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.
Q -- Pure Joy Of Life
The shadow side
Under pressure, being burdened by problems, to overwork and overstress, always needing to improve a little bit more, being tense, dark and depressed, inferiority complex, also overcompensating, showing off, pressuring others, demanding, narrow-minded, being a shirker
The light side
Full of joy, breathing deeply, being expansive, being light and joyful, being democratic with others without putting pressure on anybody, allowing space, being inspired by joy of living
Movies with these themes
Thank You for Smoking
Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is the Vice President of and the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a tobacco lobby whose stated purpose is to research the links between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer. Unsurprisingly, the group, funded by cigarette companies, does not find any link between the two. Nick's job requires him to inform the public of these results, as well as defend the rights of smokers. The film follows his career as a talking head for Big Tobacco, appearing in both public speaking engagements and on television programs. Each week, Nick meets with Polly Bailey (Maria Bello) and Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner), lobbyists for the alcohol and firearms industries respectively, for lunch and mutual support. The three jokingly refer to themselves as "the M.O.D. Squad" (alluding to both the phrase "Merchants Of Death" and the television show The Mod Squad)...
Bread and Tulips
An Italian housewife, Rosalba Barletta (Maglietta), finds herself stranded during a family vacation. Instead of waiting for her controlling businessman husband, she hitchhikes her way home, only to impulsively detour to Venice. She finds accommodations with a restaurant maitre d', Fernando Girasole (Ganz), and soon finds herself enjoying her new life. Meanwhile, her husband has sent a bumbling plumber (Battiston) as a private detective to find her...
The Cell
Child psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is an expert in an experimental treatment for coma patients. A virtual reality device allows her to enter into the minds of her patients, which are rendered as 3D worlds, and attempt to coax them from their comas. When serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher falls into a coma before the FBI can locate his final victim, Agent Novak (Vince Vaughn) convinces Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover the victim's location. As Deane enters Stargher's mind, his victim is trapped in a cell that slowly fills with water by means of an automatic timer.
Inside Stargher's dark and twisted mind, Deane is almost immediately confronted with Stargher's murderous personality, which manifests as a demonic tyrant. Stifling her initial fears, Deane comes to discover the innocent half of Stargher's psyche. He shows her the traumatic events that twisted his mind to murder, including his father's abuse, a seizure during his baptism, and the drowning of a wounded bird as a mercy killing. Deane attempts to nurture the innocent side of Stargher's mind, but his powerful murderous half thwarts her...
The Insider
In Lebanon, Hezbollah militants escort producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) to Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah, where Lowell convinces him to be interviewed by Mike Wallace (Plummer) for CBS show 60 Minutes. In Louisville, Kentucky, Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) packs his belongings and leaves his Brown and Williamson office, returning home to his wife Liane (Venora) and two children, one of whom suffers from acute asthma. When Liane asks about the boxes in Wigand's car, he reveals that he was fired from his job that morning...
Patton
The film documents the story of General George S. Patton (George C. Scott) during World War II, beginning with his taking charge of demoralized American forces in North Africa after the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, leading them to victory at the Battle of El Guettar. He then participates in the invasion of Sicily and races against the equally egotistical British General Bernard Law Montgomery to capture the Sicilian port of Messina.
After he beats Montgomery into the city, Patton is relieved of command for slapping a shell-shocked soldier in an Army hospital. This incident, along with his tendency to speak his mind to the press, gets the general in trouble and he is sidelined during the invasion of Europe. Later, he begs his former subordinate, General Omar Bradley (Karl Malden), for a command before the war ends. He is given the U.S. Third Army, and distinguishes himself by rapidly sweeping across France and later relieving the vital town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Later, Patton smashes through the German "West Wall" and drives into Germany itself...
First Daughter
Samantha Mackenzie (Katie Holmes), the President's daughter, has been in the public eye for quite a long time. She has recently spent a sheltered existence in the White House with her father (Michael Keaton), who is usually too busy taking care of the country to look after his daughter. Accompanied by Secret Service agents everywhere she goes, Samantha finally believes she has the chance to break out of her cocoon when she is given the opportunity to attend college.
Though still followed by Secret Service agents, Samantha at last feels as if she is leading a normal life. She ends up sharing a dorm with tough-talking Mia (Amerie), and the two instantly strike up a friendship and embrace their new freedom. In a classroom, Samantha meets James (Marc Blucas), who Samantha feels is the icing on the cake of her new life at the college. But there is more to James than she initially thought, and Samantha must learn that the two sides of her life do not have to be separate from each other in order for her entire life to be content.
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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