When we got this assignment I immediately thought of this scene from Anger Management, that "ok" movie with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson that came out in 2003. John C Reilly plays a Buddhist monk who, pre-enlightenment, was a bully and Adam Sandler, on his route to overcoming his anger, has to confront him. There are a few stereotypes about Buddhism that are mentioned before the excessive fighting starts; including the whole garden that it occurs in, the orange robes the monks are wearing, and that Arnie Shankman (John C. Reilly) is meditating with his eyes closed when first approached. On Brad Warner’s blog he gives instructions on how to do zazen and one of the characteristics is that you keep your eyes open during it. I’ve seen the closed eye meditation in other things but I think it’s a pretty trivial stereotype compared to others. For instance Sandler’s character says that Buddhists can’t even hurt a plant, which reinforces the stereotype of Buddhists being peaceful and pacifistic almost to a fault, even Arnie’s voice is gentle before he gets angry. Then when he does eventually lose it and attack Sandler he acts exactly how you wouldn’t expect a monk to act or fight, this was obviously done to be funny since it’s a comedy. Brad Warner is totally unlike the orange robe wearing monks from this scene, since it seems like the guys in the movie, at least Arnie, would be in the monastery for the rest of their life especially because there are a bunch of different ages represented. . Since I was really intrigued by Warner after starting reading the book I looked at his blog and some of the pictures he has of himself in robes with peers, and they weren’t orange; when I saw that I realized that every time I had pictured a monk or seen a monk in pop culture their robes were orange. I think the greatest “anti-stereotype” quote Warner has in his book is when he’s talking about how the leader of his sangha and his peers saw him as living “…in an apartment in Los Angeles dressed in golden Buddhist robes surrounded by plastic monster toys and dozens of luscious Suicide Girls.” Even though he wasn’t “surrounded” by girls he was still involved in soft-core porn, an industry you would never suspect a Buddhist monk to take part in. I haven’t finished the book yet but I’m already a huge fan of this guy because he seems like a badass
