11 January 2009

Spirit matters and movies

The previous post here emphasized paying attention to the global context. But there's another context to everything we do, which is (strictly speaking) neither global nor local: it is spiritual. The Uprising here is all about living a better life, not just surviving or carrying on the same old self-destructive routine a little longer. But how do we recognize a better life when we see one (or imagine) one? This is not a scientific question, at least not in the usual sense of ‘science’: it's an aesthetic or spiritual question. So in addition to resources informing us about the state of the world, we will pay attention in this space to some resources which can help to orient us towards the deeper sources of inspiration and motivation. One example is a film called The Dhamma Brothers, which John Hawke and Deb Wilson showed at one of our Movies that Matter nights a week ago. It's about the ‘first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting ten days. ‘The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates at Donaldson Correction Facility who enter into this arduous and intensive program.’ If you missed the movie night you might be able to borrow this thought- and practice-provoking DVD from John – contact gnox (at) xplornet -dot- com.

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