Being John Malkovich
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[edit] Blurb
Although the plot almost defies intelligent explanation, it involves an out-of-work puppeteer named Craig Schwartz (Cusack) who discovers a tiny door at his workplace. When he crawls into the tunnel leading from the door, he soon discovers that he is looking at the world from inside the head of — you guessed it — actor John Malkovich. When he lets his wife Lotte (Diaz) try it, she feels so at one with Malkovich that she thinks she was meant to be a man. Craig's co-worker, Maxine (Keener) is not interested in trying it, but she takes out an ad, selling 15 minutes of Malkovich to anyone interested in "being someone else," for a tidy sum of $200 each. She also calls Malkovich and, with Lotte and/or Craig inside his brain, seduces him. Soon they have an eerily sexy love triangle with the confused actor in the middle.[1]
[edit] View from Nowhere
[edit] Other Views from Nowhere
[edit] Don’t Ask
Cherish the Doctrine by Nagapriya
Part 1 of a three part series based around the motto of the great Tibetan 20th Century teacher Dhardo Rimpoche - "Cherish the Doctrine, Live United, Radiate Love". Nagapriya takes an unusual angle - referencing the Spike Jonze movie 'Being John Malkovich', he speaks of the Dharma as a portal into the Buddha's mind itself...
Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, Men’s Event January 2002[2]
“‘Itself’ cannot be named or said. The whole method is knowing how to fly.” -- T’IEN T’UNG
WANG-SUN SAID: “Noticing, mirroring and stretching are details for the mediocre and the inferior. If you add to this mounting a fancy chair and sporting demon eyes, don’t be surprised if a bystander who does not agree comes forward.”
His point, as Thomas Cleary explains in "Kensho: The Heart of Zen," is that erudition is a distraction. (And worse, it’s a distraction that ensnares others.) Really, there is nothing that should be said: Being so is only understood by being so.
I asked the panel to speculate if there is laughter in Nirvana. David observes:
“To my perception this question fits squarely into the category of ‘useless speculations’ that the Buddha recommended we don't spend our time on. ...[P]lease refer to Episode 22 of Dharma The Cat -- it's titled, ‘Dont Ask!’
“You really want to know if there is laughter in Nirvana? Okay, ask yourself two questions: 1) If the answer to your above question were 'yes,' what would you do with that information, and 2) If the answer to the above question were 'no,' what would you do with that information?”
A broader and more-worrisome question then occurs: Is the pursuit of gaining an understanding of humor just time taken from action (and non-action) that would lead to enlightenment?
Hui-neng is said not to have wanted his words to survive him. He believed in ‘direct seeing.’ Yet it is curiously useful to have Hui-neng’s words in the Platform Sutra with us today to tell us about ‘direct seeing’ -- and the bases for his insights. [It seems hard for any Buddhist to know beforehand what books or teachings to do without! Must we have the courage to be like Layman P’ang, who is said to have put all his belongs into a boat and then set it adrift?]
In David’s “Don’t Ask!” cartoon, the question that is an example of useless speculation is “Does a dog have buddha-nature?” The decision of using that particular question in the cartoon creates a complication, since it is a Zen koan that has utility as a tool to achieve enlightenment. Ch’an Master Joshu was enlightened by delving into the question, and was inspired to write a powerful -- and funny -- poem (or bit of doggerel):
Mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu. Mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu, mu.
Any translation of Joshu’s words is problematic, but a current-day equivalent of the poem can be heard in a movie now in theatres, “Being John Malkovich.” This modern version is ‘recited’ when Malkovich goes into the portal of his own Mind, and runs something like this:
Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich. Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich.
So ... does a dog have buddha-nature!? Joshu’s ‘mu’ is often said to mean that he rejected the question as one that can be dealt with rationally. But that is not to say that he was sorry the question was asked!
Does John Malkovich, the puppet well-rigged, have buddha-nature? Mu. [3]
