Top Ten Movies for Buddhists

Finally I’ve finished my movie reviews!  I’ve been wanting to post this for awhile.  There are so many movies that demonstrate correct view and other spiritual principles in a fun way.  Here are some of my favorites.  Click on the links to see my full description!

Groundhog Day – spiritual concepts:  samsara and cyclic life

Matrix – spiritual concepts:  we create our reality, the world is a projection of our mind

Inception – spiritual concept:  the world is a projection of our mind

Ushpizin – spiritual concepts: prayer changes things, we create our own reality, consider the uses of adversity

Milarepa – spiritual concepts: overcoming obstacles, purification of negativities, anyone can become enlightened

What the Bleep Do We Know – spiritual concepts: conditioned responses and the physiology behind them, deceptive reality

The Truman Show – spiritual concept: deceptive reality

Kumare – spiritual concepts: intention is the most important aspect of spiritual growth. belief in the teacher is powerful, we all have the answers within us

Seven Pounds – spiritual concept:  bodhichitta

V for Vendetta – spiritual concepts: destruction of self, Kali/Ekajati, cessation of fear

What the Bleep do We Know?

What the Bleep Do We Know!? is a fun movie that is part story and part documentary.  It features two of my favorite scientists, Candace Pert – the person that discovered the opioid receptor, and William Tiller – a Standford physicist that presented an obscure proof at a conference I once attended.

The movie is colorful and presents good information about addictive processes, especially how our body reacts to outside triggers.  It demonstrates how habitual patterns of feeling sorry for ourselves or craving the rush of sexual energy can set us up to create situations in our lives to supply the chemicals our body produces, much like a drug addict getting a fix.  No need to inject, we make our own chemicals.

This is powerful example of how habitual patterns create our reality in a subtle way.  The underlying message is a common spiritual theme.  To be free of conditioned responses we need to break free of the limiting beliefs or programs that our system continues to run in the background.  Breaking free allows for true choice in our actions.

Along with the great discussion of physiology the movie does a nice job of talking about how quantum physics explains our reality.  Yes, we are really not touching the ground when we stand on it.  The things we think are solid are not really solid.  We, and the things are mostly space.  We can consciously create our reality (and we already unconsciously create it).