Guest guest Posted June 4, 2002 Report Share Posted June 4, 2002 , David Hodges <dhodges@o...> wrote: > Last night I rented a new DVD called "Waking Life" Waking Life is a movie > that explores the nature of dream and reality. I had heard it described to > me as a "Jungian" movie but it isn't that. It is a NonDual movie. It pushes > and pushes towards the dissolving of boundaries. At one point the lead > character - who is dreaming - is in a theater, watching a movie in which > the two characters discuss the nature of film and reality and then turn > into clouds! > > Explore the website here: http://www.wakinglifemovie.com/ > > The question the main character pursues throughout the movie is, "How can I > wake up?" He discovers, you see, that he is in a dream and every time he > wakes up he is dreaming that he woke up. > > Oh yes, this film is an animated movie. Watching the sheer beauty of the > animation always gives us something wonderful to look at and gives the film > maker a great deal of creative license to illustrate the ideas the > characters are presenting. The film was shot on a digital video camera, > then animators converted every frame to animation, preserving the sound > track but having a great deal of fun with the images themselves. > > At the end, the main character encounters a man playing pinball who, it > turns out, is the director of the film. The director starts to tell a story > from the life of P.K. Dick and then the director says, "Well, if you really > want to wake up, why don't you?" At which point the hero find himself > outside his childhood home where he slowly, gently lifts into the sky and > floats off, higher and higher. > > Waking Life is a movie that stays with you. > > This morning I woke up and lay in bed for a while. It was Monday. I thought > of all I had to do: get up, wash face, take vitamins, make coffee, defrost > bagel, go downstairs and get paper, eat breakfast and read paper, shower, > shave, get dressed, and meet the workday. It seemed infinitely wearisome. > But then I finally did get up and the day started to unreel on its own > accord. Surprises kept happening. I had cereal instead of a bagel. I did > last night's dishes before getting the paper. I found time to do a bit of > yoga to stretch my aching back. > > In other words, the day unreeled just like a dream, beyond volition. This > is waking life. Things just keep happening. There is no need to keep up an > illusion of control, nor is there a need to keep up an illusion that it is > happening to anyone in particular. Yes, you continue to feel emotions and > experience things like pain and pleasure, loneliness and happiness, > backaches and heartaches, but these are just happening too and will keep on > unreeling with everything else. If you watch long enough they all turn into > clouds in the end. > > --David And who says that movie going is not for the "enlightenment set"? Why just recently Eli Jaxon Bear, Self-Realization teacher, unfurled The Enneagram to shed light on personality archetypes of the silvery screen. When I rented Vanilla Sky the other day, I still was not prepared to do an enneagrammatic analysis of or know who, the lead actor, Tom Cruise, really really is. Did I read that this movie, too, was based on P.K.Dick, I dunno. It does however push the boudaries between wakefulness and dreams. Tommy C. plays the role of the hunkahunka, rich boy persona; oozing charisma, good looks and money, why would he have to "knowreality"? Right, ya guessed it: Just when he has realized his true self, read: he finds truelove, decides to grow-up and fulfill his destiny as a model CEO, his "karma" delivers him a tragedy. You know, I was tempted to rewind: it wasn't easy to sort through the subtext on Lucid dreaming and cryonics while suspecting a subliminal influence of Scientology. NonDual? "Why soytainly..." Our hunkahunka guy must discover on his own that everything his mind has conjured, even the emotional rapport he has with his Shrink, is imaginary (Now, it would not be Netiquette to reveal more of the plot). CJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2002 Report Share Posted June 4, 2002 And for obvious reasons, the title got changed...since we all know that today the sheep are all cloned, rather than being merely electric simulacrums. I fear that these movies, unless very carefully crafted, tend to confuse the average movie goer, rather than illuminate. It requires a deft directorial hand and a clear vision. Hey, maybe we should try to create a screen play or treatment for a non-duality, waking, dreaming, breakthrough movie? Please suggest titles... I think this could be fun... Blessings, Zenbob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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