ISBN: 9781585425402
Date read: 17/07/2022
How strongly I recommend it: 7/10
Support your local bookshop by going to Bookshop.org to buy your copy (instead of THAT online shopping website…)
In this slim volume, auter filmmaker David Lynch gives us a peek behind his red curtain at his creative process and personal philosophy regarding Transcendental Meditation. I found the short, clear and to-the-point chapters enjoyable, if a bit hard to recommend to anyone other than diehard Lynch fans, but an interesting read nonetheless. Mostly consists of his thoughts on Transcendental Meditation and its application to the creative process, some personal history, and various anecdotes that can be found in video interviews over the years. Good to have on your nightstand if you’re in need of some inspiration.
Please also visit www.davidlynchfoundation.org for more information on the topics covered in this book.
My Notes
Ideas are like fish… if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper… (1)
Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level. Modern physics calls that level the Unified Field. The more your consciousness- your awareness- is expanded, the deeper you go towards the source, and the bigger fish you can catch. (1)
He whose happiness is within, whose contentment is within, whose light is all within, that yogi, being one with Brahman, attains eternal freedom in divine consciousness.- Bhagavad-Gita (3)
I sat down, closed my eyes…and it was as if I were in an elevator and the cable had been cut. Boom! I fell into bliss- pure bliss. And I was just in there. (4)
It takes you to an ocean o pure consciousness, pure knowingness. But it’s familiar; it’s you. And right away a sense of happiness emerges- not a goofball happiness, but a thick beauty. (4)
It would be easier to roll up the sky into a small cloth than it would be to obtain true happiness without knowing the Self.– Upanishads (7)
Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they’re like poison to the filmmaker or the artist. They’re like a vise grip on creativity. If you’re in that grip, you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas. (8)
Know that all of Nature is but a magic theatre, that the great Mother is the master magician, and that this whole world is peopled by her many parts.- Upanishads. (15)
It’s so magical- I don’t know why- to go into a theater and have the lights go down. It’s very quiet, and then the curtains start to open. Maybe they’re red. And you go into a world.
It’s beautiful when it’s a shared experience. It’s still beautiful when you’re at home and your theater is in front of you, though it’s not quite as good. It’s best on a big screen. That’s the way to go into a world. (15)
…cinema is its own language. And with it you can say so many things, because you’ve got time and sequences… You have so many tools. And so you can express a feeling and a thought that can’t be conveyed any other way. It’s a magical medium…It’s telling stories. It’s devising a world, an experience, that people cannot have unless they see that film. (17)
I like a story that holds abstractions, and that’s what cinema can do. (17)
A film should stand on its own. It’s absurd if a filmmaker needs to say what a film means in words… You don’t need anything outside of the work. There have been a lot of great books written, and the authors are long since dead, and you can’t dig them up. But you’ve got that book, and a book can make you dream and make you think about things. (19)
Cinema is a lot like music. It can be very abstract, but people have a yearning to make intellectual sense of it…and when they can’t do that it feels frustrating. But they can come up with an explanation from within, if they just allow it…And that would be valid. (20)
…every screening is different…you don’t know how it’s going to hit people. But if you thought about how it’s going to hit people, or if it’s going to hurt someone, or if it’s going to do this or do that, then you would have to stop making films. (21)
It would be great if the entire film came all at once. But it comes, for me, in fragments… In Blue Velvet, it was red lips, green lawns, and the song- Bobby Vinton’s version… The next thing was an ear lying in a field. And that was it. (23)
Through meditation one realizes the unbounded. That which is unbounded is happy. There is no happiness in the small. -Upanishads. (27)
Little fish swim on the surface, but the big ones swim down below. If you can expand the container you’re fishing in- your consciousness- you can catch bigger fish. (27)
If you have a golf-ball-sized consciousness, when you read a book, you’ll have a golf-ball-sized understanding…But if you can expand that consciousness, make it grow, then when you read that book, you’ll have more understanding…You can catch ideas at a deeper level. And creativity really flows. (28)
Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is. (33)
There’s an expression: “Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.” If you keep your eye on the doughnut and do your work, that’s all you can control. You can’t control any of what’s out there, outside yourself. But you can get inside and do the best you can do. (36)
Know That by knowing which everything is known– Upanishads (45)
Intuition is seeing the solution- seeing it, knowing it. It’s emotion and intellect going together. (45)
One unbounded ocean of consciousness became light, water, and matter. And the three became many. IN this way the whole universe was created as an unbounded ocean of consciouness ever unfolding within itself– Upanishads (47)
The ocean of pure consciousness that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi talks about is also known by modern science as the Unified Field…about thirty years ago, quantum physics discovered this field…Every single thing that is a thing emerges from this field. So modern science and ancient science are coming together. (47-48)
Scientifically, more and more is coming out to show that transcending is real and its benefits are real. By measuring EEG patterns in brain research, they can prove that someone is transcending; they can prove that the person is experiencing a fourth state of consciousness. (53)
The thing about meditation is: You become more and more you. (57)
It’s totally absurd for filmmakers not to be able to make films the way they want to make them. But in this business it’s very common…It’s a joke to think that a film is going to mean anything if somebody else fiddles with it. If they give you the right to make a film, they owe you the right to make it the way you think it should be…Otherwise, it won’t hold together. (59-60)
I love dream logic; I just like the way dreams go. But I have hardly ever gotten ideas from dreams. (63)
I met Angelo Badalamenti on Blue Velvet and since then he has composed music for all my films. He’s like my brother. The way we work is: I like to sit next to him on the piano bench. I talk and Angelo plays. He plays my words. (65)
Sometimes you hear a piece of music, and it marries to a scene in the script. When I’m shooting, I will often play that piece of music in the headphones while listening to the dialogue. (67)
Sound is so important to the feel of a film. To get the right presence for a room, the right feel from the outside, or the right-sounding dialogue is like playing a musical instrument. (67)
I don’t ever give actors cold readings…I like to just talk to with them and look at them while they talk. I start running them through the script in my head as they’re talking. Some of them go partway then stop. Then one of them will go all the way through, and I’ll know. (69)
I hear stories about directors who scream at actors, or they trick them somehow to get a performance. And there are some people who try to run the whole business on fear. But I think this is such a joke- it’s pathetic and stupid at the same time. When people are in fear, they don’t want to go to work. So many people today have that feeling…If I ran my set with fear, I would get 1 percent, not 100 percent, of what I get. And there would be no fun in going down the road together. And it should be fun. (73)
The form which embodies that which appeared in consciousness- that is to be held within consciousness. – Upanishads (83)
The idea is the whole thing. If you stay true to the idea, it tells you everything you need to know, really. (83)
It’s dangerous, I think, to say that a woman in a film represents all women, or a man in a film represents all men…it’s that particular character in this particular story going down that particular road. (89)
It’s good for the artist to understand conflict and stress…but you don’t have to live in it…The more the artist is suffering, the less creative he is going to be. It’s less likely that he is going to enjoy his work and less likely that he will be able to do really good work. (93)
He who sees everything as nothing but the Self, and the Self in everything he sees, such a seer withdraws from nothing. For the enlightened, all that exists is nothing but the Self, so how could any suffering or delusion continue for those who know this Oneness?- Upanishads (97)
Just as a mirror shines bright once it has been cleaned of dust, so those who have seen the Self shine in mind and body. They are always and forever filled with happiness. – Upanishads (99)
I was raised Presbyterian. I respect people who are religious, and I think they find something there that’s beautiful…Because these religions are old, though, and they’ve been fiddled with, possibly, I feel some of the original keys from the masters have been lost. (101)
We all want expanded consciousness and bliss. It’s a natural, human desire. And a lot of people look for it in drugs…far more profound experiences are available naturally…all those experiences are there for you, without the side effects of drugs. (103)
In the vicinity of Yoga- unity- hostile tendencies are eliminated.– Yoga Sutras (105)
What struck me about O.J. Simpson was that he was able to smile and laugh…with seemingly very few problems about the whole thing. I wondered how, if a person did these deeds, he could go on living. And we found this great psychology term- “psychogenic fugue”- describing an event where the mind tricks itself to escape some horror. So, in a way, Lost Highway is about that. And also the fact that nothing can stay hidden forever. (109)
Sometimes restrictions get the mind going…when you have limitations, sometimes you come up with very creative, inexpensive ideas. (111)
A sense of place is so critical in cinema…Every story has its own world, and its own feel, and its own mood. So you try to put together all these things- these little- details- to create that sense of place. It has a lot to do with lighting and sound. The sounds that come into a room can help paint a world there and make it so much fuller. (117)
When you see an ageing building or a rusted bridge, you are seeing nature and man working together. (119)
…you need what I call a “setup.” For example, you may need a working shop or a working painting studio. You may need a working music studio. Or a computer room where you can write something. It’s crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen. (125)
Often, in a scene, the room and the light together signify a mood. So even if the room isn’t perfect, you can work with the light and get it to feel correct…The light can make all the difference in a film, even in a character. I love seeing people come out of darkness. (129)
I am a huge admirer of Billy Wilder…Sunset Boulevard and The Apartment…And then there’s Fellini…La Strada and 8 1/2– but really all of them and, again, for the world and the characters and the mood…I love Hitchcock. Rear Window is a film that makes me crazy, in a good way. (133)
Stanley Kubrick is on of my all-time favourite filmmakers…(137)
We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe.- Upanishads (139)
I don’t do director’s commentary tracks on my DVD releases…with all the add-ons, the film just seems to have gotten lost. We’ve got to guard the film itself. It should stand alone. You work so hard to get a film a certain way; it shouldn’t be fiddled with. (147)
My advice is to use the opportunity DV brings to do what you truly believe in. Keep your own voice. Don’t do anything for the sole purpose of impressing any studio or some money people. That always seems to backfire, in my experience…now that costs have fallen, you can really go and do it on your own. (151)
Most of filmmaking is common sense. If you stay on your toes and think about how to do a thing, its right here. (157)
The Truth upholds the fragrant Earth and makes the living water wet. Truth makes fire burn and the air move, makes the sun shine and all life grow. A hidden truth supports everything. Find it and win.- Ramayana (159)
Stay true to yourself. Let your voice ring out, and don’t let anybody fiddle with it. Never turn down a good idea, but never take a bad idea. And meditate. (159)
It’s such a tricky business. You want to do your art, but you’ve got to live. So you’ve got to have a job…Try to get a job that gives you some time; get your sleep and a little bit of food; and work as much as you can. There’s so much enjoyment in doing what you love. Maybe this will open doors, and you’ll find a way to do what you love. I hope you do. (163)
Curving back upon My own Nature, I create again and again.- Bhagavad-Gita (167)
Softer that the flower where kindness is concerned, Stronger that the thunder where principles are at stake.- Vedic Definition of the Enlightened (169)
Avert the danger that has not yet come.– Yoga Sutras (175)
People are sp convinced we can’t have peace that it’s a joke now…Nobody believes in peace. It’s a nice idea. But that’s all it is… It’s meaningless. It’s never going to happen. And we live in this hellhole, and we think it’s got to be this way. But what if we’re wrong?…There is a field of unity within everyone. It’s always been there. It’s unbounded, infinite, and eternal. It’s that level of life that never had a beginning. It is, and it will be, forever. And it can be enlivened. In the world, the result of enlivening unity by a peace-creating group would be real peace on earth. (175-176)
David Lynch Select Filmography:
Eraserhead (1977)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Dune (1984)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Twin Peaks (1990–1991)
Wild at Heart (1990)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Lost Highway (1997)
The Straight Story (1999)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Inland Empire (2006)
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
Bibliography
Lynch, David, Catching The Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, (New York: Tarcher Penguin, 2006)