All posts by Big Picture Zen

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About Big Picture Zen

Center for Self-inquiry and Awakening is a space for inner exploration and self-realization.

Have You Found What is Lost?

On Knowing Oneself, Zen

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Finding something that you had lost brings great joy & relief. Even if it is a trivial thing like locating a misplaced TV remote or something significant like getting in touch with a lost friend after decades, there is that unique feeling when you find something you had lost.

Even when we see others finding their lost things, we experience the same joy. It is a universal feeling across nations, cultures & history.

We have enjoyed numerous Bollywood movies based on the “Lost & Found” theme. Manmohan Desai used it in many films & we were never tired of it.

Every time we lose something we feel the same anxiety & every time we find it we feel the same relief. The joy & relief is directly proportional to the time after which you find it multiplied by the value of the thing in your life.

On one occasion, I forgot my laptop bag in the train & I realized it only after reaching home. Imagine the anxiety! l rushed back to the station – a crazy 10 km drive – & was lucky enough to get it back. Imagine the relief!

There is tremendous anguish when you realize you lost something of great value. However, with time you adjust to the loss and come to terms with it. Things like lost keys, lost valuables & lost money can be replaced. If you find them after you got the replacement, the joy is not that much. As life goes on, you will even forget that you had lost something.

Awakening is similar to finding your true self – the original mind – the Tao – that which is, before anything else is. There is joy & relief of tremendous intensity. Because you simultaneously realize that you had forgotten who you are & that you had forgotten it for an infinite time & now you suddenly find it. You were lost in living & dying & have found back that which was never born & can never die. It cannot be put into words.

Paradoxically, you also realize that you had never lost anything. Just that, to explain to another, the theme of lost & found can be a metaphor.

Seeing Clearly vs. Clear Seeing

Nature of Reality, Science

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There is a difference between Seeing Clearly and Clear Seeing.

Seeing clearly means being able to see the differences between things, being able to distinguish between one and the other. This depends on sensory inputs. If your eyes have cataract, you will not be able to see clearly. What is true of the eye is true of the other sense organs including the ears, nose, tongue, skin and brain. When you understand a concept well, you can say that you see clearly.

Clear seeing is seeing the sameness in everything, despite apparent differences. This does not depend on sensory input. While sense organs provide you information to the contrary, there is the knowing that it is not as it appears to be. It is possible that a person with cataract may not be able to see clearly but he may be able to clearly see.

Clear seeing is an insight into the nature of things, into the nature of senses, into the differences, into the nature of seeing clearly.

What is better? Seeing clearly or Clear seeing? That depends.

In day to day life, people, schools, organizations and society gives more importance to seeing clearly. However, it need not be so always.

A close analogy is like the Necker cube which can be seen in two ways. There are some people who have difficulty in seeing the other perspective.

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Seeing clearly can mean being able to see one or both of the perspectives. This may sometimes lead to arguments between those those who see one perspective and those who see the other.

​Clear seeing can mean being able to flip between the two at will and empathize with the person who is unable to see the other perspective.

The Word is Not The Thing

Language, Nature of Reality, ,

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Our language can be considered to be a mutual agreement between all people to use certain symbols and associated sounds to represent various things found in nature or to represent various abstract notions developed by the mind. The invention of language gives tremendous power to human beings. All advances in science and technology, engineering and medicine would not have been possible without the foundation of language.

As much as language helps in changing our environment, it is also the source of much misery, misunderstanding and suffering. Words can deceive and words can hurt. Words can influence masses of people and words can make people fight with each other. The root cause of all the problems caused by our language can be traced to Alfred Korzybski’s famous statement – The Word is not the Thing.

Let me explain with an example. The word “bulb” stands for the physical object, which is spherical in form made out of glass and contains a filament made of tungsten. When connected to an electrical outlet, it glows and gives off light. You, me and everyone else has agreed to call it a bulb. We could have agreed to call it by any other name but for some historical reason we have called it the bulb.

The physical bulb is not a static object because it is undergoing change all the time. The filament is wearing off and the glass is getting weaker. But the name remains the same. The word “bulb” does not change. Now most people when shown a bulb will say that it is a bulb whereas in reality there is only the agreement to call it a bulb. The physical object can break when dropped on the floor but the word “bulb” does not break.

In the case of the bulb, there is no problem. Most people would agree wholeheartedly that the word, which is the symbol, is not the real thing. But in many other instances, all of us confuse the two. We fuse the word and the thing together as if they were never separate. And this confusion leads to all the troubles.

Let me explain with another example. The word “communist” stands for a person who believes in a certain way of thinking, who has a certain ideology and has certain political convictions. Communism is generally associated with negative connotations. Now, suppose you come to know that Mr. X, your friendly neighbor, is a communist. You will automatically forget all the excellent qualities of Mr. X and starting being cautious in interacting with him.

This reaction is common in many other cases where the symbol is confused to be the thing. We salute the flag (a symbol) to show our respect to our country. We offer flowers to a statue (a symbol) in order to pray to God. We give a birthday card (a symbol) to express our love. We attach a lot of emotion to our symbols. So if someone burns the flag, we consider it as an attack on the country and if someone throws away the card, we consider it as an insult.

If we think about our reactions with a calm mind, we will discover that they are not warranted. However because of our habit, we continue to confuse the word for the thing.

Psychological Balance

Happiness, On Knowing Oneself

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We observe that sometimes we get carried away by our emotions. When things are going well, we are excited and which shows in our animated behavior. On the other hand, when things are not going well, that also shows as a relative heaviness in our behavior.

Most of us tend to spend our lives on one side of our emotions. Some people are always depressed no matter what the external situation is. They will always find something to complain about in the best of events. Psychologically, they are carrying a burden of expectations, ideals and thoughts which makes the surroundings heavy with anxiety and worry. Very rarely do these people experience carefree joy.

Then there are others who always want to have a positive attitude even if things are not going as per their expectations. They are always hoping that the future will bring better tidings and this is what helps them live.

While it may seem that the second way is advisable, a positive attitude does not imply psychological balance. Those who advocate positive attitude suffer equally as those who possess negative attitude.

Having any attitude – positive or negative – is like a crutch. It is a dependency. Real balance is when there is no attitude. One takes things as they are without differentiating the situation as being fine or not fine.

A person who is psychologically balanced does neither complain about the situation nor takes the help of a positive attitude to endure the situation. When you get involved in a situation, you lose balance. The only way to be balanced is not to get involved psychologically with anything or anyone. A high order indeed!

Note to a Seeker: Stop Seeking

Spirituality,

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A seeker is searching for something higher, some meaning in life, God, enlightenment or inner peace. That something, he may believe is external and in order to find it, he will visit sacred places and meet holy people. If the seeker believes that what he seeks is within, he will read scriptures, meditate, or practice different techniques in order to attain it.

Now, seeking may have two orientations – seeking for something you do not have or seeking for something you had but have lost. Although the two may seem very different, eventually those who believe that they are seeking for something they do not have, come to understand as they investigate deeper, that it makes more sense to believe that they are seeking for something they had and now it is lost.

Seeker, I tell you to stop seeking.

Lets say you dropped your pen somewhere but do not know that you have dropped it. Your mind is not agitated. Suddenly you realize you have misplaced it or someone tells you that your pen is missing and you start seeking for it. Now your mind becomes agitated. You do not need the pen to write anything but you still want to know where the pen is so you continue to search. You spend an hour searching and finally you find the pen under the chair. Great relief. The mind is calm again.

The mind was calm when you did not know you had misplaced the pen. When you knew you had lost it, the mind was agitated even though the pen was right there under the chair. When you found the pen, the mind was happy again.

The pen was there all the time. The only change was in your knowledge. First you did not know that you had lost the pen. Then you knew you had lost it. You spent an hour in agitation and mental torture searching for the pen even though there was no use of it immediately. Finally, when you found it, the relief that resulted was not an attribute of the pen but due to the dropping of the stress you developed in yourself during the search!

So Seeker, I tell you to stop seeking. What you are seeking is right there. It will always be there.

You may ask whether the mental state of a person who does not know he has lost the pen is different from the mental state of the person who has found the pen. The mind is calm before also and after also. It is possible that the person may forget once again where he has kept the pen but this time he will not be so troubled because he knows the pen is there somewhere. There is no need to search.

So Seeker, I tell you to stop seeking.

What you seek is right there. Only you do not know. All your seeking is because you know there is something to be sought. Those who do not know, do not seek. You may cause them great harm by telling them there is something to seek. Because once a person starts seeking, it becomes a passion, difficult to stop.

So Seeker. I tell you to stop seeking. If you renounce seeking, that which you are seeking will appear to you on its own. You will then laugh at yourself and all the seeking you did.

So Seeker. I tell you to stop seeking.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Movies

Director – Stanley Kubrik

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This is a film that stays in your mind for a long time. You cannot forget the raw imagery in this film. And the super performance by Malcolm McDowell. The film contains depiction of violence and nudity so naturally it is meant for a mature audience.

The Clockwork Orange is not about entertainment but is a thought provoking take on techniques of preventing violent behavior. The story is about Alex DeLarge, a gang leader who engages in fights, rapes, robberies and senseless violence.

He is caught by the police during one of his raids and sentenced to prison.

After a couple of years in the prison, the authorities are looking for a volunteer for the Ludovico technique, a procedure for curing violence in a person. Alex volunteers for it.

The technique involves tying up the person so that he cannot move and forcibly keeping his eyes open with instruments. He is then shown violent movies, scenes of crimes being performed, and extreme violence. Initially, Alex enjoys this but after some time aversion starts to build up. The problem is he cannot end this, he is forced to watch it because his eyelid are kept open.

After two weeks he is ‘cured’. In a demonstration of the cure, he is shown to be incapable of fighting even when provoked and convulses at the sight of a topless woman.

A Clockwork Orange is based on a 1962 satirical novel by the same name written by Anthony Burgess. The idea is similar to George Orwell’s 1984 in which the authorities are trying to control humans and making them mechanical gadgets (clockwork) in skin and flesh (orange).

The central question is whether violent behavior can be cured with external techniques. One of the reasons for putting people in prison is that they should be punished and as a result should realize their wrong doing, repent and become better citizens, apart from keeping them away from ‘civilized’ society to prevent further violence.

But the film tries to point out that criminals are only an extreme form of the basic nature of society which is violence.

I am reminded of a documentary “Doing Time, Doing Vipasana – Meditation in Indian Prisons” which deals with this issue of change of heart in prisoners happening from within rather than through punishment and the time spent in prison. It shows how Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman IPS officer introduced the ancient Vipasana meditation practice in Tihar jail with amazing results.

Siddhartha (1972)

Movies

Director – Conrad Rooks

 

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The film is a masterful adaptation of the novel written by Hermann Hesse and is considered to be one of the spiritual classics – one man’s search for the meaning of life. If you have liked the book, you will definitely love this movie.

Set in the time of the Buddha i.e. 2500 years ago, the movie tells the story of Siddhartha, the contemplative son of a priest, who wants to become a sadhu. The spiritual search leads him to spend time with wandering ascetics, learn the wisdom of the Buddha, indulge in sensual pleasures, experience success in business, and even become a father.

When he realizes that he has lost the real goal, he walks away from everything and happens to meet a ferryman who teaches him how to learn from the river. Eventually, Siddhartha becomes enlightened and attains happiness.

I found reading the book to be a more engaging experience as one could read the thoughts that went through Siddhartha’s mind. The movie cannot bridge this gap because everything cannot be verbalized. Despite this, the movie is one of my favorites. The background songs pierce deep into the heart.

I see Siddhartha as a timeless allegory for a spiritual seeker. At any age, in any part of the world, there is pain and suffering in every human activity – be it the striving for material pleasures or the spiritual search. Enlightenment is only to be discovered every moment with the realization of the emptiness of knowledge and desires.

Spirituality in Films: A Sublime Combination

Movies

Films with a spiritual theme not only carry a spiritual message but are also tremendously entertaining and sometimes full of humor

​Films are made for entertainment. We all love to watch the characters, their stories, and their situation in the film. Many people would go to the films only to watch their favorite actor. Some are attracted to action movies while some are attracted to drama and some to comedy. Films become trendsetters for fashion. They also shape attitudes of the masses. And some films also pass on a spiritual message. Spiritual films are not films about spiritual masters like Jesus or the Buddha but about the teachings in real life.

Spiritual Films that Draw on Allegories and Symbolism

Some of the best spiritual films are based on extensive symbolism. There is a meaning to the names of the characters and a meaning to the actions and storyline which is akin to a spiritual search. Some of the best spiritual films of this type are The Matrix (Directed by the Wachowski Brothers in 1999) and The Holy Mountain (Directed by Alejandro Jodorowski in 1973).

Spiritual Films Adapted from Novels

A few of the spiritual classics have been made into movies which not only bring to life the characters in the story but also engulf the viewer in its message. These movies are best watched after reading the novel. Some of the most excellent spiritual films adapted from novels are Siddhartha (Directed by Conrad Rooks in 1972 based on the novel by Hermann Hesse) and The Razor’s Edge (Directed by John Byrum in 1984 based on the novel by Somerset Maugham)

Spiritual Films that Walk the Talk

There are some films which not only entertain or simply pass on a spiritual message through symbolism but also make you sit up and reflect on one’s position in life. These films have the potential to become a life changing event if the viewer has a spiritual inclination. The finest spiritual films of this type are The Truman Show (Directed by Peter Weir in 1998) and The Peaceful Warrior (Directed by Victor Salva in 2006).

Spiritual Films that cannot be Categorized

There are some films which are so extraordinarily beautiful that they cannot be classified in to any stereotype. These are the rarest of the rare films watching which is like having a spiritual experience. A couple of such unparalleled films are Waking Life (Directed by Richard Linklater in 2001) and Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (Directed by Yong-Kun Bae in 1989).

Watching spiritual films is a special treat because it combines entertainment and insight, not to forget humor as in I Heart Huckabees (Directed by David O. Russell in 2004)

Why Has Bodhidharma Left For The East? (1989)

Movies

Director – Yong Kun-Bae

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Bodhidharma was a 6th century Buddhist monk from India who is generally credited for introducing Buddhism to China. The question “Why has Bodhidharma left for the east?” is a famous koan or riddle, the purpose of which is to free the student of attachment to conceptual thinking. This movie, however, has nothing to do with either Bodhidharma or koans. But is is an apt title for this meditative and quiet film.

​The movie is set in the Korean mountains wherein a Zen master lives alone with an orphan boy. A young monk who has left the city life with his old mother and responsibilities in search of enlightenment is staying with the ailing Zen master. The movie deals with the perennial issues of man – sorrow, peace, desires, responsibilities, and death. There are very few dialogues in the movie but it still communicates a lot. The film shows a sharp contrast between the life of the city and the life in the forest. The story moves at a slow pace allowing one to absorb the happenings on the screen – the mountains, the stream, the trees, the antics of the boy, and the inescapable fact of life i.e. death.

Real Happiness Does Not Depend on Anything

Happiness,

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It is very normal to think that once I get something, I will be happy. Most people search for happiness in events and struggle to make those events happen.

While there is a certain pleasure and joy to be had when you get what you want, that is not real happiness. This is because, things do not remain the same. They change and when they do, you will lose the happiness you had.

Many people even lose the sense of joy when they get what they want because they have been struggling so hard to get that that they are emotionally drained and cannot feel any joy at all.

Real happiness is something totally different. It is not dependent on anything external. When a person discovers this happiness, it is totally irrelevant whether there is food to eat or house to stay or money to spend.

This happiness can only be discovered when one sees the insubstantial and hollow nature of worldly achievements and possessions. It is through this sense of emptiness that one can get in touch with what is real. When you throw away all that is false, what remains has to be the genuine.