Movies

Rama has often recommended movies to his students. I've often wondered what the significance of this is: why was a teacher of enlightenment recommending movies? Was there some deep spiritual meaning to all these movies, which might run the gamut from horror movies to hilariously funny comedies to poignant, tragic epics? Or was Rama just a guy who liked movies and wanted to shared that interest with his students?

I came to the conclusion that there is an element of teaching to everything Rama does, because a teacher of enlighenment does everything impeccably and can be learned from in everything they do. Yet at the same time, I think he recommended movies largely to give his students a sense of catharsis or balance with which to deal with the pain of the world. When you're going pedal to the metal with your career, sometimes you just need to relax and enjoy a movie. Any movie--horror, comedy, drama--which is well made can take you beyond the narrow circumstances of your own life.

In his seminars, Rama usually avoided really indepth analyses of the movies he'd recommended. Yet at the same time, when there was an opportunity to use something in a movie to help teach, he wouldn't hesitate to touch on the movie in his talks to illustrate a point--showing us, for example, the tragedy of life with Forrest Gump or the comic side of reincarnation with Groundhog Day or the nature of political repression in Beyond Rangoon. Largely the movies that he'd recommend were intended to be fun for his students, and to open another opportunity for learning in a fun kind of way.

So here are some of the movies Rama recommended. Have fun with them, and learn from them! The following is what is probably a very partial list. As I hear of more I will add them to this page.

Groundhog Day
Conan the Barbarian
The Ninth Configuration
Contact
The Crow
Forrest Gump
Stargate
The Fifth Element
The Lion King
Evita
Nixon
Slingblade
Thelma and Louise
Beyond Rangoon
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Dragon
Doctor Zhivago
The Terminator
Back to the Future
Revenge of the Nerds
Howard Stern's Private Parts
Joe Versus the Volcano
Love, Valour, Compassion
Jurassic Park
The Adams Family
Aliens
Amadeus
Apocalypse Now
The Big Blue
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Blade Runner
Defending Your Life
Dead Again
E.T.
Field of Dreams
Full Metal Jacket
Gandhi
Home Alone
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Karate Kid Part I
La Femme Nikita
The Last Temptation of Christ
X
Life of Brian
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Philadelphia
Rambo Part I
Ran
The Running Man
Shaolin Vs Lama
Silence of the Lambs
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Gods Must be Crazy Part I
Wall Street
Wayne's World
Witness