Not being still, not listening...

Yesterday, I saw "Brokeback Mountain". It takes a while for movies to get here to Germany, but I was really touched by the movie for so many different reasons. First of all, because of what I've written in my blog about feeling like being Gay makes it not possible to be accepted as Buddhist...though those feelings are now long gone.

The movie itself is so full of the sadness and suffering of many things. First of all, the pain of not being able to be who one is because of cultural conditions. Not being able to express love causes in many cases suffering and hate, even self hate. This was very sad to see.

However, what affected me most was how none of the characters was ever really able to be still and to listen to what was True around them. How simple it is to be full of what we are told by others and not hear the voice of the "Eternal", the voice of what is Right. The whole movie shows how this creates only more and more and more suffering and sadness. But even then, at the end when we see the character have a realization about what is good and right, we see that a heart can be changed in an instant...that being still and listening can happen at any time and radically change us.

Be still...listen...hear...