South Park is obviously known for its satire, inappropriate and uncomfortable social and cultural jabs, and of course, its misrepresentation of religions all over the world. In this example you can see the four “leaders” of American, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Asian cultures are coming together to serve some kind of injustice (all of which are also stereotyped). The American says “we will join together against evil, except Buddha because he doesn’t believe in evil.” Buddha is then shown as a smiley, oblivious, air-headed man who agrees with the statement.
Many Americans and even those outside the Buddhist belief see Buddhists as extremely passive and docile. They are viewed as so non violent that is blown up in such a way that they are seen as being naïve to even the idea of evil, anger, ect. Just because Buddhist’s take a vow of non-violence does not mean they don’t believe is negativity or evil. It is also seen as a very easy and happy and enlightened state of mind all the time while practicing Buddhism. You can see this especially in the clip from the South park episode. Buddha, like I mentioned before, is very air-headed and happy-go-lucky. This isn’t the case at all.
In Brad Warner’s book he talks about his time in Japan and while he was gone Buddhism became “all the rage” in the states. The problem was it was all the wrong kinds of rage. American’s attributed drugs and trips as a way to become in an enlightened state and to seek the mind state of Buddha. One of worst ideas that western Buddhists have conjured is that there are ways to speed up your journey to enlightenment. All American’s want a quick and easy way to most everything and Warner argues that Buddhism is a very difficult and time consuming practice. There are no short cuts; there is neither obliviousness nor silliness like portrayed in the video clip I have shared. To relay how strenuous this practice is, Warner says “There is no easy way to circumvent the pain and difficulty of the practice.” This statement alone gives you a second view on how extreme a Buddhists’ lifestyle and practices are.
