Sharon Stone: Actress and Bodhisattva

My Thesis for Today: I fully agree with actress/bodhisattva Sharon Stone: The May 12 earthquake in China was a form of karmic retribution. However, there is an additional element at work here: almsgiving - Stone's and the Tibetans' who'd died in that quake.

DEFINITION:  A bodhisattva is the highest level of Buddhist practitioner. There are 52 levels of bodhisattva practice which followers of the Way must engage in, before they themselves can become Buddhas.

This is what Sharon Stone actually said at Cannes :

Stone's words, quoted below from an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, can be heard at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcRiAytaD6w

QUOTE:

I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don't like that. And then I've been concerned about how should we deal with the Olympics because they're not being nice to the Dalai Lama who's a good friend of mine.

And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought: Is that karma when you're not nice, that the bad things happen to you?

And then I got a letter from the Tibetan Foundation that they wanted to go and be helpful. And that made me cry. And they asked me if I would write a quote about that and I said I would, that it was a big lesson to me that sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who aren't nice to you.

And that's a big lesson for me.

:UNQUOTE.

Aftershocks of Sharon Stone's comments at Cannes :

Apparently, bloggers and other denizens of the internet were shocked by Stone's words and decided to blast her rather mercilessly. [The following two quotes are from Henry Sanderson's May 29 article, written for the Associated Press.]

QUOTE 1:

Stone's comments caused considerable anger in the Chinese media. The official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary Thursday she was the "public enemy of all mankind."

:UNQUOTE

NOTE: Methinks Xinhua doth overly protest.

QUOTE 2:

"Due to my inappropriate words and acts during the interview, I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people," [ Sharon ] Stone said in the statement. "I am willing to take part in the relief work of China 's earthquake, and wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people."

:UNQUOTE

NOTE: It would be interesting to see how Stone's efforts stack up against those of the Chinese government or of the wealthy Chinese elite. According to wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake#Mainland_China

QUOTE:

On May 15, United Daily News reported that the top ten richest people in mainland China had only donated a little over 32.5 million yuan altogether as of May 13, drawing accusations of selfishness and callousness from Chinese internet users. [NOTE: 32.5 million yuan = $4,660,533]

:UNQUOTE.

According to Chinese government sources cited by the Associated Press on May 22 [and I paraphrase here]:

Worst quake in 30 years

Dead: 51,151

Injured: 288,431

Homeless: 5 million

Company losses: $9.5 billion

Reconstruction: $10 billion fund set up by government

Question: The Chinese government had set up a $10 billion fund, but I wonder if most of that will go to cover the "company losses of $9.5 billion" cited above. This incident will be a golden opportunity to see how much the Chinese government cares about its own people. Or will they end up caring more about getting the devastated area's economic machinery repaired?

To all of the ignorant bloggers who'd decided to denounce Sharon Stone - as well as to the equally ignorant Xinhua News Agency - I wish I could have cautioned you before you'd started your ill-advised keystroking: It's dangerous to slander a Teacher of the Law. Translation? It's bad for your karma.

I don't know if Sharon Stone qualifies as a "Teacher of the Law," as defined in the Buddha's highest teaching, The Lotus Sutra. If she is, however, her detractors have much to fear. Consider:

QUOTE [Shakyamuni Buddha is speaking here]:

If for the space of a kalpa one should constantly harbor a mind destitute of good and with angry looks should revile the Buddha, he will be committing an offense of immeasurable gravity. But if toward those who read, recite and embrace this Lotus Sutra one should even for a moment direct evil words, his offense will be far greater. [NOTE: One kalpa is at least 16 million years long.]

:UNQUOTE [Lotus Sutra, Burton Watson's translation, The Teacher of the Law chapter, page 163]

It's rarely obvious who these Teachers of the Law are - by the way, I don't regard the Dalai Lama to be one such. Sometimes these Teachers go out of their way to hide their true identity. Consider:

QUOTE [The Buddha is speaking]:

You monks, listen carefully! The way followed by the [Buddha's great bodhisattvas], because they are well learned in expedient means, is wonderful beyond conception. They know how most beings ... are fearful of great wisdom. Therefore the bodhisattvas pose as voice-hearers ... employing countless expedient means to convert the different kinds of living beings. They ... say they are far removed from the Buddha way, and so bring emancipation to immeasurable multitudes... Limited in aspiration, lazy and indolent though the multitudes are, bit by bit they are led to the attainment of Buddhahood. Inwardly in secret, [these disciples] act as bodhisattvas, but outwardly they show themselves as voice-hearers. ... Before the multitude they seem possessed of the three poisons [greed, anger, and stupidity] or manifest the signs of heretical views. My disciples in this manner use expedient means to save living beings.

:UNQUOTE [Lotus Sutra, Page 146, chapter: Prophecy of Enlightenment]

Not so fast, Philippa

QUOTE:

Philippa Carrick, chief executive of the Tibet Society in London , said Stone's comments were ridiculous, and oversimplified the concept of karma.

"None of us fully understand the concept of karma unless we are wise, so to use it in this context is ill-advised," she said. "The concept of karma is that you are sowing seeds that come back on yourself, but for Sharon Stone to suggest the earthquake was caused by bad karma is unthinking. Things don't work in such straight lines and she seems to have neglected that Tibetans suffered in the quake."

:UNQUOTE [Richard Alleyne's 5/30/08 article in www. Telegraph.co.uk]

Ridiculous? Oversimplified? Ill-advised? Oh, I don't know. Stone didn't discourse at length, making any kind of stab at profundity. Her comments were brief and made in passing...and, in my opinion, weren't off the mark at all. At least she made people think.

Philippa should consider the words of the famous Japanese Buddhist monk Nichiren (1222-1282), who had written an essay entitled Rissho Ankoku Ron. Translated as "On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land," Rissho is considered one of Nichiren's five major writings. In his postscript to this work, Nichiren wrote: "In the first year of the Shoka era [the year 1257]...there was a severe earthquake. Observing this event, I conceived the work [Risho Ankoku Ron]."

The occurrence of earthquakes and other "natural" disasters as a consequence of bad national behavior is a major theme is this essay.

As for the fact that "Tibetans suffered in the quake," China-philes might want to contemplate the possibility that these dead Tibetans had actually, in a previous life (in anticipation of this quake in this lifetime) vowed to lay down their lives as "victims" of this quake. As "unlikely" as this seems, Buddhist literature makes reference to even great Bodhisattvas having forgotten that they make such vows, yet following through with actions consistent with those vows.

I can easily see how at least some of the Tibetans who'd perished on May 12 had seen into the future that the only way they could fight the great power of the Chinese secular government was to sacrifice their lives, hoping that this earthquake might initiate a ripple effect that could end up "quaking" (that is, reforming) China's current anti-Buddhist, materialistic power structure.

Conclusion

By speaking as she did, Sharon Stone actually benefitted the Chinese people very profoundly, though how so won't be immediately apparent. And this was done at no small cost to her own personal fortunes. The Chinese leadership, on the other hand, might end up cursing her even more as their own personal fortunes suffer "inexplicable" reversals. But inexplicably is often how karma works. They might want to reflect on that.

Steven Searle for President in 2008

The Best Party Available

"I guess I can write off any support the Chinese government might have given my campaign to become next US president. Oh well, we all must make sacrifices" - Steve.

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

Contributions to my campaign are welcome: Go to:

http://bpa-cinc.gaia.com/blog/2007/12/for_sale_my_free_books_title_page

Open Invitation: I hereby waive all copyright protection for any material I've posted on Zaadz/Gaia with these exceptions: I reserve the right to disseminate this material, claim authorship credit for it and any compensation I can negotiate. However, if anyone wishes to use these essays, they are free to do so. I do not require that advance permission be obtained, that I be paid any royalties, or that I receive author's credit or even be notified of intent to use. I truly want anyone "out there" to feel free to use these essays, in original or modified form, for whatever purposes they deem worthy.