Part 2: Cloud Atlas and Karmic Bondage

Cloud Atlas Movie Poster

Cloud Atlas Movie Poster

The movie Cloud Atlas (2012) is very much about reincarnation, karma, and the connections between immortal souls. These pantheistic underpinnings make it an interesting movie to dissect. All six of the storylines in the movie deal with freedom in some way— to free slaves, compose music, expose a scandal, write a novel, start a revolution, or leave this world. But for all of its talk of freedom, there is still an underlying message of bondage—karmic bondage.

In pantheism all is God; no part of God is considered distinct from the universe. There are many divergences within pantheism, but the central idea is that there is some level of unity in reality. Most pantheists are also monists—believing that all reality is made up of one substance. This means they perceive reality as One (monistic) Divine (pantheistic) Reality.

Well, it follows that if to realize your oneness with the One Divine Reality is to pass beyond distinction, beyond personality and beyond knowledge, then it is also to pass beyond good and evil. This is probably the hardest point to not only grasp but to live by, because it’s hard for people to deny morality. And it’s one of the weakest points of the philosophy.

Like personality’s self-consciousness and self-determinacy and knowledge’s true and false, morality’s good and evil disappear in the undifferentiated Oneness. Thus, everything is good, which is another way of saying that nothing is good or everything is evil. We could go in circles here all day.

But even Easterners act morally– believing some actions are good and others are bad. The belief in karma fulfills the need for morality. The concept of karma is held by almost all Eastern worldviews, including pantheistic monism. Karma literally means “action.” Though it has more to do with the consequences of actions. It is the belief that your current fate, pleasures, and pains are the result of past actions, especially in a former existence. It’s the eastern version of “you reap what you sow.” If you’ve sown “sin” or bad deeds, then on your way back to unification with the One, you will take on whatever illusory form your past actions require– be it a king, a slave, or a bug in the hierarchy of appearances. As Sonmi 451 says in the movie, “The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time.”

In the movie Cloud Atlas, as well as in the novel, souls become more good or more evil through their actions and thus in better or worse circumstances in each subsequent life. Actions have ripple effects through time. Souls evolve or devolve on a journey through many bodies. This follows the law of karma, which is at the heart of the idea of reincarnation. For example, in the early story timelines Tom Hanks’ characters are less than good, as when Tom Hanks’ character, Dr. Goose, in 1849 tries to poison Mr. Ewing played by Jim Sturgess so he can take his money. Hanks’ is no less nice when he plays a thug novelist in 2012 who throws a critic off the roof at a party. Yet in the last time period Tom Hanks’ character, a goat herder, in 2321 saves a child from a cannibal, even though it is a struggle for him as he is beset by what I can only assume was a demon only he could see and hear. He also finds love in Halle Berry’s character in this storyline. The message is clear: a soul can change by his or her actions for better or worse as he or she moves through different life cycles. As the repeated phrase first said by fabricant Sonmi 451 played by Doona Bae says: “Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb we are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness we birth our future.”Cloud Atlas

While Hanks’ character’s goodness is not revealed till the very end, the goodness of some is quickly seen, as in the story arc of Jim Sturgess’ characters. He starts out as an attorney, Mr. Ewing, visiting a plantation owner in 1849 who ends up befriending a runaway slave and becoming an abolitionist. In 2144, Jim Sturgess plays Hae-Joo Chang who is part of a revolution to free fabricants. He also finds love in the form of Sonmi 451 in this storyline.

Other souls devolve into really bad people, like Hugh Grant’s character who goes from being a slave plantation owner, to a president of a nuclear power plant, to a manager of a restaurant manned by fabricant servers, to finally a leader of a cannibalistic tribe. And some souls never change their spots like Hugo Weaving’s character who goes from being a slave trader to a Nazi to an assassin to a Devil-like figment of Tom Hanks’ imagination in 2321. He devolves so far until he is only an evil impression someone else has.

This thinking seems like it’s describing a moral universe where people should do good. And if they don’t do good, they reap the results in this life or the next. But in this thinking the basis for doing good is not because it is The Good, because God commands it to be done, or so you help others. Karma requires that every soul suffer for its past “sins,” so there is no point or no value in ending other people’s suffering. The soul helped now will only have to suffer later. So what’s the basis for doing good? You do good so that you can become one with the One. Good deeds lead to good karma which leads to current happiness and a desirable future life and eventually to absorption into the One. As James Sire says “Doing good is first and foremost a self-helping way of life.”

Secondly, how do they know what the good is? If there really are no distinctions within reality, who’s to say what is good and what is evil? If taken to its logical conclusions, there really can be no karma in this reality—good or bad—because there is no standard of measurement, no distinctive categories to judge deeds by to produce such a thing as karma.

So if pantheistic practitioners do good because it is the right thing to do, then it is believed that they are naive and inconsistent followers of the faith. And what’s more, these people may seem to be doing what is right, but the actions may be done for wholly selfish reasons, as seen above, because who wants to return as a bug? But there we go again, putting on our western hats! Because in reality, if we have a non-moral system that is beyond good and evil, selfishness isn’t immoral, because that category doesn’t exist.

Read Part 1: Cloud Atlas and the Oneness of it All

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    While most movie reviews speak of the acting, the directing, the cinematography, or sets and costumes, my reviews focus on the message of a movie. And this message is what was communicated to me, rather than necessarily what the writer, director and producer of the movie intended to be communicated to me. These reviews of a movie’s content also contain spoilers, so be forewarned.
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