SYNOPSIS

Disheartened and dissatisfied with life and existence, a monk retreats into the forest in order to live according to Buddhist teachings and reach self-liberation through his efforts in meditation. Deep in his meditation, as he begins to understand the relationship between his past, himself, and the world, he starts to observe the nature of “Asmimānaya”, the concept of ‘me, mine, I am’. Along with this process, he gains a fresh perspective into other concepts such as the self and the external world which are bound up together in his view of reality. As he no longer views the existence of the self or the world as he once did, and thus recognises the nature of illusion in reality, as he sees it as being created from moment to moment based on the relationship between causes and effect. The monk’s exploration of the nature of the self is conceptually illustrated by three characters on a secluded island. In the forest, the monk meets with an unexpected accident that wounds his physical body. As his physical body faces death, in the last few minutes available to him, the monk strives to reach the end of suffering, the end of rebirth, known as nirvana. He realises that the world and the reality relative to that world arise due to the concept of the self, which arises when causes are present and ceases when these causes are absent and operate in various forms in different places. His various forms are embodied as characters that we meet on the island as well as in the forest. These characters express the monk’s conflict with his thoughts as well as the struggle he undergoes as he attempts to extinguish  Asmimānaya and reach his goal of nirvana. Finally, we see that the non-material, or spiritual body of the Beast and the Mara (Duma) become one with the forest as the state of self and individual personality declines. The physical body of the monk who is wounded and dies beneath a tree, is left in the forest. It decays and eventually disintegrates. His consciousness which progresses from the Fish to the Dancer and to the final moment of his body’s death is ultimately annihilated through his meditation as he achieves his goal of nirvana.