"The World is a Movie" is actually an okay analogy

I hated this when I first heard it. For me it contradicted the path I had been on which was to embed myself in experience and existence and remove the barriers that seemed to come from watching the world like a movie. Life is to be experienced not just watched.

But I realise now where my dislike of the idea came from.

The desire to be embedded in experience, depends upon a belief that there is something to embed!

"The World is a Movie" is not appealing because we instinctively think it means being stuck in a cinema watching the movie. It is a sneaky idea that follows us around like a bad smell.

When we realise there is no one watching the film, then we have no problem with the world being like a film. It is quite true that it unfolds like a movie, except one not just in sound, vision, emotions and thoughts but also smells, tastes and feelings. Seeing the world as a constantly evolving hallucination or cinema experience is actually not a bad analogy.

But its a bit scary isn't it. Where did I go? I assume I'm in a cinema somewhere watching it.

Nope.

Let us presume you are. What is to stop that cinema being part of the film? This indeed is an technique in film. You are looking at one film and then it cuts to show the audience watching that film. Instantly we leap out of the film into a cinema. And does there need to be another cinema of real people watching this sudden leap? Well in a physical cinema there are limits, but that is an analogy of the real cinema of experience and for that one there are no limits. We can jump into our cinema seat, and out again in the flip of a thought.

Now one thing that is occurring to me is, obviously, what something Buddha said. He said it all before, but it can take a long time to walk that path he pointed to.

The hindrance behind all this is not actually self, or any error in particular. It is not the fear of being stuck in a cinema, or of somehow being outside out precious experience.

The problem lies in a subtle thing called attachment or grasping. It is a very gentle and subtle thing, and then it can explode into a stubborn standing our ground to hold on to the thing we love or value. And it can be violence and frustrating an drive us mad. Life can be elation and it can be misery from this grasping. But it is very subtle.

The problem behind all this is just holding on to things, stubbornly, wilfully not wanting to let go. It is there inside us, this fist that wants to hold, or equally wants to push away.

And so I pushed away the idea of "the world being a movie" because I was holding to the idea of being someone. I was holding to the idea of that someone having free and deep experience and so I pushed hard at the idea that this desirable experience was just a film that pushed me out as an audience member. It was my experience, I wanted to be there. After all is this not what Present Moment is, is this not what enlightened, real, fulfilling life is like?

Well yes, but not when it is grasped, and especially when it is married to grasping of a separate self.

How can we have this deep and embedded experience of life, if we are at the same time saying, and forcefully insisting, it is mediated through someone. That experience is mine, now get it signed off and given to that me person to experience. This is exactly the bureaucracy we hate.

But it doesn't come from missing something or not being smart, somehow getting the world wrong, failing the test, not trying hard enough, not being mystical enough. None of this. It comes simply from holding on stubbornly to things, especially our self.

Get to know that stubborn holding, like a child who grasps at their teddy bear and won't let it go without tears. Get to know that grip stubbornness and sad and scary feeling of letting it go.

And then get to know the feeling of not carrying something. Of having the windows open and the fresh air blowing away the staleness of weariness of grasping so tight. It is a very particular feeling, like mountain water clear cool and refreshing, like morning dew cool and fragrant, like the late afternoon sun warming but kind after the heat of the day, like the relief when anger has left us. It is a very particular feeling that lets us know we have let go.

Now we shouldn't really analyse that feeling too much but I have. How does letting go give a feeling, and who has it, especially if we have let ourselves go for a minute. I believe it is the body unwinding. The problem with grasping tight is that the body obeys and gets exhausted. The body is not that smart, if we get all wound up in anger and grasping then our body bears the pain. It is the one who feels stress and gets ill. When Buddha says that grasping causes suffering it is not "me" who gets to suffer, it is the body which gets all the pain and anguish. And when we see through this futility and let go, it is the body which now uncoils like a spring and returns to a relaxed state.

The problem for the unenlightened is that at soon as the body starts to feel well, we grasp again and claim this wellness for our self "oh wow I feel good again" when in fact that is only grasping once again. This is what gives the paradoxical meditation experience. You will never feel happy seeking happiness. You will feel happy when you stop trying be happy and let go, experience some diversion and famously focus on someone else instead of yourself. Then miraculously you feel good. How does this work? You are letting go! And you are not the one who feels good or lets go; it is the body unwinding from the burden that gets placed on it by twisted activities and grasping towards fantasy goals like trying to be happy.