Misrepresentation of teachings in pop media -

[Owledge]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the fact that spiritual teachings are sometimes misrepresented in movies and TV - like symbols shown in a clearly wrong context, making misleading implications, all that.

 

I was inspired to ask this when I saw one case in the TV series "The Legend of Korra". That fictional universe is generally mixing Japanese and Chinese stuff (but Western, too) as if there was no difference. So far not really a problem, since it's fiction. But where I think it exits this 'creative freedom licence' is when authentic real-life symbols are shown in that context. The fictional universe is based on the (Japanese?) four-elements teachings (fire, water, earth, air) and mentioned their associations (like air being about circling motion - not sure whether that's even according to the real four elements system). But then it hit me when I saw Korra doing bagua on the authentic Taiji symbol with surrounding eight trigrams. This to me is potentially misleading and creating a pop-culture view on internal martial arts and generally taoist teachings the same way external kung fu got messed up by pop culture. How can you have a depiction of the basics of Taoist teachings, which are strongly connected to a five-elements system, and put it on top of a four-elements system?

I'm very tolerant with that stuff, but when I saw that huge and clear and authentic symbolic Taoist and bagua stuff, I felt like it wasn't in the realm of creative fiction anymore. It makes the creators of that TV series look ignorant and careless.

[Taomeow]

http://www.washingto...qJgJ_story.html

 

the rest is edited because the conversation didn't happen

[Owledge]

Interesting link (of course files under "Opinions"), as if the Washington Post has higher standards for articles. Not really something new though, and I don't think "Legend of Korra" has a hidden agenda of confusing Taoist techings, because it generally displays a lot of love for spirituality. It just looks like bad style.

 

What I'm curious about is how the general idea will develop in that TV series: There might be a 'battle' between plain action entertainment and spiritual depth, because Korra still has to learn airbending, and that's based on patience, and she has very little. Now her hot-headedness has led to some basic progress in airbending, and I'm wondering whether the show will actually depict the principle of patience at some point, or whether that is considered too 'daring' to subject the young audience to, and will instead be replaced with more action sequences.

[Protector]

OOH! Great idea, I always wanted to make sense of the Avatar universe and this sounds fun hmmmm

 

By the way, the interpretation of the internal stuff is not so random. They have help with martial things from actual masters and the writers are very into yoga, the idea for the first series came to mind right after a yoga class.

The explanation of chakras was kinda weird for me in the first series tho

 

[Owledge]

(response to a deleted post:)

 

German TV host Günther Jauch in fewer words:

 

TV makes dumb people dumber and smart people smarter.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Owledge

[Owledge]

(obsolete)

Edited June 8, 2012 by Owledge

[mewtwo]

lol take it with a grain of salt its a tv show that atleast tries to represent east asian culture as a whole avatar and kung fu both very good imo

 

plus spoliers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloodbending without a fullmoon pardon my french but fucking epic.

[Owledge]

pardon my french but fucking epic.

Definitely not English.

 

 

P.S.: What I found a bit sad in contrast to the old show is that they couldn't even make up a different layout for the big city, but used an authentic Manhattan map. It's so clichée. Creates a weird overall effect with that kind of mix.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Owledge

[Fū Yue]

spoilers

 

I know, I really wasn't expecting that. It was pretty awesome. Is there an avatar thread? I want to discuss.

[mewtwo]

there are some but i would just create your own.

[Brian]

[RyanO]

I was intrigued by the elements in Avatar as well. Fire, water, air, earth is the system most traditions adhere to. It also has more substance and a sense of being actual elements than the wuxing. So in that sense I see why they went with those.

 

As far as combining this system with tai chi and bagua, I've encountered numerous sources where attempts at reconciling the elemental systems have been made. Not all of them are similar, but the point is that attempts at finding correspondences among these elemental systems are common and valid. So it's not really desecrating sacred ground for a tv show to do the same.

 

In fact, as others have pointed out, Avatar (and Legend of Korra which I haven't seen) is perhaps the most well researched and authentic animated show out there.

[FieryWind]

I think that the misrepresentation of spiritual teachings in pop media will cause people who watch these movies to view spirituality in a distorted and unrealistic way.

 

Another issue is that the teachings are being misrepresented throughout many temples, monasteries, churches & congregations. To put it bluntly; A corrupt mind, a corrupt teaching. You really have to be careful where you get your teachings from, are you sipping nectar.. or poison (for your soul)?

[joeblast]

well, if this were the only thing misrepresented by the pop media, then I can see where there'd be more ground to have a problem with it. if it aint sensational, they dont care, if its too plain, it will be embellished. there should be viewer notices that the events represented (whatever they are) are distorted and sensationalized. politics, war, smoothie making, "real life" are all basically looking in the funny mirror when you watch.

[Mokona]

Media mixes it up. But the positive light is there is an actual community of people who learn chi kung and meditation from watching these shows. Then the real learning begins!

[Enishi]

Whether consciously or unconsciously, pop media and hollywood tend to distort spiritual teachings into what some would call a Luciferian agenda of glorifying the ego, employing simplified emotionally appealing BS like "create your own reality, everyone can be a millionaire with positive thinking!".

[thelerner]

I think that the misrepresentation of spiritual teachings in pop media will cause people who watch these movies to view spirituality in a distorted and unrealistic way.

 

Another issue is that the teachings are being misrepresented throughout many temples, monasteries, churches & congregations. To put it bluntly; A corrupt mind, a corrupt teaching. You really have to be careful where you get your teachings from, are you sipping nectar.. or poison (for your soul)?

Eh, its a cartoon, not a lesson plan. Bozo's who think watching will allow them to 'bend' or gain 'true' spiritual insight are also the ones who need to labels on superman costumes that say 'Does not allow wearer to fly'.

 

On the other hand, I think the show, more so the old Avatar series did some good. Entertaining and it brings up fundamental concepts that otherwise the public would have no knowledge of. In some ways it's a modern Kung Fu series for a new generation. That show also spawned its share of craziness and over exaggerations of eastern martial arts, but it also led to some serious study and cross cultural knowledge.

 

To make something truly deep, authentic and spiritual would probably be too boring to watch, especially as a series. All that can really be shown is cliff notes, ala Rocky Montage.

 

The light weights (majority) play around then drop out, but the serious people see and go on to learn. As someone said it (has the potential) to make wise people wiser and dumb people dumber. But you know, silly people will do silly things, as long as they don't hurt themselves, let'em have at it.

 

my 2 cents.

Edited June 9, 2012 by thelerner

[fizix]

Haha.. in Las Vegas we have "Tao Nightclub" furnished with "Buddha" fixtures and..get drunk and have a one night stand.

 

and as for Avatar.... I think it does a lot more good than bad, if it does any bad... introducing little kids to spiritual ideas versus some adult armchair scholar basing his ideas of internal MA/eastern spirituality on a cartoon show....hmmm

Edited June 9, 2012 by fizix

[Owledge]

In a way, Enishi probably hinted at the general problem. Since it's fundanentally entertainment and its survival depends on money, it won't 'risk' helping people on a higher vibe; instead it caters to the smallest common denominator. The whole thing is like trying to depict "yin" with yang-only means.

 

It's funny how things start to become looking very weird/unsettling when observed from a different viewpoint. I've changed to a point where the idea of violence/conflict isn't even entertaining anymore, and when I see the advertising for the myriad of computer games, the vast majority of it looks sick. It feels like 'Come and get your daily shot of bloody carnage! Be the best murderer in the world!' Or strategy games: 'Become the ruler of the world! Change history!' ... Wow, messed up ncentives, but they work ... for children even.

And that's why I'm so curious about how the whole patience thing will be depicted in Legend of Korra. The audience cannot be expected to be patient at all.

 

I'm glad we have quality entertainment like that*, but as the quote expresses: viewers will only see what they are ready/willing/capable of seeing. If it is watched by a child who has already been influenced by the power-hunger mentality, it will be seen as an awesome magic-fighting show with 'some esoteric mumbo-jumbo thrown in for coolness'.

 

I sometimes perceive a sad irony when fans of a movie or show, worshipping the hero, are effectively thinking/behaving just like the villain.

Not that this perversion-phenomenon isn't extremely common in all areas of life. Sometimes it's hilarious, for example when a youtube video talks about how people are incited to hate each other by the ruling elite and then the comments section becomes a total flame war.

 

 

*) Children are not stupid, adults tend to treat them like that. Just because bad script writers happily dump their crap on children's TV doesn't mean that that's what they really want. They can handle a lot more refined and detailed real world topics than they get credit for.

Edited June 9, 2012 by Owledge

[RyanO]

I was intrigued by the elements in Avatar as well. Fire, water, air, earth is the system most traditions adhere to. It also has more substance and a sense of being actual elements than the wuxing. So in that sense I see why they went with those.

 

As far as combining this system with tai chi and bagua, I've encountered numerous sources where attempts at reconciling the elemental systems have been made. Not all of them are similar, but the point is that attempts at finding correspondences among these elemental systems are common and valid. So it's not really desecrating sacred ground for a tv show to do the same.

 

In fact, as others have pointed out, Avatar (and Legend of Korra which I haven't seen) is perhaps the most well researched and authentic animated show out there.

 

While I know the spirit of the original post was not focused on this specific issue and was more about the problem of pop media in general, I thought I'd offer a specific example of one of the sources I was describing above. This is Stephen Elliot's book on wuji standing, where he describes heaven (which he interprets as air) water, earth, and fire as the alchemical agents of the bagua. Whether this is traditional or not, the book is a good and serious treatment of the subject:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/20788-new-book-wuji-qi-gong/page__p__295831__fromsearch__1entry295831

 

So it may be that Avatar is not blasphemous, but innovative.