Being happy when….
we get something
we feel good
we become well known
someone speaks well of us
Being unhappy when…
we don’t get something
we feel sick
we aren’t well known
someone puts us down
These are the things that keep us chained in samsara or cyclic life. To be free of the eight worldly thoughts is to be free or close to freedom.
V for Vendetta portrays an aspect of spiritual 
development that is frequently overlooked and rarely embraced. In many traditions, both Hindu and Buddhist, there are fierce deities that perform the job of removing obstacles. Two such fierce babes are Kali and Ekajati (Blue Tara). Some of the many obstacles that these two remove are complacency and deep seated fears and addiction.
If that little bit of wine you take at dinner every once in awhile keeps you comfortable and not growing spiritually, then they can create circumstances that turns that into a devastating addiction. Or if your great job and comfy home has lulled you into inaction, Kali or Ekajati will be glad to take that job away for you.
In V for Vendetta Natalie Portman, our lead star, has suffered from anxiety most of her life, probably due, in part, to losses she experienced as a child. Then through torture and trial she overcomes the greatest fear (fear of death) and becomes free. It might have been thought she did not have what it would take to withstand her circumstances and stay in integrity, but she did. And through her strength of will she tapped into an even stronger and more eternal sense of self.
It is when we lose attachment to things and then finally ourselves that we achieve true freedom. As long as we are acting from fear of any sort we are chained. As my favorite quote of the week says:
…swept along on four fierce river currents, chained up tight in past deeds, hard to undo, stuffed in a steel cage of grasping self, smothered in the pitch-black ignorance.
Je Tsongkapa (Three Principle Paths)
Natalie’s liberation came because of a choice she made. Eventually, due to that choice, and the actions that followed she was able to realize a cessation of fear. This absence of fear (a major mental affliction for many of is) means that she actually realized a greater truth about who she is.
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The Truman Show
In the movie, Truman (Jim Carrey) is adopted at birth by a corporation 
and becomes part of a reality TV show featuring him that airs worldwide 24 hours a day. His world consists of a man-made set, Seahaven, which is an island populated by actors. Every once in awhile he may get an idea that his world is peculiar, but the participants in the deception work to support his view that Seahaven world is real. The movies depicts Truman, in his third decade, becoming suspicious and trying to break through the veil of deception. While the Truman Show director and producers are trying to keep him trapped, the viewing audience is rooting for his escape.
I was originally introduced to the movie by Geshe Michael Roach, who suggested it illustrated the idea that buddhas are all conspiring to get us enlightened. However, it seemed to me, that the most active participants in Truman’s world were working to keep him in his trapped state. Albeit, the viewing audience was on his side, they were powerless to help him. This is much like the idea that we have to do our own work to reach enlightenment. Buddhas can help by teaching, but they cannot create our enlightenment for us.
The movie
Our normal reality, or conventional reality, does not work the way it appears to work. For instance, it appears that when we do something wrong (e.g. lie to our boss that we missed work because we were sick when we were not) that good comes from that (e.g. we keep our job and get a day off). This apparent cause and effect is a deception. Only the unpleasantness of being lied to or being deceived can come from telling a lie. This is not obvious because of the time delay between the action and the fruit of the action. This is how we can act in ways that harm ourselves – the cause and effect connection is not obvious.
Truman had experiences in his childhood and as a young adult that could have led to insight into the reality of his world, but it wasn’t until he got older did enough of these experiences mature into true insight. When he got the idea that his world might not really be as he thought, he began to test that insight and it was validated. This realization then caused him to renounce the world. In fact, he was so done with the world that we was willing to die as opposed to living the lie anymore.
This is similar to any spiritual quest. One starts with a dissatisfaction with the world and a seeking for something better. This causes one to examine their world more closely. In Buddhism this culminates in a realization that the impermanence and suffering in the world are truly not satisfying and feeds the drive to reach a “state” that can provide lasting satisfaction.
In Buddhism we say that samsara will have an end and that all beings will become enlightened because truth is a powerful antidote. We see that manifest in Truman’s world. Despite his world continuing to feed him lies, he recognizes truth and goes after it. In the end he reaches freedom and the Buddhas (viewing audience) cheer.
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