However, you also can't be totally upset with Disney for raising you on generalized views of the world. Like everything else, Disney has its good and bad. On the merit side of things, I feel that Disney has captured many of the important life lessons that most people would agree are good values to grow up on. Using "Colors of the Wind" as the focus of analysis, we can see that this song portrays several significant concepts such as the consequences of greed and materialism, the oneness of nature, and the importance of creating peace and harmony with those who are different from us. While these are generally universal ideas that most people can appreciate or agree with, taking them one step further into a deeper analysis of how these ideas reflect the truths of the greater reality enables us to view them through a Buddhist lens.
Yes, being greedy and materialistic are not positive traits to have. Taking that one step further, greed and materialism are indicators of an unwholesome view of the world because it involves false notions about possession and ownership of something that is constantly changing and interdependent on everything else. Thus, you can't possibly "own" or "possess" anything. Understanding this will remove desire that is unwholesome. A more wholesome desire to embrace would be one that strives for the greater goals of reality.
Yes, we all understand the food chain and the circle of life. But what does that really mean? It means we are all interdependent and the success of each and every being depends on each and every other being in a system that is neither hierarchical nor stratified. Like the glittering jewel in which we see the reflections of thousands of other glittering jewels, we are all connected by a fragile string of web that, if cut, creates an imbalance in the natural order of the universe in which we lose sight of several precious jewels.
Yes, getting to know those who are different from you will make you a more open-minded person. But that's not the point. The point is that we should not only recognize that we are different from one another as beings, but that we should relate fully to each other as impermanent, interdependent beings and construct mutually wholesome relationships based on actual difference rather than imagined uniformity.
It's not simply the concepts themselves that make them Buddhist. I think every religion, philosophy, and moral code written for man preaches these teachings. Rather, it's the specificity and complexity of these concepts that we can extract from deep within these basic life lessons that help us realize our roles as interdependent and impermanent beings in the greater reality of the universe that speak to uniquely Buddhist teachings.
I hope you enjoyed my exploration of Buddhist elements within "Colors of the Wind." :-)
