Pulp Fiction analysis - part 13: Butch as a 'self-less' person; the Diamond Sutra

CATEGORY: MOVIES

Recall that we have already determined that Butch Coolidge is a bodhisattva warrior. To review: Mahayana Buddhism regards the bodhisattva as a person who already has a considerable degree of enlightenment and seeks to use their wisdom to help other human beings to become liberated themselves. In this understanding of the word, the bodhisattva is an already wise person.[a] With this in mind, we must ask ourselves, why does it not seem to us, the Pulp Fiction audience, that Butch has become a being who goes around helping people liberate themselves?

The answer to this question can be found in certain passages in the venerated Buddhist writing on the subject of wisdom, the Diamond Sutra. Before we look at these passages, however, let us first consider the name 'Butch'. One way that this name has historically been used, at least in America, is as a popular nickname, or 'generic' name, for an everyday boy or man. In this usage it is a name which conveys little in the way of identity to its owner.

With this idea of 'Butch' as a 'self-less' name in mind, let's look at some passages from the sutra. In the following excerpts, which are from the Red Pine translation, the speaker is the historical Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, and he is speaking to Subhuti, a senior monk. 'Tathagata' is the name the Buddha uses to refer to himself.

"Subhuti, a bodhisattva who creates the perception of a being cannot be called a 'bodhisattva'. And why not? Subhuti, no one can be called a bodhisattva who creates the perception of a self...

"[Subhuti], these fearless bodhisattvas do not create the perception of a self. Nor do they create the perception of a being, a life, or a soul. Nor, Subhuti, do these fearless bodhisattvas create the perception of a dharma [a virtuous path], much less the perception of no dharma. Subhuti, they do not create a perception nor no perception. And why not? Because, Subhuti, if these fearless bodhisattvas created the perception of a dharma, they would be attached to a self, a being, a life, and a soul. Likewise, if they created the perception of no dharma, they would be attached to a self, a being, a life, and a soul...

"Subhuti, if any bodhisattva should thus claim, 'I shall bring about the transformation of a world,' such a claim would be untrue. And how so? The transformation of a world, Subhuti, the 'transformation of a world' is said by the Tathagata to be no transformation. Thus is it called the 'transformation of a world.' Therefore, Subhuti, fearless bodhisattvas should thus give birth to a thought that is not attached and not give birth to a thought attached to anything. They should not give birth to a thought attached to a sight. Nor should they give birth to a thought attached to a sound, a smell, a taste, a touch, or a dharma...

"Subhuti, someone who sets forth on the bodhisattva path should give birth to the thought, 'In the realm of complete nirvana, I shall liberate all beings. And while I thus liberate beings, not a single being is liberated'...Subhuti, there is no such dharma as setting forth on the bodhisattva path."[b]

Note the idea of a bodhisattva as someone not attached to a self, which is in line with what was said above about Butch's name conveying little in the way of self-identity. The method of speaking (and thinking) in seeming paradoxes, which is used in the sutra passages, is one of the essences of Buddhist teaching. The basic idea here is that Buddhism teaches that many bodhisattvas neither teach nor announce themselves in any way at all, but live apparently ordinary lives and help other sentient beings by stealth. In light of this, it is not incongruous for Butch to appear to us to behave as if he does 'not know' that he is a bodhisattva.

As an aside, Butch Coolidge could be taken to correspond to the "Man with No Name" from director Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy movies. The gold watch in Pulp Fiction would then correspond to the pocket watch from For a Few Dollars More, the second movie in the trilogy.


a. Wikipedia, 'Bodhisattva'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva.
b. The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom. Trans. and commentary Red Pine. New York: Counterpoint, 2001. pp. 3, 5, 8-9, 17.