a REALLY good joke

I was listening to filk style song about A Fish Called Wanda and it had a lot of lines from the movie in it. One struck me as special. Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), in the middle of yelling at Otto (Kevin Kline), says The central message of Buddhism is not "every man for himself." I always enjoyed this line but it just occurred to me now that it is especially clever. After all Buddhism is very inward looking as far as I understand it. My father practiced a Japanese form of Buddhism and what I know I learned from him. One of the core concepts is that of personal enlightenment. Furthermore, the Gohonzon that Buddhists chant to, the center of their alters, is a reflection of themselves. So they are praying (if you can call it that) to themselves as each follower focuses on themselves. In this way someone who doesn't completely grok it or who is a little slow (like Otto) could misinterpret Buddhisms message as "every man to himself." In the midst of all the great jokes that make up the rest of the film, there are gems like this one. It shows that the writers took care even with the throw away lines. Truly a great film. Huzzah to you John Cleese and Charles Crichton.