DO I LIE TO MYSELF TO BE HAPPY? BUDDHIST AND PLATONIC THEMES IN THE FILM, INCEPTION
- What to you are the central themes in Plato’s allegory of the cave? What are the ways by which the film closely resembles the allegory of the cave? Conversely, what are the ways by which the film differs from it?
The main point of Plato’s allegory of the cave is that one has to be educated in order to get out of darkness or in our case ignorance. The ones who remain in the cave are afraid of the light outside to know the true reality not only their perception of reality inside the cave. The lights hurt the remaining people inside the cave because they don’t or don’t want to understand what true reality means. Thus the popular saying “the truth hurts”. Mal and the other men in the cave represent the concept of thinking inside the box because they don’t want to believe that there are other knowledge and perception about the “truth”. The cave represents people’s dreams and whatever lies outside the cave represents the true reality. They only believe what they want to believe because for so long it is the only thing they really know. In the movie, they were successful in the giving the idea of reality to Cobb who was stuck in limbo for a time, and confronting his fears of letting Mal go because it is what is it, Mal is gone and Cobb can’t let her stay inside because he knows that in reality his wife is gone. In the allegory of the cave, the man, who was free to go outside and venture what is real, wasn’t successful in giving the idea of what lies outside and imparting the perception of reality.
- How does the mind separate false reality from true reality? Enumerate instances (key scenes) where the film clearly delineates “false” reality from “true” reality.
One key scene in the movie is when Cobb and Ariadne were talking about dreams and how to create instances and have it filled with your subconscious thoughts and Cobb suddenly brings up a question to Ariadne if she remembers how they exactly ended up seating together in a café whilst in the real world you have a continuous memory of what happened. And in dreams, they can alter or defy the principal laws of physics just like folding the world in two just like a piece of paper, shifts in gravity, and just like Cobb’s totem that doesn’t stop spinning which will never happen in real life since we can not break the laws of physics.
- If someone can infiltrate your dreams in order to make you behave a certain way, do you really have free will? Is free will that easily manipulated?
First of all, what is free will for us? Free will is the ability to act out with our own discretion. But free will can easily be manipulated because most of our ideas are born out of suggestions either by other people’s ideas or out of necessities. Ideas do not come out of nowhere; something has to start the fire. But it is up to one’s consciousness and discretion to know or feel for them what is right or wrong, that is the act of having free will. But the idea or suggestion that came up before acting on it negates having “free” will, it is more of a follow up action on what to do. And our free will to do good or bad is taught to us ever since we were young and everything we do is dictated through manners and different norms.
- Discuss how Cobb’s actions follow closely either some of the 4 Noble Truths or all of them.
The first noble truth is that in life there is suffering. Life is not all at a high, we also experience the low moments of our life through suffering, it doesn’t matter if it is emotional, mental suffering or any other form, suffering is a key part of our life. It makes us feel alive because when there is pain felt that is a sign that we are still alive. In Inception, Cobb is suffering deep inside because he is blaming himself for the death of his wife Mal. Mal didn’t have the perception of false reality from the true reality because they stayed so long in limbo that it was the only thing that Mal every knew and wouldn’t want to accept the truth, she only believed what she wanted to believe. And when they went back to reality, she sees the real world as if it was still a dream. In the end, she wanted to wake up but the truth is she is. The only way to wake up from a dream was to die, and eventually Mal thought about jumping from a high place to wake up to reality but it ended up killing her. Cobb also suffers because he can’t see his children.
The second noble truth is that suffering has an origin. Everything in the real world has a corresponding cause and effect. That applies to suffering too. Cobb is suffering because of the idea of inception. He did inception to his own wife, which eventually led her to loose her perception of reality and commit suicide.
The third noble truth is that suffering can cease. This stage in real life is when we try to overcome whatever hinders us. In Cobb’s case in the movie, his suffering can cease because of Saito’s offer to him that if they finish it; Cobb gets to go home to his children after a very long time not being home. And the last of the four noble truths is that there is a path out of suffering. The path is the process or what you have to do in order to get rid of your suffering. Cobb knew he had to confront Mal in his subconscious and let her go because he knows she is already gone. Saito’s deal with Cobb ends his longing for his two children.
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