06/26/2015
(from Elizabeth Lesser - co-founder of Omega Institute)
Last night my husband and I saw the new Pixar film, Inside Out. It's extraordinary to me that a major blockbuster film for kids is about a young girl who learns how to be emotionally intelligent. The fact that this film was even made and is being seen by millions, reminds me me that there are two forces at work in our human culture today: a great awakening of a higher consciousness, and a backlash against that awakening. A backlash that includes a resurgence of racism, violence, greed, religious intolerance (aka insanity), and environmental apathy/ignorance. It's good every now and then to be reminded that, as Dr. King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Remembering the long arc keeps me from freaking out about our hurting world. It helps me believe in the essential goodness of humanity. It helps me see the goodness all around me. It encourages me to spread love as fuel for the journey we are all on together.
Here's a quote from one of my first meditation teachers, the Tibetan Buddhist, Chögyam Trungpa. It describes the film Inside Out beautifully…...“Going beyond fear begins when we examine our fear: our anxiety, nervousness, concern, and restlessness. If we look into our fear, if we look beneath the veneer, the first thing we find is sadness, beneath the nervousness. Nervousness is cranking up, vibrating all the time. When we slow down, when we relax with our fear, we find sadness, which is calm and gentle. Sadness hits you in your heart, and your body produces a tear. Before you cry, there is a feeling in your chest and then, after that, you produce tears in your eyes. You are about to produce rain or a waterfall in your eyes and you feel sad and lonely and perhaps romantic at the same time. That is the first tip of fearlessness, and the first sign of real warriorship. You might think that, when you experience fearlessness, you will hear the opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or see a great explosion in the sky, but it doesn’t happen that way. Discovering fearlessness comes from working with the softness of the human heart.”
Pete Docter’s new animated film, with the voices of television comedians like Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling and Bill Hader, brings to life an 11-year-old’s interior drama.
