MovieChat Forums > Samsara (2002) Discussion > Confused on message of film

Confused on message of film


Why did Tashi need to have an affair when he was already breaking the rules by falling in love with Pema? What were they trying to say?

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They were trying to show that he couldn't cope with his guilt, testing him as the affair had come across as being partly stage managed. His spirituality was gradually becoming eroded, his mind was becoming more corrupted the more he became immersed into the powerfull position he now found himself in.
There was another telling scene when he suggest's to Pema about cutting back on the Itinerant workers, to make the business more profitable. Yet it was the itinerant workers who pulled out all the stops when the crop caught fire.

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>he suggest's to Pema about cutting back on the Itinerant workers, to make the business more profitable

I thought it was because he was afraid of falling for the itinerant worker, like it happened later.

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my understanding is that the central theme of the film is DESIRE. So even Tashi desired Pema once, but desiring just one woman for a man has never been sufficient. man always desire more then one woman and same goes for women as well. Desire keeps om being bor nad reborn thats waht Tashi realises. He also realises that they are difficult to satisfy.

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I watched this film after it was mentioned in Andrey Lappa's "Universal theory of yoga " lecture set,Andrey is a very respected teacher and its a pretty comprehensive yoga techer training dvd , which runs 24 hours,and was recently named as one of the top 10 yoga dvd's of all time, he shows this movie in the training, he says he it is a perfect example of how maya can work, even if a person is enlightened, it shows how you are always in karma, and the protaganist in the movie although enlightened, "fell down" due to desires that came from karmic debts that had to be fullfilled with in this lifetime, its also a concept(rnanubandhana) that is familiar in many aghora lineages especially in the books about vimalananda by robert svoboda which i highly reccomend reading if you liked this film.

Last seen film:
The French Connection (1971) by William Friedkin 9/10

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Deepman,

where did you get that Tashi was already enlightened? just because he was a monk does not mean that he was enlightened. i think you are misunderstanding what enlightenment is.. he would not have been caught in desire if he truly was free from it.

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The title of the movie is "samsara" which is a buddhist term for something like a wheel in which normal people who are not enlightened spin around - a wheel of endless desire and ultimate dissatisfaction. Thats what the movie was about. As Tashi left the monklife and choose to live in samsara these problems occurred. But in the end the movie was also offcourse critical of buddhism.

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That's what I loved most about Samsara, it's critical analysis of Buddhism particularly from a female perspective,in it's attack on self indulgent male spirituality.

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Though you got the message right, I just wanted to clarify what samsara means. Samsara doesn't mean a wheel of desire. That's a Western interpretation of the word. It literally means a raging stream, like a river. It means that you have no control over where the river takes you, like allowing desire and ignorance to corrupt your mind. Once Tashi allowed sexual desire into his life, it took over him and he had no control over it. He cheated on his wife and he was on verge of having sex with Pema in front of his child.
Knowing the true meaning of the word opens up a lot about the film and the scenes, such as Tashi being in the river every time he changed. It was a nice touch.

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Thank you heinlam for this clarification. So there is the question (is that a koan?) - "how do you prevent a drop of water from drying out?" -, and the answer that you let it out in the sea. In regards to samsara being a raging stream then, and taken that Tashi is the personification of the drop of water; what would it mean for him (after being taken away by the stream as he has)to end up in the ocean?

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some believe that through strict meditation and prayer, ultimate enlightenment can be reached. But Siddhartha himself (Buddha) experienced many of the bodily pleasures that tempt humans. It is believed that in order to deny the body these urges and pleasures, they must first experience it and then renounce them.

For Tashi, he was born into a life of meditation and was never able to experience said ordeals. By first living a pious life among other monks (in the stream) and then denouncing the faith to experience the other pleasures of life, he ultimately returned to a higher state of enlightenment (the ocean) upon coming back to the Buddhist faith.

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[deleted]

Tashi was ruled by his desires. It didn't stop with marrying Pema. He just developed new desires after his original ones were satisfied. I think that's what he realized, and that's why he tried to return to his monastic life. Only to be accosted by the realization that that was also a selfish move.

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it was about exploring desires and their consequences. because the comfort you find making up to the rules (getting married) ends up delaying enlightenment.

i think the guilt added up to his overall torments and that supported his selfish decision. he s been applying wits like a scholar throughout the movie til the end, and i dont think he really understood anything, seeing that he s still crying at the end. the vision did save him and his family from a major mistake. he had been told the answer all along in that every contact is an opportunity to practice the way. i havent seen him ever researching that.

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[deleted]

I think movie was all about attachment and the 4 noble truths.
Attachment to all things cause suffering.
Everything Tashi did that caused him suffering in the film is attachment to something whether it'd be money, sex, etc.

He had to experience it like Buddha to then seek enlightenment by abandoning it all.

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