My trip to America began in New York City. The Statue of Liberty, standing tall with her torch in hand, is considered a symbol of both New York City and the entire United States. Presented as a gift to the American people by France in
1886, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes human freedom. I found it by far the most impressive destination on my New York tour.
As my tour boat neared Liberty Island, I gazed at the statue in awe. I can still visualize the solemn elegance of her profile. It is said that the sculptor, Frederic A. Bartholdi, modeled Lady Liberty after his mother. Instead of climbing up to the torch in the Statue of Liberty's hand, I lolled about on the serene green lawns beneath the monument, listening to strangers' voices and watching birds fly past.
There are many other interesting destinations in New York. Home to both the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street, with its undaunted bronze bull - the symbol of financial power, New York is at the epicenter of the financial world. I visited the United Nations' headquarters and Ground Zero, which stands where the World Trade Center once did, still in an ongoing process of reconstruction. From 5th Avenue to the bright commercial lights of Times Square, New York is chockfull of sights.
When I reached Washington DC, I headed for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, sites that gave me a window into American history in all its glory and tragedy. By chance I arrived on the 44th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th, 1963. The overriding feeling throughout the National Mall was sober and, at the Lincoln Memorial, it even felt spiritual. As visitors showed their respect to the 16th American President, Abraham Lincoln, I found a great vista among the giant marble pillars of the memorial, overlooking Washington Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. I recalled this spot was in a scene in the well-known movie "Forrest Gump", which I watched long time ago. The two main characters crossed the Reflecting Pool to reach each other.
Three monuments in the National Mall involve painful memories of war: the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the World War II Memorial. As a Vietnamese, I was drawn to the monument that relates to Vietnam. But it seemed that all the tourists, whether Vietnamese or not, were moved as they stood before the war memorials. The design of the Korean War Memorial is quite impressive. It depicts life-size American soldiers lying exhausted in the battlefield, beside a granite wall etched with portraits of American soldiers who fought in the war. On the wall is carved the short phrase: ?Freedom is not free.? I saw a wreath and a group of Koreans standing silently and recalling, perhaps, their national history.
Most of the four million annual visitors to the National Mall pass by the Memorial Wall, the best-known portion of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. Under the blue sky, this black granite wall is strikingly different from the other magnificent white monuments. The V-shaped wall is carved with 58,256 names of American soldiers who either died, or were classified as missing in action or prisoners of war. Looking at these engraved names, I felt dumbstruck with emotion. I saw aging veterans standing motionless before their companions' names, a mother explaining the wall to her little son, some tourists reading a letter left at the foot of the monument, a single rose left to honor the dead.
I recalled an article by journalist Hieu Minh about his brother, a soldier who died in a battle in southern Vietnam in 1969. "[My brother] wrote just one line: ?My troupe was attacked yesterday, but I'm still alive.? I was touched to recall this phrase, 'I'm still alive," wrote Minh. Perhaps the tens of thousands of American soldiers whose names were carved on the wall had once written such short, meaning ful phrases in letters home to their families.
The Who American Beauty
The Three Major themes of Enlightenment are..
1.Opening the Heart
2.The Mastery of Relationships.
3.Life and Death and Enlightenment.
And all truly good and Incredibly Profitable and Successful Movies contain all these three themes and some spiritual instruction of a major thoughtform which needs to be entered into the consciousness of humanity.
At this moment, fifty percent of humanity have not as yet successfully Opened their Hearts. These people will enjoy, as Shakespeare said, "Movies full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing" which include the vast majority of all movies.
These fifty percent of people including all levels of the Movie Making community will give moderate success to a movie with a good script, costumes, music and production values. But it is another paradigm for them, they cannot understand the meaning and reality of the words, Intuition, Significance And Purpose.
At this moment, fifty percent of humanity have Opened the Heart a little through a lot of evolution in which they have used techniques of meditation like the highly advanced techniques of Energy Enhancement to remove energy blockages from the heart and also the Highest Heart! Only these people understand the meaning and reality of the words, Intuition, Significance And Purpose
Yet for real popularity and incredible money making potential and for an over 400 Million Dollars in Receipts Movie.
For one hundred percent of the people to go to a movie a movie must contain both a good script, costumes, music and production values, AND Intuition, Significance And Purpose.
This series of articles will talk more on the theme of Significance which is, as Shakespeare pointed out, the most important theme of all.
"Only Significance equals Success!"
American Beauty By Sam Mendes and with Kevin Spacey pounds on the theme of Life and Death but includes opening of the heart and relationships.
It only fails to make loads of money because the themes are not hidden enough to be accessible to most unevolved Humanity.
For example, my DVD renter in Spain thought that Lester was Killed by his wife whereas he was killed by Col. Frank Fitts.
In satellite channels to India all themes to do with sex and homosexuality are routinely removed and censored.
Thus the driving scenes and themes of the Movie as when Col. Frank Fitts homosexually kisses Lester and provides the motive for his murder, (Homosexuality).
And when Lester finds our The Mena Suvari Character is a virgin and lovingly withdraws, (Sex) showing his Initiation of the Mastery of Relationships and the reason for his happiness and enlightenment just before he dies.
These two essential scenes are removed, censored, from the movie because these two themes are not allowed to be seen in India.
Thus for a billion people in India it is not possible to understand the significance of this movie!
For real success in movies, you must be capable of hiding all these themes and themes of even higher significance in a Rip Roaring story as in "The Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars" and to a lesser extent, "Harry Potter" which I will go into in other articles.
The American Beauty movie starts with Death, "In one year I'll be dead" says Kevin Spacey right at the beginning. At the end of the movie, Lester, his character will be dead And also Enlightened.
All the people in the movie are totally mad.
Mad enough to kill, because they want something which is not essential to their real nature and Soul Path.
Except for Lester who progresses through and rejects, sees deeply into the madness of what he is doing, and rejects..
1.He rejects Money and Career not in alignment with his soul path representing his Initiation of the Opening Of The Heart.
2.He rejects his going back to the old student ways of flipping burgers, partying.. getting high with marijuana, and getting laid.. this time sculpting his body with weight training, for one year, to attract the 16 years old Mena Suvari character, again representing his Initiation of the Opening Of The Heart.
3.He rejects inappropriate love as he sees deeply into the nature of the homosexual Chris Cooper character, Col. Frank Fitts, USMC and the 16 year old Mena Suvari character representing his Initiation of the Mastery of Relationships.
This seeing deeply creates such love within his heart for all and everything in his life, his mad wife and daughter, true unattached love for Mena Suvari. At the end of the movie, after having rejected everything not in alignment with his soul, he feels wonderful for the first time in years.
In that moment he becomes Enlightened. Even when Chris Coopers character kills him he says, "I suppose I should feel really pissed off by the end of my stupid little life", but then he sees all the Beauty and Love of his life in flashbacks.
And he talks to the audience and says, when you die, you will understand this too. And the Beatles, George Harrison, music at the end of the movie supports this theme of Love ? "Because the world is round it turns me on". How can even death spoil that Vision of Love?.
Lester's daughter, the Thora Birch character thinks wrongly that she will be free and happy leaving her mad parents by leaving with Ricky, her drug dealing boyfriend to go to New York.
Whereas she really loves Ricky's real several moments of Soul Contact when he sees the souls beauty in the eyes of Dead People, and sees the freedom of the Soul Energy in the movements of a paper bag.
Ricky really loves her and this is shown by the heart-stoppingly beautiful Thomas Newman music whenever Love, the major theme of this picture, comes down from heaven in connection with this love story between Ricky and Lester's daughter.
Ricky has had Satori. He has had a "Little Glimpse out of the corner of his eye", but now he needs to avoid becoming "Comfortably Numb", (Pink Floyd Song) where with their "Wrong Livelihood" of drugs, (Gautama Buddha), not in alignment with his soul path, will destroy both their lives in the future.
Lester's wife, the Annette Bening character, really takes the job of making money seriously and you realise how mad she is when after an amusing episode trying to sell a house, she beats herself up and cries heart-rendingly.
She finds consolation from Lester's lack of interest in making money in the arms of her House Selling Hero, Buddy, "Have you ever been nailed by the King!" and when Lester finds out, when Lester, "Rains on her Parade" she screws herself up to kill Lester. Mad!
Lester tries to help her when he says "Its only a fucking Couch!" and then she shows how seriously she takes her madness by retreating from Love when Lester looks as if he is going to pour beer over her Italian Silk Covered whatever, and by returning with a gun and a desire for liberation from Lester. She is round the twist.
And yet she cries out in anguish when she returns home to find Lester, Dead. She is not yet totally gone.
The sixteen year old Mena Suvari character has written herself into a wrong thoughtform which will destroy her life if she enters into it. She longs to be different, to be a beautiful model, to climb the ladder of success with her sex.
She tells everyone that this is the way it is. Life is like that. And this way can lead to success, yes, but it will also lead towards madness as this wrong thoughtform takes you away from your true soul path.
And the taking of the path leading you away from your true soul path really is normal in just about everyone. It is the major cause of all pain and bad luck in everyone's life.
By, as yet not taking that path, the Mena Suvari Character really is different!
And yet when Lester makes his sexual approach, she tells Lester that she is a virgin. She really is different again! And this causes Lester to come out of his lust. To see this beautiful young lady as his daughter. Someone in need of love and attention, and help. Not just as a sex object, but as someone he truly loves.
As the George Clooney character in Quentin Tarantino's "From Dusk till Dawn", says at the end of the movie in a similar situation, "I may be a Bastard, but I'm not a Fucking Bastard!"
Lust is not necessarily Love. Love is the Real Opening of the Heart. Just wanting to really help someone else.
And this Opening of the Heart of Lester makes his energy flow with the energy of true love for everyone in his life. Just before he leaves his life, which is the destiny of all living beings on this planet. "No-One gets out of Life, Alive!"
And of course the maddest guy of all is the Chris Cooper character, Col. Frank Fitts, USMC, who actually kills Lester with a gun. Like the Al Pacino Character in "Angels in America" he is a repressed homosexual who is driven mad by his repressed desires, and the need to hide them from contemporary society.
Even his son, Ricky underestimates him, "You sad, tired, old man", because he does not understand the homosexual repression which drives his life, to destroy all love and everyone around him.
His wife, Ricky's mother, is mad from lack of love from her homosexual husband. Free Ricky is repressed, sent to military school, sent to an asylum to be anaesthetised, Comfortably Numb, "Because you need structure and discipline." if you are repressing anything, using the wrong thoughtform, not in alignment with your true soul path..
Col. Frank Fitts kills Lester because he has shown Lester the truth of his repressed homosexuality, of his repressed desire, of his repressed love. And because that truth, if it gets out, can destroy his carefully constructed life of repressed madness, he has to kill Lester!
All the mad people in this movie are driven to madness by the desire for something which is not essential to anything but their selfish competitive egos. Wrong thoughtforms. Wrong thinking.
And yet, this is the way of all human evolution. We need to experience the results of all wrong thinking, all the bad luck and bad Karma, until "We have been down that path, (All bad paths), and we know where it ends" from the Matrix and again from the Matrix, we know it, "From Balls to Bones".
This wisdom is not intellectual, with many lifetimes of the use of meditational techniques like Energy Enhancement it becomes Hard Wired in, intuitive from the Soul Infused Personality and is accessible from Child to Old Person.
And we will keep making those mistakes until we know we have the Freedom, the Free Will, the Soul Intuition, "Only to make the Right Choice!" in life.
And only Lester finds the way out by rejecting all the wrong thoughtforms finding real love and enlightenment just before he is murdered. This is the way of Enlightenment, and, "This planet is a Factory for the production of Enlightened Beings" it is all our paths, too.
The greatest drawing actors intuitively make the right choice of great themes and significance when they choose their movies because as we said at the beginning. "Only Significance equals Success!"
This "American Beauty" movie is highly Significant. And how do we really know this. We Feel it in our Hearts?.
Both Viet Vision & Swami Satchidanand are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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