When technology serves spirituality
Multimedia film-maker Titus Leber shares his passion for spreading Buddha's message through technology
Can we attain enlightenment through modern technology? For over a decade, Austrian film-maker Titus Leber has immersed himself in a one-of-a-kind endeavour trying to encode Lord Buddha's teachings into a modern language of computerised pixels. It has been a very complicated, strenuous and challenging effort but one that is extraordinarily fulfilling _ in the material, intellectual and spiritual senses. Leber's interactive DVD, What did the Buddha Teach?, commissioned a few years ago by the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage, is an awe-inspiring showcase of everything you need to know about Theravada Buddhism packed into one single disc (now available in English, Thai and Chinese). He has since moved on to a larger, more ambitious scheme of producing a virtual ''walking picture book'' of Borobudur, that ancient heritage site in Central Java that Leber says is a unique repository of three major schools of Buddhism _ Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. When completed, a wide array of products ranging from Blu-ray discs to DVDs, books and a TV series, as well as applications for computer, internet and mobile phones, even a multimedia encyclopaedia, are expected to be paraded out, enabling the Indonesian and international communities to appreciate the beauty of Buddha's wisdom that the award-winning multimedia film director foresees is what the world is badly in need of at the moment.
Photos courtesy of THE MAE FAH LUANG FOUNDATION UNDER ROYAL PATRONAGE AND TITUS LEBER
How? During a recent lecture at Mahamakut Buddhist University, Leber shared his observation on the on-going global ''shift of consciousness'' in which multimedia technology should serve as a pivotal tool of communications, especially among the younger generation.
Said the astute film-maker: ''In a certain way, we face today a situation very similar to the one in the dark Middle Ages: a stage of increasing global illiteracy, resulting from the fact that the young people do not enjoy reading any more.
''I am not saying this in [a] pejorative nor sarcastic way. On the contrary, what I am trying to state is that a new form of enjoyment of the consumption of images is occurring, a shift of consciousness which could be linked to a shift from a universal left brain mode of communication to a global right brain mode of communication where after centuries of communication dominated by verbal communication the pendulum sways back in the direction in which our ancestors communicated, namely by images.
''If we want to reach vast audiences of mainly young people, the only way we will succeed is by using this new form of communication which encompasses narrative structure, special effects, animation, racy computer graphics and potentially 3D.''
In retrospect, Leber's What did the Buddha Teach? digital triptych expounds the essence of the Buddha, dharma and sangha in such a wonderfully vivid fashion. A mere click and viewers can choose to follow the life of Buddha before and after he attained enlightenment or to enter into the realms of ''dependent origination'' where the perennial cycle of ignorance-to-suffering is unravelled in amazing 3D images. Noteworthy scenes include one of the penultimate battle between Buddha and Mara (evil), wherein Leber turned the magnificent mural paintings at Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) into an unprecedented series of animations _ all with the earth-and-heaven-shattering light-and-sound special effects, streams of arrows shot by Mara's army marvellously transformed into cascades of flowers, and the deluge that flowed from the Earth Goddess' hair that washed all the monsters away.
This is indeed an inspiring convergence of minds _ the painters of centuries ago and the graphic artists armed with state-of-the-art digital technology. To turn esoteric content into eye-catching cinematographic thrills requires, however, a tremendous amount of research on and understanding of how to interpret Buddhist tenets visually and metaphorically. Leber said he considered himself fortunate to have been able to weave this ''enrichment of the mind'' element into his labour of love. In preparation for the What did the Buddha Teach? DVD project, he took up studying the Tripitaka besides consulting with Thai and foreign scholars. As for the present project in Indonesia, Leber has been reading several Mahayana scriptures. In particular, he found the Avatamsaka Sutra with its Indra's Net exposition of the transcendental multiplicity and interconnectedness of Buddhas a fascinatingly close parallel to quantum physics.
What the Christian-born Austrian cherishes in Buddhism in particular is the teaching of tolerance.
During the lecture at Mahamakut University, Leber pointed out how ''our current world of increasing radicalisation, especially between Islam and Christianity, is in urgent need of the central message of Lord Buddha's teachings, namely the message of the Middle Way.''
In contrast to some fundamentalist religions, Buddhism does not seek to convert everyone into a Buddhist. The ''unimposing'' stance of Buddhism means that anyone can freely adopt the ''little wisdom _ just like a gift'' into one's daily life. Moreover, the stress on cultivating peace of mind and compassion for every sentient being is also a good antidote to the materialism prevalent in society, he added.
On a personal level, Leber emphasizes understanding the role of ''volition'' as crucial to the transformation of the mind. ''Everything is happening in one's mind,'' he noted; ''what you think or intend to do is more important than the actual action. Before you do something in reality, you already have 'an image' in your mind.
''I've learned patience. I've tried to be forgiving when people hurt me and not to hit back, to understand that perhaps I'd also done something wrong otherwise it would not have happened to me.
[So] this is a very important change of my outlook [laughs].''
The quality of the mind is for Leber of such immense significance but something that has unfortunately been often overlooked. He laments the proliferation of crude, vulgar materials revolving around sex and violence in present-day media.
''Entire industries have been built on those two driving forces. What does this do? Very simply, it pollutes the mind and nobody has recognised and formulated this better than Lord Buddha when he spoke about the defilements of the mind.
''It is absolutely amazing to observe how concerned we are in our present world about the physical pollution factors that spill our environment, and how little concern we pay to the much more endangering pollution of the mind of our youth and the masses who consume multimedia.''
Leber has coined the term ''psycho-ecology'', or ecology of the mind, for which he believes Buddhism has the potential to provide the necessary ''ethical tools''. As a multimedia technologist, Leber says he tries to come up with a version of ''spiritual'' hero/heroine to counter the flux of commercial(ised) superheroes that flout aggressive and violent tendencies many youths nowadays look up to.
In his current project at Borobodur, Leber has been intrigued by the story of Sudhana sculpted on the limestone terraces, who set out on a journey to seek enlightenment.
''He met 53 different teachers, and they came from all walks of life. What is so beautiful is that they were not only holy men, but there were also bankers, businessmen, children, women, prostitutes, you name it. Everybody has contributed a little bit to his wisdom. The teaching is: everybody can reach some kind of enlightenment and understand what you're given.
''When you look with an open mind, you can learn from a child, a beggar, a fisherman, everybody can add a little bit in your way to [spiritual] accomplishment.''
The sanctity of Borobodur, added Leber, is not restricted to the particular stupa complex but also the adjacent areas. He reckoned that monuments of almost every major world religion (perhaps with the sole exception of Judaism) can be found within a 50-kilometre radius of the site. It appears there is a good model of interfaith co-existence that is worth exploring right there.
Besides the stint in Indonesia, Leber has been working for years on one of his dream projects: to make an opera film based on Richard Wagner's Parsifal, which he believes is fundamentally a Buddhist tale in disguise.
Hopefully, the seed of wisdom will continue to prevail _ regardless of the form it is presented in. To think that this all started from the special moments several years ago when Leber stood for the first time in the chapel of Wat Phra Kaew, overwhelmed by the multitude of murals about the life of Lord Buddha.
PHOTO: VASANA CHINVARAKORN
''It [occurred] to me in a flash that here I was in front of a marvellous means of communication on how to convey the key elements of what Buddhism was all about to all of us in the rest of the world, who are, so to say, illiterate in terms of Buddhism. All that needed to be done was to translate this ancient imagery into a modern form of imagery which is easily understandable by the ''generation multimedia''.
''As a matter of fact, the common denominator we share between those who created such immortal sites of artistic expression as the pyramids of ancient Egypt, the temple of Borobodur or the murals of Wat Phra Kaew and our own audiovisual civilisation consists of our mutual enjoyment of images, the only difference being that our ancestors carved their images in stone or painted them on walls and that we encode them in streams of pixels.''
To get a copy of 'What did the Buddha Teach?' interactive DVD, contact the Mae Fah Luang Foundation at 02-252-7114 or visit www.maefahluang.org.
Credit: Bangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.com)
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