Scenes of a Movie

First Scene

"ART must hold itself to its own standards, then! One can only aspire to FORM by way of CONTENT, however, one cannot aspire to content and present it without FORM! Have you ever noticed the parallel of this paradox in Buddhism? In art we have form versus content, in Buddhism we have form versus emptiness! Emptiness no other than form, form no other than emptiness, which is the essence of the Heart Sutra, and in art, form versus content. But what does this MEAN? What is it FOR? Why are we discussing it?"

The Teacher strode back and forth in the classroom, stressing some words by shouting them and dragging them out. Based on the reaction of the students, this was not abnormal. The students watched him, some even listened, and they thought he probably was saying something important, but they didn't know what he meant.

In one corner in the back of the classroom, we notice two students passing notes back and forth. In the other corner, a girl seems to be rubbing a guy in a football jersey on the shoulder. What does this mean? Are the other students in the classroom paying attention? There is the smell of cigarette smoke-- but in school? Where is this coming from?

"...and so how do we NOTICE what we notice? WHY do we notice what notice? What else are we missing out on that we don't notice, and what do we notice that doesn't actually EXIST? Our THOUGHTS-- Mental Models: we hear a noise and for a brief moment we are only aware of the noise, but that is diluted and devalued as we come to assign MEANING to the noise, that the noise was the lunch bell, or a fire alarm, and we MOVE ON from the MEANING... no, we are GRASP the meaning, the purpose, the information conveyed, and we move on to the next thing! How brief these moments of peace! How brief these everlasting moments of nothing! The touch, back there, on your shoulder, it means nothing to you NOW, because you're thinking about your COCK!"

There was an audible gasp in the classroom as things everybody had noticed previously were now being commented upon by the main reason they were in the classroom. The shoulder touching stopped.

"One may WONDER what the shoulder has to do with the cock, but one did not wonder about this before the shoulder touching commenced! Now that it has, of course, we all know about it! Nothing is hidden from the rest of us! All of us are building stories in our minds about what happened before and after this phenomenon; did anything lead up to this? Why is Stacy touching the shoulder of almighty football player Gary?! Is it a massage? Is there this much smiling during massages? Ah, how brief these moments of PEACE! Your assignment tonight is to simply PAY ATTENTION. WHAT do you notice? WHAT is the meaning you find from your noticing? Are you noticing things that exist or your thoughts ABOUT them? And tomorrow for God's sake no more shoulder touching! We're all thinking about it, Stacy, we've all seen it-- if you want to touch shoulders, tell us WHY. DISMISSED!!!!!!!" he shrieked, more excited than ever. "And for the love of my classroom, whoever is smoking in here, STOP IT!." 

He threw is books into a bag and left the room, flinging open the door with such force it slammed into the wall and bounced back, slamming shut again. Everybody started rustling and moving and Gary and Stacy were still a bit stunned about what had just happened, perhaps they were wondering if it did indeed just happen, as nobody else said a word, and everybody filed out of the classroom. I knew I did not imagine the smoke.