DO I LIE TO MYSELF TO BE HAPPY? BUDDHIST AND PLATONIC THEMES IN THE FILM, MEMENTO

1. DO I LIE TO MYSELF TO BE HAPPY? BUDDHIST AND PLATONIC THEMES IN THE FILM, MEMENTO NATHAN ARROYO DANIEL DE GUZMAN KIDES DEL ROSARIO NIKKA PENUS JEREMIAH SAN PEDRO

2. MEMENTO

3. What to you are the central themes in Plato’s allegory of the cave? KIDES DEL ROSARIO The central themes in Plato’s allegory of the cave are how we as humans perceive reality  from what is basically an illusion. That what we think is true may not even be true its just our minds telling us it is because we have no other way of thinking what is true. We probably do this to assure ourselves and not believe things we don’t want to believe, for example denial, we think what we think is true because we don’t want to think otherwise.

4. What to you are the central themes in Plato’s allegory of the cave? NIKKA PENUS The central themes in Plato’s allegory of the cave are the way we see things. Specifically, on how we see things as a reality. Sometimes we believe on the things we knew to be real to make us satisfied and happy. Most of the time, we do not want to hear the truth because this will make us feel ignorant. People are scared about the truth, as we should be, it is so uncertain.

5. What to you are the central themes in Plato’s allegory of the cave? JEREMIAH SAN PEDRO The allegory of the cave is about how people see reality. Sometimes, we rely on illusions rather than truth to comfort ourselves from the reality. It is also about the role of philosophers in our society to enlighten those who need enlightenment. Like in the cave, there was a man who sent outside to understand what really is the shadows that was in the wall.

6. How does the mind separate false reality from true reality? KIDES DEL ROSARIO Have you ever watched the movie Inception? That movie is one way of explaining the answer to this question because in the movie Leonardo Di Caprio tested inception with his wife. It came to a point where the wife believed she wasn’t really living her life so she killed herself to wake up from the dream. In the movie his kids were the key to making him believe that he was living in reality and not a dream. I think people set standards for themselves to differentiate what is real from what is not.

7. How does the mind separate false reality from true reality? KIDES DEL ROSARIO Like when we dream, of course we dream about things that go beyond our standards and we wake up and see that it really isn’t there. We fantasize about things we can’t have and we come back into our lives we see that those things we fantasized aren’t really there. The mind see’s things and may perceive them to be real, like ghost, but we aren’t sure that they are there, but when the mind sees it, it believes its true, but when the mind doesn’t see it, then it isn’t true.

8. How does the mind separate false reality from true reality? DANIEL DE GUZMAN Before knowing how the mind separates both false and true reality, we first must know the difference between the two. Well duh one between two is real the other is not. Well before actually adding the “false” and “true” to describe reality. Reality is defined as the world or state of things as they actually exist. Then adding false to reality somewhat confuses the meaning. False reality is the world or state of things as they actually exist but is false?

9. How does the mind separate false reality from true reality? DANIEL DE GUZMAN So meaning that false reality is the reality in which the mind may think it to be true as reality can be but then is very much not according with the truth or the facts. As for true reality, well true reality is the state in which everything actually exists. After knowing the two, the mind has a way of separating the two. The mind separates false reality from true reality by distinguishing what is truly real. As in what actually exists.

10. How does the mind separate false reality from true reality? DANIEL DE GUZMAN Examples are dreams, memories, hopes, ideas, illusions, feelings and such. The mind is so complex that it gives us these things that may seem so real yet it is not. In dreams, some come true and most don’t. Though dreams just seem so real, they just do but then you wake up to reality. This is where the mind comes in and separates the false and the truth. Same goes with the rest. The illusion of something that could be possibly be real though knowing it will never happen is when reality hits.

11. The movie closes with Lenny saying, “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I’m no different.” Lenny’s “mirrors” were his memory devices. What sort of “mirrors” do people with normal memories rely on to remind themselves who they are? KIDES DEL ROSARIO In the movie Lenny has these tattoos all over his body to help him each day when he wakes up he looks at the mirror and see’s these tattoos to help him remember what happened to him and what his intentions are.

13. KIDES DEL ROSARIO This basically describes who he has become and each day he looks into the mirror is a reminder of that. The sort of “mirrors” people with normal memories rely on would be our family and close friends. These people that we’ve been with for so long will always bring us back home to our true selves. They are a constant reminder of who we are and how we were raised, family and friends will always be there till the end and for me they are reminders of who I am as a person because without them I probably wouldn’t be me.

14. The movie closes with Lenny saying, “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I’m no different.” Lenny’s “mirrors” were his memory devices. What sort of “mirrors” do people with normal memories rely on to remind themselves who they are? NIKKA PENUS The “mirrors” of those people with normal memories are the people who are close to him like his families and friends. This is basically how these people around us see what kind of person we were before and we are right now. They are those people we share most of our time and they are the people we make our memories with.

15. The movie closes with Lenny saying, “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I’m no different.” Lenny’s “mirrors” were his memory devices. What sort of “mirrors” do people with normal memories rely on to remind themselves who they are? JEREMIAH SAN PEDRO Another “mirror” is our attitude. It shows how we deal with other people. It serves as a reminder on what we have learned as grow up. It also helps in molding our personality and makes us show other people how we grew as a person inspired with certain values that makes us unique from other people.

16. When Lenny jots down Teddy’s license number, he asks: “Do I lie to myself to be happy? In your case, Teddy... yes, I will.” What does that say about truth? DANIEL DE GUZMAN We always accept lies to be happy. Who doesn’t. From a lyric I remember “It’s okay not to be okay” So in a way... “Real eyes realize the real lies”. No one likes to be sad. Saying that “It is better if you don’t know.” Means that it will hurt you more if you found out. But that is how truth works. The truth really hurts.

17. When Lenny jots down Teddy’s license number, he asks: “Do I lie to myself to be happy? In your case, Teddy... yes, I will.” What does that say about truth? JEREMIAH SAN PEDRO We tend to accept lies in order to make ourselves comfortable with what life has to offer us. Sometimes, these illusions makes us more stronger by how we deal with life.

18. Discuss how Lenny’s actions follow closely either some of the 4 Noble Truths or all of them. NATHAN ARROYO To be able to relate Lenny’s actions and whatever reasons he had for doing them to Siddharta Gautama’s Four Noble Truths, we must first define these principles and its roots that are considered to be the pillars of the Buddhist religion. The first noble truth basically states that suffering is an essential part of life – we cannot escape it; to live is to die.

19. NATHAN ARROYO But there is a broader meaning to the “suffering” that is mentioned here – it also means discontent. In the movie, Lenny, the main character, suffers from short-term memory loss, which means he cannot generate new memories. This creates a difficult predicament for him, since he knows that he has this condition but he doesn’t know how he can continue living – how he can move on. Lenny becomes frustrated by this fact, and he sets out to find the answers to his existence by trying to make sense of the events that has taken place in his life ever since he acquired his condition.

20. NATHAN ARROYO He associates finding these answers to his liberation – he equates whatever knowledge or truth he acquires to the generation of his happiness. By this, he is acting parallel to the principles behind the first noble truth, because he has accepted that he is suffering from his ignorance, and by seeking the answers he thinks he need, he is attempting to understand the nature of his suffering. He has understood that he is dissatisfied, and by that he was able to understand that he needed to find out what would really make him happy.

21. NATHAN ARROYO If the first noble truth is accepting that suffering DOES exist and understanding its NATURE, the second noble truth requires one to acknowledge the ORIGIN of suffering, which is basically desire interlaced with ignorance, or the attachment to desire. Ignorance because if we don’t understand that suffering is inevitable, the way in which we desire things becomes quite unhealthy. I believe that Lenny has both succeeded and failed in grasping this truth, since he is unable to recall any of his past justifications on his thoughts and actions, his attitude towards what he wants varies from day to day, influenced by his and other’s experiences and emotions during that period of time.

22. NATHAN ARROYO There are instances in which he thinks rationally and therefore pursues the truth with a clear mind and comes closer to attaining happiness, but most of the time he is consumed by his own emotions towards the various events that takes place in his day that it reduces him into an animal that is just filled with manic desire, which hinders his progress in discovering the truth. Now that we have defined what the causes of our suffering really are, these should be erased from the mind to be able to understand that one can achieve the absence of suffering, or Nirvana – the attainment of which is the prevailing principle of the third noble truth.

23. NATHAN ARROYO Buddha believed that it is possible to attain Nirvana, and Lenny acknowledged this truth the moment he set out to find the answers to his life, because he knew that from these would come his liberation from his own doubts and suffering. Lenny lacks a lot of tools to understand the fourth noble truth, which presents that there is a set of moral guidelines one must mould his/her life in order to eradicate suffering from his /her life. He does not have an adequate perception of reality to be able to reference his life accordingly, because he does not pick up any new knowledge aside from what he knew before he acquired his condition.

24. NATHAN ARROYO He is therefore unable to learn from whatever mistakes he might have committed within the span of his forgetfulness that might help him establish a concrete set of rules to live by. So in conclusion, Lenny might have acted upon the four noble truths, but I don’t think he ever understood all of them long enough to achieve Nirvana.