In my previous post, I mentioned I’ve been teaching meditations based on a Buddhist discourse called the Honeyball or Honeycake Sutta. This teaching helps us relax our sense of being separate from the world. On one level, it’s all about simply being present with our experiences rather than reacting to them, which is the approach most people take. On a deeper level, it’s about not identifying any of our experiences as “me” or “mine.” This means just experiencing without labeling it as our personal experience. It’s a straightforward practice once you figure out how to approach it, and my aim is to help others find that way.
Often, my meditation practice takes unexpected turns when teaching these meditations. It feels less like something I actively do and more like something that unfolds within me. It’s always intriguing to see where this practice leads. Towards the end of teaching this series, I started seeing my experience as a movie, which brought some interesting insights. But before diving into that, let me share another Buddhist teaching that blended with the Honeycake Sutta. This is from the Phena-Pindupama Sutta, which translates to the “Discourse on the Lump of Foam.”
In this discourse, the Buddha is by the Ganges River, explaining to the monks how our experiences are somewhat illusory. Using the river as a metaphor, he describes physical forms, including our bodies, as being like a lump of foam floating downstream—empty and insubstantial. When meditating deeply into the body, we don’t find solid substance, just sensations that our mind interprets as solidity. If we closely examine these sensations, we find they are fleeting and insubstantial.
The Buddha compares feelings to bubbles that appear and vanish quickly as raindrops hit the river’s surface. By training ourselves to observe feelings closely, we realize they are just momentary sensations. Feelings, like bubbles, are not substantial and are always shifting in and out of existence. Similarly, thoughts and concepts are like a mirage, emotional impulses are like the layers of a banana tree with no core, and consciousness is like an illusion created by a magician. All these experiences are insubstantial.
These metaphors were apt for Buddha’s time and are still relevant today. For me, the comparison to cinema is even more fitting. My physical, emotional, and mental experiences are like a movie. My body creates sensations, my brain generates feelings, and my mind produces thoughts and images. All these are insubstantial and can be observed like a film.
Just like a movie can be absorbing, our experiences can feel very real. When my feelings are hurt or when I’m angry, it seems very real. But if I accept that my experience is like a movie, I can take it less seriously. Watching my experiences, I can appreciate them, whether they are pleasurable or uncomfortable. I see my thoughts, memories, and future imaginings as just mental movies.
Seeing life as a movie is simple and effective. It’s a new perspective for me, and I’m still figuring it out. Some might misunderstand this to mean that nothing matters, but that’s not true. What truly matters is to love everything, especially the parts of ourselves and others that believe the movie to be real. These parts need our compassion. Love and meaning are part of our life’s movie, and our task is to recognize them.
If you don’t have a sense of meaning, purpose, and love in your life, it might be unwise to adopt this perspective. Without these, seeing our experiences as a movie could be disheartening. But with a foundation of love and purpose, viewing life as a movie helps deepen positive qualities and liberates us from clinging to false beliefs, revealing our true nature of connectedness and compassion.
Thank you for helping me develop my awareness. If you’ve found this concept resonating with you, remember that it’s about realizing all experiences are somewhat illusory and recognizing the fabricated nature of our sensations and thoughts. Using the movie metaphor helps us take a step back and observe our experiences mindfully. We can act as if things are real when it’s helpful, but also remind ourselves of the illusory nature of these experiences when dealing with pain or emotional distress.
Thank you for reading and for your kind comments. Your appreciation is encouraging and helps me continue sharing these insights.