Jacob's Ladder
From DharmaflixWiki
 Add to Queue Not a Member
|  Wikipedia Entry
|
 Buy DVD
|  del.icio.us
|
[edit] Blurb
Jacob's Ladder (1990): "The next speaker was Gaetano Maeda, executive director of the International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) and a founding director of the Buddhist quarterly Tricycle... He noted that people commonly ask what counts as a "Buddhist film," and discussed a range of films that have been screened at the Festival... Jacob's Ladder (1990) was marketed as a thriller on first release, but screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, who is a meditation practitioner, later revealed that it was adapted from the Tibetan Book of the Dead." (Source: [1]; viewed 7 September 2005)
[edit] View from Nowhere
What is a Bodhisattva? What are demons? These are the questions underlying this fantastic journey in the evolution of Jacob Singer from a traumatized suffering Vietnam Vet just returned home and haunted by... something. Is it war trauma psychosis, delusions brought on by exposure to Agent Orange, or something more directly demonic and horrific? In Buddhism there are the in-between stages in life that are called bardo realms and one such transition of a war veteran returning home is explored in this film.
The important Dharma teaching here is the relation between demons and Bodhisattvas. As with Buddha's confrontation with Mara, the demon lord of illusion, there are times when powers that appear to be demons are transformed when seen within the sphere of the light of the Buddha's radiance, and their arrows of attack turn into flowers of reverence. Jacob Singer learns the meaning of transformation and experiences the blessings of Bodhisattvas as he climbs out of his personal pit of suffering.
[edit] Other Views from Nowhere
