Movies With A Master
By Rita Rivera Fox
- Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Movies With A Master
I am a Dreamer and I am dreaming all the time. Often I find that my dream can be enhanced by stepping into someone else’s dream to observe the way they interpret life as they share their unique point of view. The men and women who make movies are the quintessential dreamers, desiring to share their dream, their perspective and their story with all of us. They make it possible for us to experience life from many points of view and through many eyes and to step outside of our well- worn interpretive track, into something full of surprise and wonder.
When I was new to the Toltec path and practicing deconstructing my belief structure, very often, my own well trained and ubiquitous programmed mind would pitch a fit. Understanding, that a programmed mind in reaction is a no- win situation, I would take myself off to see a movie, my logic being, “I am so tired of my own story might as well go and observe somebody else’s story and get a much needed break.” You see, I was trained by a master movie-goer, one who understood the full ramifications of sitting in the dark and letting go of a familiar reality in exchange for something completely new. Don Miguel Ruiz was such a master.
I used to have opinions about the type of movies I watched, no violence, no horror, no “stupid” comedies, only movies “with a message and of social and cultural importance.” Yes my friends,that was my program talking, set to the personal importance function. So when I started going to matinees with don Miguel, my training as his apprentice reached new levels of intensity. I remember objecting strongly to going to a war-like, dark, violent movie with him. As he was purchasing the tickets, he was nodding his head and smiling as though he was actually listening to my objections about why I could not possibly ever agree to see this movie with him.
Next thing I knew, we are sitting in the dark and men with spears and dark grotesque masks appeared on the screen, grunting and running each other through with these spears. Blood was every where. My hands moved quickly to cover my eyes, my breathing became shallow, my body became rigid. Very gently, I heard him whisper in my ear in his endearing Mexican accent, “What’s the matter sweetheart, it’s only a dream, it’s not real…open your eyes, take a look, is just a movie.” Slowly the hands came off my eyes, my shoulders relaxed and I looked into his eyes and I saw that he was not reacting to the movie at all. There he was sitting next to me, fully in control of what he was experiencing and still with the adorable smile on this face.
So, I listened , as he instructed me how to observe the movie. I began to detach from the images in front of me. I watched the movie but at the same time I detached from the movie…thinking to myself, this is just a dream…..this is just a movie…it isn’t real. What is real right now is how I am feeling in this moment. What my eyes were seeing was no longer affecting what my body was feeling. I had control over what I was perceiving, because I had awareness and directed my interpretation of what I was observing, consequently, I could maintain “my happy place” watching the most horrendous battles on the screen.
Of course I have my preferences for certain types of movies and I rarely choose now to see a violent movie, but I learned so much about my awareness as I sat in the dark with Miguel and what it means to be awake in this dream while observing another dream at the same time. I learned how not to let my emotions take a story or images and use them to get emotional food from my body. I observed the power of story to capture and direct my attention and practice the art of choice in the moment. Most of all I learned how to observe the “movie of my life” with awareness, taking the events much less personally. Once when I had consented to see what I thought was a truly stupid movie that I assumed was a total waste of my time, Miguel asked me to see the movie “through his eyes” and I don’t remember ever laughing so hard at a film. That experience showed me how so often my opinions are a waste of my time, and generally interfere with my enjoyment of life.
Toltecs have an ancient ceremony called the Mitote, some of you may have experienced such a ceremony, and in the modern day version, watching a movie with one’s fellow Mitote participants, is a vital part of the all night ceremony. It is thought to prepare the mind to detach from taking what it observes so personally and move closer to that magical state of the willing suspension of disbelief that can be a doorway to deeper levels of our dreaming mind. Perhaps this is how I became so fond of the movie experience, equating it with the potential to be opened and moved by the magic of images, music and my imagination.
As we move into the dark part of winter and cold nights keep us at home snuggled up on our couches, I thought I would share a list of movies with you that I have especially enjoyed. It is likely that each has something to say about this mysterious and often wild ride called life. These movies have the potential to moves us closer to understanding what it means to have a dreaming mind and be aware of how our dreams are all connected. I am dreaming. You are dreaming. We are all dreaming and sometimes it is so pleasurable just to rent the DVD and lay back and observe another, ever changing and shifting dream.
Garden State The Sea Within
Neverland The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
Defending Your Life Waking Life
Spirited Away The Fountain
American Beauty Starman
Spring, Summer , Winter, Fall The Razors Edge(original version)
The Emerald Forest Wings of Desire
Ground Hog Day Baraka
The Secret of Roan Inish Faraway So Close
The Motorcycle Diaries Truly ,Madly, Deeply
Little Buddha The Fisher King
Whale Rider The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Harry Potter( all of them) Moulin Rouge
The Golden Compass Winged Migration
Maria Full of Grace Matrix ( trilogy)
X Men Like Water For Chocolate
Chocolat’ Bram Stoker’s Dracula
At Play in the Fields of the Lord Flirting With Disaster
Open Your Eyes Kundun
Rough Magic The Gladiator
I Heart Huckabees
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