Enlightened movies

[Jetsun]

I just saw one of the most enlightened movies I have seen in ages which is called "Her" with Joaquin Phoenix http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/ definitely worth a watch, it also doubles up as a great film for those who aren't so much into the enlightening part of it.

[silent thunder]

I just saw one of the most enlightened movies I have seen in ages which is called "Her" with Joaquin Phoenix http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/ definitely worth a watch, it also doubles up as a great film for those who aren't so much into the enlightening part of it.

I worked on that. I still haven't seen it myself, I'll add it to the list.

[Jetsun]

I worked on that. I still haven't seen it myself, I'll add it to the list.

In what regard did you work on it? I'm surprised I haven't heard more about it so far, its getting rave reviews and winning many awards yet isn't very well known yet

[silent thunder]

I build props and scenery.

[GrandmasterP]

I build props and scenery.

 

Off topic, apologies; but I'm curious.

Do you get free passes to see the movies you have worked on?

[C T]

Surprisingly there was no mention of Powder. Have a lil' peep:

 

[silent thunder]

Off topic, apologies; but I'm curious. Do you get free passes to see the movies you have worked on?

I get invites to most of them, not all, but have only attended two and that was to hang out with the crew, not for the film.

Most movies are not my thing... I'm a picky twat.

[Vmarco]

Powder was second on my list....still not on Netflix stream.

 

There's a new film, that may have some spiritual content, like the Matrix or Limitless,...however, it does not appear to be coming to Thailand. Too bad,...as they have awesome theaters here.

 

[eye_of_the_storm]

Powder was second on my list....still not on Netflix stream.

 

There's a new film, that may have some spiritual content, like the Matrix or Limitless,...however, it does not appear to be coming to Thailand. Too bad,...as they have awesome theaters here.

 

 

Saw it recently, recommended.

 

Personally don't subscribe to the Darwinian theory of evolution but the other stuff is cool

[Vmarco]

 

 

Personally don't subscribe to the Darwinian theory of evolution but the other stuff is cool

 

I somewhat agree with the Darwinian theory, but not from a beginning to end way,...because time is one,...thus the Darwinian view is better understood from an end to a beginning point of view,....like a screenwriter coming up with an end idea, and devising a beginning to make the story plausible.

[Anoesjka]

Lucy! Pun intended, I assume?

[Vmarco]

Lucy! Pun intended, I assume?

You mean as in Australopithecus afarensis,...a new leap for humankind?

[spatha]

Riddick

[C T]

Powder was second on my list....still not on Netflix stream.

Indeed it was!

[Anoesjka]

You mean as in Australopithecus afarensis,...a new leap for humankind?

 

No, not really, but more like the matchstick guy. Lucy, Luigi, Luge, Loki.

[Satya]

I love to see a re-make of Moby Dick based on Jed McKenna's Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment... where McKenna interweaves the inherent spirituality of "Moby-Dick".

Yeah. Just a remake that was verbatim to the book Moby Dick would do. Or, maybe that scrimped on some of the monologues on whaling (there's a LOT on whaling and whales in the book, haha).

 

Though, someone who was aware of Jed's book doing a remake would be best.

 

Maybe we'll get lucky and some animator will get on it one day. With increase in bedroom tech availability, people can make AMAZING CGI/animation from their homes (here's a good example of what one and/or a small amount of people can do:

) Edited August 6, 2014 by Satya

[Vmarco]

Yeah. Just a remake that was verbatim to the book Moby Dick would do. Or, maybe that scrimped on some of the monologues on whaling (there's a LOT on whaling and whales in the book, haha).

 

Though, someone who was aware of Jed's book doing a remake would be best.

 

 

 

I would not care to view a Moby Dick remake that did not take into account Jed McKenna's "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment." Even the Moby Dick expert in the book was permanently overwhelmed by Mc Kenna's commentary.

 

We surely need some awesome screenplays. I'd love to see a sort of remake of the Matrix without the all the shoot'em up stuff. Even more so, the story of Tilopa's Shoe. Wow! Put a $100 million into that, with Keanu Reeves as Tilopa, and Mark Ruffalo as Naropa,...what a filn that would be.

 

Tilopa's Shoe

 

 

The story of Tilopa's Shoe is one of my personal favorites, and has been an integral guide in my life's path since I read it at 19. It's a story of intrigue, magick, humor, and enlightenment. Much of the following was adapted from Alexandra David-Neel's 1929 'Mystiques et Magicens du Thibet' as told to her through the oral tradition. Madame David-Neel, who was fluent in Tibetan, spent fourteen years in the magical and mysterious Land of Snows.

 

 

Tilopa was a Bengali, some say of noble caste, who lived during the 11th Century CE. He chose to leave his home and seek realization through meditation and study in a remote area near the Tibetan border. While seated in a cave reading a philosophic treatise, a beggar woman appeared behind him, read a few lines over his shoulder and asked abruptly, "do you understand what you are reading?" Tilopa was irked. What does this witch mean by such an unmannerly question, he thought. But before he could express his feelings, she spit on the book. Tilopa jumps up and shouts "how dare you spit on the Holy Scriptures". The woman then spits again on the book, utters a word Tilopa cannot understand, and disappears.

 

Tilopa felt an uncomfortable sensation through his body. Doubt of his knowledge arose in his mind. After all he pondered, it may be true that he had not understood the doctrine expounded in the treatise, or any doctrine whatever, and that he may be an absolute dunce. What did that strange woman say, he thought. What was that word he did not comprehend? He felt he must know it. And so Tilopa started in search of the old woman. After much wandering, he found her at night in a solitary wood. She was seated along, her red eyes shining like live coals in the darkness. She was a Dakini, a kind of faery or 'sky-flyer' who played a great part in mystic Tibet as teachers of secret doctrines. They often appear in the shape of an aged woman, and one of their peculiar signs is that they have red or green eyes.

 

In the course of the conversation, Tilopa was directed to go to the Dakini's land, in order to meet their queen and learn the Heart teachings of the Dakini. She told him that on the road, countless dangers awaited him, like abysses, roaring torrents, ferocious animals, delusive mirages. If he allowed himself to be overpowered by fear or missed the narrow, threadlike path winding across this terrible region, he would fall prey to monsters. If he drank at the clear springs or ate the fruits hanging at hand on the trees by the road, or yielded to fair maidens inviting him to sport with them in pleasant groves, he would become bewildered and incapable of finding his way. For his protection, the woman gave him a magic formula; a mantra. She said he must repeat it all along the road, keeping his mind entirely concentrated on it, uttering no word, listening to nothing.

 

Tilopa saw the countless, frightful or alluring sights. He struggled across steep, rocky slopes and foaming rivers. He felt himself freezing amidst snows, scorched on burning sandy steppes, and never departed from his concentration on the magic words. At last, he reached the castle whose bronze walls were glowing with heat. Trees, with branches holding weapons, barred his way. Yet, he entered the enchanted palace. There, innumerable sumptuous rooms formed a maze. Tilopa winded his way through them and reached the queen's apartment. The beautiful faery sat on her throne adorned with precious jewels, and she smiled at the daring pilgrim as he crossed the threshold. But Tilopa was unmoved by her loveliness, ascended the steps of the throne and, still repeating the mantra, wrenched from her the glittering jewels, trampled under foot the flowery garlands, tore away her precious silk and golden robes, and as she lay naked on her wrecked throne, he violated her.

 

Such conquests of a Dakini, either by sheer violence or by magic devices, are a popular theme in Tibetan mystic literature. They are an allegory referring to the realization of truth and process of self-spiritual development. Tilopa had thus reached the level of Avadhuta, a state of enlightenment where the distinctions between good and evil do not exist anymore. He, thus, returned to his cave in the north part of Bengal, and the old woman once again appeared. She said that he still had barriers to his full realization of Mahanirvana Tantra, and directed him to go to a particular town and enter the employ of the local prostitute there. Without hesitation, Tilopa found his way to the town and began working for the prostitute. In the day he would grind seed for her oils, and at night, he would pander her clients.

 

One day, as he was grinding sesame seeds in a mortar on his lap, he realized and released his last barrier to the Light and Love he was and levitated to the height of a palm tree while still grinding sesame seeds in the mortar on his lap. When the prostitute saw Tilopa suspended in air, still making her oil, the harlot was overcome with shame for having given this task to such an enlightened being.

 

She contemplated begging Tilopa for the privilege of being his disciple; and in that very moment he released a flower, which hit her on the head, and as if being struck by the diamond-thunderbolt of Vajra, the prostitute instantly attained enlightenment, and elevated to Tilopa's side. Tilopa, which means sesame-grinder, realized Mahanirvana Tantra when the seed he was grinding revealed to him the inverse flow of forward moving things, thereby actualizing liberation in one lifetime; the fourth stream of mastery. He called this Fourth Way, Kagyu, the Short Path of Vajra. And it was through the unbroken lineage of Tilopa, the Kagyudpas Red Hats, that the Twentieth Century mystic G. I. Gurdjieff received the foundation of his teachings through the Sarmoun Brotherhood. Tilopa himself had no human guru, having realized liberation through Vajra, the Light of Reality. His most famous student was a learned Kashmiri Brahmin named Naropa, who in turn was the master of Marpa, the Mahasiddha that brought the lineage and doctrine of the Short Path to Tibet.

 

The biography of Naropa is both an amusing and illuminating description of the tests devised by a master of the Short Path to train and direct an initiate. Naropa, born around 1010, c.e., was considered a man of refinement, a learned doctor and deeply convinced of his superiority as a member of the Brahmin caste. Having been greatly offended by a rajah to whom he was chaplain, he resolved to kill the prince by an occult process. For this purpose, he shut himself up in an isolated house and began a magic rite to bring about death; the dragpoi dubhab.

 

As he was performing the rite, a Dakini faery appeared at a corner of the magic diagram and asked Naropa if he deemed himself capable of sending the spirit of the rajah towards a happy place in another world, or of bring it back into the body which it had left and resuscitating it. The magician could only confess that his science did not extend so far. Then the faery assumed a stern presence and reproached him for his nefarious undertaking. She told him that no one had the right to destroy who could not build up again the being destroyed or establish it in a better condition. The consequence of his criminal thought, she added, would be his own rebirth in one of the purgatories.

 

Terror-stricken, Naropa inquired how he could escape that terrible fate. The Dakini advised him to seek the Sage named Tilopa and beg from him initiation into the mystic doctrine of the Short Path which frees a man from the consequences of his actions, whatever they may be, by the revelation of their true nature, and ensures enlightenment in one single life. If he succeeded in grasping the meaning of that teaching and realize it, he would not be reborn again and consequently would escape a life of torment in the purgatories.

 

Naropa stopped the performance of the rite and hastened towards Bengal where Tilopa lived. However, before Naropa would meet the Sage and receive the Ultimate Teaching, that is, Tilopa's Mahamudra, through which Enlightenment could be realized in one lifetime, he would first undergo twelve astonishments, followed by twelve ordeals. The Twelve Astonishments were challenges to Naropa's conditioning, that is, his ego and beliefs; whereas the Twelve Ordeals, or Hardships, were intended to encourage complete surrender.

 

The first meeting of Naropa with Tilopa occurred in the courtyard of a Buddhist monastery. The cynic Sage, nearly naked, was seated on the ground eating fish. As the meal went on, he put down the fish's backbones beside him. However, in order not to defile his cast purity, Naropa was on the point of passing by at some little distance from the eater, when a monk started to reproach Tilopa for parading his lack of compassion for the animals, that is, killing and eating the fish, in the very premises of a Buddhist Monastery; and ordered him to leave at once.

 

Tilopa did not even condescend to answer. He muttered some words, snapped his fingers and the fish bones were again covered with flesh. The fishes then moved as if living and swam away through the air as if it was water. No vestige remained of the cruel meal on the ground. Naropa was dazed, but suddenly thought that this strange wonder worker, no doubt, was the very Tilopa whom he was seeking. He hurriedly inquired about him, and the information given by the monks agreed with his own intuition. He ran after the Sage, but Tilopa was nowhere to be found. Then in his eagerness to learn the doctrine that could save him from the purgatories, Naropa wanders from town to town with the only result being that each time he reaches a place where Tilopa is said to be staying, the latter has, invariably just left it a little before his arrival.

 

In the coming months, as if by chance on his way, Naropa would meet singular beings who were phantoms created by Tilopa. Once, knocking at the door of a house to beg food, a man comes out who offers him wine. To offer wine or spirit to a high caste Brahmin is an insult, so Naropa feels deeply offended and indignantly refuses the impure beverage. The house and its master vanish immediately. The proud Brahmin is left alone on the solitary road, while a mocking voice laughs that man was I, Tilopa.

 

Again, the traveler sees a brutal husband who drags his wife buy her hair, and when he interferes, the cruel fellow tells him, you had better help me, I want to kill her. At least pass your way and let me do it. Naropa can hear no more. He knocks the man down on the ground, sets free the woman, and, lo!, once more the pantasmagoria disappears while the same voice repeats scornfully, I was there, I, Tilopa. The adventures continue in the same vein. Proficient magician though he may be, Naropa has never even conceived the idea of such display of supernormal powers. He stands on the brink of madness, the beliefs he clung to for his identity shaken to their core, but his fortitude to become Tilopa's disciple grew still stronger. He roamed at random across the country, calling Tilopa aloud and, knowing by experience that the Sage is capable of assuming any form, he bows down at the feet of any passer-by and even before any animal he happens to see on the road.

 

One evening, after a long walk, he reaches a cemetary. A fire is smouldering in a corner; at times, a dark, reddish flame leaps from it showing shriveled- up, carbonized remains. The glimmer allows Naropa to vaguely discern a man laying beside the fire. He looks at him, and a mocking laugh answers his inspection. He falls prostrate on the ground at Tilopa's feet. This time the Sage does not disappear. The obscurations which inhibited Naropa from recognizing the Sage had waned.

 

During the next several years, Naropa followed Tilopa without being treated as of any import, athough the Sage engages him in twelve ordeals, as mentioned above. Each Ordeal or Hardship, according to later Mahasiddhas of the lineage, contained one of twelve instructions of the Fourth Empowerment. As the first three empowerments encouraged the blossoming of the sapiential mind, the Fourth liberated the sapiential mind. However, only a few of the ordeals will be given here to grasp the principle of Naropa's release from his belief barriers and surrender to the Sage, whereby he fully understood the acquenscence of who he thought he was, and realized who he actually was.

 

One of Naropa's first hardships arose following a begging round. According to the custom of Indian ascetics can beg for food, or alms, once a day. Coming back to his master, he offered him the rice and curry which he had received as alms. The rule is that a disciple eats only after his guru is satisfied, but far from leaving something for his follower, Tilopa ate up the whole contents of the bowl, and even declared that the food was so much to his taste that he could have eaten another bowl full with pleasure.

 

Without waiting for a more direct command, Naropa took the bowl and started again for the house where generous householders bestowed such tasty alms, even though he knew he could not beg again. When he arrived, he found the door closed. However, burning with zeal, the devoted disciple did not let himself be stopped for so little. He forced the door open, discovered some rice and various stews keeping warm on the stove in the kitchen and helped himself to more of what Tilopa had so much enjoyed. The masters of the house came back as he was plunging a spoon in their pots and gave him a harsh thrashing. Bruised from head to feet, Naropa returned to the Sage, who showed no compassion whatever for his suffering.

 

What adventure has befallen you on my account, he said with a cynical calm. Do you not regret having become my disciple? With all the strength that his pitiful condition left at his disposal, Naropa protested that far from regretting having followed such a Sage, he deemed the privilege of being his disciple could never be paid for too dearly, even if one was to purchase it at the cost of one's life. Another ordeal took place while Sage and disciple lived in a hut near a forest. Once, returning from the village with Tilopa's meal, Naropa saw that during his absence, the latter had fabricated a number of long bamboo needles, and with covered with molten butter, hardened them in a fire. Inquisitively he inquired about the use Tilopa meant to make of these implements.

 

The Sage responded with a queer smile. Could you, he asked, bear some pain if it pleased me? Naropa answered that he belonged entirely to him and that he would do whatever he liked with him. Well, replied Tilopa, stretch out your hand. And when Naropa had obeyed, he thrust one of the needles under each of the nails of one hand, did the same to the other, and finished with the toes. Then he pushed the tortured Naropa into the hut, commanded him to wait there till he returned, closed the door, and went away.

 

Several days elapsed before he came back. He found Naropa seated on the ground, the bamboo needles still in his flesh. What did you think while alone?, inquired Tilopa. Have you not come to 'believe' that I am a cruel master and that you had better leave me? I have been thinking of the dreadful life of torments which will be mine in the purgatories if I do not succeed, by your grace, in becoming enlightened in the mystic doctrine, and so escaping a new rebirth and having to begin all over, answered Naropa. As the years went by, Naropa drank fowl water, a defiling thing according to religious law; crossed a blazing fire, nearly drowned in icy water, and performed other fantastic feats which often put his life in jeopardy.

 

Once, Sage and disciple were strolling in the streets when they happened to meet a wedding procession accompanying a bride to her husband's house. I desire that woman, said Tilopa to Naropa. Go bring her to me. He had scarcely finished speaking before Naropa joined the cortege. Seeing that he was a Brahmin, the men of the wedding party allowed him to approach the bride, thinking that he meant to bless her. But when they saw that he took her in his arms and intended to carry her away, they seized on everything they could find and belabored poor Naropa so soundly that he fainted and was left for dead. Tilopa had not waited for the end of the performance to pass quietly on his way. When Naropa came to his senses again and had painfully dragged himself along until he overtook his whimsical guru, the latter, as welcome, asked him once more the usual question, Do you not regret?. And as usual, Naropa protested that a thousand deaths seemed to him but a trifle to purchase the privilege of being his disciple.

 

By some accounts, Naropa's last ordeal was said to have occurred at the end of a day walking in a remote mountainous region. Stopping at a cliff, Tilopa asked, what if it would please me for you to jump off this cliff? Before the final word was finished, Naropa leaps off the cliff, breaking nearly every bone in his body. Tilopa made his way down the steep, rocky cliff and asked Naropa who was clearly in agony, How are you?. Naropa answered that the pain was unbearable. Then, in a calm voice, Tilopa commanded him to heal himself. Instantaneously Naropa healed himself, and his broken body was fully restored.

 

That evening, while seated at a fire, quite unexpectedly Tilopa took off one of his shoes and soundly slapped Naropa on the head with it. In that instant Naropa saw the inverse flow of forward moving waves of Light, and would not again transgress into the sleep of samsara, the always changing and impermanent dream of Maya. The full meaning of the Short Path was then told to Naropa through Tilopa's twenty-eight verse Mahamudra, or Ultimate Teaching.

 

The story of Tilopa's Shoe is considered a historic occurrence. Several variations of the story exist, some handed down by oral tradition, others written in the biographies of famous lamas. Yet, unlike other philosophies, the historical legitimacy of Kagyu makes no difference, for the essence of the Short Path, the realization of the sapiential Mind in a single lifetime, is contained within the story.

 

Other paths, as the Abrahamic theology's, which cling to outside things, can never realize liberation or enlightenment, until they surrender those beliefs, as Naropa had to surrender his. The prostitute who surrendered her barriers, her doubts, and beliefs, was able to welcome the Clarity of Mind in a matter of moments; whereas Naropa, a fully indoctrinated Hindu priest, spent several years in torment, in the service of, what many would judge to be a cruel master. Yet Tilopa, through the guidance of a celestial Dakini teacher, was an awakened Being and understood the essence of Mind, Heart and Light. He was an embodiment of Unconditional Love, and only mirrored to Naropa that which Naropa chose to have reflected. The word Naropa, I was told, means the pain is killing me. Na means pain, ro is the word for killing and pa personifies it. In contrast to Naropa's awakening, his pupil, the lama Marpa Lotsawa, grasped the Short Path's doctrine rather easily. On the other hand, Marpa Lotsawa, the translator, is said to have tortured his pupil Milarespa for years, to shock his ego clingings loose.

 

I've pondered more than once what my own name will be? What will be the one thing I'll understand, through which I'll understand everything? My wish is for it not to be Naropa; the Way of Struggle, consistently seeking lessons in hardships, and hiding from ourselves the understanding that beliefs can effortlessly be released if only we would look at them. Like Naropa though, most of us rather break every bone in our bodies before we will let go of doubts and beliefs, and surrender to the acceptance of our Clear Essence. Surrendering or Letting Go of who we think we're supposed to be, and Being who we Are.

 

Vicente

Edited August 7, 2014 by Vmarco

[Satya]

I would not care to view a Moby Dick remake that did not take into account Jed McKenna's "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment." Even the Moby Dick expert in the book was permanently overwhelmed by Mc Kenna's commentary.

What I mean is that the existing movie is not the same as the book. There are many differences. Jed's insights into Moby Dick the book highlight the spiritual elements of the book, but, if a film was made verbatim to the script of the book then it would include all of the parts that Jed highlighted. So, it would be a spiritual film if it was true to the book, no commentary would be needed. To help condense it down then the incredibly in-depth details on whaling could possibly be scrimped on. So, in summary, a remake that either quoted the book verbatim OR one that quoted it verbatim and missed out some of the details on whaling would be MORE spiritually oriented than the current existing film.

 

HOWEVER, I agree that a remake from someone who had read Jed's SIE, a remake that specifically highlights the spiritual themes, this would be best.

 

OR, you could just read the book or listen to the audiobook. However, they're both very long and they both have a LOT of information about 19th century whaling, haha, which isn't really information that's transferable to todays living age. OR, you could just read SIE, because that has the great majority of quotes from moby dick that are worth knowing, there are a few others in the book, but the best are in SIE.

[woodcarver]

DUNE

[voidisyinyang]

Going to kill the messenger, cia behind crack epidemic movie. Great expose.

[iain]

Peaceful Warrior.

Edited October 24, 2014 by iain

[CloudHands]

Enter the Void - Gaspard Noe

The Holy Mountain - Alejandro Jodorowsky

El Topo - same

Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa

I'll think of more later perhaps.

 

I didn't know Jodorowsky was a filmmaker !

 

I love this board...

[CloudHands]

Sans Soleil - Chris Marker

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084628/

 

OK I'll provide...

 

http://stagevu.com/video/fkofonvfrixt part 1

 

http://stagevu.com/video/tziakxelfqdu part 2

Edited October 30, 2014 by CloudHands

[CloudHands]

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK - Park Chan-Wook

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497137/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_5

[DreamBliss]

I am glad to see The Matrix, Life of Pi, Lucy, The Fountain and Donnie Darko in the list.

 

Transcendence (like Lucy but far better)

 

Ambition To Meaning (this movie really woke me up)

 

You Can Heal Your Life

 

Fierce Grace (heard good things about this)

 

Dune Miniseries (Fear is the mind killer...)

 

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

 

Bleach

http://youtu.be/sI3MsPOe328

 

 

Oddly enough I have been watching this anime and finding spiritual correlations. It has helped me to realize things about myself, growing, getting stronger, but in my case not in a physical sense. It is hard to describe. But I am finding something in these last few seasons that really speaks to me as I proceed on my own path.

 

Ghost in the Shell (all things Ghost in the Shell)

 

 

And...

Edited December 4, 2014 by DreamBliss