So Many Films, So Little Time!

So many fine films watched.
So little time to review them all.
Looking at scribbled notes some time later,
I sometimes forget what they were about.
When the DVD is available,
I wonder if I should watch it again.

So many fine lessons in life.
So little time to truly register them all.
Looking back some time later,
I realise I missed what should have been learnt.
When I die,
will I be reborn back here to learn again?

(I’m going Pureland to learn the crucial lessons missed –
where there is ‘infinite life’, where the lack of time is not a concern!)

9 thoughts on “So Many Films, So Little Time!

  1. Hah! I wish! But of course, the ‘tix’ to Pureland can’t be bought with $!

    ‘Departures’ is a moving Japanese film (which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film), that made salt water well in my eyes a few times. Look out for the review here soon 😉

  2. No la… i can’t see the Dharma is ALL things yet. Still working my way there!

    Actually, nothing is trivial, and nothing is not of the Dharma! In terms of the Dharmakaya, the universal all-pervading ‘body’ shared by all Buddhas, the Buddhas, like truth (Dharma) itself, pervade all space. There is always some aspect of reality (Dharma) we can learn from anything 😉

  3. How do we go about to see “Dharma is ALL things”? How do we try to see Dharma in every thing we come across? E.g. dharma in a cup, dharma when sweeping etc? I heard some venerables discourses that everything is the dharma and we should contemplate on it especially to apply the 4 noble truth or on emptiness. But for a beginner like me into buddhism, i find it hard to see their point. Especially when i am supposed to see dharma based on comtemplating on a ‘cup’. Please give some examples??

  4. The Buddha realised that all things [phenomena, in terms of mind (feelings, perceptions, intentions…) and matter (our body and other material things)] exhibit the ‘Three Marks of Existence’ [or Three Universal Characteristics: Anicca (transience), Dukkha (dissatisfaction due to not realising Anicca and Anatta) and Anatta (absence of substantial or fixed self-characteristics)]. To see these in all things is to see the Dharma.

    There are ways to see other aspects of the Dharma too. The easiest way is to keep mindfully learning the Dharma directly from books, classes and talks, till the Dharma is seen reflected or even amplified in everyday things. E.g. when a cup is full, we can reflect on whether we are already too full of false preconceptions of ‘truth’. When we are sweeping up a huge mess, we can see it as an opportunity to practise sweeping away our impatience.

    When we have an itch, we can see the emptiness (unsubstantiality of it) when it falls away on its own accord. When we suffer from any form of craving (e.g. for a snack), we can see the dissatisfaction as the First Noble Truth, the craving to rid it as the the Second Noble Truth, the ideal state of peace without suffering as the Third Noble Truth, and the (Noble Eightfold) path to end suffering (which includes letting go of craving) as the Fourth Noble Truth. Hope these examples help ^_^

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