Great Dharma movie!

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2013)

If you are a student of the dharma, and have come across the sometimes mystifying analogy of a magician, the audience and the latecomer.
It is used to describe what reality is experienced like from the perspective of: a) an Arya (someone who has seen emptiness directly, met the divine) b)a "normal" person who has not and c) someone in the direct perception.
This movie displays this analogy in a fun and profound way.
There is also this beautiful element of surrender and faith to the Teacher (the lovely Maitrei) as analogous to the higher "secret" teachings.
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FROM ACIDHARMA.ORG
Course II, Class Seven, Answer Key, cont.19
3) Explain the three different perceptions of the three different people in the metaphor of the magic show. Who are the three types of real people that these three represent?
A magician in ancient India throws a small stick on the ground, utters a magic incantation, and sprinkles some special powder in the area. This makes people who have been standing there see the stick as a horse or cow. Other people join the crowd later; they don't see the animal, because they weren't there when the spell was cast.
The spectators see a horse and believe that there is one there. The magician sees a horse as well, since the spell affects him too, but he knows it's not real, and doesn't believe in it. The latecomers neither see a horse nor believe that one is there.
The spectators are like a person who has not yet seen emptiness directly, since they see things as self-existent and also believe that they are.
The magician is like a bodhisattva who has seen emptiness directly but who is not now in the direct perception of emptiness: things still appear to them to be self-existent, but they don't believe what they see.
The latecomers are like someone who is not a Buddha but who is in the direct perception of emptiness: things neither appear as self-existent to them, nor are they believing them at that time to be self-existent.