The Mind Is Everything: Doctor Strange
Marvel’s ambitious movie “Doctor Strange” follows the story of Doctor Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Before becoming the hero of the movie, Strange is a brilliant, acclaimed, and arrogant neurosurgeon. After severely injuring his hand in a car accident that leaves him unable to operate, Strange hits rock bottom. Then he decides to travel in order to find a cure for his hand. He meets the Ancient One who is a sorcerer, played by Tilda Swinton, with mysterious powers. Through training under the Ancient One, Strange gains extremely powerful abilities. He is reborn as a hero who transcends everything. Strange went from being at the zenith of life to falling into the deepest valley. We witness Strange’s vulnerable humanity and his suffering due to this twisted turn of events, which comes in order for him to metamorphose as a hero.
Here I want to talk about this fascinating topic of the mind. I am a meditator who learned so many beautiful lessons through meditation. Through meditation, I came to know what my mind and heart really are, and who I really am. Everyone has a real mind and heart and a false mind and heart. The real mind and heart existed even before we were born, and it is the eternal, immortal mind and heart that exists even if we die and disappear. It is the true mind and heart, while the false mind and heart is the mind and heart we created while living.
After finishing the movie, some may question, what is the mind? To which we can answer that it is not the body that moves and controls me, but rather the soul. This leads to the next question, what exactly is the soul? We all know that the body will disappear one day. Some say the soul is within the body, and that when life is over, some believe that they will live on as that soul. But is this really true?
Simply put, the false mind and heart are the thoughts such as, “It’s hard. It’s irritating. It’s painful.” These kinds of thoughts and the tens of thousands of thoughts that come up are the false mind and heart. Before we were born, we originally did not have these minds, and simply had the pure original mind and heart of the universe. If we think about it, even before we were born, the infinite, pure emptiness of the original universe existed. From there the stars came out, the sun came out, the earth came out, and all kinds of life and humanity came out. The real mind and heart existed before we are born and before the world came out. This true mind and heart eternally never disappears. Furthermore, sadness, bitterness, and pointless thoughts do not exist there.
It is the pure original mind and heart; it is the mind and heart of the world and the mind and heart of nature. Since the moment one is born, a person takes pictures of each moment with the body, just as a camera takes pictures. That person takes picture and stores those pictures in the mind and then lives inside of one’s own mind world. That world is so exactly overlapped over the world that we do not realize we are not living in the world. We are living in the picture world, which was captured with the body that is the camera. The world of the mind is one of the false mind and heart. Pain and stress are all generated from that picture world. What is moving and controlling us is the false mind and heart, thus we must surely discard the entirety of the false mind and heart, come out into the world and live with the real mind and heart of the universe.
That is the key of meditation. Dr. Strange also eventually realizes that the master is not the body but the mind, and so he follows Ancient One’s training method. If we live in the current state of the false mind and heart, even after this body disappears, we cannot return to the universe mind and heart, which is the original mind and heart. While I am alive I must find my true mind and heart by getting rid of all my false mind and heart. In doing so, there will no longer be pain nor stress. And even if this body disappears, I can live forever in the real world. While we are alive we must come to know this and wake up.
I am so happy that a movie like Dr. Stranger that profoundly portrays the mind was produced. On the surface, this may be a simple hero blockbuster movie, but it actually contains a deeper level of philosophical ideas on life, death, and the mind. If you have not seen this movie yet, I would like to recommend it to you, and to anyone. And I hope that everyone finds the true self through meditation. Ultimately, when this body disappears, there is nothing. So, wouldn’t it be great if we could find a way to live forever? And, now there is a way in the world where everyone can truly achieve this.
Existence
Life and death are not separate-
They are not separate when there is no self,
which is the way all creations in the world exist.
The whole exists when there is no individual self,
and the mind that exists in the whole is eternal.
Individual entities exist-
things in existence exist-
because non-existence exists.
Everything has a form,
the mind of which are existence.
It is from existence that the mind of discrimination was made by man, and this is the reason he lacks wisdom.
From the book “Mind” written by Woo Myung
