The Cinema Analogy

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Ramana Maharshi was the first Sage to use the Cinema Show as an analogy .Here is

his explanation

from 'Spiritual Instruction'

..

QUESTION

13. How can there be a connection between the Self which is pure knowledge and

the triple

factors[the knower,knowing and the known] which are relative knowledge?

 

BHAGAVAN

 

This is, in a way, like the working of a cinema as shown below:-

 

 

 

CINEMA SHOW

 

SELF

 

1/ The lamp inside (the apparatus) 1/ The Self

2/ The lens in front of the lamp 2/ The pure (sattvic) mind close to the Self.

3/ The film which is a long series of (separate photos). 3/ The stream of latent

tendencies

consisting of subtle thoughts.

4/ The lens, the light passing through it and the lamp, which together form the

focused light. 4/

The mind, the illumination of it and the Self, which together form the seer or

the Jiva.

5/ The light passing through the lens and falling on the screen. 5/ The light of

the Self emerging

from the mind through the senses, and falling on the world.

6/ The various kinds of pictures appearing in the light of the screen. 6/ The

various forms and

names appearing as the objects perceived in the light of the world.

7/ The mechanism which sets the film in motion. 7/ The divine law manifesting

the latent

tendencies of the mind.

 

 

 

Just as the pictures appear on the screen as long as the film throws the shadows

through the lens,

so the phenomenal world will continue to appear to the individual in the waking

and dream states

as long as there are latent mental impressions. Just as the lens magnifies the

tiny specks on the

film to a huge size and as a number of pictures are shown in a second, so the

mind enlarges the

sprout-like tendencies into tree-like thoughts and shows in a second innumerable

worlds. Again,

just as there is only the light of the lamp visible when there is no film, so

the Self alone

shines without the triple factors when the mental concepts in the form of

tendencies are absent in

the states of deep sleep, swoon and samadhi. Just as the lamp illumines the

lens, etc., while

remaining unaffected, the Self illumines the ego (chidabhasa), etc., while

remaining unaffected.

 

 

 

=====

alan

 

 

 

 

 

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