Jim Carrey on spirituality
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
I was just reading this interview with Jim Carrey, and I have to say he really surprised me by going into the depths. The first question he was asked was “Mr Carrey, have you ever had a spiritual epiphany” and he ends up talking about coming to independent realisations of no-self, suffering and deep compassion. Much respect for the man, makes me interested in all the art he has been creating the last few years.
I went back and read the interview a second time, and a third time. It finally made a few things about no-self become clear to me, on an inner energetic level. This was the first time i’ve really connected to having no self, and yet having various energies within that motivate you to do things. It is surprising what sources teachings can come from, sometimes. It opened a few doors for me.
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Interesting timing @Kerome - I was just the other day listening to this talk about Jim Carrey by Prince Ea (who's worth a listen if the opportunity arises.....)
Really nice video. Food for thought. (Not 'my' thought, obviously... a pondering for the thougt-process that evolves and takes me another step along... ) Yes. Like it.
It certainly is an interesting video. The whole thing made me wonder about taking up acting as an exploration of no-self.
Well, Keanu Reeves and Steven Seagal have different tales to tell....
In a lot of ways we all already have...
Yup, on the button, @Bunks ...
I like the Movie The Mask
Carrey's description of humanity as "consciousness dancing for itself" strongly reminds me of Ram Dass. I wonder what reading he's done during the course of these realizations. They can't have been completely independent discoveries... can they?
From the interview, it sounded to me like he had come to these thoughts pretty much independently. He certainly didn’t explicitly mention a guru or Buddhism, or even seem to link it to a spiritual train of thought. I think it’s not unreasonable because there are only so many ways of expressing these things.
Have we? You hear people talking about acting out, but this is something I almost never do, i’m a much more restrained type of person, which is why doing an acting class would be such a big departure for me... i’ve never really gone for being in the limelight.
But I think the way we have of expressing our usual range of emotions isn’t really the same as consciously acting out a role. There is a kind of craft to acting a character, which when you go deeply into it does seem to expose our various emotions.
Let me ask you something, @Kerome ... if you're in a store, serving a customer, do you act in exactly the same way towards them as you would a bunch of guys at a football game?
Would you speak to a nun in a similar way you might approach a hooker? (Remember, these questions are hypothetical!)
If you were talking to a child, would you talk to the child with a language best understood by a University graduate?
I would suspect the answer to all three is 'no'. Because you're acting in a way appropriate to circumstance. Emphasis on 'Acting'...
Which of the three is the real you?
All of them?
None of them?
Bear in mind, this is an issue relating to Buddhism and Ego... Self and not-self....
Yes, you’re right in that you’re not talking exactly in the same way, but for me all those are just variations on ‘respectfully neutral’. In a way I guess acting appeals because I’ve never gone to extremes in expressing myself, and it looks like acting does afford an opportunity to do that.
Not so. You behave and moderate your interaction depending on the 'play'. That's an oft-used metaphor, isn't it; to observe ourselves as if we were watching a programme, a film... a play.
To look on as a spectator, an outsider, because everything is ephemeral, temporary, transient. We sit, we look, we witness... then we rise and move on. This too shall pass. And we move on to the next 'mis-en-scene' , the next performance. We put on an act, a mask. Just like Jim Carrey did... he became a whole new entity, putting on 'The Mask'. Behind it, he was still the same original, but wearing it, he formulated, developed and personified a completely different character.
We all wear a mask, we all act in different ways, we all...'perform'...
Observe yourself during the say... see where the genuine 'you' comes out from behind the mask, and when you are not 'your true Self... is there a conflict of opinion?
Acting isn't always about being extrovert, extreme, flamboyant. Sometimes, acting involves long, still silences....
It’s interesting, but now that I’m paying attention to it, and have given myself leave to act out, I’m finding that I’ve become more expressive, that I am letting the things that I have inside hang out and am being more voluble.
It’s as if I am acting by being myself... is this what it feels like to be extrovert?
Anyway I’ve signed up for a beginner’s acting course. Should be fun.
It depends on your personal definition of 'extrovert'... It's a bit like "Yin" and "Yang". You can't define them in and as themselves; you can only describe Yin and Yang in comparison to something else.
Yoga = Yin
Ballet = Yang.
Ballet = Yin
Break-dancing = Yang
Break-dancing = Yin
Cage-fighting = Yang....
I suppose so, although I suspect there are not many people around here who would consider the emotional equivalent of cage-fighting as introversion.
I’ve met people in this town who sat drinking a cup of coffee at a busy communal table without moving a muscle in their face for half an hour, completely immutable and Sphinx-like.
No, I'm just using it as a Yang physical activity comparison to break-dancing. You could, I suppose, replace it with Floor programme gymnastics, for example...
See, I can't do that.....
Hmm perhaps it's down to Botox
Whereas we have Buddhox....
Never mistake a mask, or shell for the content
Jim Carrey was very unwell, for most of his life. Seems better now ... 💗🤔😌
This reminds me of...
which in turn reminds me of...
and that brings me back to...
Funny how these things echo each other. Melville read Shakespeare obsessively, but I don’t think Shakespeare read Avalokiteshvara.
He is a Transcendental Meditation practitioner or at least was. He gave a honorary speech at one of the graduations at Maharishi University
"Once in a while you get shone the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right".
-Huntrr/Garcia
Or maybe taken up no-self as an exploration of acting, lol.
I never found Jim Carrey funny until I saw him crawl out of the rhinos butt. That whole scene just really tickled my sense of the absurd.
I was surprised at how deep he ended up getting in his career and spirituality.
Great example.
Yes, when you've crawled out of a rhino's butt, you've reached the pinnacle of fame...
But I agree on the Spirituality PoV...
About Acting:
Develop a strong sense of self-worth.
Take everything seriously (with a grain of salt) except yourself
(Which you must take exceptionally seriously except you'd better not)
You will face rejection infinitely until you don't
Don't take it personal
stay far away from the "Casting Couch"
All success is ephemeral.
Success has a thousand hands - failure just two
No matter how successful you become, you still have to take out the trash.
Have fun.
This rings true on several levels. Well said.
Bodhi Jim Carrey. Bravo.
... in many ways the sauce becomes The Source. In other words, wisdom stares us in the face. When we stare back, without looking, we are in effect sleep walking.
This is why understanding the dharma is no different to understanding Mr Carrey, ourselves or the bigger picture ...
Can we hear silence? Find Nothing as if lost ... ?