Liberate Thyself: The Heart of 127 Hours

Warning: Spoiler alert! If you’ve not seen 127 Hours yet, and are planning on it, go see the film and then come back and read this article. This article reveals key parts of the storyline.

In Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, climber Aron Ralston saws off his own arm in order to survive. I have never been stuck in a Moab desert crevice, but I have experienced trauma in which I’ve been trapped and terrified. Even if we haven’t been in a major life-threatening situation, we’ve all felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sometimes, the hardships of existence feel just like that canyon fissure, don’t they?

Facing the Self

Just below the surface, 127 Hours is about a young man coming out of extreme selfishness. Our hero realizes how narrow-minded he’s become: not needing anyone for anything, ever - and not giving of himself to anyone, either.

At the end of the film, Aron gushes, calling to his rescuers, “Help! I need help!” and we know he is talking about much more than medical attention: he is talking about the human condition, the need for interpersonal connection in order to get through this thing called Life. Aron’s existential bubble of destructive self-centeredness has popped; he can’t make it alone.

The guiding image that inspires Aron to make the final cut is that of his unborn child. This vision is revealed as his future son in a delirious premonition. We can also interpret this adorable boy to be the as-yet-unborn – unclaimed – part of Aron's self that wants to survive: this is raw Life Force appearing as his Inner Child. (I also like the symbolism of the son-flower on Aron’s t-shirt.)

On its deepest level, this film is about liberation. Aron goes for FREEDOM in its rawest sense.

In severing his arm, Aron doesn’t know if he’ll pass out from the agony, or if he’ll bleed to death. He has no choice but to take the risk, and face the horror of it all. IF we come to the point in our life where we are TRULY ready to be free, we have to face everything. We have to be willing to face the death of the “me.”

The Death of the "Me"

How do we ‘do’ this facing? Through the process of inquiry, called vichara, we allow it all. We go with the tiniest tad of willingness – sometimes kicking and screaming and frothing and flailing, but go we must!

We LOOK underneath the pain, the suffering, the agony, the horror. Through the inquiry process, we keep going, into and through the black hole of grief and loss to the point of Nothingness – the Nothingness that is everything, the fullness, the plenum.

In order to truly realize liberation, we must face the fear of our very own death on the deepest soul level. Absolutely, it can feel like we’re cutting off our own arm, or even decapitating ourselves. If we’ve suffered enough, banging our heads against the wall by seeking here, there, and everywhere for happiness, we may finally get to the point where we raise the white flag of surrender.

I call that moment Grace.

I’ve observed in great teachers and in my own direct experience that effective surrender has to be total. It has to be the only thing that matters in your whole life – more important than any desire, relationship, worldly acquisition, or outcome. And, like Aron Ralston found out: you have to be willing to face your own death.

The Ultimate Freedom

It’s not surprising that a key song in 127 Hours is called “Liberation Begins.” Liberation is a process, and a moment. In Aron Ralston’s case, it takes five days of crushing inquiry, but he eventually sees that it's built up over a lifetime. Everything has to happen exactly this way in order for him to wake up.

In this moment of realization Aron tells us: “Everything... just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all this. This rock... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. Its entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space… It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the outer surface.”

We don’t have to be stuck in a Utah canyon with nothing more than a cheap Made-In-China chisel to try and pry ourselves loose. We’re already stuck in the crevice, the crevice of our own limited mind, right here and now. We’re already in the perfect position to face everything, because it’s all before us and in us. We don’t have to go anywhere – not India, not church, not even out of the house.

In fact, it’s often more useful to not move at all. Just stop. Face everything. Face the blood, the gore, the severing of the nerve. Have the nerve to go there.

It doesn’t have to be all at once (though it might happen that way); you can start to inquire anytime - little by little, day after day - as it arises. Die to your concepts, beliefs, and constructs that give you the illusion of safety. Be willing to die to that which gives you a false sense of identity, a “me.” Find out what is unchanging – that which never dies.

This is ultimate freedom, and nothing can ever take it away.

You have enclosed yourself in time and space, squeezed yourself into the span of a lifetime and the volume of a body and thus created the innumerable conflicts of life and death, pleasure and pain, hope and fear. You cannot be rid of problems without abandoning illusions. Fight with all the strength at your disposal against the idea that you are nameable and describable.

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That