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The taint of evil

JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
edited August 21 in General Banter

So I was considering ‘The Boy and the Heron’ this morning, and one of the things from the ending of the film is that the magical world which the main character Mahito’s relative the Greatuncle has created is tainted by evil. This is shown as a kind of energy in the small blocks of stone which the Greatuncle is balancing (one for each film Miyazaki has made - it is autobiographical). The takeaway is that Miyazaki’s magical worlds of the imagination also contain this taint.

In ‘The Boy and the Heron’ this taint comes back into the picture in the pelicans who eat the warawaras, young souls who fly up to be born, and in the parrot soldiers who eat intruding humans like Mahito. So the theme of eating as driving evil is very much present, which we see in the natural world as well as predators killing herbivores. In a way this greed (for food) is also seen in Buddhism as one of the three poisons which drive samsara, it is the same recognition.

These things all originate from the mind, not only greed but also aversion and ignorance. Ruthlessness like the fox who gets into the henhouse and slaughters a whole bunch of chickens, indiscriminate killing, these themes are major drivers of wickedness. In a way in order to create dramatic tension in a movie, you need to understand the taint in order to bring it in as an archetypal enemy. It is something you experience with computer games as well.

As you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you…

Comments

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    You might well be right @how… certainly the pelicans in the film who eat the young souls are portrayed as an evil, but the fire princess who kills the pelicans is not. It seems evil is about killing which is being done unconsciously? Must finish watching the film a second time.

  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran

    Many deities with fat bellies eat and thereby transform evil. Ganesha and Hotei come to mind.

    Many ignorant and injured and therefore injuring people, embrace, accept and thereby justify their hate/anger/twisted behaviour.

    As some of you know, I have to organise picnics in the hell realms. Usually to rescue well meaning Bodhisattvas, who feed the crazed, tortured and trump types (just a contemporary example o:))

    Obviously I don't go too far in. They are likely to eat me alive. :o

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    I’m beginning to think that when you really look for it evil denies that it exists, but sneakily in places there is just a “taint of evil”, a hint of it in the behaviour of the crowd, the greed of the individual, the hunger of the predator.

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    Enfin I think it is unhealthy to be fascinated by this, it is better to turn your face towards the divine.

  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    edited August 23

    VastmindJeroenlobster
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