Daily Meditations

[Daniel]

How to do it:

First of all, you will need a small spiral bound notebook (nothing too large or you will be tempted to write more than you need to) and something to write with; the short story to screenplay book (and/or) the official soundtrack cd (and/or) the DVD. Somehow generate a random passage/track/scene and write down the most important part in your notebook.

If you have one of those DVD players that will skip to a random scene, it might be helpful when the DVD comes out.

Now use some book which has some philosophical or spiritual meaning for you and turn to a random page, writing down the first thing you come to. You may do this several times. Look at what you have written. Does it seem to be saying something, does it offer insight into your life or into the film or into life in general?

Turn the page and write down your thoughts and feelings....

My meditations follow. Feel free to post yours here if you like.

[Daniel]

Ennis: "What're we supposed to do now?"

The Five Stages of the Soul:

"We stood there by the lifeboat stations not knowing exactly what to do when suddenly there was an earsplitting crash."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"The ocean remains faithful to the land, it always returns."

"After being hurt, it is natural and indeed necessary that we draw back inside the shell."

"Once we recognize how control and self-protection rob life of all vitality and rhythm, we will find ourselves slowly advancing towards the threshold of risk and trust once more."

Ennis' s words mirror a great and respectable acceptance of both risk and trust. For a stoic, it is astonishing. The level of trust grows deeper; the bond between he and Jack expands. Ennis is willing to risk his own control and nervous self-protection and as a result creates another lasting aspect of relationship.

Risk and trust together create a bond of will, soul, and heart. The individual must extend himself far from his comfort zone and then acknowledge that extention toward another: becoming open and caring with another is not harmful. In fact, when trust becomes mutual there is a creation of a new identity, a new realm of understanding with infinite possibilities. Anything could happen in a truly trusting relationship.

Although there are no guarantees in the kingdom of risk, nature shows us, time and again, that it is precisely at that moment of greatest risk, the moment when everything could be lost, that the greatest change happens.

A new life opens out into a new world that could not have been dreamed before this.

[Phillip Dampier]

My meditations follow. Feel free to post yours here if you like.

This is great!  I hope others will use them as well as the affirmations and other positive motivational phrases because they really do work (even if you think they are corny at first).  Repetition and keeping the more powerful ones in front of you or in your mind regularly can shove out negative thinking and drag-you-down stress and replace it with more useful positive and calming thoughts which give energy, hope, motivation, and are calming at the same time.

[Daniel]

Jack: Howdy, Mr. Aguirre. Wonderin' if you was needin' any help this summer?"

The Five Stages of the Soul:

" 'Now' Zenkai says, presenting himself to the son of the man he murdered so many years ago. 'You may kill me. My work is done.' "

Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

"Compassion and attention keep the [heart] clear so that beauty may illuminate our life."

"The human eye always sees twice in one look the thing and the emptiness."

"The unknown dwells in the recesses of the human heart and becomes especially explicit in our flaws... consequently the true language of the soul is hesitant, shadowed, and poetic."

Jack's sentence again reveals a type of suffering: hesitancy which reveals his fear of nonacceptance, a shadow which reveals an uncertainty in his emotional state, a poetic rhythm which is uttered with a surety of being. The rhythm calls upon Jack's most inner being for faithful expression in a world in which nothing is certain - "a world that may say that we're wrong."

"Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing, for the known way is an impasse." -Heraclitus.

We also see that Jack's compassion once again spills out into his expression: words and action - through a kind and questioning voice. When combined with the attention of his questing mind, still wrapped in uncertainty, it is revealed that Jack has opened himself almost completely once again and perhaps not in the right scenario. He is hoping, unsteadily, for a positive response, but is instead cut down by a scathing attack on his personhood. It strikes to the core and bursts with aching pain. If it had been joy, it would have been a beautiful experience far greater than any painful bursting in upon the heart.

For those who experience this pain secondhand, as in the audience, the pain is a recognition of the absence of a potentially greater and powerful joy. It is the absence of joy which is perceived and which culminates in some emotional phenomenon by which we can relate entirely to the rawest of human experiences. At the same time we realize that the experiences of pain and joy cannot be possible without the extention and presentation of the self to some other principle.

Joy and pain are jewels of attention. They are experienced because some part of ourselves is devoted to experiencing them. But this attention does not arise out of nothingness. It is accompanied by a type of compassion, an interest in provoking ourselves into becoming and being more human.

[Daniel]

Ennis: Come on now, you're sleeping on your feet like a horse...

The Five Stages of the Soul:

"There is a Reality more meaningful than everything we see around us, and that the purpose of life is to find that Reality."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"Somewhere in every heart there is a discerning voice."

"People identify themselves with their stories."

"Outside, the day is seared with summer light."

"Once evicted, we can never return."

"Divine grace works without a program; it does not labor under the leaden intention of a pre-existent, fixed plan."

Sleeping on one's feet is a resistance to the call of exhaustion, and in this particular instance, in order to experience something real and meaningful: some genuine happiness brought about by a contemplation of the life filled with a loving relationship. It is ultimately heartful.

Ennis's discerning voice lovingly points out the truth, and urges Jack to take care of himself, but at the same time it allows him to position himself in direct contact. The simile provides Ennis's story which is ultimately himself, concluded shortly after.

The outside world feels distant and extreme - its pains and conflicts are not present in the small world that Jack and Ennis share intimately. Once evicted from this world in a type of symbolic death, they can never return completely.

[Daniel]

Monroe: It's okay, Alma, it's okay. Really, Alma, it's okay.

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"Imagination returns us to our native wildness, to the natural and seamless fluency of our own nature."

"[Imagination] never blasts us with information or numbs us with description. It coaxes us into a new situation."

"We find ourselves engaged in [Imagination]'s questions and possibilities, and new revelation dawns."

"We enter into the life of a character. Our empathy and our minds are engaged by the depth and complexity of the characters heart and by the quest of his mind for vision and meaning."

"Suggestion respects the mystery and richness of a thing. All it offers are clues to its nature."

The characters Ennis and Jack rail against their own harsh lives which keep them from one another, resisting and twisting away from their social restrictions. They yearn, instead, to be themselves in a world of natural beauty - a return to an idyllic state of innocence where their love has meaning and silent companionship is as revealing as any conversation. Here, joy is expressed freely. Here, sorrow, grief, and dissatisfaction are shared vocally while such discontent would be frowned upon by society's standards. Here, lovers can be unified without fear of reprisal, vengeance or punishment from a world of darker shadows. The inner light shines forth, unhidden and unburdened by the weight of society.

When the inner light is exposed, the complexity of heart and meaning of mind are made real. Every emotional vibration, no matter its perceived significance, strikes the chord of empathic hope. Every vision, the kaleidoscope of truth and life.

Monroe's thrice-spoken supplication of calmness, the invocation of peace, and the assurance of continual support unite in a manner most becoming of love. They suggest the beginnings of a romantic entendre, and mirror Jack's words to Ennis which do the same: ((It is here that I am referring to the controversially and continually debated second tent scene)) "'s allright. 's allright. 's allright." Both sets of thrice spoken supplications provide some spiritual support.

Monroe: The supplication of calmness, the invocation of peace, the assurance of continual support (As mentioned earlier).

Jack: Assurance of acceptance, invocation of peace, presentation of agreement.

[Daniel]

Ennis: "I doubt there's nothing we can do. I'm stuck with what I got here."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"A glimpse of an expression in someone's eyes can awaken a train of forgotten memories."

"Beauty loves freedom... The imagination always goes beyond the frames and cages of the expected and predictable."

"When everything has become locked inside a dead perspective and the consensus is that a cul-de-sac has been reached, the love and affinity between two people becomes sidelined into a repetitive and wearying pattern."

"The soul awakens in the presence of beauty and recovers and grows her external wings" - Plato.

"Beauty calls us beyond ourselves and it encourages us to engage the dream that dwells in the soul."

I do not feel as though I need to interpret, add to, or respond to tonight's passage other than to say that Ennis opens to Jack twice. Once in words, which is ultimately to be called "hope" and second in deeds, through a moment of "faith". He steps beyond the boundaries he's established for himself in order to be with Jack.

Ennis's third opening to Jack occurs after Jack's death - when finally he comprehends and can continually live for the love of Jack - recognized in the acceptance and demonstration of the nested shirts.

Hope by the opening of thought.
Faith by the opening of will.
Love by the opening of heart.

[Daniel]

Jack: "And why is it we're always in the friggin' cold? We oughta go south, where its warm. We oughta go to Mexico!"

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"In the presence of beauty, we are called to be gracious and worthy."

"The ruthless winter clearance of spirit quietly leads to new possibility of springtime."

"The beauty of compassion continues to shelter and save our world."

Does Ennis blame Jack for needing a warm relationship or does he feel guilty because he was unable to provide that relationship, or does he feel jealous for not having that same outlet to ease his need for a warm relationship?

(I'm not certain why I didn't complete this meditation, but it closely parallels another similar meditation that I did complete, so I will just combine the two here.)

Lureen: "Last time I seen it you was in it... the day we had that big ice storm."

"Beauty, the Invisible Embrace"

"To recognize and celebrate beauty is to recognize the ultimate sacredness of experience, to glimpse the subtle embrace of belonging where we are and to the divine, the beauty of every moment, of every thing."

"Beauty holds faith with the deepest signature of individuality: it graces the passion of individuality when it risks itself beyond its own frontiers, out to where the depth of the abyss calls."

"In that stillness the multiple futures of the scene are caught in the glimmer of the as yet unchosen possibility."

"In dance the gravity of the body is released."

"Beneath the skin is the brilliance of matter."

Coldness of nature imparts stillness: endless possibility from one beginning point. And in this icy embrace, Jack languishes for his personal freedom - always perceiving the endless possibilities but never able to pursue any as long as he remains in that icy grip. Lureen here ultimately represents the unchanging power of frozen water.

He manages to escape her icy, laconic wit through dance when he dances with the warm, fiery, and talkative LaShawne. Though perhaps he imagines himself with her husband.

The ice storm is a visual image which recurs many times, and its relation to snow cannot be overlooked. We can compare Lureen's "big ice storm" to Ennis's Christmas blizzard and both to the hail storm that drives the yoiung lovers to a more comfortable place. We can see in many ways that is is these same storms which drive action and response: a type of frozen coldness or numbness that we wish to avoid, and we avoid it by reaching for warmth. We avoid hatred, and its compatriate, cold indifference, by seeking the warmth of a loving relationship.

Lureen ofers little sympathy, does not move herself to help him, and in a slightly cold manner reminds him of the last time it was used. Her speech seeks to dismiss both him and the entire idea out of hand, as though it is not important to her and not worth the trouble.

[Daniel]

Ennis: "Tent don't look right."

The Five Stages of the Soul

"Repentance is not self-chastisement or abuse, not regret over things done and past that cannot be changed. Repentance is a kind of turning, a starting again: self-cleansing; self-forgiveness; self-renewal."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace

"We need to learn the art of inner reverence and never force the soul out into the false light of social gratification and expectation."

"Neither in environment nor in heredity can I find the exact instrument that fashioned me."

"To be human is to be ambivalent: every experience open to countless interpretations never seeing a thing completely."

"The soul always strains beyond the body."

In this scene, perhaps we finally perceive something of a nesting instinct. Ennis yearns to make the habitation a good one though this is after he and Jack have switched their jobs and it is Jack, not Ennis, that will stay in the camp. The tent is perhaps symbolic, then, of his love for Jack, which has only started to blossom and is not recognized on the whole.

To Ennis, the tent lacks something and he attemtps to fix it, to turn it into something better (even though it is not his to turn) - and perhaps some type of internal resignation that their relationship "don't look right."

That being said, it is this very same tent in which the relationship is consummated, and we can perhaps see a type of repentance on Ennis's part. Self-cleansing by fire, Self-forgiveness by choosing to enter the tent, Self-renewal by the acts of consummation.

[Daniel]

Now that there are a week's worth of meditations, perhaps I might try to summarize just exactly what this week's meditations have done for me. Its always good to look back and be grateful for the small experiences during the week that have aided in transforming a simple life into a much more meaningful one.

It seems that this week's meditations all seem to deal with extension of the self in one way or another. Here is wisdom for those with eyes and ears. It is important to extend the self, despite our fears and anxieties that those extensions may meet with failures. Self extension is a part of the full life, and when we hold ourselves back, when we refuse to meet the challenges that life presents to us, we withdraw into ourselves and live a much lesser life. It is natural to experience fear and anxiety, but it is perhaps less natural to allow that fear and anxiety to dominate our lives.

When you put your best self forward, when you extend consciousness and the most loving and risking aspects of your self into a world "which may say that you're wrong", I think you will find that life will offer much more joy, wisdom, happiness, peace, and prosperity. I wish you all the best of luck in learning to transcend the fears and limitations of your weaker lives, so that you may continue to expand your consciousness and your lives along the spiritual and philosophical precepts that this film and a meditation upon this film will offer.