What is this Life
philosophic inquiry into life and meaning
...if truth were not for man the desire for truth would not be as a burning unrest in his heart...
Inspirations
Movies, music, books and other media that is inspiring, uplifting, sobering, and catalytic will be found here.
In 2003, Grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard lived in Alaska promoting awareness of the endangered bears. In a tragic event, both are killed by a hungry grizzly bear. This movie uses Timothy's own footage to document what happened.
My initial reaction after watching this film was: "What was this guy thinking? -- Or not thinking the case may be?" Being around bears and expecting to not get eaten? You don't mess with bears, you respect them by keeping your distance. He thought himself the 'protector' of the bears. The funny thing is the bears are already on protected lands -- Katmai National Park in Alaska.
The movie documents his time in the wild, sometimes him alone with only a camera. He shows signs of mental illness and OCD behaviour as well. He would often try a 'take' several times repeatedly before he felt satisfied with it. His emotional 'love' for the bears over-rid his rational logic for common sense. He was filming himself and the bears for a possible TV show as he tried to portray himself as similar to the "Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin but with bears. As the movie progresses he goes on to criticize society and his role in it.
Into Great Silence (2005), also called Die große Stille in German, is a documentary about life as lived by an order of Carthusian monks. The Grande Chartreuse, is located in the French alps and is home to this order of monks who live life by very austere rules in religious service and worship.
The movie pulls you into their world with no narrator, no archival footage, no anything you would normally associate with a documentary. This one stands on its own footage and audio to set the scene. Little things like the wind blowing or insects buzzing in the background stand out and are noticed as completing the scene in making this more absorbing. Of course there is the monks talking and chanting and other noises, so this film is not a silent film despite the name. The silence the films speaks of is more the quiet way of life lead by these monks -- the monks are silent for the most part -- especially inside the monastery walls.
While not having read all of this book completely, I have read many of the inspiring and thought provoking articles this book contains, many of which were included in past issues of the TAT Forum. Also I have met many of the authors of this book and find their work is a great testament to the Work.
Blurb from the book's site:
Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is a book of favorite essays, poems and humor from the "TAT Forum" magazine aimed at providing seekers with an ongoing source of encouragement and inspiration. The selections represent views of a diverse set of people who have introspected the mind and gained perspective into our essential nature and being. Video trailer.
A companion on the journey to self-realization, this "desert island" book is now available at Amazon.com
A sample of the book is here: http://tatfoundation.org/beyond_mind_beyond_death_sample.pdf
This movie is about two mountain climbers who wanted to push themselves to the ultimate challenge -- to conquer a mountain that had not been conquered before, the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They face incredible danger and end up in a precarious situation where one climber must cut the rope on the other. He cuts the rope and believes his friend is dead but miraculously his friend survives by falling into a crevasse and climbing out of it on his stomach (because of a broken leg). This movie tells their story of life and death and climbing.
After reading a recommendation of this movie from this site: howietalks, it jumped out at me that I had to see this movie. The Thirteenth Floor is a mind-trippy movie in the vein of The Matrix or Vanilla Sky (both of which, by the way, are also excellent movies).
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