East and West: Essay #2

Banksy, a Buddha in disguise?

David Nguyen-Huu

Humanities

D.Goldsmith

May 5th, 2010

David Nguyen-Huu Nguyen 1

Humanities

D.Goldsmith

May 5th, 2010

Banksy, a Buddha in disguise?

Banksy is an artist known for his political messages done by a form of art in which people call today,

“Graffiti”. Nonetheless, when debating the ethical issues of Banksy’s nocturnal activities, some may

consider him a criminal and others, a legend. The reason why so many people praise him is because of

his anti-capitalist, anti-war and pacifistic world views. In other words, Banksy is a peace activist. When

looking at the messages that Bansky conveys in his artwork, one may see that Banksy could possibly be a

“Buddha” of our time.

Firstly, Banksy’s messages and detachment to society is similar to Buddha’s teachings and unattached

attitude towards his disciples. Since the year 2000, Banksy has tried to keep his identity as hidden as

possible but his popularity has started to rise this year due to release of a documentary made based on

his life and his street art. Society cannot wait to put a face on “Banksy” just like they did for any other

religion, such as Christianity (i.e. Jesus & God). Similarly to identifying Banksy , the debate as to whether

Jesus actually existed or not is irrelevant. What really matters is not the figure that represents the

message, but the message itself. Society has this mentality that things will finally change when we meet

our Saviour; and that if we pray to him, good things will happen. Unfortunately, the more we praise
Banksy, the more foolish we look. Banksy’s just another human being, like us, that is capable of holding

a spray can and to paint the messages that are basically the root of Buddha’s teachings. Like Buddha

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said, “All the effort must be made by you. Buddhas only point the way.” (Easwaran, 205) In brief, Society

praises this image of Banksy and not the message that he conveys. Society also hopes that these

messages that Banksy paints will change the world, but when it all comes down to it, people must take

actions in order to make the world a better place. People are constantly hopping for a change but don’t
take any actions to do so.
Banksy : “ There is always hope”

Secondly, Banksy’s anti-capitalistic view of the world is similar to Buddha’s 2 nd Noble Truth. There’s a

similarity not only because of the messages that Banksy’s paintings convey but also because he

understands the sense of impermanence of the walls he paints on. The reason why society looks down

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upon graffiti is because they hold an attachment to this image of their material objects, which in this

case is their house, and once that image is destroyed they tend to suffer because they’re attached to the

image of what it was before; “Don’t get selfishly attached to anything for trying to hold on to it will bring

you pain.” (Easwaran, 183) . The message that I’m trying to convey is not that Banksy is necessarily doing

the right thing by destroying another person’s property; quite oppositely, his selfish ways of pleasuring

himself may eventually cause him to suffer later on. That being said, Banksy has this understanding of

the sense of “without a self”, “anatman” (Easwaran, 153), and that we are all connected. Banksy could

draw on piece of paper but instead he uses the city as his playground. He’s exposing his artwork, which

represents himself, to the world to see. Banksy is trying to convey that his art pieces are also the

society’s art pieces. The interesting thing about graffiti artists is that once they put up a work of art on a

wall that they’ve spent hours working on, they know that eventually someone will repaint over it or that

the weather (Sun, Rain, Wind) will eventually just wash it away. They know that their source of pleasure

is impermanent. In brief, Banksy and Buddha understood that the origin of suffering is attachment, and

that society has an attachment towards these material objects that are impermanent and that one day,

they’ll just be gone.

In conclusion, Banksy and Buddha understood that attachment is the origin of all suffering. This

attachment causes dependence on a certain thing in which an individual acquires happiness. Whether

it’s attaching yourself to the image of a saviour or attaching yourself to a materialistic object, it will

eventually bring great suffering. Although Banksy may not be as pacifistic as a Buddha, the messages

that he conveys are similar. Like any other religions, the root of it all is the same; it’s the way you paint it

that makes the difference.

Works Cited

Easwaran,Eknath. The Dhammapada. 2nd Edition .Canada. Nilgiri Press, 2007