Real Life with Ryuei

Other-power, self-power, and the Death of God in the Poseidon Adventure

Back in 2004 I rewatched the Poseidon Adventure with Yumi, and then wrote the following comments on the Nichiren Shu Yahoo group. Seeing as how a remake of the Poseidon Adventure is coming out this year I am reposting my comments regarding the original cinematic classic of American existantialism:

Hi all,

Just a week or so ago, my wife and I watched the Poseidon
Adventure. Yumi loves disaster movies, suspense, thrillers,
etc...and we had gone to see the Day After Tomorrow and were not so
thrilled. I then told her about the Poseidon Adventure and she had
to see it. Now that movie we both really liked.

Now I hadn't seen that movie since I was little, and it was being
shown on t.v. Seeing it again I was struck by one of the major
themes of the movie - it was all about the Death of God theology
which was popular back in the 60s and early 70s. Death of God
theology was the work of liberal theologians who were trying to
express Christianity in a world where Nietzche's declaration
that "God is dead" seemed to have captured the minds of many modern
people (maybe more in Europe than in the States). The priest
character played by Gene Hackman in the movie typifies (maybe even
caricatures) this kind of theology. He preaches that God wants
people to get off their asses and save themselves, that God has no
time to look out for everybody. Basically he is saying that as far
as we should be concerned, God taught us to take care of ourselves
and we should do so because God is not going to look out for us. The
ship's chaplain objects to this kind of teaching, insisting that it
is not very comforting. Ultimately he objects because it is a
teaching that is meaningful only to the strong and not to the weak.
The test of their respective theologies or approaches to life comes
after the Poseidon has capsized and the two priests are trapped in
the upside down ball room of the sinking ship with a few dozen
passengers. Hackman's character insists on taking those who are
willing and trying to find a way out by going up to the bottom (now
the top) of the ship. The chaplain insists on staying behind with
the others and awaiting rescue (even though he concedes that this is
highly unlikely - but he choses solidarity with those unable or
unwilling to help themselves). When Hackman and his group barely
escape the flooded ballroom and the others all die, it seems as
though his view is vindicated in the movie. But is it? Not all those
who follow Hackman make it (including Hackman himself but more on
that later), whereas the chaplain may have shown a more self-
sacrificing compassion in staying with the others.

But this dilemma is not solely a Christian one nor only a modern
one. It is basically the old argument between salvation by faith or
by works. In Japanese Buddhism it became an argument between tariki
(salvation by the Other-power of the Buddha's grace) and jiriki
(salvation by the self-power of one's own efforts to attain
buddhahood). Typically Pure Land Buddhism is identified as tariki,
wherein people recognize the inability of the self to undo
selishness and instead rely entirely on Amitabha Buddha's power to
enable them to be reborn in the Pure Land. Zen is typically
identified as self-power as Zen practitioners imitate the silent
meditation of the Buddha to attain enlightenment through their own
contemplations. But really, if you ever press a Zen or Pure Land
practitioner on this point, they will conceded that ultimately there
is neither self-power nor Other-power. There is just non-dual
realization.

Getting back to the Poseidon, how do things work out for Hackman's
priest character and those who follow him? One interesting twist is
that Ernst Borgnine plays a cop named Mike Rogo who has a lot of
trouble following Rev. Scott (Hackman). Ultimately he does, and in
the end he overcomes his own despair and rage to do the right thing
and follow through on Rev. Scott's lead (and ultimate sacrifice).
Which makes an interesting point - even the way of Death of God or
self-power requires faith. So it is not as though faith vs. works is
the same thing as faith vs. disbelief.

The other twist is that there was something that Rev. Scott missed
in preaching the save yourself version of Christianity. If one looks
upon Jesus as an example to follow and not as someone who is going
to save us in spite of oursleves, than that means taking up the
cross oneself and not just saying that Jesus bore it for us. Rev.
Scott seems to learn this at the very end when he rails against God
for all the death and for not only being absent but for seemingly
working against them. After this post-modern equivalent of "God why
have you forsaken me?" he leaps to his death (and strangely his
death is a combination of scalding, falling, fire, and drowning) in
order to save the others. He himself, in rejecting grace has had to
assume the cross himself but in doing so has provided the salvation
he promised to the others. Not to leave out any angles, there are a
lot of Jewish motifs in this film as well, and perhaps Rev. Scott is
also a kind of Moses who brings his people almost to the promised
land but is unable to enter himself.

The final twist is that after all this, the survivers are still
trapped within the upside down hull. They get out because a rescue
party outside the hull hears them banging on the inside.
Those on the outside cut their way in and then fly the survivers to
safety. So ultimately, after exhausting their own efforts and coming
to a dead end (the unbreached) hull - they must still call out to be
saved by those on the other side. Self-power (which got them that
far) has given way ultimately to Other-power. The Death of God has
resolved itself into an imitation of God (Rev. Scott) and finally a
calling out to God (knock and you shall receive - knocking on the
hull).

In terms of Buddhism, I have noticed that even the Pure Land
founders like Shinran and Honen had first exhausted every self-
powered effort to change themselves and had ultimately come to what
they felt was a dead-end. It is not as though they copped out and
found a loophole in the Law (Dharma) without trying. The Zen
Masters, on the other hand, also seem to exhaust their efforts, and
ultimately their enlightenment comes from (as Dogen put it) "dropping body and mind." So even in the lives of the founders of the seemingly dichotomous paths of self-power and Other-power one sees the confluence of both. Nichiren also realized this and wrote that the Lotus Sutra seems to teach self-power but is not self-power because the self contains all the ten worlds and in fact all life and so is not just the self, and seems to teach Other-power but is not Other-power because the buddhas are all within ourselves and so not simply Other. The Poseidon Adventure, then, is like a metaphorical illustration of this confluence.

Note 4/19/06 I really hope the remake doesn't suck, but I would be very surprised if the new version carries over the metaphorical and even parable like nature of the Gene Hackman version. If they just present it as a CGI enhanced remake of an adventure/disaster movie and miss the underlying theme of the Death of God, they will have missed the whole point of the first film. On the other hand Death of God is not really on the cultural agenda anymore, it's more like God will be the Death of US, or at least "His" (sic) fanatical believers will be.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Posted by Ryuei at April 19, 2006 03:19 PM