Little Buddha (1993)

Jigme Kunsang: Champa

Photos 

Quotes 

• Champa : [as they observe Lama Norbu, who is old and ailing, in a state of deep meditation]  Someone like Lama Norbu can remain like this for ten days. Or even more. He can sit like a mountain, serene and unmovable. And he can meditate deep and vast as ocean. And then smoothly, while doing meditation, he can enter into the state of death, with his own will.

  Dean Conrad : He's dying.

  Champa : We are all of us dying every minute. Death is a big part of life. Every breath that we breathe, we die.

  Dean Conrad : What about his passion for life? What about the people he's leaving behind?

  Champa : He will come back.

  Dean Conrad : I don't know if I believe it, but I'd like to.

• [first lines] 

  Lama Norbu : Once upon a time, in a village in ancient India, there was a little goat and a priest. The priest wanted to sacrifice the goat to the gods. He raised him arm to cut the goat's throat, when suddenly the goat began to laugh. The priest stopped, amazed, and asked the goat, "why do you laugh? Don't you know I'm about to cut your throat?" "Oh yes," said the goat. "After 499 times dying and being reborn as a goat, I will be reborn as a human being." Then the little goat began to cry. The high priest said, "why now are you crying?" And the goat replied, "for you, poor priest. Five hundred lives ago I too was a high priest, and sacrificed goats to the gods." The priest dropped to his knees, saying, "forgive me, I beg. From now on I will be the guardian and protector of every goat in the land."

  [children laughing] 

  Lama Norbu : Now, what does this ancient tale teach us?

  Children : [in unison]  That no living creature must ever be sacrificed.

  Boy : What happened to the goat?

  Lama Norbu : Ah, yes. The goat - hmm - had many many lives as a human being. Until one day he turned into someone very strange indeed. Champa, show us something of your previous life...

  Champa : B-a-a-a-a-a

  [children all laughing] 

  Champa : B-a-a-a-a-a