Hi everyone, for this week’s movie post, I’ll be writing about one of the most popular movies that came out at the end of last year, Frozen! Yup the movie with the really meaningful but (in my opinion) overrated hit, “Let It Go”.
If you haven’t watched the movie, here’s a short synopsis. WARNING: Spoilers ahead:
In the Kingdom of Arendelle, Princess Elsa has the power of freezing and creating ice and snow, and her younger sister Anna loves to play with her. When Elsa accidentally hits Anna on the head with her gift and almost kills her, their parents bring them to trolls that save Anna’s life and make her forget the ability of her sister. Elsa returns to the castle and maintain herself recluse in her room with fear of hurting Anna with her increasing power. Their parents die when their ship sinks in the ocean and three years later, the coronation of Elsa forces her to open the gates of her castle to celebrate with the people. Anna meets Prince Hans in the party and she immediately falls in love with him and decides to marry him. But Elsa does not accept the marriage and loses control of her powers freezing Arendelle. Elsa flees to the mountain and Anna teams up with the peasant Kristoff and his reindeer Sven and with the snowman Olaf to seek out Elsa. They find Elsa in her icy castle and she accidentally hits Anna in the heart; now only true love can save her sister from death.
(Taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/plotsummary)
From the film, we can see that Elsa’s fear of unleashing her powers caused a lot of problems; she suppressed herself, grew distant from her sister, and eventually her powers were unintentionally released and caused the eternal winter. We can draw a parallel from this to real life. At times, we may be bent on suppressing and bottling up things within ourselves such as feelings and secrets; as we are afraid of what will happen if we unleash them. When she sang “Let It Go”, she finally felt free to unleash her powers. The point I want to raise here is that suppression is not the way to go; it eats us up inside and when we are able to let ourselves be we feel so released.
The movie also drives home the point that love is the way to heal. It turned out that Prince Hans did not love Anna; he was using her to take over Arendelle. He was about to kill Elsa (who escaped from the castle after he captured her) when Anna instinctively blocked the fatal blow as she froze. This turned out to be the act of true love that unfroze her. Subsequently, Elsa realised that the way to control her powers was through love and she was able to unfreeze Arendelle and use her powers to her advantage. In fact, this shows that her powers were not a bad thing in the first place; they were harmful at first because she perceived them to be. Similarly, many things that we may try to hide, such as a medical condition, may actually be neutral things; they are just a part of us. How we perceive them makes them what they are; we perceive them to be bad which causes us problems.
(Taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/plotsummary)
From the film, we can see that Elsa’s fear of unleashing her powers caused a lot of problems; she suppressed herself, grew distant from her sister, and eventually her powers were unintentionally released and caused the eternal winter. We can draw a parallel from this to real life. At times, we may be bent on suppressing and bottling up things within ourselves such as feelings and secrets; as we are afraid of what will happen if we unleash them. When she sang “Let It Go”, she finally felt free to unleash her powers. The point I want to raise here is that suppression is not the way to go; it eats us up inside and when we are able to let ourselves be we feel so released.
The movie also drives home the point that love is the way to heal. It turned out that Prince Hans did not love Anna; he was using her to take over Arendelle. He was about to kill Elsa (who escaped from the castle after he captured her) when Anna instinctively blocked the fatal blow as she froze. This turned out to be the act of true love that unfroze her. Subsequently, Elsa realised that the way to control her powers was through love and she was able to unfreeze Arendelle and use her powers to her advantage. In fact, this shows that her powers were not a bad thing in the first place; they were harmful at first because she perceived them to be. Similarly, many things that we may try to hide, such as a medical condition, may actually be neutral things; they are just a part of us. How we perceive them makes them what they are; we perceive them to be bad which causes us problems.
The movie is a reminder of how love and acceptance heals, and things may really not be as bad we make them out to be. Having said that, it can be very difficult to let go and accept things as we may strongly feel the need to suppress or hide some things. If we are able to, talking to a confidante may help give us another perspective on how not to take things so hard. How we can help ourselves is by cultivating metta, or loving kindness towards ourselves. On letting go, Venerable Hassapana shared this during her retreat, which is allowing things to be. It’s about recognising whatever situation you’re in; if you’re suppressing yourself, unable to let go. If you’re not feeling content with this state, acknowledge that too; accept whatever situation you’re in. By accepting things the way they are and not trying to control them, congratulations, you’ve started letting go! Doing metta meditation helps us develop a feeling of kindness; of love in our hearts. There are many ways to do this, and each person has their own preference.
This method was shared by Bhante Jag. Visualise a person whom you love; one who embraces you as you are like a friend or family member, or simply think of a happy memory such as a time you felt really peaceful. Visualise a light coming from that person or memory and entering your body eg through your heart. Then visualise the light filling your lungs etc; spreading through the rest of your body. If you’re able to fill your body with it, you can then radiate it out to beings around you, family and friends… and to all beings that exist.
Some insights Sister Bee Li shared with me are that we immediately have the urge to avoid the feelings. By watching where they manifest (e.g chest) and how they manifest (e.g. heaviness or tightness), the feelings becomes less mysterious and scary to us. We then know exactly what we are facing.
When you know the what, where and how, the next step is to accept that these feelings have arisen, the come at their own accord and will cease at their own accord. Resisting them will just generate further tension and aversion for the situation. Accepting on the other hand, will provide you with more emotional room to deal with the existing feelings that have arisen.
When you have acknowledged and accepted them, you could move on to watching them. This will need courage and patience, but can be gradually developed. Deal with what you can handle first and slowly move forward. When we are able to stay with feelings, we slowly learn their true nature. (How they rise, persist and fall, their origin and escape.) When we see for ourselves that they are impermanent, we get less overwhelmed by them.
Metta instructions
1. For each person you radiate to, find the sincerity in the following phrase
‘May I/ you be free from suffering, free from sickness, free from fear, free from anger and hatred, free from worry. May I/ you be calm, peaceful and happy.
2. Start by radiating to the self, then to the beings around, then beings in the north, north east, east, south east, south, south west, west, north west, above, below. Then:
i. Those that are close and dear to you
ii. Neutral
iii. Angry with you
Iv. You are angry with, dislike, hate etc.
Take things step by step, do what you can currently manage. I currently have difficulty developing metta towards myself let alone radiate it out, so don’t be disheartened! Good feelings may not come all the time, but every bit of effort goes a long way! Hope this is helpful and will post again soon!
Some insights Sister Bee Li shared with me are that we immediately have the urge to avoid the feelings. By watching where they manifest (e.g chest) and how they manifest (e.g. heaviness or tightness), the feelings becomes less mysterious and scary to us. We then know exactly what we are facing.
When you know the what, where and how, the next step is to accept that these feelings have arisen, the come at their own accord and will cease at their own accord. Resisting them will just generate further tension and aversion for the situation. Accepting on the other hand, will provide you with more emotional room to deal with the existing feelings that have arisen.
When you have acknowledged and accepted them, you could move on to watching them. This will need courage and patience, but can be gradually developed. Deal with what you can handle first and slowly move forward. When we are able to stay with feelings, we slowly learn their true nature. (How they rise, persist and fall, their origin and escape.) When we see for ourselves that they are impermanent, we get less overwhelmed by them.
Metta instructions
1. For each person you radiate to, find the sincerity in the following phrase
‘May I/ you be free from suffering, free from sickness, free from fear, free from anger and hatred, free from worry. May I/ you be calm, peaceful and happy.
2. Start by radiating to the self, then to the beings around, then beings in the north, north east, east, south east, south, south west, west, north west, above, below. Then:
i. Those that are close and dear to you
ii. Neutral
iii. Angry with you
Iv. You are angry with, dislike, hate etc.
Take things step by step, do what you can currently manage. I currently have difficulty developing metta towards myself let alone radiate it out, so don’t be disheartened! Good feelings may not come all the time, but every bit of effort goes a long way! Hope this is helpful and will post again soon!
– Pei Si
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