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124 THE PATH OF LOVE
The Spiritual Potential of the Film World
For better or for worse, the world of motion pictures has grown
up extensively within the larger world of so-called realities. But
the film world is not foreign to the “real” world – the two are
affiliated so intimately that they can be seen, essentially, to be
made of the same fabric. For everyone is, in a sense, an actor and
the world has often been compared to the stage by poets and
philosophers. In point of fact, much of what goes for “action” in
modern life can be called little but “acting”; and so the larger
world has little ground to regard only the film world as being
imitative. In the film world, the actor has to think, feel and act
according to the pattern held before him; to mirror, though temporarily,
the personality of the character being portrayed by him.
This can be said to be equally true, to a considerable
extent, of those outside the world of motion-pictures; who struggle
to follow the conventional pattern of living as they imagine
it is expected of them, even if it cramps their inner individual
expression. This is so not only figuratively but literally. While
looking in the mirror, people often see themselves more through
the eyes of others than through their own. The reflected image
evokes in their minds the impression they will make on others
and the expectations which others have of them – and the best
that most can do is tot try to look the part they play. Thus the
mirror, literally and figuratively, has become such a seemingly
indispensable part of modern life that we might almost name
this age a mirror-civilization.
When the actor plays the part of a king he knows it to be
an illusion and has, in a sense, an advantage over the king in the