Everything Everywhere All at Once

[dicsoncandra]

I've watched it recently. It's about an atheist problem, not a buddhist one. It tries to fight the "everything is meaningless" idea with "we give meaning to every moment" which does not work.

Yup, existence in samsara is meaningless. The solution is to leave samsara. The black beagle is not a metaphor for nibbana, but for "existential dread".

I've once contemplated in this way (that everything is meaningless) out of curiosity for 1-2 hours and even the second day after I woke up, I felt very, very bad. That was strange because I never feel bad, especially that bad. I didn't have the courage to contemplate in that way even for 30 seconds ever since. I've then googled and found out that's called "existential dread" and there are many memes about it. Contemplating in that way is a big no-no.

The contemplation in that way leads to the idea that action (kamma) is meaningless and that's what gives rise to that insanely bad sensation. I don't know, maybe humans or any living beings are not meant to contemplate in that way. The idea is wrong of course, action is not meaningless. There is good kamma (actions), bad kamma and then there is the 3rd... "kamma for the ending of kamma".

Besides the idea being wrong, contemplating in that way leads to insane suffering very fast. I don't have the courage to do it for even 30 seconds, I only did it once in my life by mistake.

I don't think the movie solves that atheist problem at all. Also, basically any european movie makes you think more than it. It's only considered a movie that makes you think among american movies. For those of us that are european, it's nothing special European vs American cinema

The great existential dread is key to the path (AN 1.576). Rather than turning away from it through worldly distractions, learn to come face-to-face with it - this will require sense-restraint and further abandonment of sensuality. It is the path to disenchantment, dispassion, and release - path to Nibbāna.

[pegembara]

The Pali word is nibbida.

"This general teaching about turning away from the “external” world, or about finally realizing that one will perpetually “not find” the nutrients we seek in the bleached bones of sensory objects, or about waking from the enchantment cast upon us by a primordial delusion, is not unique to the early Buddhist tradition. The same thought seems to be conveyed in that consummate Mahayana and Zen text, the Lankavatara Sutra. In the introduction to his translation of this text, D.T. Suzuki brings special attention to what he calls an important psychological event of “turning back” from the world: “Technically, it is a spiritual change or transformation which takes place in the mind, especially suddenly..."

Fire Sermon

"Monks, the All is aflame. What All is aflame? The eye is aflame. Forms are aflame. Consciousness at the eye is aflame. Contact at the eye is aflame. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye — experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain — that too is aflame. Aflame with what? Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion. Aflame, I tell you, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs.

"The ear is aflame. Sounds are aflame...

"The nose is aflame. Aromas are aflame...

"The tongue is aflame. Flavors are aflame...

"The body is aflame. Tactile sensations are aflame...

"The intellect is aflame. Ideas are aflame. Consciousness at the intellect is aflame. Contact at the intellect is aflame. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect — experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain — that too is aflame. Aflame with what? Aflame with the fire of passion, the fire of aversion, the fire of delusion. Aflame, I say, with birth, aging & death, with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs.

"Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with the eye, disenchanted with forms, disenchanted with consciousness at the eye, disenchanted with contact at the eye. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye, experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain: With that, too, he grows disenchanted.

"He grows disenchanted with the ear...

"He grows disenchanted with the nose...

"He grows disenchanted with the tongue...

"He grows disenchanted with the body...

"He grows disenchanted with the intellect, disenchanted with ideas, disenchanted with consciousness at the intellect, disenchanted with contact at the intellect. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect, experienced as pleasure, pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain: He grows disenchanted with that too. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'"

[mikenz66]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everythin ... ll_at_Once

This movie is nominated for best picture and several other awards at tomorrow's Academy Awards (Oscars). I haven't seen it yet, but it appears to have some philosophical and spiritual overtones to it.

Michelle Yeoh, a buddhist, is nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars tomorrow.

It's absolutely one of my favorite movies of all time. It's truly a masterpiece!

I wouldn't rank it as my favourite movie, but Michelle Yeoh was incredible. I loved the way the narrative drew on her acting history in more "normal" Kung Fu movies (it reminded me of how the histories of various actors were channelled in Kill Bill). I'm not surprised Michelle Yeoh won an Oscar, but I was a little surprised that they won Best Picture for what to me feels like a supercharged Hong Kong comedy/romance/drama/Kung Fu movie (with a dash of Tarantino and Coen Brothers style madness, along with references to numerous other films).

For me, what good Asian action movies have that most Hollywood action movies fail on is that the stories are driven by relationships - such as the romantic relationships in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which Yeow of course starred in). This movie is driven by family relationships. In contrast, typical Hollywood movies have "love interests" that feel like they've been thrown in as an afterthought.

The key plot device of being able to access how different choices played out out in parallel was intriguing. I liked that how the end it just seemed normal...


Mike

[Kidet0]

This one tops my list of favorite films. It's theme of alternate realities got me thinking that parallel universes are not so fictitious after all.

I used to have deterministic views about the world: that based on the past events, what happens in the present is what could ever possibly happen, and not anything else. I used to think that there is no other way things could have happened, obviously because what happened is the only thing that actually did. However, after I read the Samaññaphala Sutta, something changed my mind.

At the very end of the sutta:

Not long after King Ajatasattu had left, the Blessed One addressed the monks: "The king is wounded, monks. The king is incapacitated. Had he not killed his father — that righteous man, that righteous king — the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye would have arisen to him as he sat in this very seat."

Could easily be inferred that the Buddha can actually see how different worlds/universes come to be based on different actions so that we have different realities branching out from a single moment of choice. He could see a universe where Ajatasattu is a Sotāpanna. Which also reminds us that a Buddha can see the "trajectory" of beings through samsara based on their kamma.

[Agnikan]

I lasted nearly an hour and that was about 50 minutes too long... jumbled mess with more woke agendas than you can shake a stick at... it's definitely Oscar material

Watched about 10 minutes and knew that it was uber woke.

...or, in Pali, uber bubodha.

[Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta]

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen; I just don't have enough will power to endure through the movie till the end.

btw, I really enjoyed watching Parasite.

[Zom]

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen; I just don't have enough will power to endure through the movie till the end.

As for subj:
My wife said, this movie was the exact copy of her life, heh.
Guess so many could say that as well -)

[Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta]

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen; I just don't have enough will power to endure through the movie till the end.

As for subj:
My wife said, this movie was the exact copy of her life, heh.
Guess so many could say that as well -)

As for wives:
They are always right, of course