nesrel

Religious Influences in "The Neverending Story"

"The Neverending Story" By Michael Ende is one of my favorite books, and one of the things I like best about it are the religious themes mixed throughout it, particularly the very evident Christian ones. I have heard that Michael Ende was influenced by a Christian family in Germany, but also spent time in Japan, so perhaps picked up some Asian philosophy there. While I admire the Christian aspects the most, I have tried to look at all of the religious influences I could find. Below is a 'report' I made on an on-line forum after having read the book for the first time, giving my thoughts about the religious aspects of "The Neverending Story".

A few days ago my book finally arrived! I read it through as soon as I got it, and am now on my second read (slower and more contemplative). It was excellent, with answers to alot of questions I had about the movie (like why Atreyu didn't drown in the Swamps of Saddness when he was obviously sad) and also showed that my idea of Fantasia from the movie had not been entirely correct.

One thing that struck me right away was the conflict in Fantasia. From the movie I had always imagined that it was an idyllic place, and that Gmork was the first "evil thing" to come along. Now I find out that the different people have feuds and rivalries and there is a great deal of danger in Fantasia. I guess since it is the world of human fantasies, this should not have surprised me.

Then, there's all of the characters who never made it into the movie. This is probably why I am so critical of fantasy movies (there's really not many others that I like). Books are still the best medium for a fantasy story.

One of the things that struck me was the Christo-Judaic references. As others have mentioned, there was also Buddhist influences, regarding mostly the Empress and her attitude toward all 'Fantasticans'. But in regards to the humans, there was a very Christian undertone.

Consider how humans were known for naming things, and called by Uyulala to be "born of the Word" and "Have the gift of giving names ever since our worlds began". That made me think of Adam naming all the animals in Genisis and the introduction to Christ, "In the begining was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". There's also the Creation parallel, that God simply spoke the words and things were created.

Morla sounded like King Solomon, "Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless", which is also interesting since Morla was supposed to be the wisest being in Fantasia and Solomon was supposed to be the wises man in our world. The circular structure of time is also a very Buddhist concept. Buddha said, "All life is suffering", but I don't think Fantasia was quite the same, it might be meaningless to Morla because everything happened in cycles, names would come & go for the Empress, but it was not all suffering as they were delivered, they had ups and downs there too.

One thing new I found out from the book, which is common to Asian culture (or at least Viet culture that I'm most familiar with) is that Fantasians did not like to say the word AURYN because it was too sacred.

For instance, in Viet Nam, the old Imperial City of Hue was first named Hoa, but the people were afraid that evil spirits would be awakened if they said the forbidden word out loud so they called it Hue. Every Emperor also had a name that was forbidden for anyone to speak.

I don't really see Moon Child as a Buddha so much as someone with Buddhist attitudes who lives in a world (a book) that conforms to the Buddhist idea of time as being circular rather than linear. When Atreyu was questioning Falcor about the Empress, his reply was very Chinese-Vietnamese etc to me. She was not human, yet she was not a god (though she may have been a godlike figure) since some things were impossible for her, but was rather somewhere in between. In the same way the Vietnamese (or Chinese and maybe Japanese..) Emperor was called the "Thien Tu" or "Son of Heaven". He was not completely man and not completely a god, but was in between the two.

Moonchild seemed to be enlightened, yet she certainly wasn't in Nirvana. There really seems to be a mixture.

Concerning "The Enlightened One":
A brahmin once asked The Blessed One:
"Are you a God?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a saint?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"Are you a magician?"
"No, brahmin" said The Blessed One.
"What are you then?"
"I am awake."

See the truth, and you will see me.

While I'm at it, I'll throw out another spiritual connection: when the Empress goes to the Old Man in the mountain, writing the Neverending Story, it made me think that Christianity, the most well-documented religion, has the only other book that talks about itself within its own pages. There's also a similarity between the beings that left Fantasia, through the Nothing (an abyss) and became lies in the other world, as compared to 1/3 of the angels who also fell through an abyss and became demons in our world. I would not swear that was intentional, but, interesting.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
-Albert Einstein

Of course, I forgot the most obvious one: someone called "The Savior" riding around on a donkey (I couldn't have been the first to notice that). There are still numerous other illustrations to be found. The entire concept that a truly wise or "enlightened" person has no friends, no enemies, cares for nothing, bothers about nothing etc, is very Buddhist or old Buddhist while you could also say that Taoism is represented by the way that everything Bastion does trying to be good also has an evil consequence, that for every up there is a down etc, all very balanced. I also should have mentioned Moon Child and one of my favorite Christian quotes, "...and a little child shall lead them". My brain must be made of stone (watch out for rock chewers!)

"At this time the disciples came to Jesus and said, 'who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?' So he called a little child to Him and set the child in front of them. Then He said, 'I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And so the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." -St Matthew

Alright, here is my "in conclusion"

All & all there were several religious undertones I found about the book. I've already talked about some of these. Taoism is vaguely represented by the balance between good and evil that always seems to come about (at least until the end) and the light and dark snakes of the auryn have a very Taoist yin-yang flavor about them. I see Moonchild as a figure with a very Buddhist outlook, but not a real Buddha herself. She accepted what was, completely, whether it was good or evil, she was at complete peace with all things and all creatures. However, the height of Buddhism is perhaps best illustrated by the Nothing rather than the heroes as the goal of Buddhism is to be totally detached from all good and evil desires, to have no friends, no enemies, no pleasure, no pain or anything to bind us to the cycle of rebirth (Nirvana really means "blowing out" as in, no more cares or desires of any kind, total tranquility and nothingness). However, the Childlike Empress was certainly not so detached, neither morally, though she recognized no moral distinctions in her subjects, nor in her own lifestyle which was certainly not the bare, sparse existence of someone who has left material possessions and comfort behind.
Buddhist principles were most obvious to me in Xayide's temptation of Bastion and how wisdom and detachment was all that could bring him peace. In order to feel no pain she encouraged him to feel nothing at all. Once he did this, Bastion often seemed to take on the Buddhist idea that "all life is suffering". It also struck me that the closest Bastion came to a true Nirvana type experience was just after leaving the pictures mine when he had no memories left, no past and no sense of self, however, even here he still felt something, he still had an attachment to the picture even though he could not remember why. And in that case, what he experienced was clearly not the bliss of enlightenment Buddhists believes comes with a lack of all desire and attachments.
I won't go over the similarities between Buddhism, the wisdom of Solomon and the "wise" Morla, or the striking connections between Christian tradition and the events of the Southern Oracle; that's been covered. On the Christian side of it, the greatest general conclusion I could draw from the book was at the very end. First, the idea of the Fountain of the Water of Life is quite remarkable, it is the same things that is said to flow from the Throne of God. Which came to mind when it was hinted to Bastion that one day his world and Fantasia could come together, since the mention of the Water of Life in the Apocalypse corresponds with the merging of Heaven and Earth, when everything will be recreated and God will dwell among the people. Finally though, the overall spiritual moral that seemed to stand out to me most can best be summed up by reading the 13th Chapter of Corinthians.
What happened to Bastion in Fantasia after all? By his wishes be became the bravest, the strongest, the most renowned and the wisest being in all Fantasia, he was hailed above all others and became powerful enough to challenge the Empress herself, and yet, what was it that he always lacked and what eventually brought him his own ?salvation? in returning home? In the words of St Paul:
"If I have all of the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will profit me nothing; In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love."

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