There are many movies that pretend to be spiritual but end up misguiding people. I wanted to make a collection here of movies that can lead to spiritual understanding to the prepared mind. These are also free and available on Youtube. Remember, these movies have spiritual importance and are not necessarily “good” “feel good” “inspirational” movies. There is a separate list for that which you can find here. Movies below are mostly slow, “boring”, where “nothing happens”. I have also included some mainstream Hollywood movies which will nudge you to question the reality. Are you awake or are you asleep but dreaming? Are you independent or are you a character in someone else’s dream? These thoughts will help you to start questioning your life, which is the first step in the quest of enlightenment. You watch these movies not with popcorn but with a prepared mind. Give your heart, mind, and soul to these movies when watching and let the movie slowly grow into you. Watch them multiple times.

1. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter..and Spring Again. This is a spiritual masterpiece by Kim Ku-duk, my all time favourite director. This is a Korean movie. In fact, any/all movies by Kim Ku-duk are helpful if you can understand the symbolism/metaphors inside. For example, in the movie The Bow, what does the bow represent? What does the young girl represent? In the movie Inkan, Gongkan, Sikan Grigo Inkan, the spaceship is planet earth. Our planet Earth is floating in the sky forever and ever. I could go on and on, but I don’t want to dilute your understanding. My respects to this fantastic director who unfortunately died pretty young due to Covid. So, there won’t be any more or new masterpieces from him.
2. Why has Bodhidharma left for the East? The director made an entire movie as his answer to this Koan. Beautiful. This movie is available for free on Youtube.
3. Da Mo Zu Shi: This movie is also available for free on YouTube.
4. Milarepa: I have read the book. Was surprised to find that they have made a movie about him. Part 1 is here.
5. Karma: In YouTube for free.
6. The Big Lebowski- I sometimes wonder if Buddha was born in modern times rather than 2500 years ago, would he be different than the Dude.
7. Free Guy/Serenity/The Truman show- are you and your life for real?
8. Joe versus the Volcano
9. Serenity