Soul
Synopsis of Average Joe
Average Joe was a middle school (contract) music teacher. The school he taught at was also average - some kids like music, some don't, some pay attention, some don't, some are gifted, some aren't. Joe was passionate about music, so our impressionable kids like him nonetheless, and the headmistress wanted him to go full-time. But Joe, despite Average, always dream of being not Average. He wanted to play jazz professionally to the dismay of his mother and acquaintances (You dare! Such unstable!). A sudden chance came (always) when the pianist seat in acclaimed jazz musician Dorothea Williams' quartet became vacant and Joe got contacted by his old student. Average Joe got the chance of his life, and he managed to impress Dorothea enough for an audition at the night. Finally, Joe would get to do what (he believed) he lived and died for; finally, yes, finally, Joe would be happy.
Until he died, of course.
Dream
We are sold the idea that if we have more we will be happy. A beer, so that you can connect with friends. A phone, so that you can connect with your loved ones. A Tesla, so that you can get laid. These ideas are obviously ridiculous, so we can dismiss them after a good laugh. But some promise is more subtle. Such as a dream. Not a fantasy, a wish, a want, but a big, ambitious dream that you can live and die to achieve it.
Our Joe Gardner totally bought that. From a kid that used to not get jazz, he had grown to love it, and now sworn to live and die as a jazz musician. That dream, that yearning for a future so complete, was his current incomplete life - no owned house, no full-time job, no lover, no good relationships, not just with mother but with anyone who "did not get it". He neglected his present in nostalgia for a future. Was he happy? No, of course. Happiness was reserved as something to feel in the future, when he was finally given his chance on stage. For now he held on to that hope to get by every night.Â
Joe Gardner was every actor-to-be waiting tables near Hollywood, every author-to-be finishing their shift at the factory, every musician-to-be manning the checkouts. He should have died (or gone to prison) like billions of these unimportant souls. Except, he was given a chance, to be what he was truly meant to be.
Centuries ago, there was another man, unalike Joe in every aspect. He was born an important person, son of a king, heir to the throne. He was Prince Siddhartha.
Siddhartha was prophesied to be either the greatest king or greatest teacher, illuminating the Way to end all suffering for all existences on Earth. The latter upset the King, who wanted his son to rule over the Earth instead. So he went all out. When the prince got married, not one, but three palaces were built for him and his wife.
“I want one to be a summer palace, made of cool marble and surrounded by refreshing pools and fountains. The second will be the winter palace, warm and comfortable. And the third will be for the rainy season. Place these palaces in the middle of a large park, with beautiful scenery in every direction. And surround the park with a large wall, so that nothing unpleasant from the outside world can ever get in. Everything is to be so perfect that Prince Siddhartha will never be tempted to leave.”
The prince was drowned in pleasure, so he would become chained to the throne. Except, he was given a chance to be what he was truly meant to be.
Joe's passion paved his way in the end. Curly arranged for him an audience with Dorothea precisely because the former student recognized exactly the extent of his teacher's ambition and talent. And how Joe made the best out of this chance. I will spoil it for you by saying that in the end, Joe made it to the show. And he got exactly what he wanted all along. He was finally happy.
Until he walked out of the door.
There he learned that he could finally begin his career as a professional jazz musician by coming back tomorrow and playing again. This was when what I would call "Soul moment" happened.
Taken from here
The impermanence of achievement (and everything, really)
My favorite Vietnamese film content creator had an analogy so apt for the movie. “A dream is like ice cream. The joy of having it is gone with just one lick.” Such is the nature of achievements and all things in life - impermanence.
We understood impermanence to mean everything in life will change. But most of us unconsciously fail to accept it because we exclude ourselves from the things that can change. Alas, our self is perhaps the thing that changes the most with time. It means that we can grow out of love with something just as quickly and easily as we fell in love with it in the first place.
Joe had spent 25 years of his life (I think so, more or less?) in misery for those few hours in the jazz club. The only thing kept him going was his imagination, that once he got his stage, he would spread his wings like a phoenix and revel in the bliss of the moments. FOREVER. Yet...no.
Many will recognize impermanence as a Buddhist concept. Not a Buddhist film in any part, but Soul made impermanence so blatantly, idiotically obvious. But let's revisit the Buddha, our original educator of impermanence.
The king brought it on his own, really. Prince Siddhartha, enchanted by the beautiful sceneries in the song he heared, wanted to see the world outside the wall. Trying his best, but the king couldn't hide every unpleasant thing from the prince like what he could do inside the palace. 3 ventures, 3 times the prince saw the sufferings of life: old age, sickness and death. And with it, the cushioned life he had was laid bare: a lie. He could no longer tolerate the amusement.
“You, my friend, must have a stronger heart than mine if you can be amused so easily. But for me, everything I see is on fire with suffering. Until I find a way out of this suffering, such worldly amusements do not interest me at all.”
He renounced his royalty, ventured out to seek a different way of living that would free all living beings from suffering and bring about true happiness. To skip the story, first he moved to the other spectrum. Once he was encased in too much pleasure, now he subjected himself to unbearable pain instead. The idea of his peers and him was by mastering the pain, they could control all sufferings and find happiness despite pain. Yet, six years went by, he found no truth. That was when he had an inkling. Too much pleasure is harmful, too much pain is harmful, so the right way must lie somewhere in the middle. What he discovered subsequently - the path to end all sufferring - was named the Middle Path.
"The first is the Noble Truth of Suffering. Life is filled with the miseries of birth, old age, sickness, and death. People chase after pleasure but find only pain. Even when they do find something pleasant they soon grow tired of it. Nowhere is there any real satisfaction or peace."
Dream seems different because you have to work for it. You actively engage with pain for the promise of subsequent pleasure, sometimes to the point of finding pleasure in the pain of your labor (and you masochists call it "labor of love"). Alas, it's still just about pleasure. You may spend more effort than a drunkard, a john, or a hunter. But when the game is already in your hand, you will realize that it's all the same flavor of meaninglessness. It's true for a TikTok video, it's true for a dream. Joe's disappointment is inevitable.
"Second is the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering. When our mind is filled with greed or desire, sufferings of all types automatically follow. This ignorant and greedy attitude is the cause of all our dissatisfaction, robbing us of our peace of mind."
That's Joe's biggest mistake. A gambling addict, all in, on a single hand. He mistakenly believed that in a single thing, to be his life. Giving it to him and suddenly his life has nothing left. But how many of us are different, really?
"Third is the Noble Truth of the End of Suffering. When we remove all ignorant craving and desire from our heart, all our suffering and dissatisfaction will come to an end. We shall experience a happiness that is far greater than our ordinary pleasures and a peace that is beyond words."
I am not preaching for us to become a Buddhist, to join the sect at the local pagoda and start learning the scriptures in the hope for Buddhahood or reaching Sukhavati. I am saying we need to manage our expectations. Borrowing from Stoicism, better or worse becoming more well-known these days, there are things we can fully control and things we cannot. There's nothing wrong with pursuing a dream, but the outcome is not something only determined by us. "Dream on, but don't imagine they will all come true."
"“Finally, the fourth truth is the Noble Truth of the Path. This path leads to the end of all suffering. If we avoid harming all other living beings, if we sharpen and focus our mind, and if we gain wisdom, each of us can reach perfect happiness, the end of all misery."
“If we are always running, we can’t behold the sceneries”. You need to look up and around on the road from here to there. Take in everything. Every moment, every scenery, every sensation. For life is transient, but beautiful, and it's such a waste not to notice.
Achieving your dream gives you satisfaction. But managing your expectations, learning respect and appreciation, and living in the now may give Joe even more or at least alleviate his unhappiness.
Spark
To confess, I am not sure. There was a whole month between the start and the completion of this blog post. I was depressed after achieving my dream of becoming a ML engineer. I engaged in all kinds of “adolescent tantrum” activities (video games, manga, Reddit, Discord) to fill the void. As if my regression would help. As shown in The Moviegoer, stories can derail your life, but it can also guide you back. I chanced on a certain YouTube video, and on Soul. Do I stop all addictions at once and become David Goggins? Nah, I'm still the same. I engaged in the above activities less not because of discipline, but because I exhausted the current masterpieces and refused to look at sh*t. And also, I’ve got something I want to do.
Back to the nascent days of Buddhism, the Buddha did not hold lectures, but tell stories. The Path is profoundly simple (see above) yet hard to do because it’s all about actions. What people need was not theories, but unforgettable pointers that they would remember at all times so that they wouldn’t stray from the practice. And that’s what stories are for. Soul has outperformed all other stories to illustrate the impermanence nature of everything, at least for me. Even if something I staked my life for can become insufferable within mere minutes, how can everything else? Yet, there lies the liberation, and the teaching.
For those out there resenting life without the option to be unborn like 22, I believe the message is to try new things. Because the Spark is not a grand dream or purpose in life, it’s merely the desire to live. And everything can be your new Spark. A piece of pizza, a sunset, a falling petal, a conversation with a stranger. But you have to experience it, you have to reach out, you have to notice the moment.
I wish you find your spark.