David Lynch's spider
March 27, 2008 5:35 AM   Subscribe

David Lynch, the Upanishads, and spiders...

So, David Lynch would apparently quote from the Upanishads at the beginning of screenings of INLANDEMPIRE: "We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe." Nice. Now, whilstthis page links the quote to the Aitareya Upanishad, various web sources (here, for instance) don't seem to mention spiders or dreamers or anything of that ilk at all. Now I'm entirely ignorant of this whole area, so is David's quote from a more funky translation, somewhere else entirely, perhaps? Any pointers most gratefully received!
posted by robself to Religion & Philosophy (2 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
That quote seems to be rather loosely translated from Mundaka Upanishad 1:1:7. Your first link just has it attributed to the wrong Upanishad.

Here's another translation that expresses similar concepts:

As the spider creates the cobweb out of its saliva, it lives and plays in it and at the end the same spider swallows up the cobweb, similarly the God, the Lord creates the whole universe as the act of His thought. He manifests in it and again He withdraws the whole universe in Himself.
posted by roofus at 6:03 AM on March 27, 2008


Response by poster: Hmm, if that's the part he's getting it, then that really is a loose translation. Pretty, though. merci!
posted by robself at 12:10 PM on March 27, 2008


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