In ‘Superman: Redemption’ (by Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and Walt Simonson), Superman hears the desperate prayers of an old lady (Barbara Johnson) with his super-hearing and saves her from being hit by a car. She was calling out to God for help and when Superman swoops down from the sky to heed her call instead, she assumed him to be a godsent angel. Supe of course denies this, saying he’s just a friend. Hers was a case of arbitrary mis-attribution of identity. In Buddhist practice, names of Bodhisattvas (such as ‘Avalokiteshvara’: the one who regards the cries of the word) are invoked too, for supernormal assistance. Avalokiteshvara is not seen as any typical unenlightened god though, while she can skilfully manifest as any being to help.
By a string of karmic coincidences later, Supe seems to heed her further prayers, when he was simply being his usual super-altruistic self, arriving in the nick of time. Seeing the apparent efficacy of their prayers, he gets called upon more and more – till Supe worried about the possibility that he cannot be there for her one day due to preoccupations. At the same time, he couldn’t just ignore her ‘prayers’. Her increased tempting of fate by venturing into danger zones to call for ‘divine’ help becomes reckless demonstrations of her faith. In Buddhism, other than enlightened Bodhisattvas who can manifest multiple forms simultaneously, anyone can ‘manifest’ as a Bodhisattva – in the sense of embodying Bodhisattva qualities – even if it’s but for a few selfless moments. Such a person need not be seen as a real Bodhisattva. He or she might not even consider oneself to be one.
Interestingly, in her own way, she was also trying to be a fearless Bodhisattva by praying for Supe to help those in need. Ironically, due to her persistent blind faith that help will always arrive, she gathered media attention when she was shot during a confrontation with hooligans. This attention brought greater support for her cause of cleaning up her neighbourhood of its ill elements. This she saw as truly divine intervention! Now, is this true faith or true delusion at work? The cleverly written comic leaves it up to the reader to interpret. She says this to the media, ‘Angels are real. They’re all around us. Why, you might be one yourself but you’ll never know, not unless you try spreading your wings.” The seemingly agnostic Superman thinks in reply – ‘I don’t know.’
In the next story, which is also related to faith, a young man takes on a persona called ‘Redemption’, who seems to have the ability to let others’ faith in him be channeled through him as supernormal powers. However, there are instances when his powers manifested seemingly involuntarily with great destruction. As Supe put it, ‘Anyone with the power to decimate twenty-two acres in a single blast, incinerating fourteen soldiers and thirty-six buildings while managing to protect the civilians he cared for should be capable of controlling their abilities to prevent something like this from happening.’ Rings true for any occasionally malevolent god one believes in, who threatens to wipe out humankind. Truth is, Redemption was duped into believing there is a higher power working through him by the prayers of the faithful, while they were the doings of a self-righteous pastor who could work his intentions through him.
The pastor was devastated when Supe revealed to his devotees that their faith in Redemption was misplaced. In an instant, his congregation lost faith in him, as a ‘man of God’. They had more faith in Superman instead, who stood for objective truth and goodness in his own way. Faith, so it seems, is a tricky thing indeed – for as powerful as it can be, it can be terribly blind. It is thus important to take refuge in the unadulterated truth – that which Buddhists would call the Dharma. Whether one believes in the existence of supernormal assistance or not, we should simply do our best, thereafter getting all the help we can get when our power is limited – via external sources of help normal or supernormal. What else can we do? After the case of Redemption, Supe visits Barbara again and has an interesting dialogue with her…
Barbara Johnson: Okay, yeah, but man’s law is always changing, right? God’s law doesn’t.
Superman: But whose God? That’s dependent on an individual’s choice of faith, and religions have different tenets of belief.
BJ: You like to complicate things, don’t you, boy?
Superman: The things I’ve see… the places I’ve been… It enables me – forces me… to put certain things into perspective.
BJ: Things like faith?
Superman: No, as in the beliefs of one faith over another. Out there was a planet named Tamaran. They worshipped the goddess X’hal. There is a planet called Rann. They believe science answers all questions. I’ve fought against and alongside beings who call themselves ‘new gods’ as well as ‘old gods’ of Greek myth… Ares and Zeus, the very gods who were worshipped on Earth by countless thousands.
BJ: I don’t see as how that complicates anything. The only thing that matters is what you believe in. Faith is meant to sustain you, so you can help others.
Superman: But what if in trying to help others – by sharing your faith with them – you’re causing more harm then good?
BJ: Someone of true faith – and by that I mean true to their own faith can be Jesus or Mohammed or even your X-hal lady – they know on their heart the simple difference between helping others or just helping themselves.
Truth is always unchanging, or it wouldn’t be called the truth. Whether there is a god governing truth or not is actually arbitrary, because if truth can be negotiated with him or her, truth would be fickle and it wouldn’t be meaningful. In this sense, no being, including the gods one believes in can be above truth. Ultimately, Buddhists take refuge in the truth – the Dharma, while Buddhas are the ones who point the path to this truth, who are one with it, whom we aspire to emulate. In this sense, the ‘godhead’ of Buddhists is the Dharma; not any god. Supe is right that conflicts among faith are very real, while there can only be one ultimate truth. The godheads of different civilisations range from male to female gods, from high technological sensibility to ‘expired’ mythological gods. While there are overlapping similarities in terms of what they stand for, there are irreconcilable differences too.
BJ was not totally right that the subject of faith is arbitrary as long as it leads to altruistic goodness. Truly selfless good for one and all is possible only when one realises the ultimate truth of non-self – which only Buddhism teaches fully. Only goodness based on ultimate truth becomes the ultimate goodness. Ultimate goodness cannot be based on delusion (non-truths or half-truths) because delusion can lead to evil, in part or whole. Superman practises what would be called ‘good faith’ in existentialism because despite uncertainty of which gods (if any) being real, he played God best he could, answering the prayers whenever he can personally, as swiftly as possible. This is so despite countless absent gods erroneously believed by the masses and individuals he encounters.
Humanistic existentialism would propose that we believe in ourselves, in our ultimate potential (which Buddhism would see as Buddha-nature: the ability to be perfect in compassion and wisdom like the Buddhas), even if we don’t believe in anyone else, even if others have misplaced faith or expectations of us. The same school of existentialist thought would see that despite lack of faith in truth and goodness being embodied in any supreme being(s) who cares for us all, we ought to exemplify truth and goodness best we can. Life is only truly meaningful and beautiful only when we strive our best to become the best in these aspects for one and all.
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Very interesting commentary