Spaciousness
MY Story
Where It All Began
For a film course I had taken, I attempted to try out three short films inspired by my surroundings and the briefs given in class. Since I have never explored film making or anything related to it (apart from watching), this process was quite tedious and challenging, but completely worth it because of the different things I was able to learn.
Taken from a podcast I discovered, I reimagined a dialogue between comedian, Duncan Trussell and Buddhist teacher, David Nichtern. They indulge in a conversation about emptying the mind, creating room for being in the present and understanding spaciousness.
From my surroundings, I created a short film which corresponded to this dialogue between the two through my own understanding.
(hearing with earphones would definitely be preferred k thanks bye)
SCRIPT
What takes place is a conversation between comedian Duncan Trussel and Buddhist teacher David Nichtern about emptying the mind, exploring space within it, and the term, ‘spaciousness’. I tried to take instances of my own surroundings to explain visually what I understood from this dialogue.
David – Let’s take a minute together, okay? Here are three principles we could at least check out.
First one, silence. Giving you room to listen. Second one, stillness. Giving you room to feel. Third one, spaciousness. Just giving you room.
Duncan – The moment I just accepted where I was, instead of wishing I was somewhere else, everything just got better.
David – Fantastic.
Duncan- It’s like, for a second, my thoughts weren’t much of anything. Like I… How do I say it? It’s like I just “was.” Is that normal?
David – Yes. You see, Duncan… The moment you get a little space between yourself and your thoughts, it’s like moving into a much bigger house. Then there’s room to invite people in. There’s space for you. And there’s space for them. That’s spaciousness.
Duncan – Cool.
Like, you’re talking about the thing where… you could be living in a massive house, but you’re still a hoarder. Even though the space is empty, your mind is still filled up with all of this stuff that’s making you miserable all the time.
David – Basically, we’re talking about psychological space. Your mind is overcrowded.
Duncan – That’s it, yeah.
David – So then you go, “What if I just emptied my mind?”
Duncan – Right.
David – Just empty your mind. Well, go ahead and try.
Duncan – Can it even be done?
David – Yes. You could learn how to do that. But it isn’t the goal. And a lot of people teach meditation as if the goal is to treat your mind like an unruly teenager and make it shut up.
Duncan – Right. It’s aggressive.
David – It’s very aggressive.
Duncan – It seems more like it’s accepting there’s this infinite swarm of thoughts and that by understanding that you’re not necessarily as connected to them as you thought, it allows…
David – Which is what this is talking about. Yeah. You don’t have to kind of grasp and dwell on that as the only solution for continuing to be alive.