Newsletter XXIII - The Moral of Groundhog Day

Dearest Friends:

Happy Groundhog Day! I always enjoy this annual celebration, which is the precise halfway point between the Winter and the Spring Equinox, designating that Winter is now officially half over. We can almost feel the breath of spring. However, today also reminds me of the movie where Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocenetric and arrogant weather forecaster who, during a dreaded coverage of the annual Groundhog Day event, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. Stuck in what science fiction would call a "time loop", the movie focuses on correcting past mistakes or getting a character to recognize some key truth in order to escape from the loop.

From a Buddhist perspective, Connors is extremely negative, especially to other people, which creates a lot of negative causes. The effect of these causes is that people relate back to him from his own level of negativity, which causes him to have a miserable day. Thus, the next day, and on subsequent days, he experiences the same miserable day all over again. Desperate to escape this demise, he decides to commit suicide many times but the next morning, when he awakens, the date has not changed. He is in the same bed, in the same room, and with the same song playing on the radio, "I Got You Babe", by Sony and Cher. His attitude undergoes many changes and transformations until he finally spends most of his time trying to help people. As his inner attitude transforms to greater positivity, the days gradually get better until he is able to experience a new day.

The moral of the story, and its teaching, focuses on how we respond to our daily situations and life events. We can transform anything if we respond in a skillful way. Again, this is karma in action. If we greet situations with a positive attitude, we will eventually create a positive return. If we respond with a negative attitude, negative things will eventually come our way. Unlike the scenario in Groundhog Day, these changes do not always occur immediately. We can be wonderful people but still have difficulties. On the other hand, we can be acting terribly and have a wonderful day; however, it is just a matter of time before we receive the results of our conduct (the effect of the cause).

It is clear from this example that an individual is responsible for his own liberation. Not until Connor abandoned ego and began to live harmoniously among those around him did he escape the time loop that he alone had created for himself. I sometimes think of this loop as being stuck on the fast-paced freeway around Washington D.C. going around and around and around, forgetting to take the next exit. We all know the feeling....but the exit is always there, waiting for us to plant positive karmic seeds in order to create a new day that is always now.

Love-Light,

Carol

http://www.carolwilson.org/