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Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies
Movie fans and spiritual seekers, unite! In Cinema Nirvana , meditation teacher and award-winning film critic Dean Sluyter illuminates the hidden enlightenment teachings of Casablanca , Jaws , The Graduate , The Godfather , Memento , and ten other classic films, revealing spiritual wisdom in everything from 007’s secret weapons to the colors of the Seven Dwarfs’ eyes.
So grab your popcorn, sit back, and prepare to have your mind opened. Cinema Nirvana is a funny but wise, practical but wildly entertaining guide to finding enlightenment—one movie at a time.
So grab your popcorn, sit back, and prepare to have your mind opened. Cinema Nirvana is a funny but wise, practical but wildly entertaining guide to finding enlightenment—one movie at a time.
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2005
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93 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 21, 2013
This is it: the book that inspired (and from which I ripped-off the name) the film series I curate at Tucson Yoga which allows me to integrate my two loves of dharma and cinema! To Dean Sluyter, I owe a huge debt of gratitude for leading the way.
What I was most impressed with in this book, and which is what lies behind my own choices for my film series, is that it's not the obvious films (like The Matrix which just about everyone who hears about the film series asks me if I've shown) that Sluyter uses to uncover gems of dharma teaching, but films such as: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Easy Rider, Jaws, Independence Day, Goldfinger, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jailhouse Rock and Casablanca.
Taking the buddha's exhortation to "Go throughout the land and spread the dharma in the dialect of the people," Sluyter hit upon using the "dialect" of pop culture as found in the films we inhabit in the darkened temples of the movie theater. Films have been called "collective dreams" and can reveal our fears, desires, hidden assumptions and deepest profundities if we know how to "read" them.
That leads to the other quote that begins this book; this one from Britney Spears, "The movies are weird -- you actually have to think about them when you watch them." Yeah, she said that!
I would have given a full five stars, but actually, at times I think Sluyter is sloppy in drawing parallels between various spiritual traditions because of his obvious adherence to the "perennial philosophy" theory. This bit of essentialist thinking works against the teachings of emptiness, but my guess is that Sluyter is more a vedantist at heart than a buddhist anyway.
In any case, this is a minor criticism. I really enjoyed his observations and -- like Britney -- was made to think! And now, in it's fourth year, my Cinema Nirvana film series continues this summer with The Godfather, D.O.A. (the original) and The Creation of the Humanoids.
Thanks, Dean!
"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
--- Philip K. Dick
What I was most impressed with in this book, and which is what lies behind my own choices for my film series, is that it's not the obvious films (like The Matrix which just about everyone who hears about the film series asks me if I've shown) that Sluyter uses to uncover gems of dharma teaching, but films such as: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Easy Rider, Jaws, Independence Day, Goldfinger, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jailhouse Rock and Casablanca.
Taking the buddha's exhortation to "Go throughout the land and spread the dharma in the dialect of the people," Sluyter hit upon using the "dialect" of pop culture as found in the films we inhabit in the darkened temples of the movie theater. Films have been called "collective dreams" and can reveal our fears, desires, hidden assumptions and deepest profundities if we know how to "read" them.
That leads to the other quote that begins this book; this one from Britney Spears, "The movies are weird -- you actually have to think about them when you watch them." Yeah, she said that!
I would have given a full five stars, but actually, at times I think Sluyter is sloppy in drawing parallels between various spiritual traditions because of his obvious adherence to the "perennial philosophy" theory. This bit of essentialist thinking works against the teachings of emptiness, but my guess is that Sluyter is more a vedantist at heart than a buddhist anyway.
In any case, this is a minor criticism. I really enjoyed his observations and -- like Britney -- was made to think! And now, in it's fourth year, my Cinema Nirvana film series continues this summer with The Godfather, D.O.A. (the original) and The Creation of the Humanoids.
Thanks, Dean!
"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
--- Philip K. Dick
August 26, 2018
I loved it! Amazing, spirituality in movies!
March 20, 2015
Quite frankly, I think the world would be a better place if everyone integrated Buddhist principles into their lives. However, I think that the majority of resources on Buddhism tend to be boring, dogmatic, and seemingly unrealistic for non-monk lives. Dean Sluyter manages to make Buddhism accessible and interesting to any modern man or woman through the medium of mainstream movies! He explains complex Buddhist principles in layman’s terms and inspires readers to make small changes to their awareness and treatment of the world around them. This book was extremely enlightening (no pun intended).
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June 1, 2008Dean is a favorite teacher and writer...he's honest and funny as hell...his ability to illuminate Buddhist teachings in his work is a gift that is balanced by his knowledge of literature, film and life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews