Viewing recommendations

Not a viewing recommendation, more a clicking recommendation. But still the most Buddhist thing I've seen today on Hacker News: http://make-everything-ok.com/

I just found a link to a talk given by Dr. Jeffery Martin at the Buddhism & Science Symposium III. It's a presentation on the kind of research conducted for the studies he talks about in his Buddhist Geeks interview.

The Path of Freedom By Dr. Jeffery Martin
http://vimeo.com/27845874

I'd still like to read an actual research article on these studies. I'm in the process of arranging a Skype call with him sometime soon, so maybe I'll get some more information about it then.

-Jackson

To answer my original question, I recently watched the following documentary on hermit monks in the mountains of China. Very interesting.
Amongst White Clouds


-tomo

That looks really beautiful! On hotel wireless, so just watched a couple minutes of it. I am looking forward to the rest.

Reminded me Into Great Silence, about a modern (but ancient) monastery of ascetic Carthusian monks in France. I really enjoyed the film. Trailer here:

Re-watch The Matrix with your Dhamma monocle screwed in. Or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Or The Fountain.

Or anything, to be honest, the 3 C's are everywhere innit *grins*

The Dhamma Brothers reduces grown men to tears, I'm told.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - For example, notice how the inmates take their drugs voluntarily
The Princess Bride - The quotes! The death-and-rebirth story! The way it is framed, with the grandfather's reading the story, interrupted by his grandchild...
Revolver, or Rock'n'Rolla or probably any other Guy Ritchie film (those are the two I watched)
The Matrix, sort of, yeah, though the premise is so flawed in terms of simple energy bookkeeping I find it jarring. Now if they'd said that the machines use the brains of the pod people for processing power, *that* would have worked, and been truly scary and thought-provoking as well - who are the Agents, really? The blue/red pill thing is a great metaphor, as is "the desert of the real".
I hesitate to recommend "Inception" - I found I was intrigued by the much darker film still visible through the massive plot holes barely covered by the incessant machine-gun wankfest. Still, it was worthwhile to think about the reasons for all that distracting gunfire.
Dead Poet's Society. If only for the Thoreau quotes. The ambiguous heretic teacher figure is great, too.
I've been watching mainly animation films for the past ten years. Being a parent can do that to you Here's one more recommendation:
Kung Fu Panda - the bit about the special ingredient, while it sounds trite, is true, you know.
Cheers,
Florian

"incessant machine-gun wankfest" reminds me, I had been thinking I should benefit by watching some horrid movies, just to sit with something I don't like much. I could rent some movies with excessive scenes of human depravity, which I usually avoid watching "for fun" (as I don't find it fun). If one actually likes horror, war, torture and other such, one could do the same practice by watching whatever is most appalling - Disney princess movies, even.

What do you think? Worth the bother?

As you can tell, I am enormously enthusiastic about this idea, and hope someone will say "oh, that's a really great practice! do it!"

I'm recalling, actually, some things I've read in Buddhist texts. I think it was in a commentary on teachings of Padmasambhava, for example, where it suggested beginners (!) should spend time contemplating in a cemetery, to look at death and deeply motivate themselves to practice. Or another teaching suggested that one should look at a beautiful woman (who might inspire lust) and imagine she is a corpse, or very old. So these are examples of looking at things you like or don't like, and using that to contribute productively to your practice.

I rarely hear of anyone doing either of the above these days (though I think the latter has come up on this very forum actually)...

Even the more difficult metta practice where you wish happiness on people you dislike is recommended.

Are those so different?

Actually, the Vajrayana is all over 'watching stuff you don't like'--

http://buddhism-for-vampires.com/disgust-as-buddhist-practice

“It tastes like an embalmed corpse,” announced Ngakpa Trögyal, uncorking the bottle.

Ngakpa Trögyal is a specialist in the wrathful practice of Dorje Phurba —and also a hospital emergency doctor. The bottle was Ardbeg 10-Year —a Scotch whiskey I had never heard of.

'Stuff you don't like' becomes invisible once you categorize it; same is true of 'stuff you like'-- but I think opening your mind to what the latter is all about is probably MORE challenging than the former.

-- so, long story short, Ona, if you don't mind your friends being residents of 'Gone Beyond', Padmasambhava says, 'Go for it!'

The more I turn this idea over in my mind, the more interesting and promising as a gate to real practice it seems. I would characterize the most powerful moments in my own history as being challenges into which I was thrown-- that I'd never have chosen given my druthers-- where seeing or acting in accordance with habit was going to mean epic failure at That Which Must Not Fail. Like parenting a child, or accompanying a parent, friend, sibling, through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

We live our lives so encased in habit as to be almost impervious to the Real; inspiration to do otherwise, even for a moment, in a small way, seems worth a response.

@kate: that is a fascinating link that falls right into place with some other interesting tangents and coincidences recently. infinite bows to you for being the vehicle for several very meaningful pointers this week. thank you.

ps - sorry to derail the subject of this thread! I'll move the topic to a new one.

Powder-- 'rainbow body' as you've never seen it before

Also, from the dark side: Jacob's Ladder

Oh good lord. See I can barely watch that stuff. Thank god it was really dim and hard to see. Bleeeeeeech! But it was really sad, too. How come in movies when people are being chased by demons they never go get a powerful Taoist sorcerer to come save them or something? One should always have the name and number of a powerful sorcerer in ones wallet.

Sorry, O-- the trailer for the movie was a poor choice. See, the movie makes clear that what is 'happening' are bardo visions-- the skill of the moviemaker makes them perhaps too vivid. And, in this case, he DOES encounter a powerful Taoist sorcerer and that provides the resolution of the story.

Albeit not until his bardo visions have the viewer by the throat. I have to admit it is not the sort of thing I usually go in for; I'm really a kind of weenie moviegoer.

Sorry, O-- the trailer for the movie was a poor choice. See, the movie makes clear that what is 'happening' are bardo visions-- the skill of the moviemaker makes them perhaps too vivid. And, in this case, he DOES encounter a powerful Taoist sorcerer and that provides the resolution of the story.
Albeit not until his bardo visions have the viewer by the throat. I have to admit it is not the sort of thing I usually go in for; I'm really a kind of weenie moviegoer.



-kategowen

I hold my hands over my eyes during the scary bits in Harry Potter. I'm a shameless weenie.

I have heard "Wake Up" to be very entertaining. It's a documentary about a fellow who suddenly starts seeing auras and spiritual entities and goes to a variety of medical specialists for diagnosis. None of them find any problem whatsoever. The girlfriend tags along too. I have yet to view it myself, but plan to at some point. You can rent it online at:

http://wakeupthefilm.com/

Jacob, any chance we can get you to introduce yourself here:
[url]
That's our Welcome topic. Doing a brief introduction of yourself lets the rest of us know who you are, what you practice and why you're here.
Thanks!

-cmarti

I submitted a post to the Welcome thread yesterday evening, but it said it had to be approved first. Was there an error? Should I try again?