While in a movie hall, we laugh, cry, and get excited with the script of the movie. Different scenes of the movie fill us with diverse emotions. Till we are in the cinema hall, we are completely engrossed with the screen and at times forget the difference between the reel and real life. The darkness in the cinema hall and the soundproof walls almost disconnect us from the outside world. There are no mobile calls and no chit-chat or office work. All these help us be completely engrossed with the movie and that's why Cinema Hall offers us a very different perspective of life, almost a parallel frame of life. Different movies are played in different halls in the multiplex. However, projectors use the same electricity to project the images stored in different reels on the same screen.
What if life is also like a movie where our brain is disconnected from the rest of reality due to the limitations of our five senses. We can perceive only a very limited frequency of light waves and listen to a limited range of sound waves. We have a taste of limited matter and smell only a limited range of fumes. Our skin is also sensitive to only a limited range of touches we can feel. With these limited perceptions, we make a cineplex of our own. Our perception of the world is quite unique. Even the siblings who have been born and brought up in almost the same ecosystem have quite varied worldviews. Thus, we sit alone in our own cineplex watching the movie that plays on our screen.
We like certain movies to be played on the screen based on the "samskaras" we carry from our past lives. Some like "comedy", some like "adventure", some "science fiction", and some like "horror". We keep playing the type of movies we like by indulging in the same activities. Some people like parties and he keeps attending parties and hosting parties. Some people like food and they keep visiting different restaurants and discussing their experiences again and again. Some like to travel and therefore traveling to different places is their favorite reel. Whatever we like, we keep playing that reel again and again. When that reel is played on the screen of mind, we become one with the experience. We feel as if we and that experience are one. Given a choice, we would play the type of reels we like again and again.
However, life is the greatest teacher. When we become absolutely adamant about playing the reels of our choice, life plays reels of different types. We are having fun in the car driving at high speed and we suddenly meet with an accident. We have a nice family we are enjoying with and suddenly somebody in the family is diagnosed with terminal disease. We have a good supportive ecosystem at the office and suddenly a bad boss joins. We have a good bank balance to feel secure and suddenly some fraud happens to us. We feel secure with the properties we have acquired and suddenly somebody captures the property. We feel happy in a relationship and suddenly differences start to crop up. We are forced to see a different reel on the screen, and we resist a lot and curse "God" for the same. However, once that reel is played, it becomes one of the most profound experiences we have. It is because we could see a different reel on the screen than the ones we were playing regularly. I have seen many people who started very big NGOs after the death of their only kid, or after having painful experiences in life. However, it is also true that most of us are so fixated that we take those experiences as "trauma" rather than "growth", and once those reels are over, we feel relieved and go back to the collection of our old choices.
In the moments of contemplation, we get to notice the light beam that comes from the back of the cinema hall to the screen. We realize that whatever is being played on the screen is just a projection of the reel in the projector room on the screen. Similarly, in the moments of meditation, we realize that it is the prana that is making all these experiences we undergo possible. The moment we get to realize this truth, we develop the capacity to change the reels. We play different reels and see different projections on the screen. We realize that all these reels are just our past "Samskaras" and projection on the screen is "thoughts" that come to our mind.
We realize that different people are projecting different thoughts on the screen of their mind, based on the reels of their "past samskaras" and "prana" is the projector that provides energy to this theatre of life. We realize that projectors across the theatres are the same and are run by the same energy system. This gives us a very profound understanding of life. We realize the stupidity of fixation with certain types of reels. We realize the capacity of the projector to play a wide diversity of reels on the screen. We open up to the possibilities of life and start exploring new possibilities. That makes our life rich. Any and every great personality born in this world has been able to break free of the frames. The greatest of scientists have been able to explore the "secrets of nature", the travelers have been able to explore the "land unknown to the map of the day", the artists have been able to make art pieces that look like miracles, and the businessmen have been able to find opportunities that nobody thought of. Once we get to know the power of the projector and the capacity of the screen to display any scene, only a fool would like to be fixated on a reel or frame.
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