Freedom Betrayed

This is an invitation to shift your allegiance from the activities of your mind to the eternal presence of your being."The desire for true freedom, the desire for real fulfillment, paradoxically can finally only be realized if you don’t do anything for its realization."If you are willing to experience the pain of your own self-betrayal, that pain is a divine fire that reveals the power of the choice to suffer. The willingness to be pierced by this arrow is the willingness to be free. It is simply a matter of telling the truth.

In Philip Kaufman's surprisingly successful film adaptation of Czech author Milan Kundera's demanding 1984 best-seller, Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, an overly amorous Prague surgeon, while Juliette Binoche plays Tereza, the waiflike beauty whom he marries. Even though he's supposedly committed, Tomas continues his wanton womanizing, notably with his silken mistress Sabina (Lena Olin). Escaping the 1968 Russian invasion of Prague by heading for Geneva, Sabina takes up with another man and unexpectedly develops a friendship with Tereza. Meanwhile, Tomas, who previously was interested only in sex, becomes politicized by the collapse of Czechoslovakia's Dubcek regime. The Unbearable Lightness of Being may be too leisurely for some viewers, but other viewers may feel the same warm sense of inner satisfaction that is felt after finishing a good, long novel.