The U.S.A. has always been a racial and cultural melting pot. Due to the internet, social media, and the spread of yoga throughout Western culture, Eastern concepts have been taking root in the West for some time now. Back in 1969, when John Lennon wrote “Instant Karma,” nobody knew what he was talking about. Now, formerly sacred eastern concepts, such as recurring lifetimes, are showing up as cute quotes on food labels in American supermarkets.
Recurring Lifetimes
Let’s start with past lives. Recurring lifetimes. It’s now firmly anchored in American culture as something to have an opinion about, an example of which can be found in the hilarious conversation between Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) and Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) in 1988’s baseball hit “Bull Durham“:https://youtu.be/drmDNzgbt9A
‘Groundhog Day’
https://youtu.be/GncQtURdcE4Recurring Lifetime Do-overs Reveal the Meaning of Life
Once Phil comes to accept the time loop, he’s forced through a range of philosophical life changes. First, he realizes that without consequences for his actions (karma!) he can wallow in hedonism (the philosophy that the pleasurable satisfaction of desires is the meaning of life). He seduces women, he robs banks, he feeds his face with all the comfort food he can cram in.When the hedonism eventually becomes empty and meaningless, as it inevitably does, he arrives, along with some of the movie’s darkest (and funniest) moments, at nihilism; the belief that life itself—is ultimately meaningless. Who can forget Phil falling to his “death” off the clock tower, and getting in the bathtub and throwing the toaster in? But of course, self-destruction doesn’t provide a way out either.
Finally out of options, Phil finally begins to change for the better, as he is forced by the circumstances of recurring lifetimes (er, daytimes) to pursue what actually does give value and meaning to his life—the Aristotelian concept that human happiness derives not from pleasure but the doing of virtuous deeds.
And so, over thousands of recurring daytimes, Phil becomes fluent in a variety of languages, learns medicine, learns musical instruments, carves expert ice sculptures, forces himself to stop looking down on dorky life-insurance salesman Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) and buys up all Ned’s insurance to give Ned tremendous salesman joy. Phil cultivates moral and intellectual virtues.
Further Monkey Wrench
It must be said, that while “Groundhog Day” can be said to have accurately summed up the meaning and purpose of recurring lifetimes, from an Eastern perspective, as far as it goes—it doesn’t go far enough. It’s too tidy and neat and succinct. Where it differs from traditional explanations, is that Phil wakes up everyday, on Groundhog’s day, remembering exactly what happened the day before. And all the previous days as well.If you made a movie where, every time Phil wakes up, he has no clue what happened the day before, well, then it becomes clear why in ancient Indian literature, the chances of a human being figuring out how to exit the time-loop cycle via the path of enlightenment are as follows: the chances are the same as those of a singular turtle, swimming through all the world’s seven oceans—coming up for air precisely inside a 3-foot wooden hoop that’s also floating randomly on the surface of all the world’s seven oceans. Just imagine the staggering odds.
‘I Origins’
https://youtu.be/sEGppIgwKf0
Cloud Atlas
This thoroughly engrossing film encompasses six story-lines spanning five centuries. As author David Mitchell mentioned in the film’s press notes, “I thought of it as a menu with courses from different cuisines.” There are a couple of dramas, a romance, a crime thriller, a comedy, and a futuristic sci-fi adventure. Yet it is all one story.
Unmistaken Child
https://youtu.be/gy9AFwvzmokThe Dalai Lama tells the child’s parents, “Keep him clean! Keep him clean!” In other words, in order for the child to more easily regain his former state of moral purity, he should be kept separated from current human society and its murky moral morass.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
“Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” is particularly delicious in terms of past lives. This tiny Inuit village from the 1300s only has a few dozen families. When the couple at “end of the road” has a baby, a woman on the other side of the village dreams that her recently deceased husband will soon be reborn nearby.
When she hears of the birth, she goes for a visit, and of course knows, through mother’s intuition and ancient tribal wisdom, that the newborn is the reincarnation of her husband. She holds the baby, exclaiming, “Ahhh, my little husband, I immediately knew it would be you, returning soon.”
The concept of recurring lifetimes is not science, but these are a few enjoyable movies that give one pause.
