Can watching a movie be a form of meditation ?

[origin]

"Do nothing" meditation is all about letting go. But I’ve been wondering, what if we tried that with a movie ?

Films are literally engineered to grab our attention through stories, emotions, and suspense.

From my experience, it feels way harder to stay present watching a movie than sitting in silent meditation.

Does that extra struggle actually make it a more interesting way to meditate ?

Or are movies just too absorbing to ever be truly meditative ? Has anyone else experimented with this ?

What would be the perfect movie to try this with, something calming or something that challenges focus ?

What are your thoughts about this ?

[Salvijus]

Can I meditate while watching a movie? Yes. 

Can I watch a movie while meditating? No. 

[gettoefl]

Meditation is to cease misidentification. 

I am not a body; I am the absolute spawning a world inside a body and outside a body.

Meditation is,

I created all this for my greatest benefit and my job is to watch all my diverse parts engage and cherish and marvel at them.

Perfection at its finest, unfolding in all glory.

What a movie indeed!

[Hojo]

Try to watch a cartoon episode you have never seen before and repeat every single thing they say in your own mind for the episode.

[PurpleTree]

Only the Godfather 

Part 1 and 2

[Santiago Ram]

Yes, I am doing this today.

I will watch a movie without any sound and looking at people's eyes primarily.

How their eyes shape how they act, their emotions, their intentions and what they are probably going to do.

Attention, I think is the key.

[origin]

Take care and thank you guys for your comments

[Ulax]

@origin can do shinzen young see hear feel gone meditation technique on films 👌 (Can google “see hear feel guide shinzen young”, if interested)

[Aaron p]

I could be mistaken but I don't think so. Meditation is looking at the structural existence of one thing without buying into the content of thoughts passing by... A movie is designed to make you forget you're watching a movie, it's designed to make you forget about structure and get as lost as possible in the LEDs flashing in front of your eyes. Where is perhaps ways it could be beneficial... Like god sort of communicates to me through the movies I watch which is pretty powerful actually... But that would sort of be classified as contemplation not meditation

[Carl-Richard]

Don't ruin movies for yourself. Just watch the movie when you watch the movie. That is the most present you will ever be with the movie.

Edited April 6 by Carl-Richard

[WikiRando]

That depends on what is "watch" and what is "meditation."

But in general, no.

If you want to meditate, don't put on a movie, and if you want to put on a movie, don't call it meditation.

 Call it something else, like mindfulness or involvement, and that's if you're even doing that. 

Most likely, you're still just watching the movie. Lol

Edited April 6 by WikiRando

[origin]

Appreciate the extra comments, everyone ! Keep the ideas coming

[ExploringReality]

I would say no, because the movie is stimulating and moves your awareness to different parts of the mind without your control. Watching a movie can absorb your attention into a certain stillness and concentrate focus on a feeling or absorption in the sense perception of the movie but to substitute it for original meditation is a way the ego weasels it's way to avoid sitting down and Being  Present without getting sucked into content because the ego thrives on stories and thoughts.

Even if you mute the volume, your looking and automatically projecting language, meaning and interpretations onto the pixels on the screen without your noticing what's going on because surface level Consciousness isn't aware of how your entire experience is created and maintained.

Edited April 6 by ExploringReality