"The Truth Seeker"

French Title: "Sudhana"

Genre: fantasy/ spiritual tale
Circa: Ancient Times (B.C.)
Main Location: India / Asia
Duration: 2h 00 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 10 millions USD

This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.

Project outline:

"The Truth Seeker" is adapted from a sacred text from the East, the "Ganda-vyuha" (tr. "Entry into the Realm of Reality"), the last chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra (tr. "Flower Ornament Sutra"), one of the most important canonical scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism (China, Tibet, Japan, Vietnam...). This profound text, full of marvelous descriptions, imagery and metaphors, had a great influence on Chinese philosophy but also on arts and literature. It relates the spiritual quest of Sudhana, a young pilgrim, who visits successively 53 spiritual masters from all classes of society, until he realizes the true nature of Reality...

Pitch/synopsis:

Ancient India, a long time ago. Sudhana is the young, kind-hearted son of a rich merchant. One day, he hears Manjushri, a holy being, teaching the crowd about the inexhaustible qualities and powers obtained by the Buddha after his enlightenment. Deeply moved by the speech of the sage, he develops immediately a strong faith and an intense aspiration for enlightenment, wishing to become himself a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. With great determination, he decides to go on pilgrimage around the world in search for enlightenment. In his quest, he meets successively 53 spiritual masters from all walks of life, human and non-human, each of them representing symbolically one of the 53 gradual steps that leads unmistakenly to perfect and complete enlightenment...

Author's comments:

"The Truth Seeker" recounts the spiritual quest of a sincere buddhist devotee who abandons all worldly ambitions to search for the Truth.

Actually, Sudhana' personal goal is not to attain enlightenment for himself alone but for all beings who are bound by suffering. Upon hearing Manjushri's discourse on the Buddha's qualities, Sudhana understands that suffering comes from ignorance of the real nature of reality. Because living beings cling to illusory objects, impermanent and non existent by their own side, they create themselves the causes of their own suffering. Only by gaining wisdom and realizing the ultimate Truth taught by the Buddha can living beings liberate themselves from suffering and attain permanent happiness.

Out of compassion for all beings living in a state of ignorance, Sudhana is determined to realize the ultimate Truth and obtain enlightenment as soon as possible in order to share his wisdom and accomplishments to others, thus helping them to stop their own suffering. For him, enlightenment is not the ultimate goal. What he greatly desires is to become enlightened to be able to enlighten others. This is his real motivation. His initial resolve comes from his heart.

In the original text, Buddha Maitreya himself praises Sudhana's true virtues:

Maitreya said to Sudhana: "It is good that you have set your mind on enlightenment for the welfare and happiness of all worlds, for the salvation of all beings, for the attainment of all enlightened qualities. You live a good life among living beings, and you are fulfilling the purpose for which the enlightened ones come forth in the world. You have met the benefactor Manjushri and you have made yourself a worthy vessel of truth. You have purified your high resolve and your good intent. By this intent of yours you have developed the determination for supreme perfect enlightenment. The determination for enlightenment is the seed of all the elements of buddhahood. It is like a road, leading to the city of all-knowledge. It is like a door leading into all the practices of bodhisattvas. It is like the root of life, sustaining the universal compassion of all enlightening beings. It is like a savior, not abandoning any who take refuge in it. It is like a motivating force, because it draws you toward your aim. It is like a treasury, preserving all enlightened qualities. It is like a monument for the world."
Extracted from the Avatamsaka Sutra, "Ganda-vyuha" ("Entry into the Realm of reality")

At the beginning of his quest, Sudhana first asks Manjushri how he should engage in the practice for gaining enlightenment. As an answer, Manjushri sends him to another spiritual master who gives him his first teaching. This master then sends him to another spiritual master for the second teaching, and so on... In the end, Sudhana meets in total 53 spiritual masters, all very different, who share his experience and knowledge with him. Some have the appearance of ordinary human beings, simple monks or laymen, others appear like extraordinary beings, endowed with supernatural powers. The underlying message is that the ultimate Truth Sudhana is looking for is not dependent on forms, shapes or outward aspects. One should learn how to recognize the Truth wherever it comes from, whatever forms it takes. Spirituality can be anywhere, Truth doesn't belong to any particular religion or institution. This is one important theme of the film. Sudhana's quest for wisdom is not restricted to the Path shown by the Buddha; Sudhana's quest is the enbodiment of an universal quest, the quest of all sincere Truth seekers who profoundly wish to actualize their own unlimited potential of wisdom, love and compassion.

"Sudhana represents the highest aspirations of all those who strive to attain knowledge and wisdom in this world. He serves as the reflecting image for revealing the pure Buddha nature that is inherent in all beings, which might otherwise remain hidden behind layers of self-doubt, defilement and delusion. (...) Sudhana reveals the potential for goodness that exists within each and every human being." (source: Borobudur.tv)

Another important aspect of the film is its mythological context and his cosmic, non-historical, non-realistic background, full of wonders and magic. Sudhana's quest bears all the attributes of popular myths and legends in Asia. Still today, the cosmic representation of the world and of the universe depicted in the story continues to influence Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese literature, poetry and iconography.

Borobudur, Indonesia. 460 relief panels tell the story of Sudhana.

More particularly, the story presents numerous marvelous cosmological descriptions of an universe without limits of space and time (sometimes called "Omniverse" by Chinese philosophers), constituted of interdependent elements in constant interpenetration. This is one of the essential ideas contained in the original scripture (the Avatamsaka Sutra): the inconceivable nature of Reality and the interpenetration and dependent arising of all phenomena, internal and external. The universe is a cosmic hologram in which each individual phenomenon is itself the reflection of all others phenomena. This interdependence and interrelation between all elements of the universe transcends all notion of unity and multiplicity. As we say: "All in One, One in All."

This holographic conception of the cosmos is illustrated by a key scene of the film when Sudhana, arriving at the end of his quest, enters a magnificent tower inside which he sees all the universe like in a mirror, spreading to the infinite but also entirely contained inside the magical tower.

"With a sense of great wonderment, Sudhana went into the tower. As soon as he had entered, the door closed behind him. Once inside, Sudhana saw that the tower was immensely vast and wide, as measureless as the sky, as vast as all of space. It was adorned with countless canopies, banners, pennants, arrays of jewels, garlands of pearls and gems, nets of gold and jewels, nets of bells and chimes, with flowers showering down and beautiful fragrances in the air.

Inside the great tower Sudhana saw hundreds of thousands of other towers similarly adorned. He saw those towers as infinitely vast as space, evenly arrayed in all directions, yet all distinct from each other and not interfering with each other. Each tower appears reflected in each and every object within all the other towers.

Seeing the inconceivable realm of the great tower, Sudhana was filled with joy. His mind was cleared of all concepts and freed of all obstructions. He was freed from all scattering of attention, and his intellect followed the unobstructed eye of liberation. His body tranquil, seeing all things without hindrance, he bowed in all directions with his whole body." extracted from the Avatamsaka Sutra, "Ganda-vyuha" ("Entry into the Realm of reality")

"Some modern physicists have also been attracted to the Avatamsaka Sutra’s unique vision of the fundamental nature of reality because the text's cosmological view finds its reflection in the interaction of particles at the sub-atomic level, according to the laws of quantum physics. The sutra’s exploration of parallel universes may also be relevant with regards to the multiple universe, or "multiverse," theory of quantum computing." (source: Borobudur.tv)

Thus covering scientific, philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual themes, the film proposes thinking materials of a rare density, exploring in the accessible and entertaining form of a fantasy tale profound and fascinating questions that relate to the Universal.

Borobudur, Indonesia. The largest Buddhist monument on earth, built as a cosmic mandala.

Borobudur is built as a single large stupa, and viewed from above takes the form of a giant mandala. The foundation is a square, 118 metres on each side. It has eight levels, of which the lower five are square and the upper three circular. This is said to be a map of the cosmos as conceptualized by the Buddhist philosophers of the time (Between 750 and 850 CE).

To get further information on "The Truth Seeker" film project, obtain the final script (in English or in French), take part in the production or join the cast, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

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