Watching Movies of Life - the Movie Meditation
These descriptions of certain emotional states of mind are intended to encourage us to watch specific aspects of our life as if they were a movie. A five star movie in this list is not rated necessarily as a highly entertaining, mainstream movie. Instead, a good movie suggested here may more accurately reflect the drama of life in all its facets -- the shadow of an emotion as well as its positive side. Find out what moves you and learn to simply let it be. Meditation is watching, unidentified and non-judging.
B -- Transforming Any Situation
The shadow side
Avoiding real longings, denying love, hating oneself, deceiving people one loves, having many illusions about love, being bitter because of former rejection, repressing pain around love, not wanting to hurt others and rather getting oneself into trouble, over-burdening oneself to make everybody else happy, having a heart attack, martyr
The light side
Loving oneself, deciding for love in oneself and others, being able to transform difficult situations, following one's heart without compromise, being happy and jubilant, being compassionate, opening up to one's wounds, being innocent, celebrating oneself
Movies with these themes
John Q.
As the film opens, a young woman is driving a white BMW 5-Series down a rural-looking highway. A slow-moving truck impedes her progress, and she attempts to pass it by moving into the oncoming lane of traffic. Suddenly, a second truck looms in the oncoming lane, and it clips the woman's rear fender. The woman fishtails and comes to a stop in front of the first truck, which collides with her car, and she dies en route to the hospital (this whole ordeal is interspersed throughout the movie)...
Moulin Rouge
In 1899, a young British writer, Christian, moves to the Montmartre district of Paris to try to establish himself in the Bohemian culture. By luck, he encounters a musical troupe led by Toulouse-Lautrec that is attempting to present a new routine for Harold Zidler, the owner of the cabaret, the Moulin Rouge. Christian's writing helps to finalize the show, entitled "Spectacular! Spectacular!", and the troupe take Christian to the cabaret to present the work itself to its star courtesan, Satine, in her private chambers to win her favor...
Dances with Wolves
The film opens during an American Civil War battle. Union Army Officer Lieutenant John J. Dunbar learns that his injured leg is to be amputated. Seeing the plight of fellow soldiers with amputated legs, Dunbar attempts suicide by riding a horse across the line of fire between the opposing Union and Confederate positions. His action has the unexpected effect of rallying his comrades, who storm the Confederate positions and win the battle. After the ensuing battle, an experienced general's surgeon saves Dunbar's leg. The commanding officer names Dunbar a hero, awards him Cisco, the horse who carried him in battle, and offers Dunbar his choice of posting...
The Pursuit of Happyness
The film begins in 1981 in San Francisco, California. Linda and Chris Gardner live in a small apartment with their 5-year-old son, Christopher. Chris has invested the family's life savings in a franchise selling portable bone density scanners. These scanners provide slightly denser pictures than X-rays, but most of the doctors Chris visits find that they are too high-priced. Linda works in a dead-end job in a local hotel laundry. The tension between them mounts as unpaid rent and bills continue to accumulate. Chris often parks his car in disallowed areas so he can make scheduled appointments on time, and after parking tickets remain unpaid, their car is impounded. After missing a shift at her job, Linda finally leaves with their son Christopher, returns briefly, then departs for New York City, where a better job awaits her, leaving behind the boy at his father's request...
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Emotionally withdrawn Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) and dysfunctional free spirit Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) strike up a relationship on a Long Island Rail Road train. They are inexplicably drawn to each other, despite their radically different personalities.
Although they apparently do not realize it at the time, Joel and Clementine are in fact former lovers, now separated after having spent two years together. We learn that after a nasty fight, Clementine hired a New York firm – Lacuna, Inc. – to erase all memories of their relationship. (The term "lacuna" means a gap or missing part. Lacunar amnesia is a gap in one's memory about a specific event.) Upon discovering this, Joel is devastated and decides to undergo this same procedure himself. However, while unconscious and having these same memories erased, he rebels, realizing he wants to hold on to his memories of Clementine and himself after all...
The Notebook
In a modern day nursing home, an elderly man named Duke (James Garner) begins to read a love story from his notebook to a female fellow patient (Gena Rowlands) he has befriended.
The story begins in 1940. At a carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, local country boy Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) sees seventeen-year-old heiress Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) for the first time and is immediately smitten. She continuously refuses his persistent advances until their well-meaning friends lure them together; they then get to know each other on a midnight walk through empty Seabrook...
Sin City
In a penthouse on the roof of a skyscraper overlooking Basin City, a fancy party is in progress. A woman (Marley Shelton), dressed in a red evening gown, is alone on the balcony. A man (Josh Hartnett), who is narrating, comes up behind her and offers her a cigarette. They exchange a little small talk, he tells her that he sees in her eyes a "crazy calm", of someone who is tired of running, but doesn't want to face her problems alone. He tells her that he will save her, and take her far away. They kiss, then he shoots her. She dies in his arms. He says that he does not know who she was running from, but will "cash her check in the morning."...
Remark
Although the movie list is inspired by Tibetan Pulsing typologies on the human mind, it does not claim to be completely accurate in its assessment.
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