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Daily Meditations

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Daniel:
Ennis: "You'll run the sheep off again, if you don't quiet down."

The Five Stages of the Soul:

"Suddenly we understand that our bargain with life has been based more on wish fulfillment and the need for security than on any heavenly guarantees. We realize that the agreement we made with life was really just an attempt to manipulate reality, and attempt at striking a [...] deal with Providence. Unfortunately, the contract was signed by only one party - ourselves."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"[The discerning voice] advises distance and opens up a new perspective through which the concealed meaning of a situation might emerge."

"When serenity is restored [...] the tired machinations of the ego are abandoned."

"Yet in truth, nothing ever disappears, nothing is lost. Everything that happens to us in the world passes into us. It all becomes part of the inner temple of the soul and can never be lost. This is the art of the soul: to harvest your deeper life from all the seasons of your experience."

"While beauty usually quickens our senses, awakens our delight, and invites wonder, there are occassions when the force of beauty is disturbing and even frightening."

The world is full of maledictions - "If you do this, then this will happen." They are often curses of damnation, statements of moral supremacy, or perhaps the well-meant advice of a superstitious nanny.

But in this particular sentence humor is invoked because both parties realize there is no correlation between the playing of a damaged harmonica and the running off of sheep. At the same time, Ennis does seem to be offering some advice to Jack - perhaps to look back on their recent, harrowing experience. To explore the full meaning of everything that has just happened and what they accomplished together.

The worry has faded from his expression, and the anxiety. Jack and Ennis emerge from their struggle triumphant and serene. Both are capable of putting aside their controlling egos and relax in the companionship they simply enjoy.

A trying event - spiritually, mentally, emotionally - as though God or Providence had sought to scatter the sheep to test their resolve and their spirits, and perhaps more importantly, their relationship. These trials have all been comprehended by the heart and soul and bared all in its beautiful splendor. The trial opened them up completely and melted the last barriers between them.

The one most resistant to this raw experience is Ennis who is in very unfamiliar ground with the development of a heartful and soulful relationship with his own guilt and self-attacks through the knowledge of his upcoming nuptial obligations and the social "wrongness" of their particular relationship. Ennis does learn to respond with full emotionality: to laugh, to open himself, and extend towards Jack to perceive a limited beauty in their relationship; to open further through their harrowing experience, but here - after extending trust and hope (see Meditation 10) after relating deeply to Jack by involving himself in their mutual project - Ennis fears some forceful experience in their evolved relationship, some new awareness based upon the trial through which they bonded even closer.

In fear, and maybe trepidation, he uneasily expresses the humorous (and yet meaningful) statement. "You'll run the sheep off again if you don't quiet down."
We might see this in one of two ways: "Wouldn't it be funny if the sheep ran off again?" and on a more subtle level, "That was some experience back there as we rounded up the sheep, and now I feel awkward and have to say something to feel normal again."

Daniel:
Cassie: I left word for you with Steve up at the ranch. But you must of got those notes I left at your place.

The Five Stages of the Soul

"I tried to tell her what fun it was, how nice it is to have a living thing around the house. But she didn't want to know from it [....] She just couldn't do it - couldn't put herself out for anybody or anything, man or beast."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"There is a wonderful complexity in nature and indeed in the world of artificial objects, yet no complexity can rival the complexity of the human mind and heart."

"Even the most caring [...] will leave inevitable trails of damage. This is a natural part of the 'dark industry' of imperfection and brokenness that lies within everyone of us."

"Part of the beauty of the act of discovery is the integrity of desire for wholeness."

"Sometimes absence is merely arrested appearance."

"We are no longer trapped in mental frames of self-reduction or self-denunciation."

Cassie's words here seem to elicit an understanding of her inner nature. On the surface, she seems a little eager to understand Ennis's absence, but her sorrow is overwhelming, and somewhat manipulative. She does not truly seek to understand Ennis and feels too comfortable with his personal and emotional arrested appearance. It seems as though there is some part of Ennis which she fears: a denial which will inevitably bring about heartache.

Even if Ennis and Cassie truly cared for one another in some way, it is likely that their imperfect and broken spirits would have clashed together in opposition, leaving throbbing tendrils of pain. Ennis is not capable of meeting her emotional wounds with his own, for they are far too similar. One cannot heal the other.

At the same time, though, there is a part of Cassie that needs to know - that years for the act of discovery so that she can integrate the knowledge with the rest of her life.Although her words seem cheerful and beneath them are the tones and pauses of manipulation, ultimately at their core is a quest for knowledge, completion, and wholeness, to be recognized by herself as a human being.

With that knowledge, even if it was not the knowledge she sought, she is freed from doubt and worry: self-reduction and self-denunciation.

Daniel:
I know, a bit late (again).

This is a line from the screenplay, and I know for a fact that it was modified in its actual presentation in the film, but I am not altering it now, though I may come back and edit it. How these small changes arise in the film I think is up to the actor's style, and in particular to their own sense of the rhythm of the film and the words they speak.

Ennis: "Jack and me is goin' out for a drink. Might not get back tonight, we get to talkin' and all."

The Five Stages of the Soul:

"[T]he King learns that recapturing the glories of youth is a foolish dream. Conquest eludes him, and his attempts to recapture these fragments of time gone by bring humiliation and imprisonment. The King is then rescued by the force of the feminine, which up till now he has denied. Intelligence and subtle wisdom are personified in the form of the Queen, who comes to help him in his darkest hour, offering a second Call, this time to true freedom."

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

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

"Words create the bridges between us without them we would be lost islands. Affection, recognition and understanding travel across these fragile bridges and enable us to discover each other and awaken friendship and intimacy."

"To practice the discipline of reverence [...] means that we remain always secretly ready to receive the words that could illuminate our destiny."

"In the presence of Beauty, the passion and inner fullness of the gift flows forth in confidence and sureness."

Ennis's words, while deceitful and at least in part fictitious reveal a great inner truth - his need for open communication - for true freedom which has been revealed by the sudden and heart-expanding appearance of Jack, whom representes so much to Ennis (passion and inner fullness) and whose qualities struggle to flow forth meaningfully.

After so many weeks of open soulful communication on Brokeback Mountain, Ennis learned to close up again in his relationship with Alma. He does not seem to desire affection, recognition, and understanding to the same depth that he experienced with Jack. So when Jack appears again - his words are empowered by passion and joy and by a true happiness which startles Alma, and while his body does once again yearn for union - his heart, mind, and soul are rapidly preparing for provocative and emotionally deep conversation. So after the "all" Ennis and Jack do indeed "get to talkin'".

Daniel:
I know I should do a week summary again, but I wanted to jump right into the next meditation. And after everything is said and done in this world, there is no right or wrong, only the personal choices that we make and the results of those choices.

Jack: "S'allright... S'allright" (The Second Tent Scene (STS))

The Five Stages of the Soul:

" 'You see, magicians know that you, Mr. and Mrs. Audience have certain fixed habits of perception. Assumptions about reality. You expect things to look and behave a certain way because they've always looked and behaved that way.' "

Beauty, the Invisible Embrace:

"I arise today
With God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me
God's wisdom to guide me
God's eye to look ahead for me.
God's ear to hear me.
God's word to speak for me.
God's hand to defend me
God's way to lie before me.
God's shield to protect me.
God's host to safeguard me."

"Music does not touch merely the mind and the senses; it engages that ancient and primal presence we call soul."

"It is fascinating to consider the ancient kinship of light and dark, white and black."

"It is delightful when you find out more of your hidden light, when the radiance inside you glimmers through in new, unexpected colors."

"There is nothing in the world as intense as a human person: each one of us is inevitably and helplessly intense."

I have written much about the second tent scene already (in the book I am writing) and there is some controversy still over the words that are spoken during it. The subtitltes seem incorrect, so are not helpful.

First and foremost, Ennis is drawn into the tent with some resistance. His expectations are grim; his perception clouded. Perhaps we might see his venture into the tent as a divinely guided process.

There is no music but in Jack's voice: rhythm and repetition - tone and consistency, but these can heal like no other music can - the human voice is a powerful instrument of divine elation and forgiveness. This music is ultimately engaging of Ennis's mind, senses, and soul.

The second tent scene is played out in light and dark. Fire releases its golden fusion to bathe everything in light. Behind Jack are the white walls of the tent, glowing with light. Behind Ennis is the black opening - a darkness from which he has turned - this is perhaps a reversal of their normal roles and colors. Ennis is so often associated with white and lighter earth tones while Jack is associated with blue and black.

The scene reveals intensity and radiance of inner light in Jack and Ennis. When the social restraints are lifted they cannot seem to help but be that which their inner nature has called them to be.

Daniel:
Hmm, as I look over these meditations they seem to be pointing towards the self. Whereas in the first week everything seemed to be pointing from the self outwards, in this week the self is pointing at the self. This brings up to mind one principle of human responsibility which is often lacking in our modern society: integrity.

"This above all, to thine own self be true." Polonius's words to Laertes in Hamlet ring true throughout this film and in our own lives. To be true to the self, to listen carefully to the inner voices and to do what we know our soul is calling ourselves to do. That would be quite a wondrous experience. In Brokeback Mountain, many characters are incapable of dedicating themselves to themselves. They do not seem to be able to grasp that responsibility. This is not something that we should be upset about. Every individual matures at a different rate, and we cannot blame those whom have not yet reached their highest understanding of themselves. For many, this type of understanding can require a lifetime (or more than one). The ability to be still and listen to the self and allow the truest aspects of self to spring forward. This is integrity, and it is one of the most beautiful aspects of the human soul.

Learn to listen to your own inner voice. Prepare a special time and place to hear it. Learn to communicate with wisdom and do not share or impress upon others yourself when you are not certain where you stand. Stand upon firm ground and then reach out to others, and help them to find their own firm ground as well. This is perhaps one of the greatest loving things that you can do: help another human being to find himself or herself, his or her own inner voice, and to herald that voice as you would your own.

Let love reign supreme.

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