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| Life of Pi- Ang Lee |
"Above all, do not lose hope" says Pi to himself in the movie, "Life of Pi" and this too in a situation where he is stranded in the middle of the pacific, left alone to his own devices, and a tiger. He is grateful for the tigers presence, cries when Richard Parker leaves him without a goodbye. Might we be like him with our scary parts, our anger, our impatience, our confusions and our fierceness even? Can we let the tigers within just be?
Not unruly but with discipline. Can we tame our needs, our unconscious loathing of ourselves, the tigers of our life that will eat us up if we let them. Can we tame them, discipline them and even come to love them as the keepers of our awareness? Just like Richard Parker helped Pi stay aware and fully awake, despite despairing life situations, can we be aware and alive amidst our mess and not let the perceived meannness, anger, cruelty, fear and hate arising within and without eat us up?
Pi traverses the pacific alone, with Richard Parker, the tiger. He fears him, he cries because of him, he even comes close to killing him. But then, something happens. He cannot kill Richard Parker. He is his only companion in this scary vast ocean that he is stranded in, without any comfort, without family, without friends. So, what then? Does he let the tiger eat him eventually? No, he respects the tigers fierceness, its nature and embraces him as friend. Taming him by feeding him, cleaning up after him and letting him live with him.
Our darkness, our scary parts, when welcomed to stay-as tamed and respected, become our companions, holding the torch of awareness in every situation we encounter. Eventually, when they leave we might even cry because they went away, just like that. No ceremony, no parting words, not even a goodbye.
For a film review read the review by Passion for Movies
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