Kubovy M, 2007, "What might have been is an abstraction, a perpetual possibility, in a world of speculation: We are not aware of what we did not see in an ambiguous figure" Perception 36 ECVP Abstract Supplement
What might have been is an abstraction, a perpetual possibility, in a world of speculation: We are not aware of what we did not see in an ambiguous figure
M Kubovy
Considerable evidence supports the idea that perceptual organization happens late. This paper undermines this view and provides evidence that perceptual organization happens at an early stage of information processing. There has been reports on six experiments in which a second-choice paradigm borrowed from early studies of signal detection was used (and provided strong evidence against high-threshold theories of detection) and apply it to the forced-choice phenomenological psychophysics of perceptual organization.
These experiments show that when observers report one organization of an ambiguous pattern (a 300 ms masked dot lattice), they have no information about what they did not see, even when they know that they will be asked to provide information about organizations that are not the most probable. The experiments also reveal that in the face of this dearth of information about what they did not see, observers use a strategy to confabulate: they choose the answer most different from the one that corresponds to what they saw.
[Supported by USPH grant from the National Eye Institute and the National Institute of Deafness and Communicative Disorders.]
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Words with Gods is an exploration of the relationship between different cultures and religion. Aboriginal Spirituality, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity, Umbanda, Hinduism, as well as Atheism find their expression in this two-hour film.
Based on a concept by Guillermo Arriaga and arranged in the present order by Mario Vargas Llosa the film's nine episodes present different perspectives on this distinctly human phenomenon.
IMDB
http://www.wordswithgods.com/
Words with Gods is directed by Guillermo Arriaga, Héctor Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi, Amos Gitai, Emir Kusturica, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Warwick Thornton and Álex de la Iglesia. The soundtrack was written and performed by Peter Gabriel, with animations by Maribel Martinez.
Words with Gods is the first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series.
Warwick Thornton
True Gods
"When I started to look for a reason for being on the project Words with Gods I peeled back the folk tales, urban myths and legends. Deep into my dreams I looked for the great and worthy, the one who was first, the CREATOR. But there in the dark alone I found my mother, my sister, and my grand mother. This enlightenment filled me with joy. For I realized that I was surrounded by GODS, who every day created miracles. The miracle of birth. Someone who can gift life is a GOD to me."
- Warwick Thornton
Héctor Babenco
The Man Who Stole a Duck
An ordinary man has for years suffered infinite sadness caused by having beaten, then lost his wife. Possessed by this sense of loss he had let his son, only a few months old, cry until he died. The man carries this pain as he wanders along the streets like a madman whose speech is at times bawling and at times murmuring. One day destiny leads him to the side of a lake where he seduces, or is seduced by the singing of, a white duck which responds to what he is saying to it. On the back seat of a public bus he carries the duck, which he is taking to his son. That night, while on his way back from the cemetery a man dressed in white stops his car. A child, also dressed in white, stares fixedly at him from inside the car. Our beggar follows the father and child, who continues to stare at him, to a locale where a cult meeting is taking place. A catharsis will occur and dialogue with God will transform him.
- Héctor Babenco
Mira Nair
God Room
In most devout Hindu family homes in India, there is a room set aside for God and prayer. Our film, God Room, is set in today's Mumbai, about a wealthy extended family moving into an expensive penthouse apartment overlooking slums and the sea. The symbol of a multigenerational family living together in harmony is gradually broken by an escalating argument amongst the family members about where the God Room should be. As the family reveal layers of their hypocrisy and prejudice, only the 8-year-old child in the family sees that God is everywhere...that God is in the eye of the beholder. The home for God is within us, not without.
- Mira Nair
Hideo Nakata
Sufferings
As an episode in Words with Gods, I wrote and directed Sufferings in 2012. It is based on a true story, about a fisherman who lost his entire family, including his little kids. People who live in the Thohoku district where Tsunami hit are still struggling for living. But I believe in their strength to keep going with acceptance of reality and some kind of hope and joy, which they find in everyday life. I hope Sufferings can comfort them a bit. I would love them to watch Words with Gods in the near future.
- Hideo Nakata
Amos Gitai
The Book of Amos
But in the end the heart of Amos is softened and he says:
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards,
and drink the wine thereof,
they shall also make gardens,
and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall no more be pulled up out.
Amos, 9, 14-16
At this point we are moving to the contemporary city of Haifa, a city of tolerance and coexistence.
The film will include references to the Book of Amos, from the Old Testament. Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, in the days of Osaiah, king of Juda, and Jeroboam, king of Israel.
Amos presents to us a vision of divinity with a strong social dimension. Amos is preaching for social justice, using metaphors from his experience as a peasant and as a shepherd.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?
Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?
Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Amos, 1, 1-7
The film will be shot as a series of short monologues including some of the main cast of Amos Gitai films (actors who participated in Kadosh, Kippur and Kedma) and they will all incarnate fragments of the prophecies of Amos.
- Amos Gitai
Álex de la Iglesia
The Confession
When it was suggested that I make a Words With Gods episode, a ten-minute cinematographic piece was outlined, in which the dialogue with God should be established from a preeminent Catholic language; or in other words, to create a moral painting in which a Catholic is reflected without being considered a simple caricature.
The essential religious ideas are in my view, defined in the conception of sin as something inherent to the essence of human beings, and in forgiveness through sincere repentance. The most evil man, if he repents will be closer to God that the most virtuous man.
There is no other religion more generous. Kindness is discovered in forgiveness. Evil in the sovereignty of the man of action. Virtue of the ones who don’t do doesn’t matter. We are attracted to the one who makes a mistake and repents - the one who reconstructs his personality tower with the bricks of its errors - the one who rises above others, after falling under the weight of his knees.
This is the ground for The Confession: To narrate how the protagonist falls into destiny’s hands and before dying, an old man gives him the chance to deny his life, and accept he is just a mistaken man, like others.
- Álex de la Iglesia
Emir Kusturica
Our Life
This film is about humanity, which has a God and it is the best idea that they have found. It is more than just speaking about Orthodox Christianity; it’s about making an image of a man who is always sacrificing himself for his own good and for his well mental being.
- Emir Kusturica
Bahman Ghobadi
Sometimes Look Up
I live in an area in which each day I witness and hear of fratricide, due to differing religious ideologies. After years of staying in this region, I realized the acts carried out are not spiritual and heavenly, but the issue is religion manipulated by man. The religions are manipulated by man, to use against another man; all the while along we humans have forgotten the real story and the beauty of truth. Whether I believe in God or not, I believe in this.
- Bahman Ghobadi
Guillermo Arriaga
God's Blood
I think that religion, any religion, has to bring out the best of each human being. History has shown us that when a religion is imposed, when any God becomes an excuse for intolerance and persecution and murder, then religion has lost its essence. True religion is an invitation to be better, to feel the company of a superior being who will watch and care for us.
I'm an atheist and I have been attacked several times because of it. Believers don't accept someone who doesn’t believe. Many think that because we are atheist we lack values; or since we don`t have a giant vigilant eye over us, we are out of control and we don't behave ourselves. Nothing is more far from the truth.
I think than an atheist becomes a humanist. Since we don't believe in something else, humans become the core of our life. We don't look up, we don`t look down. We look straight into the eyes of the other human beings. That is important for me, acknowledging that every atheist - in the depth of his heart - is a humanist.
- Guillermo Arriaga
shiku hakku (四苦八苦), which means “Four Sufferings, Eight Sufferings”. This originates from the Buddhist notion of the Sufferings:
Meaning of Shiku:
Birth
Old Age
Sickness
Death
Meaning of Hakku: (in addition to the four above)
Not getting what you want.
Encountering something you don’t like.
Being separated from someone you like.
Being around people you don’t like.
Shiku hakku
The world in which we live is full of various kinds of suffering. Illness and old age bring about physical suffering. There are people who suffer psychological and spiritual anguish. Human relationships at home or in the work place can be stressful. And some may be fearful of the moment of death that we all will experience at the conclusion of our lives. Most of these forms of suffering cannot be resolved solely by advances in civilization or human effort.
In Buddhism, realities such as these, which our power alone cannot control and which no one can avoid, are referred to as the four and eight kinds of suffering (shiku hakku). Even those who currently feel that they have no particular hardships in their lives eventually will experience these four sufferings and eight sufferings. In fact, it is often the case that these forms of suffering appear together with the effects of the negative causes that we ourselves have amassed from our past lifetimes. As a result, sufferings can intensify and cause us to fall to rock bottom.
In the “Letter From Sado” (“Sado-gosho”), Nichiren Daishonin states:
Indeed, I must eradicate in this lifetime the grave karmic sins from the past, so that I can eliminate the three evil paths in my future existences. (Gosho, p. 580)
Regardless of how heavy the karmic sins from our past lifetimes may be, the benefit of upholding faith in the teachings of the mystic Law (Myoho) revealed by Nichiren Daishonin is tremendously powerful. He teaches us that the effects of slander from past lifetimes will be entirely eliminated, and we can liberate ourselves from a life of suffering.
The four sufferings (shiku) are birth, aging, sickness, and death. The eight sufferings (hakku) are these four sufferings and the four additional sufferings of having to part from those whom we love; having to meet that those we hate; being unable to obtain what we desire; and the suffering arising from the five components, which constitute our body and mind.
Of the four sufferings, birth represents the agony of being born. It denotes the suffering of being born to into the cycle of transmigrating the six paths of hell, hunger, animality, anger, humanity, and rapture.
Aging refers to the suffering of being born human and having to gradually grow old. In modern society, we encounter various problems concerning the elderly. Each one of us will experience the suffering of growing old.
Sickness indicates the suffering caused by illnesses. When we are sick, we are affected both physically and mentally. There are some people who manifest extreme behavior when they are sick. The suffering of illnesses will assail all of us.
Death refers to the suffering of facing our demise. As long as we are born into this world, we eventually must encounter death. In general, we all possess the fear of dying.
Next, the suffering of having to part from those whom we love describes the anguish of having to separate from the people we love, such as our spouses, parents, siblings, and friends.
The suffering of having to meet those we hate is to be forced to encounter those we resent or dislike. Regardless of the reason, being forced to meet with someone we hate is stressful.
The suffering of being unable to obtain what we desire refers to the inability to gain satisfaction by getting what we want in our life. We all strive to obtain various things. However, we are tormented when we are unable to fulfill our wishes.
The final form of suffering is that arising from the five components, which constitute our bodies and minds. The five components consist of form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness. This type of suffering represents intense physical and mental anguish.
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Varanasi in the Game Refuge at Isipatana. There he addressed the group of five monks:
"There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.
"And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.
"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.
"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.
"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.
"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of stress.' Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This noble truth of stress is to be comprehended.' Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before:' This noble truth of stress has been comprehended.'
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the origination of stress'... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress is to be abandoned' [2] ... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress has been abandoned.'
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress is to be directly experienced'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress has been directly experienced.'
"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress is to be developed'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress has been developed.' [3]
"And, monks, as long as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. But as soon as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. Knowledge & vision arose in me: 'Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the group of five monks delighted at his words. And while this explanation was being given, there arose to Ven. Kondañña the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.
And when the Blessed One had set the Wheel of Dhamma in motion, the earth devas cried out: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahman or contemplative, deva, Mara or God or anyone in the cosmos." On hearing the earth devas' cry, the devas of the Four Kings' Heaven took up the cry... the devas of the Thirty-three... the Yama devas... the Tusita devas... the Nimmanarati devas... the Paranimmita-vasavatti devas... the devas of Brahma's retinue took up the cry: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahman or contemplative, deva, Mara, or God or anyone at all in the cosmos."
So in that moment, that instant, the cry shot right up to the Brahma worlds. And this ten-thousand fold cosmos shivered & quivered & quaked, while a great, measureless radiance appeared in the cosmos, surpassing the effulgence of the devas.
Then the Blessed One exclaimed: "So you really know, Kondañña? So you really know?" And that is how Ven. Kondañña acquired the name Añña-Kondañña — Kondañña who knows.
Notes
1.
The Pali phrases for the four noble truths are grammatical anomalies. From these anomalies, some scholars have argued that the expression "noble truth" is a later addition to the texts. Others have argued even further that the content of the four truths is also a later addition. Both of these arguments are based on the unproven assumption that the language the Buddha spoke was grammatically regular, and that any irregularities were later corruptions of the language. This assumption forgets that the languages of the Buddha's time were oral dialects, and that the nature of such dialects is to contain many grammatical irregularities. Languages tend to become regular only when being used to govern a large nation state or to produce a large body of literature: events that happened in India only after the Buddha's time. (A European example: Italian was a group of irregular oral dialects until Dante fashioned it into a regular language for the sake of his poetry.) Thus the irregularity of the Pali here is no proof either for the earliness or lateness of this particular teaching.
2.
Another argument for the lateness of the expression "noble truth" is that a truth — meaning an accurate statement about a body of facts — is not something that should be abandoned. In this case, only the craving is to be abandoned, not the truth about craving. However, in Vedic Sanskrit — as in modern English — a "truth" can mean both a fact and an accurate statement about a fact. Thus in this case, the "truth" is the fact, not the statement about the fact, and the argument for the lateness of the expression does not hold.
3.
The discussion in the four paragraphs beginning with the phrase, "Vision arose...," takes two sets of variables — the four noble truths and the three levels of knowledge appropriate to each — and lists their twelve permutations. In ancient Indian philosophical and legal traditions, this sort of discussion is called a wheel. Thus, this passage is the Wheel of Dhamma from which the discourse takes its name.
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