Do we ever leave the theatre?

[Roger Hicks]

In the realms of movie recommendations, do not neglect dear old Arnie in Total Recall. The plot turns on which 'memories' are 'real', and then you have Arnie's 'acting' superimposed on that -- a man who's always had difficulty in distinguishing between what's 'real' and what isn't (as witness the California budget).

From a Buddhist viewpoint, duality itself is an illusion: anything other than the Clear White Light of Reality (in which there is no duality) is illusion, and how we perceive the World of Illusion is a matter of choice. Leaving the theatre happens only when you achieve enlightenment -- which one might irreverently describe as when you finally understand the joke.

In other words, the ding an sich or the noumenon are as illusory as perception itself (perception is, after all, a means of parsing duality). I am not given to religion, but the only one that actually makes any sense to me -- the only one that says, in effect, that you don't need to believe anything -- is Buddhism (if yu can call it a religion). The anatman may or may not exist. If it does, Buddhism provides the best explanation I've ever seen. If it doesn't, it's irrelevant anyway.

Alternatively, there's always Sartre. Assume that existence precedes essence, and that existence is always mediated by the senses, and no, we cannot leave the theatre.

Cheers,

R.

 

[dave lackey]

And while the theatre goes on, my wife and I are still trying to survive hour by hour. THAT is reality.😡

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

Also, as you are based in Berlin, I'd recommend Wenders' "Wings of Desire". There is much in this film dealing with the perception of role playing.

my father is in that movie 😀

 

[robklurfield]

A friend of mine wrote a short play that takes place in a bar. Rather than putting it on in a theater, it was staged in a bar. The layers of this onion that is life can be peeled back almost infinitely....

 

[GSNfan]

Thinking about this topic it occurred to me that nothing in the movies can really match classic literature when it comes to dealing with what we call reality.

Movies have made people think in terms of the movies, everyone appear to be playing a role in a movie of their own imagination. While in ancient times and even a hundred years ago being an actor was considered a lowly occupation, today actors are the new aristocrats of our society.

Going back to classic literature, imo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the most potent dose of reality that can be had in a few hours of reading. That story is guaranteed to shake up even the most adamant post-modern, new-age optimist. Ivan Ilyich might be the leading protagonist, but death is the star and Tolstoy makes no attempt at sugarcoating the reality of facing imminent death.


We live in a society where people don't really believe they will eventually die someday, its against almost every cliche of modern culture to contemplate death, talk about it or actually acknowledge that death is the only certain thing about life. This theater of the absurd that our world has turned into, still has the same exist as it had since the beginning of time, death... We do eventually leave the theater but not alive.

 

[tlitody]

Thinking about this topic it occurred to me that nothing in the movies can really match classic literature when it comes to dealing with what we call reality.

Movies have made people think in terms of the movies, everyone appear to be playing a role in a movie of their own imagination. While in ancient times and even a hundred years ago being an actor was considered a lowly occupation, today actors are the new aristocrats of our society.

Going back to classic literature, imo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the most potent dose of reality that can be had in a few hours of reading. That story is guaranteed to shake up even the most adamant post-modern, new-age optimist. Ivan Ilyich might be the leading protagonist, but death is the star and Tolstoy makes no attempt at sugarcoating the reality of facing imminent death.


We live in a society where people don't really believe they will eventually die someday, its against almost every cliche of modern culture to contemplate death, talk about it or actually acknowledge that (1)death is the only certain thing about life. This theater of the absurd that our world has turned into, still has the same exist as it had since the beginning of time, death... We do eventually leave the theater (2)but not alive.

(1 )And Taxes !

(2) There are an awful lot of people who don't beleive that. Are they in theatre or reality? Who is to say, we all think we know the answer to that one.
The thing is that once you beleive you are in theatre all the time, then life can be a lot of fun. But then again, being in reality all the time can be fun too. But the most liberating thing is realising that other people are in their own theatre and you can join in their play if you have an open mind to it. If your mind is closed to their theatre you become one sad little puppy.

 

[Arjay]

is there a factual global reality that we live in or is our reality just a medial construct produced by our very selves?

I don't think there is - apart from neurological commonalities of how our brain interprets what we perceive.

Simon, the latest copy of the German magazine Der Spiegel contains a very interesting interview with the NY neurologist and psychiatrist Oliver Sacks on how the brain compensates vision deficiencies like loss of an eye, color blindness, macula degeneration, but also more complex neurological disorders like the inability to identify and categorize the things someone (with physically perfect vision) is seeing. Very interesting - see pp. 128 of Der Spiegel, issue 02/2011 of today.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

I don't think there is - apart from neurological commonalities of how our brain interprets what we perceive.

Simon, the latest copy of the German magazine Der Spiegel contains a very interesting interview with the NY neurologist and psychiatrist Oliver Sacks on how the brain compensates vision deficiencies like loss of an eye, color blindness, macula degeneration, but also more complex neurological disorders like the inability to identify and categorize the things someone (with physically perfect vision) is seeing. Very interesting - see pp. 128 of Der Spiegel, issue 02/2011 of today.

thank you, will check it out!

 

[Dunn]

I have another vote for Waking Life. It is a very interesting movie.