The Tao At The Movies

Hello friends,

I hope you're having a great day.

Today we're going to be talking about Taoism at the movies.

And to get us started,

I thought it made sense to talk a little bit about what Taoism is.

Taoism comes from the Tao Te Ching,

Which was written by Lao Tzu about 2500-2600 years ago.

And the Tao Te Ching translates roughly as the way of integrity.

And throughout its 81 verses,

It offers ideas,

Philosophies on how to live in the world with integrity.

It offers wisdom about the world and about us within the world and how to go about living in a peaceful manner.

So it's very much a philosophy.

And I thought maybe the easiest way to define it was to just quickly read something from it.

And if so,

If you open up the Tao Te Ching,

This is just one of the many things that you will read.

And it says this,

Less and less do you need to force things until finally you arrive at non-action.

When nothing is done,

Nothing is left undone.

So if we think about that,

Really,

The Tao Te Ching speaks to the less we do,

The more that actually gets done.

Or the way I like to think about it is don't force something that is not meant to happen.

Don't force things just because we want those things to occur.

Instead,

Better to flow naturally,

Just as a river might flow around a rock or around a river bend or something like that.

Or if we think of a tumbleweed,

Right,

We see in the Western movies,

We see tumbleweeds just kind of blowing along and they're not necessarily going anywhere.

They don't have anything to do.

They're just along for the ride.

And so that's often what I think of when I think of the Tao Te Ching and how to go about living our lives.

Because if we think about it,

Any anxiety or sadness or anger or frustration that we experience comes from wanting things to be different than the way they actually are.

And if we just learn to accept how things are,

Not only will we experience a greater sense of peace,

But only then can we begin to change what is going on in our lives.

If we don't accept what's going on in our lives,

We can't change anything because we're in denial.

We're not accepting life as it is.

And so if we don't accept it,

Then we can't really do anything about it.

And today I wanted to talk a little bit about,

Because I know many of us are watch movies and television shows and are visual learners,

There are some movies that have come up in the last however long it's been,

Some more recent than others,

Maybe 40,

50 years,

That speak to Tao-like philosophies.

And there were a couple I wanted to mention.

And these movies might be worth checking out if you get a chance to do that.

So let's get started with a couple that date back to the 80s and early 90s.

The first one I want to talk briefly about is The Untouchables,

Which is the story of Elliott Ness and Al Capone.

And in that movie,

The Sean Connery character is talking to the other police officers that don't have as much experience as he has had with the police force.

And he's telling them they're in this cabin and waiting for something to happen and they all seem nervous and he's trying to help them relax as best he can.

And one line he offers,

The Elliott Ness character,

Has always kind of struck me and he says this.

He says,

As the Elliott Ness character is anxiously awaiting for something to happen,

He just very simply says,

Don't wait for it to happen.

Don't even want it to happen.

Just watch what does happen.

And that very much speaks to the Taoist philosophy,

That we're not waiting anxiously,

That we're not trying to force something to happen,

But instead we're just watching what does happen and then naturally we will respond accordingly.

So again,

That movie is The Untouchables.

The next movie that I think several times throughout the movie addresses Taoist philosophies,

Believe it or not,

Is Forrest Gump.

And we take a look at the Forrest Gump character and he is just living the Taoist philosophy pretty much every day of his life.

No matter where we see him,

He's just taking everything in stride,

Whether he is playing for the University of Alabama or he is in the Vietnam War or he's playing ping pong or meeting the president of the time,

No matter what it is that's happening,

Whether he's a shrimp boat captain and he's having a really hard time catching shrimp initially,

No matter what's happening,

He's just going along with how things are and is able to experience a great sense of peace because he's aware of how things are in a particular moment and he's accepting of those things.

So that's the second movie that I wanted to mention and I think throughout the entire movie that character really lives a Taoist way of life.

The next movie some of you probably have heard of and are familiar with would be Star Wars.

And when we think about,

I often think of the Tao being much like the Force,

That it's an energy around us,

It helps guide us in ways that we're often not even aware of and if we can tap into this energy or the Tao or the Force or whatever you want to call it,

Then things will naturally start to happen in their own way and in their own time without us trying to force anything.

In fact,

In the first Star Wars movie that came out,

Which I guess is now is called Episode IV,

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan but I'm familiar enough with it,

Where Obi-Wan Kenobi is saying to Luke Skywalker,

Just let the Force flow through you.

And if we just change the Force,

If we exchange that name for the Tao,

We could say the same thing,

Just let the Tao flow through you,

Which is another way of saying just let life flow through you and let life happen as it is going to happen without trying to force things to happen the way we think we want them to happen because that's just not going to work out for us.

The next movie I'd like to talk about,

You talk about a character who imbibes the entire Tao philosophy is the Big Lebowski and the character of the Dude.

And the only times in fact the Dude gets agitated or upset is when he's trying to force things to happen in a way that they are not meant to happen,

Whether it's with his friend Walter,

Whether it's trying to obtain a rug that he thinks he is owed,

Or he's trying to rescue a woman from the clutches of an apparent kidnapper,

That's when he tends to get himself into difficulty.

At other times though throughout the movie,

He is just kind of going along his business and letting things happen as they are meant to happen.

And he experiences,

Even though he's not,

He's certainly not rich,

Certainly he doesn't have a job,

In fact he says in the movie that he's unemployed,

Still he's able to live his life in a manner that suits him and we get the sense that much of the time throughout the story he's at peace with how he's living his life and the friends he has and the people in his life that he can spend time with,

That he can interact with,

Even though those same people,

His friend Walter for example,

They are very different than he is,

Especially when we talk about his personality.

But still,

When he is allowing life to flow through him and he is practicing the Tao,

Whether he realizes that's what he's doing or not,

He is experiencing a sense of peace and contentment and happiness that I think we all desire in our lives.

Another quick movie I'll mention from the 80s and it's got one line in it that has always stuck with me that I've remembered is Bull Durham and that's another movie with Kevin Costner where he's playing minor league baseball and he's trying to help this pitcher who over thinks pitching and we know what kind of trouble that gets him in if we've seen the movie.

And he just very simply is talking to the pitcher at one point in the movie and he says don't think you'll only hurt the ballclub.

And if we think about that in our own lives,

That's pretty sound advice.

Don't think you'll only hurt the ballclub.

Another way to say that in our lives is don't think you're only going to hurt yourself or others.

And of course we don't want to do that.

So better not to think,

Which I understand is hard,

But just the recognition,

The awareness that often our thinking is what's causing us great difficulty.

And if we can get away from the thinking that we do on a regular basis,

Especially the thinking where we are evaluating or making judgments,

That's really what gets us into trouble.

When we start to identify not necessarily what's happening,

But we start to put those things into categories of yes,

No,

Right,

Wrong,

Those kinds of things.

When we start evaluating,

That's when we get ourselves into trouble.

So again,

When it comes to our lives,

Don't think,

Just throw is something the pitcher actually says in the movies when he's trying to remind himself of that idea of don't think you'll only hurt the ballclub.

Don't think,

Just throw.

Don't think,

Just throw is what the pitcher says when he finally starts to understand what the catcher,

The Kevin Costner character is trying to tell him.

And then finally a couple things from the matrix that I wanted to mention.

So Morpheus,

If you're familiar with the story,

Morpheus is trying to convince Neo that Neo is the one,

The savior,

If you will.

And there's a couple of things Morpheus says in the movie that I think are worth repeating here.

One is when he's trying to convince Neo to do something physically that in the real world would be impossible,

But in this matrix it is possible to do,

He says to him,

Don't think you can,

No you can.

And that's just another way I think of saying don't think about it,

Right?

Don't think you can.

He's actually saying that,

That's actually stated in this statement from Morpheus,

Don't think you can,

Just know that you can.

As if to say let life move through you without the thought of whether something is possible or not.

And then there's another line in that movie that I think is worth mentioning where again Morpheus is saying to Neo,

They're in a physical altercation in the matrix very early on in the movie,

And Neo is trying to defeat Morpheus,

Trying to hit him and he can't do it.

Morpheus is too fast.

And so Morpheus at one point stops him very quickly and says stop trying to hit me and hit me.

And so that's another way Morpheus is reminding Neo to stop thinking,

Stop thinking about what you're doing,

Stop thinking about trying to hit me and just do it.

And I think we find throughout our lives that when we stop thinking and we just allow ourselves to act naturally and comfortably without the thought behind it that we are far more successful in those times than when we are thinking about and trying to force something that isn't meant to happen.

So those were just a few thoughts I had about Tao at the movies and how so often there are movies or TV shows or books that speak to gaining a sense of happiness and peace when we allow life to flow naturally as opposed to thinking too much and trying to force life to conform to the way we think it should be.

So I hope this made sense.

I hope this is helpful and I certainly hope that you have a great day and just remember don't think because you're only going to hurt the ball club.

Take care.

Bye.