The Wake

How exactly does one achieve zen? For the historical Buddha, Siddhattha Gotama, the regimen included years of meditation, self-starvation, and deliberate destituteness. Sure, you’re probably barely subsisting on Ramen and tap water, but it takes a special kind of dedication to voluntarily live on a single grain of rice per day.

There is much wisdom to be attained in understanding Siddhattha Gotama’s journey from prince to enlightened Buddha. And, as we all know from our childhood hours spent with Mr. Roger’s World of Make Believe and Sesame Street, puppets are one of world’s the most effective vehicles for education. This is where the In the Heart of the Beast Theater comes in. Now through March 26, GOTAMA: A Journey to the Buddha graces the stage Minneapolis’s much-celebrated puppet and mask theater.

GOTAMA is an original artistic exploration of the first 35 years of the life of Siddhattha Gotama. Directed by Andrew Kim (selected as Best Director by City Pages in 2001), written by Masanari Kawahara, and designed by Aditi Brennan Kapil, GOTAMA follows the historical Buddha from birth to enlightenment. During pregnancy, Siddhattha’s mother had a dream in which she was bathed by spirits, and a white elephant walked around her three times and entered her side. This dream was said to prophesize Gotama’s greatness, and in what was heralded as “the last birth,” Prince Gotama was predicted by the Sages to become either a great king or a great teacher.

King Suddhodana saw a future in royalty for his young son, and Siddhatta was forbidden to leave the palace walls so as not to be exposed to the Four Sights (the old, the sick, the dead, and the holy) which would inevitably inspire him to become a teacher. Though the food was plentiful, and the women were beautiful, Prince Gotama knew that his leisurely, care-free existence could not bring him true or lasting satisfaction.

Siddhattha’s trusted charioteer Channa, played by a Julian McFaul, accompanies Prince Gotama on his journey to end all human suffering. Prince Gotama soon learns the facts of life that the palace walls had shielded him from for so many years; we all grow old, we all become sick, and we all will die one day. He then made the decision to leave his wife,

infant son, and the pleasures of palace life behind to live the life of a monk. He studied meditation and wisdom and spent six years practicing extreme forms of self deprivation.

Despite the harsh realities of the flesh that it portrays, GOTAMA is a performance full of warmth and beauty, and the original music (from Laura Harada and Tim O’Keefe) is as odd as it is enchanting.