Audrey and I watch Eat Pray Love last night, and it was a nice movie. In summary, this woman played by Julia Roberts encounters a Balinese medicine man who prophesies about her future. Then she gets divorced, apparently for a lack of feeling toward her husband, meets another guy who fails to fulfill her, but introduces her to a Guru and some associated spiritual practices. To get herself away/together/a new appetite for life, she takes a year away and goes to 1)Rome, 2)India to meet the Guru, and 3) to Bali to revisit the medicine man, who promised to teach her some mysticism if she taught him some English. She eats, prays, and loves in each of these places, respectively. Toward the end i was thinking how similar the movie was to 'Under the Tuscan Sun', where the divorced woman starts over in Tuscany. I was wondering "why the drive to go somewhere foreign to repair from divorce?" when the movie addressed it directly, with the woman's theory that, should one devote oneself to a physical or emotional journey, and be honestly willing to accept signs, teachings, and change, then one will discover new truth. I really like the concept - it seems Truthy.
I also really liked two pieces of spiritual-themed advice from the movie: from the guru experience, the woman was told that "God is in you, being you". The sort of intensely personal-God relationship that this mindset sets up is something I also find very truthy, and often very lacking in lots of practices of Christianity, maybe because in the emphasis on what Christ has done FOR someone, once can lose focus on how the Spirit is IN someone. Plays into my general feeling that the spirit bit of my god needs more face time in my religion.
Second, I really liked the meditation advice from the Balinese medicine man about smiling. He said, while sitting there 'being', to do so with a smile on your face, in your mind, and even in your liver. My translation is something like - 'smile like you mean it, and then, you know, mean it'. Personally, I am very prone to the trap of letting my surroundings dictate my mindset and my emotions. If instead I could just decide to smile right down to my liver, and Be Happy, ... well, i think it sounds like a big improvement over just being happy in response to really nice things.
It is interesting the mixed bag of messages about Christianity we receive. I remember Gandi's dictum that Christianity is a really amazing idea, and he's waiting for someone to try it. In the movie, I liked the juxtaposition of her travelling and seeking and the wise man's advice, which had to do with being wholly wherever you are. Self discovery has nothing to do so much with travelling as it has to do with mindfullness. There is a part of me that has always been jealous of people who could pick up and travel. I have neither the money or the time any longer to do so. However, I have had some rich journeys and still mine them for meaning and joy!
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