Life of Pi (2012) and the Journey of Spirituality

My Tibetan Buddhist name is Tsering Lhamo, my Hindi name is Savita, my Christian name is Beverly, and my Chinese name is Yuen. I am not writing this as a movie review, but from the perspective of a Buddhist-turned-Christian who practiced Yoga under a Hindu Swami and who loves to contemplate on the writings by Sufi Master Rumi. I believe that all religions lead to the Truth. If the common denominator of all religions is all-encompassing compassion and love, then Pi’s and my act of embracing all religions should not be seen as a controversial act.  

Based on the novel of the same name by Yann Martel, Life of Pi is an adventurous story centering on Pi Patel, the son of a zoo keeper who decides to move to Canada. The film starts with a novelist who approaches Pi, an immigrant from India who resides in Canada for an incredible story. Pi narrates to him the stories of his childhood in India, how his dad decides to sell all their zoo animals to North America and move the whole family to Canada, and the shipwreck in which his family dies. Detailed and vivid description of his life stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat together with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger named Richard Parker is narrated. However, towards the end of the film, he offers another version of the story of his adventure on the sea to the novelist—a story without a floating carnivorous island that no one has seen, without surprises, without the orangutan that floats on a bundle of bananas and without the animals. The first story about the tiger Richard Parker and the animals is one that the insurance agents for the Japanese freighter reject as they want the "truth" and not a report that comprises things that people have never known of. In the end they accept Pi's second story which is based on conflicts and struggles of humans on the lifeboat as the "truth" for their official report.

I especially enjoyed the beginning and ending of Life of Pi where the notions of "God" and "faith" were presented and questioned. Pi is raised a Hindu but is introduced to Christianity and Islam as a teenager. He decides to believe in all the three religions, and yet not without any doubt. He says to the writer, "Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested". As in Buddhism, the Buddha said to his disciples, "Do not believe what I say simply out of respect for me. Discover from your own lives the truth of what I am teaching you". Buddhism teaches that one should explore, test and examine all teachings delivered by the Buddha, and one should not accept all teachings blindly without doubt.  However, does having doubt equate to not having faith? 

Can faith coexist with doubt? To me, the answer is yes. Without doubt, I would not embark on the path of spirituality. Doubts occur, followed by the need to search for answers, which leads to a search of religion(s) and way of life. With doubt, faith arises when we have the answers or when we have glimpses of truth. It is when one's doubts are cleared that the faith gets stronger. However, in my view, one should not stick to one way of understanding the mystery of religion. If one only relies on logical thinking to prove a religion or the existence of "God", that is limited. There are affective and even mysterious ways that can aid one in the understanding of a religion. While Pi's dad advises him that "Believing in everything is the same as believing in nothing", his mother counters this rationale with "science can teach us more about what is out there, but not about what is in here (the heart)". Logically, believing in diverse religions may lead one to nowhere, as one can only choose one path to reach a destination in daily life. However, it is important that one goes with what the heart tells one to do. While our inner experiences may not be proven empirically, we cannot conclude that such experiences do not exist.  An Hindu, Pi is unable to get the image of Jesus out of his mind after his first meeting with the Christ figure in a local church—"But this son (Jesus Christ), I couldn't get him out of my head". After becoming a Hindu-Christian, he encounters Islam which gives him a sense of bliss—"The sound and feel of the words of the prayers to Allah gave peace and serenity".

While religions have their doctrines and precepts for followers to adhere to, the society or the circumstances that we are in may require us to "twist" our beliefs. For instance, in the film, there is no vegetarian food served on the ship that Pi and his family are taking to Canada. Pi and his family are vegetarians and they are served with just plain rice after futile request for vegetables. A Japanese man on board tells them that he is "a happy Buddhist" who eats "rice mix with gravy" (meat gravy) as "on ship, gravy is not meat, but taste". This could be rather controversial for orthodox believers. But the story poses a question here: doctrines or survival? If a religion is to aid one to live life more meaningfully and blissfully, is there a need to stick to doctrines at the risk of one’s survival? Another scene in the film that depicts such circumstance of life is when Pi loses all his food supply (biscuits) at the sea, he has to feed himself with raw fishes in order to stay alive. At the same time, not all disciples within the same religion are followers of the same sect or tradition, as different sects or traditions within a religion could have different beliefs. We can never tell which tradition represents the "best" belief. For instance, in Thailand and Tibet, Buddhist monks are not necessarily vegetarians, while in Singapore and Malaysia, most Buddhist monks are vegetarians. Thus, though Life of Pi touches on religions, it is not religious. Ultimately, we may have to twist our beliefs or rules slightly to meet the various life situations presented to us.

At the end of the film, Pi lands on a shore and is rescued by a group of people. Pi tells the novelist about the Japanese insurance agents who refuse to believe in the story of his adventure with a tiger on a lifeboat:

Insurance Agent:

We need a simpler story for our report. One that our company can understand. A story we can all believe.

Pi:

So a story without things you've never seen before.

Insurance Agent:

That's right.

Pi:

Without surprises, without animals or islands.

Insurance Agent:

Yes. The truth. 

Novelist:
So... what did you do?

Pi:

I told them another story.

To survive through the incident of shipwreck together with a tiger on a lifeboat for 227 days at sea is an unbelievable story. To Pi, it is through the blessing of God that he manages to survive miraculously. However, it is hard for people to believe in miracles. The insurance agents represent those who do not believe in the limitless capacity of God. They choose to believe in a “human story”, a story alike soap opera presented to viewers on TV everyday. For those who believe in miracles- “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).