Theater, dance, processions, art in general, everything overflows with sensuality and joy of living.
On Indian stages, Krishna's loves are represented, adivasis dance lasciviously in temples, processions are an orgy of colors, sounds and enjoyment. Even funerals are celebrated with great richness and expenditure of music and sumptuous meals.
Moreover, speaking of Indian "religious" theater is in a certain sense improper. Because it does not expose abstract metaphysical norms, precepts or episodes. It stages episodes from the classical epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for example, which could correspond to the mythological stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Stories of kings, of loves, of wars, in short of life experiences. Of course these representations also offer a "moral" but it is always a worldly morality, not religious as we understand religion. So much so that in India there is no exact translation for "religion", there is only the "sanatana dharma", the eternal law of correct action in the world. Because the word religion means "reuniting what is divided" while for Indian philosophy there has never been any division. The whole is always present in the whole.
This is also a true expression of secularism, a pure, natural secularism, not tainted by revenge against religious or spiritual thought. For this reason, during the theatrical performances I attended in India, sometimes lasting several hours, if not days, it seemed to relive in the present that "pathos" of the events experienced by the great heroes and heroines, divine incarnations, which was brought back to the stage. Scenes that were often the street, the temple, an ancient monument, a forest, rarely a theater (the latter an invention of Western culture that tends to enclose and abstract the experience from its natural context).
In a certain sense, the same model is also expressed in the "theatrical" functions of ancient China, based on music and ceremonies but not addressed to a hypothetical divinity, but rather to the ancestors or the forces of nature. On the other hand, we then witness the absolute lack of etiquette or formality in those "performances", if we can call them that, that took place in the Chan monasteries, in which everything was absurd recitation, with the aim of awakening the researchers to the conscious presence of the here and now. When we read the stories of life in Chinese monasteries we cannot help but recognize the spiritual "madness" that becomes "spectacle".
I remember, for example, the story of a beautiful nun, named Ryonen, who lived in a Zen monastery. A monk who was in the same monastery fell madly in love with her and one night he sneaked into her room. Ryonen was not at all upset and willingly agreed to lie with him. But the next day when the lover showed up again she said that at that moment it was not possible… The following day a great ceremony was held in the temple to commemorate the enlightenment of the Buddha in the presence of a large crowd and several monks who had come from far away. Ryonen entered the crowded room without hesitation and with total naturalness stood in front of the monk who said he loved her, she stripped completely and said to him: “Here I am, I am ready, if you want to love me you can do it here, now…”.
The monk ran away never to return while Ryonen with that gesture had cut the roots of every illusion. The story of Ryonen and his total adamantine adherence to the truth can be taken as a clear example of what "religious theater" is in the Zen tradition. With the Zen theatrical method, in fact, considering that everything is a "comedy", it is not worth hiding the flaws and defects, the antipathies and sympathies (often unmotivated). Making others complicit even "forcibly" serves to break that wall of ice that usually arises between people who do not know each other, or who struggle to express themselves freely.
In short, religious theater in the East still draws directly from everyday life, in a certain sense we could define it as a "street theater". In particular I think of that Japanese theatrical performance called Kabuki, which I believe is connected to the experience of Zen, and the meaning of this term is that of "provocation" that is, it is intended to provoke by "staging" even explicit sexual allusions. Ka which stands for song, bu is dance and ki is technical knowledge. So it is summed up in a whole by staging a play that in addition to respecting the origins (that is, provoking or being a realistic representation) includes sudden changes of clothes (which are facilitated by the "stage servants" and is a practice called bukkaeri) because under those worn, which are dropped, there are others, to signify the "change" (not only in the action but in the role of the actor) and therefore of the different vital functions.
Some time ago I read the autobiography of a Japanese actor (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten) in which he narrated the vicissitudes experienced to fulfill the excruciating destiny of the actor, the strange parts, the humiliations, the hunger, the fatigue, the inconveniences, the applause, the whistles and all the rest... it seemed to me like reading the life of a saint... I myself - who am an amateur actor and director - staged, on the street or in open spaces or in caves, several Zen stories that had the purpose of transmitting the awareness that the truth is present in everything that surrounds us. Of course, as Zen masters do, even through psychological or even real beatings.
This is because I have noticed that many people in Europe usually live with a label of respectability and artificial saintliness. People often assume false behaviors, highlighting the convenient aspects of their personality or obscuring others.
I hope that the freshness of the Eastern theater can once again infect the free minds of Europe, showing them the squalor of the fake transgressive spectacle of Hollywood cinema or even worse of the sanctimonious sacred representations of the pseudo Western culture. A culture corrupted first by religious perversions and then by a materialistic secularism that tends to transform the human being into a robot, erasing his "spirit".
Paolo D'Arpini - Committee for lay spirituality