Repo Man & The Buddha

Recently, I found myself having an absolutely unpredictable, unlikely and beneficial email exchange with someone who was the smallest blip possible on my radar.

It started when my friend David and I were chatting about our modern day American 'problems'. And right after- like good guilty Americans- we quickly brought to mind the billions of people around the world who would love to be living our lifestyle. And it quickly reminded us of the funny exchange from the movie 'Repo Man' (1984) between Otto (Emilio Estavez) and his criminal, punk friend Duke (Dick Rude) who lay dying of gunshot wounds after he tried to hold up a liquor store:

Duke: 'The lights are growing dim Otto. I know a life of crime has led me to this sorry fate, and yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am.

Otto: 'That's Bullshit! You're a white suburban punk- just like me!'


Duke: 'Yeah, but it still hurts'

So, yeah, no matter what problems Dave and I have we're still just white suburban punks- though perhaps cleaned up, evolved versions thereof... A healthy perspective to maintain. Hell, my visa card could probably sustain the nation of Mali for a month..

(By the way Repo Man is a classic and has stood the test of time. I defy you to rent it and not laugh your ass off.)

Anyway this is where the unpredictable twists and turns start...

So I email Dave back a day later with a mildly entertaining, tongue-in-cheek, 5 paragraph parody of the 'complex psychology' at play in the above Repo Man exchange- hamming it up with scads of analysis revolving around concepts such like Ego protection, spiritual atonement, transpersonal psychology, the subjective capitulating to the objective , self esteem, etc..

And on a total whim- through the magic of google- I decide to look up the character who played Duke (Dick Rude) and found his email address. And on another whim I sent Dick the tongue-in-cheek email I sent to Dave about Duke's last words in Repo Man. And, unexpectedly, Dick wrote back. Intriguing. It was a rather short email about being reminded of Duke all too much and of having to accept that fate and having his life be more similar to Duke's than I might imagine and having no choice but to 'chop the wood carry the water' and all. Take the suffering as it comes. (A bit of a paraphrase on my part.)

So.... never to let a chance go by that has the slightest potential to explore 'the meaning of life', I wrote back to Dick his about how my associating him with the character Duke had reflections of the 3 truths about life that the Buddha talked about:

1) There actually is no 'Self'. A concrete identifiable 'Self' is really an illusion.

2) Everything is Impermanent

3) Life involves suffering- some of it unavoidable and some of it avoidable.

However tenuously constructed I wrote to Dick that these 3 things applied in this situation because I was defining him is a very limited way (No Self), exhibiting no awareness of the impermanence at play since he played Duke 25 years ago and was not taking into account that it might create a bit of suffering for Dick to hear for the zillionth time about playing Duke. Just some pondering about it. (People who don't like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they don't like.)

I like to know these 'lists' of Buddhist wisdom and toss them about (The 4 noble truths, the 8 fold path, the 5 hindrances, etc...) With the hope that doing so will advance me spiritually. But more in the long run. Like, perhaps in my next lifetime...

But they're meant to guide your everyday life by giving you a helpful, real time perspective and guide you in developing a beneficial attitude. Helping you to be happy right now- not later. Alas, it's so easy for such 'truths' to become abstract, intellectual and totally useless. Relegated to the bookshelf and rarely visited. 'Yeah, everything is 'impermanent'. So true. So true. Yep, Yep, Yep. Hey, what's for dinner?

So, really, my reference to these 3 aspects of life in this situation was little more than one of those 'Oh, that's interesting' kinda things.

Then Dick wrote back talking about how he tried to live in a way that acknowledged these 3 Buddhist truths. And he doesn't seem to have any particular experience with the Buddha. He's just 'put one foot in front of the other' and seems to have lived a life full of perspective, acceptance and hard won lessons . I gotta say, his reply turned me into a very humble student. Here's what Dick wrote- taking the 3 truths down off the dusty bookshelf and bringing them alive in everyday experience:

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1) No Self, means we get to make mistakes, means we must forgive, means we are human

2) Everything is impermanent means happiness only exists in the moment, which means all the elements for happiness always exist if we make the decision to recognize and embrace it

3) A shorter version of the Suffering equation I live by is, "it is okay to feel the pain but don't indulge it" when I do indulge it I like to take it all the way.

He goes on...

All good stuff. We change when the time is correct and sometimes the catalyst for me is just being bored with identifying with being the dumbshit I can be on any given day.

The never ending quest toward spiritual enlightenment can be summed up in the first frame of my movie called 'QUIT,' which is a quote from Mark Twain - "Quitting smoking is easy, I've done it a thousand times."
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Well said Dick.

By the way, Dick's a writer, producer, director now and has a new movie coming out next year called 'Quit'.

So..... that is how a joke during a phone call between two old friends took the unlikely course of bringing the 3 Buddhist truths a little more live for me...