The Movie of Me to The Movie of We

by Raghu Markus, Duncan Trussell

This book which we've been working on for the last four years is called the 'The Movie of Me to the Movie of We.' Everyone has a 'Movie of Me' that they firmly believe in. As Krishna Das says, 'You wake up in the morning, and you are the star, producer, writer, director, and cinematographer of the 'Movie of Me 24/7.' In fact, we write our own reviews! That constant self-referential point of view leads to daily angst and unhappiness. In this book we discuss and share ways to transform what the Buddhists call 'self-cherishing' into a deep connectivity with all of life itself.It takes real work. This isn't just, I'm sick of it, so I'm suddenly going to transform. Many factors contribute to building habitual patterns, neurotic tendencies, and existing conditions because of parents, teachers, and society. Our investigation has manifested in the form of wonderful chats where we use our lives as examples to illustrate our propensity to delude ourselves. We see our self-interested motivations clearly through Mindfulness and learn how to transform our pain, isolation, and separation. We felt that we had to make some kind of offering to humanity using ourselves as examples and our great teachers to light the way. What's wonderful about being a condensed mass of neurosis, defense mechanisms, and self-defeating habits, is the moment you glimpse that it's just a game you are playing with the infinite. The infinite is the fabric of love, caring, compassion, and kindness we all connect to with each other. Forget about enlightenment. What can we do for each other? Look at what is going on in the world right now. It's about connection. That wonderful moment of satori, just essence, 'being here now,' as Ram Dass called it, is synonymous with connection and inter-being. It is apparent when we transform our obsession with the mini 'me.' None of this would've been possible without the guiding rudder of wisdom and heartfulness from Ram Dass and the grace filled presence of Neem Karoli Baba. It has everything to do with the fun we had hanging out with each other. Hence 'The Movie Of Me To The Movie Of We. '

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2023

Reviews

[Clayton Kardas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, the book is great; a bit spastic, but great. Its format and overall goals remind me of the book Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by Rene Girard (feat. his two buddies). That book is a three-way conversation between the author and his buddies about anthropological hypotheses of society and their relationships to religious stories/myths and general psychology. I’d imagine Duncan would be interested in the book since he digs Christianity sometimes. Anyways, Me2We is a more Eastern-tradition focus on the parallel foundations of Things Hidden, which is essentially the beautification of “nonviolence”. Both have their strengths, but the audiobook of Things Hidden has absolutely nothing on Me2We’s more authentic dialogue, where the former has the same narrator saying the name before each speaker… yuck. I did sometimes wish that there were more solid concepts of thoughts and not just riffs in Me2We, but I found those nuggets of concreteness in some of their quotations and stories thankfully. Regardless of all the above text, I will recommend this book to anyone who ever asks about it or is yearning for a path to get out of their ego-centric lifestyle, which I hope someday is everyone.

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful, many great quotes. This is a conversation between Duncan and Raghu. If you are a fan of either you will probably enjoy this audiobook. This might not be for everyone but it is for me.

[Taylor Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially a long-form podcast, this is collection of conversations between the two authors about spirituality, “Enlightenment”, and Eastern philosophy. There’s a lot of focus on Ram Dass and his methodology and ideas on human psychology and betterment. It’s a relaxed and entertaining listen. Raghu tends to focus on the concept of karma, which I found to be a touch alienating to the over-arching theme of present-mindedness and self-actualization; Trussell is always riffing, which sometimes felt aimless. Overall, there’s some excellent takeaways and quotes here, but… I can’t help but feel there was something substantial missing.

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Duncan and I wish I could give it more stars, but it’s just too all over the place to make coherent points that can flow between chapters. And unfortunately the audio quality is quite bad on Duncan’s side in many of the chapters.

I would say each chapter might be worth listening to, especially Duncan & Raghu’s stories, the summit with Ram Dass/Trudy/Jack, and the closing chapter with Ram Dass. But it doesn’t flow as a coherent “book”.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The conversations here are joyful, inspiring and have roots within deep wisdom. It’s a read to cherish.

[Olov Redmalm · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the middle of reading, but always love listening to these guys. Will return with a proper review.

[Joel Straw · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5🌟