| Subject: Re: MEDITATION - SOME ANALOGIES - THE SILVER SCREEN AND THE MOVIES |
Author:
Penny
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Date Posted: Wed, Dec 10 2003, 21:10:07
In reply to:
Penny
's message, "MEDITATION - BEING AND BECOMING" on Wed, Dec 10 2003, 17:45:33
As we are all aware, in the cinema a powerful white light is directed by a projector onto a silver screen. A reel of film is passed at rapid speed between the screen and the projector, creating an extremely lifelike series of images for our entertainment. We enjoy the film.
Since the reel of film is made up of a series of "still frames", each separated by a row of perforations for editing purposes, and since furthermore there is a fast-revolving, bladed fan necessary for the cooling of the intense heat generated by the bulb of the projector, we are, in fact, a lot of the time gasing at an empty screen. This is more apparent in watching the early films where the speed of projection was so slow that the movements depicted on the screen are jerky rather than smooth-flowing. So efficient is modern technology that it has long been possible to flash messages on the screen which appear and disappear so rapidly that the eye does not register them yet they are still observed on the screen of our awareness and may influence our behavious.
Hence the strict restrictive regulations on any form of "subliminal messaging".
On the silver screen we may see stories of love and hate, war and peace, tragedy and comedy - the whole spectrum of human experience, realistically presented. We may allow ourselves to become completely involved in the plot, identify with the characters, be frightened out of our lives or convulsed with laughter. The whole range of human emotions can be triggered by the magical illusion of the cinema, which must account for its enduring popularity. When the movie is over and the projector is turned off the silver screen is revealed just as it was before all the sound and fury, completely untouched by the events depicted on its surface.
Analogies are never 100 per cent precise, but this one comes close to it. If we can imagine that the silver screen represents the screen of our conscious awareness, the projected images flickering on the screen would be the events of our daily life inviting our response. We may, in meditative awareness, remain with the unchanging screen, while at the same time fully participating in the play of creation, enjoying it for what it is but remaining free of its involvements. This, again, would be meditation in action.
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