movies and travel
I thought everybody forgot about my blog (I almost did) but it turns out people are still reading it, some I didn't even know where reading it, so I am gladly going to write more. I even ran into a friend Iza I haven't seen for 25 years and she is reading my blog - what a surprise - and we talked standing on the old market square in my homtown and we felt like there was no 25-year gap. In fact we haven't changed much physically and mentally we are on the same waves... When it comes to things unexpected and so called coincidences, which I experience daily, I will talk about them here later. First, since last time I was talking about a movie, I will start talking about two movies which I recently saw (or even three). One is absolutely great, one is not so great but very useful, and the third is interesting and good but dark.
The first movie is entitled "Rusalka" (which means the mermaid in English). I saw this movie with Marysia. I mentioned in the blog before that I met Marysia in Calcutta in India. Our meeting was highly "coincidental", the only person I met in my travels who lives in my hometown. Since then all our meetings have been coincidental. Marysia calls me and says "here and here there's a movie/festival/some cultural event and we get together right away and we go. It is totally spontaneous each time, like in the beginning. So this time it was like this also. We went to the movies, the cinema in what used to be the "home of the railwaymen", and saw "Rusalka" and got enchanted by it. We left the cinema uplifted and the rest of the people left it sad and crying. Such is the difference in perception... I read some reviews after we saw the movie and mostly they were only about the superficial stuff of the movie, because like every great movie it has many layers, superficial, deeper and very deep. The very deep layer to me was the idea that we come to the world for a purpose. We have a lesson to learn or a test to pass. Sometimes we have many lessons to learn in a lifetime, sometime maybe we carried over from the past life just one task to complete. It seems that Rusalka, the Russian girl from the movie, had to overcome the feeling of jealeousy which was destructive. The first time it came over her when she was a little girl and was jelous about her mother, she was very destructive and burnt a house. When this feeling came over her the next time, when she grew up, she overcame it - she found love in herself which allowed her to help instead of destroying. Eventually love for another human being was greater then selfish feeling of jelousy and the need to keep a person to herself. After feeling the bliss of that emotion, could she ever feel this emotion so strongly again? Was there any reason for her to be around after the task was completed and lesson learned? There wasn't, hence, the ending of the story, for me and Marysia one full of hope, for the people in the cinema, who were only looking at the flesh and not at the spiritual, a tragedy. You will know what I am talking about after you see the movie. And don't read the reviews before you see it because they are flat and superficial.
The second movie is "The Secret". I friend downloaded it to my computer some weeks ago. I've heard about it and I've heard about the book on which it is based. I saw the first 15 minutes of the movie, thought "what kind of superficial bs this is", turned it off and decided it was a waste of time to watch it. Then I started thinking that if so many people read the book and watched the movie, since it became such "bestseller", I should see it to see what attracts people to "The Secret". So I watched it yeasterday and here's what I think. It's not "a secret". It's basicaly the pauperized version of the notion of karma - whatever you do, it comes back to you, whether you do it, think of it, or intend it. Eastern philosophies have been dealing with this notion for thousands of years. The movie says that now the quantum physics, and the latest reasearch, points out that "everything is energy" so "we are connected to everything". Physicists say that we can attract certain energy, etc., etc. For anyone who has travelled outside of the Western world or read about research other then the Western scientists' research, whatever is said in the movie is a surface of the "research" done by people in other parts of the world. However, regardless of how simple, or - I have to use this word here - primitive the stuff they talk about is in the movie, it is quite usefull to the people living in the reality of the Western world and Western civilization. The mind of the Westerner cannot believe based on the intuition, it can believe only what it sees or percepts with the senses. It has been trained to do it from the beginning, by the system of education and the everpresent media. So it's hard to say to the Western man "believe what you feel" - he has to see to believe. So it's easier to say "believe that you are going to get a new bike or a car". I agree with the makers of the movie: if you ask for a car, you will get it. I have often said this to the people in the acupuncture clinic in NY: "Why don't you ask the Universe for what you want?" Some were looking at me as if just came straight from Mars. I know asking works and it's not a secret. It gives people a glimpse of how good life can be if they get into communication with the Universe. Finally they realize they are not alone, help can come, the energy (or whatever it is) comes their way, things start to change positively, things become clear and bright. And maybe once people get what they want they can go to higher plane of understanding and ask about other things than material things and go into deeper understanding or reality. The other thing I like about the movie is that it doesn't talk about modern psychology and doesn't use any of the stuff modern psychology uses. The people in the movie say that about 80% of people in the West grow up in disfunctional families (because our model of the family is disfunctional in the first place so no wonder, but that's another story) where there's alcohol, sexual or physical abuse, or verbal abuse, etc. So basically we are all kind of screwed up from the beginning so there's no reason to be feeling sorry for ourselves that it happened particularly to us since it is not particular to us but particular to almost anybody. Instead of looking for shrinks (who are as screwed up as ourselves) then and going over and over our bruised selves, we can just start waking up in the morning and saying what we are thankful for. That's IT. Instead complaining we fell into Yocasta or Oedipus complex, and that we have this psychosis or that neurosis, we forget about this complex or that complex and just say we are thankful we can walk on our two feet, move our two hands, and the head is in its place as well. If one gets into thankful mode one can make a very looooong list. And then we realize, as the movie says, that we are "timeless... we are the picture of God in the form of a human body... we have Godly potential..." and then we realize we can do basically anything we want. We can start living life instead of dozing off life in one day. I also liked what they said in the movie about health : "you can heal yourself". You get sick because you want to and you get healthy because you want to. Jao de Deus in Brasil said that he removes tumors in people's bodies because it makes them feel that since he did something, they will regain health. But actually, he says, whether he does it or doesn't doesn't matter - it's all in the people's mind.
The third movie "Aphonia and the Bees" is a movie by Polish director Jan Jakub Kolski. It is a very good movie but it's about the dark human nature, about the dark times in the Polish history, about hidden emotions which burst out with uncontroleable force when held in too long... It's interesting, like all movies by this director, so I can recommend it, even though it's so dark...
And about the time since my last entry. I did a series of shorter trips to visit my friends. I went to Slovakia to visit Katarina, to Warsaw to visit Marcin and Dorotka, to Mazury to visit Viola and Marek. Then I went to Marocco to visit friends I made there in January and to see the festival of Gnoua music in Essaouira. I did a stop over in Girona in Spain. I am going to write about these trips soon. On Saturday I am going to go to Wiselka and I will stay there until the 20 August. I will take with me my friend Jarek, who is joining Marzenka and their son Iwo (and their two dogs Bard and Pola) who are already staying at Michal's house. On weekend there's a festival of Slavs and Vikings in Wolin, close to Wiselka, so we'll spend some time then. On Sunday Gosia and Rashid are coming to visit me in Wiselka, my neighbours are going to join me, some other friends... it will be great. We will be walking in the forest, sunbathing and Balticbathing, picking blueberries and running with dogs on the beach. I also want to go the island of Bornholm on the Baltic sea. It belongs to Denmark but it's straight up from Wiselka and there are ferries and catamarans going there from Miedzyzdroje. I heard the island is beautiful and people bike around it. I will get the riksha to pack Maksio and we will tour the island.
In September I will be getting ready for my next trip to South East Asia. I decided I will go to Thailand first, then visit neighbouring countries and then I will either stay there for a while or go to China. More details soon.
And next week I will be 40, 1040 that is. But actually I am timeless so I will be 0000. In any case I like to celebrate timelesseness so there will be a party on the beach at sunset. Anyone who wants to come to the party is invited: 7 pm, Wiselka Beach, Wolin National Park, Baltic Sea. Many hugs to everyone.
The first movie is entitled "Rusalka" (which means the mermaid in English). I saw this movie with Marysia. I mentioned in the blog before that I met Marysia in Calcutta in India. Our meeting was highly "coincidental", the only person I met in my travels who lives in my hometown. Since then all our meetings have been coincidental. Marysia calls me and says "here and here there's a movie/festival/some cultural event and we get together right away and we go. It is totally spontaneous each time, like in the beginning. So this time it was like this also. We went to the movies, the cinema in what used to be the "home of the railwaymen", and saw "Rusalka" and got enchanted by it. We left the cinema uplifted and the rest of the people left it sad and crying. Such is the difference in perception... I read some reviews after we saw the movie and mostly they were only about the superficial stuff of the movie, because like every great movie it has many layers, superficial, deeper and very deep. The very deep layer to me was the idea that we come to the world for a purpose. We have a lesson to learn or a test to pass. Sometimes we have many lessons to learn in a lifetime, sometime maybe we carried over from the past life just one task to complete. It seems that Rusalka, the Russian girl from the movie, had to overcome the feeling of jealeousy which was destructive. The first time it came over her when she was a little girl and was jelous about her mother, she was very destructive and burnt a house. When this feeling came over her the next time, when she grew up, she overcame it - she found love in herself which allowed her to help instead of destroying. Eventually love for another human being was greater then selfish feeling of jelousy and the need to keep a person to herself. After feeling the bliss of that emotion, could she ever feel this emotion so strongly again? Was there any reason for her to be around after the task was completed and lesson learned? There wasn't, hence, the ending of the story, for me and Marysia one full of hope, for the people in the cinema, who were only looking at the flesh and not at the spiritual, a tragedy. You will know what I am talking about after you see the movie. And don't read the reviews before you see it because they are flat and superficial.
The second movie is "The Secret". I friend downloaded it to my computer some weeks ago. I've heard about it and I've heard about the book on which it is based. I saw the first 15 minutes of the movie, thought "what kind of superficial bs this is", turned it off and decided it was a waste of time to watch it. Then I started thinking that if so many people read the book and watched the movie, since it became such "bestseller", I should see it to see what attracts people to "The Secret". So I watched it yeasterday and here's what I think. It's not "a secret". It's basicaly the pauperized version of the notion of karma - whatever you do, it comes back to you, whether you do it, think of it, or intend it. Eastern philosophies have been dealing with this notion for thousands of years. The movie says that now the quantum physics, and the latest reasearch, points out that "everything is energy" so "we are connected to everything". Physicists say that we can attract certain energy, etc., etc. For anyone who has travelled outside of the Western world or read about research other then the Western scientists' research, whatever is said in the movie is a surface of the "research" done by people in other parts of the world. However, regardless of how simple, or - I have to use this word here - primitive the stuff they talk about is in the movie, it is quite usefull to the people living in the reality of the Western world and Western civilization. The mind of the Westerner cannot believe based on the intuition, it can believe only what it sees or percepts with the senses. It has been trained to do it from the beginning, by the system of education and the everpresent media. So it's hard to say to the Western man "believe what you feel" - he has to see to believe. So it's easier to say "believe that you are going to get a new bike or a car". I agree with the makers of the movie: if you ask for a car, you will get it. I have often said this to the people in the acupuncture clinic in NY: "Why don't you ask the Universe for what you want?" Some were looking at me as if just came straight from Mars. I know asking works and it's not a secret. It gives people a glimpse of how good life can be if they get into communication with the Universe. Finally they realize they are not alone, help can come, the energy (or whatever it is) comes their way, things start to change positively, things become clear and bright. And maybe once people get what they want they can go to higher plane of understanding and ask about other things than material things and go into deeper understanding or reality. The other thing I like about the movie is that it doesn't talk about modern psychology and doesn't use any of the stuff modern psychology uses. The people in the movie say that about 80% of people in the West grow up in disfunctional families (because our model of the family is disfunctional in the first place so no wonder, but that's another story) where there's alcohol, sexual or physical abuse, or verbal abuse, etc. So basically we are all kind of screwed up from the beginning so there's no reason to be feeling sorry for ourselves that it happened particularly to us since it is not particular to us but particular to almost anybody. Instead of looking for shrinks (who are as screwed up as ourselves) then and going over and over our bruised selves, we can just start waking up in the morning and saying what we are thankful for. That's IT. Instead complaining we fell into Yocasta or Oedipus complex, and that we have this psychosis or that neurosis, we forget about this complex or that complex and just say we are thankful we can walk on our two feet, move our two hands, and the head is in its place as well. If one gets into thankful mode one can make a very looooong list. And then we realize, as the movie says, that we are "timeless... we are the picture of God in the form of a human body... we have Godly potential..." and then we realize we can do basically anything we want. We can start living life instead of dozing off life in one day. I also liked what they said in the movie about health : "you can heal yourself". You get sick because you want to and you get healthy because you want to. Jao de Deus in Brasil said that he removes tumors in people's bodies because it makes them feel that since he did something, they will regain health. But actually, he says, whether he does it or doesn't doesn't matter - it's all in the people's mind.
The third movie "Aphonia and the Bees" is a movie by Polish director Jan Jakub Kolski. It is a very good movie but it's about the dark human nature, about the dark times in the Polish history, about hidden emotions which burst out with uncontroleable force when held in too long... It's interesting, like all movies by this director, so I can recommend it, even though it's so dark...
And about the time since my last entry. I did a series of shorter trips to visit my friends. I went to Slovakia to visit Katarina, to Warsaw to visit Marcin and Dorotka, to Mazury to visit Viola and Marek. Then I went to Marocco to visit friends I made there in January and to see the festival of Gnoua music in Essaouira. I did a stop over in Girona in Spain. I am going to write about these trips soon. On Saturday I am going to go to Wiselka and I will stay there until the 20 August. I will take with me my friend Jarek, who is joining Marzenka and their son Iwo (and their two dogs Bard and Pola) who are already staying at Michal's house. On weekend there's a festival of Slavs and Vikings in Wolin, close to Wiselka, so we'll spend some time then. On Sunday Gosia and Rashid are coming to visit me in Wiselka, my neighbours are going to join me, some other friends... it will be great. We will be walking in the forest, sunbathing and Balticbathing, picking blueberries and running with dogs on the beach. I also want to go the island of Bornholm on the Baltic sea. It belongs to Denmark but it's straight up from Wiselka and there are ferries and catamarans going there from Miedzyzdroje. I heard the island is beautiful and people bike around it. I will get the riksha to pack Maksio and we will tour the island.
In September I will be getting ready for my next trip to South East Asia. I decided I will go to Thailand first, then visit neighbouring countries and then I will either stay there for a while or go to China. More details soon.
And next week I will be 40, 1040 that is. But actually I am timeless so I will be 0000. In any case I like to celebrate timelesseness so there will be a party on the beach at sunset. Anyone who wants to come to the party is invited: 7 pm, Wiselka Beach, Wolin National Park, Baltic Sea. Many hugs to everyone.
posted by Asia Kabat at 4:33 AM
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