Nonduality

Phenomenon is an excellent movie... all things being
dual once expressed, I would also recommend the movie 'Powder' about a child
that was born an albino (sp?) and was locked away in the basement in his
grandparents farm with the works of the greatest scolars, poets, and scientists
of our time.... it is an excellent movie that shows another side of the same
concept in Phenonmenon. These movies set up nicely against each other. The stars
are the guy from Millenium, Jeff Goldbloom, Mary Steinburgen (sp?.. Ted Danson's
wife).... it is also on video... I would be interested in seeing what some of
you think about it.

--Tim Harris

Most here have probably seen the Sci-Fi movie Logan's Run (1976). I see
some nondual parallels in this movie. Here is a very interesting website:

http://www.transparencynow.com/logtable.htm

Enjoy,

Tim Gerchmez

Anyone see that Italian movie that came out earlier this year, "Life is
Beautiful?" It was a comedy-drama about an Italian Jew and his young son
who are forced into a concentration camp. The father helps his son to cope
with the horror by telling him that it is all a game, and that if they
behave themselves properly and do what they're supposed to they get points,
and if they get enough points the son gets a real tank at the end of the
game. It's quite hilarious, and alternately tragic, to watch how convoluted
the father's story becomes as life in the camp continues to deteriorate.
Yet through it all, he keeps up a good face for his son's sake and the kid
never suspects that the horrors are anything but an elaborate "game" staged
for his benefit. The father is a goofy, Chaplinesque character who manages
to bumble his way through some close calls. I won't give away the ending if
anyone hasn't seen the movie yet, but it's bittersweet.

--Petros

I'd like to add another - the movie "Jacob's Ladder." This movie deals
with dream vs. reality, attachment to "the world," death, and various other
interesting things. Another good "nondual appetizer." I remember first
seeing this movie in the theater, and when it was over half the audience
sat unmoving through the credits, their mouths hanging wide open in literal
shock.

--Tim Gerchmez

fully intending to watch jacob's ladder again, prompted by tim's discussion
of it, i instead have broken my vcr.
this is not an unusual occurance in my home. electronics just go haywire
here. go figure.

i was a bit disappointed, but turned to my last resort, the dreaded
television. jacob's ladder was on the starz channel, and just starting. i
think i shall use above mentioned vcr as a door stop, and start watching the
"chance movies!"

it occured to me, upon a third viewing of this film that a similar
exploration of consciousness is explored in Ambrose Bierce's short story, "An
Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge." A beautifully haunting film was made of
this-- a man is being hanged, and a mixture of real/unreal goes through his
mind in the instant. older film-- i saw it at school in the seventh grade:)
but here's a link to the Bierce story:

http://www.litrix.com/owlcreek/owlcr001.htm

Tomas contributed:

I recently saw the movie "Pleasantville"- a brother and sister get
zapped into one of those 50's black and white father knows best kinda
worlds. It's a cooky backdrop but it was good- the brother and sister
end up completely changing their universe with possibilities they never
considered and soon color begins appearing in their black and white
world!

I think the reactions to the changes in the "Pleasantville", as well as
the effect of these changes on the people, had metaphorical depth-
enough for me to say it had nondual appetizer taste to it.


while I'm on the subject and becuase I saw Tim provide an oldy and a
goody (Altered States), I'de like to offer a few other interesting
video's that I have enjoyed at one time or another (I actually had these
writen on a list I keep):

-Lost Highway (try to figure it out- it's a dark zen koan of movie)
-In the Mouth of Madness (a little cheezy but has some interesting
moments- dark Reality twisting with some cheezy horror thrown in-)
-The Big Labowski (I loved this one- great fun, great characters-
laughed my ass off- it had a jestfull and sweet nondual flavor)
-Event Horizon- (This really freaked me out at the time- I saw this as a
big metaphor for the drama surrounding the fear that must be faced)

Movie: "The Addiction"

This is ostentibly a vampire movie, where a girl studying philosophy in
school is bitten by a vampire and becomes a vampire. The film (1996)
starring Christopher Walken and Annabella Sciorra, is shot entirely in
black and white. This movie explores the nature of addiction and
attachment. At the end of the film, the girl reaches this philosophical
conclusion (after accepting the blessings of a priest and renouncing her
vampirism): Self-realization consists of the annihilation of self (quoted
verbatim).

You HAVE to see this movie! At the end, I shut off the VCR and chills were
running up and down my spine. I was thanking Grace again and again for
what this movie revealed. Please see it! Please

--Tim Gerchmez

Tim Gerchmez contributes:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire
off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark
near the Tannhauser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time...
like tears in rain. Time... to die."

... Rutger Hauer, from "Blade Runner" (partly improvised line)


Bruce Morgen responds:

"Blade Runner" was derived
from the P.K. Dick novel
"Do Androids Dream Of
Electric Sheep?" Good
movie, good book, good
question.

Anyone see that Italian movie that came out earlier this year, "Life is
Beautiful?" It was a comedy-drama about an Italian Jew and his young son
who are forced into a concentration camp. The father helps his son to cope
with the horror by telling him that it is all a game, and that if they
behave themselves properly and do what they're supposed to they get points,
and if they get enough points the son gets a real tank at the end of the
game. It's quite hilarious, and alternately tragic, to watch how convoluted
the father's story becomes as life in the camp continues to deteriorate.
Yet through it all, he keeps up a good face for his son's sake and the kid
never suspects that the horrors are anything but an elaborate "game" staged
for his benefit. The father is a goofy, Chaplinesque character who manages
to bumble his way through some close calls. I won't give away the ending if
anyone hasn't seen the movie yet, but it's bittersweet.

--Petros

Saw "American Beauty" for the third time tonight, and this time was aware
of the nondual "elements" in the film. I pretty much missed these elements
on the first viewing, at least intellectually (I was too enraptured by the
film) and the second viewing was a flop, the day after the first (couldn't
sit through it, it was too soon).

Wowowowowowowowowowowow!!!!!! What a screenplay!! Still #6 on the
Internet Movie Database, an ASTOUNDING achievement (The Matrix is still in
the top 40, as well, for anyone who cares -- also quite an achievement
after being out so long).

For those who aren't familiar with the Internet Movie Database, the ratings
consist purely of the "popular vote," not any professional reviewer's vote.
It's the ultimate democratic rating system.

I urge anyone to watch this film and look for the nondual perspective.
It's there. It emerges as the story progresses.

The main character, "Lester Burnham" (Kevin Spacey) discovers it in the
last few moments of his life. His daughter's boyfriend "Ricky Fitts" (Wes
Bentley) always knew it. He's the "Realized One" in the film. And his
daughter discovers she always knew it, through her relationship with Ricky
Fitts (at least, I *think* that's what's going on).

These are the focal characters in the film, and the rest consist of the
whirlwind surrounding this "Trinity."

There's so much happening behind the scenes and between the lines of this
film, it's unbelievable. The movie isn't even about what it professes to
be about ("suburban angst" and such). It's about beauty. That's what the
movie is about. Everything else is icing.

--Tim Gerchmez

Recommended Movies, by Gene Poole

Gene Poole's Home Page

Last night I rented "Why did Bodhi-Dharma Leave for the West". It instantly
jumps onto my all-time best list, along with Mayakovsky's "Solaris", and de
Sica's "The Bicycle Thief".

This movie is "about" Zen, meditation, the search for enlightenment. A
young man leaves his ailing mother to go study with an elderly Zen monk in
the mountains. There, he finds that the monk has adopted a little orphan
boy. Together, the three of them form an unlikely household. The elderly
monk teaches the young man with koans and sayings that form the spiritual
background of the lush imagery. The young boy becomes a complex character
in his own right as, left alone for hours by the two meditating men who
care for him, he has adventures with birds, other small children, and an
escaped cow that mature him until, at the end, he almost seems to be a
replica, in miniature, of the old monk.

The movie is long, slow, unbelievably poetic, beautifully photographed.
This movie has the best visual metaphors for spiritual experience I have
ever seen. The ending is incredible but I won't give it away.

Warning: this movie requires patience, especially the first hour when you
are not quite sure what is going on. But it rewards your attention and by
the end it is completely riveting.

A Reviews of Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? is here:
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1066282

David Hodges

GREG GOODE AND GLORIA LEE

from NoDoer list

GREG:
One of the best depictions I've ever seen was in a Chinese
film, _LIFE ON A STRING_. A man was born blind, and for many
years studied the banjo with his teacher. Before the teacher
died, one of the last things he told the blind youth was that
when he played the banjo enough to break 1000 strings, he
would be able to see. So he travelled the countryside,
playing for villages and became sort of a psychic seer as he
got older and broke more and more strings in the course of
playing. There is great dramatic tension around the time of
the 100th string. And "seeing" is played with in the film,
both as ocular vision and also as enlightenment.

The film's end brought tears of sweetness and joy to my eyes!
I highly recommend it!

There's also Keanu Reeves' LITTLE BUDDHA but LIFE ON A STRING
is much better!

Love,

--Greg

GLORIA:
Wow, I hope to find that movie, thanks Greg. I found a
description of one of those Japanese "worlds of meaning"
evoked by one word, like they do in haikus. This is from Alan
Watts, embedded within a huge talk he gave on emptiness. With
the untranslatable word yugen, you see how its suggested best
by images.

Somehow, you know, it's so well-said that it's not so bad
after all. The poet has got the intuition that things are
always running out, that things are always disappearing, has
some hidden marvel in it. I was discussing with someone
during the lunch intermission, the Japanese have a word
_yugen_, which has no English equivalent whatsoever. Yugen is
in a way digging change. It's described poetically, you have
the feeling of yugen when you see out in the distant water
some ships hidden behind a far-off island. You have the
feeling of yugen when you watch wild geese suddenly seen and
then lost in the clouds. You have the feeling of yugen when
you look across Mt Tamapeis, and you've never been to the
other side, and you see the sky beyond. You don't go over
there to look and see what's on the other side, that wouldn't
be yugen. You let the other side be the other side, and it
invokes something in your imagination, but you don't attempt
to define it to pin it down. Yugen. So in the same way, the
coming and going of things in the world is marvelous. They
go. Where do they go? Don't answer, because that would spoil
the mystery. They vanish into the mystery. But if you try to
persue them, you destroy yugen. That's a very curious thing,
but that idea of yugen, which in Chinese characters means, as
it were, kind of 'the deep mystery of the valley.' There's a
poem in Chinese which says 'The wind drops, but the petals
keep falling. The bird calls, and the mountain becomes more
mysterious.' Isn't that strange? There's no wind anymore, and
yet petals are dropping. And a bird in the canyon cries, and
that one sound in the mountains brings out the silence with a
wallop.

I remember when I was almost a child in the Pyrenees in the
southwest of France. We went way up in this gorgeous silence
of the mountains, but in the distance we could hear the bells
on the cows clanking. And somehow those tiny sounds brought
out the silence. And so in the same way, slight permanances
bring out change. And they give you this very strange sense.
Yugen. The mystery of change. You know, in Elliot's poem,
'The Four Quartets,' where he says 'The dark, dark, dark.
They all go into the dark, distinguished families, members of
the book of the director of directors, everybody, they all go
into the dark.' Life IS life, you see, because, just because
it's always disappearing.

http://www.deoxy.org/w_world.htm