As It is In Heaven (5 Stars)

I just watched a Swedish film called As It Is in Heaven. It comes closer than anything I have ever seen to capturing the kind of personal growth and transformation I witnessed, and experienced, in my martial arts training--but it does so in the context of a choral group.

The conductor's goal is make music that opens people's hearts. As a famous conductor, he had been working for fame and his agent. But in a forced retirement, he begins to work with people. He works to open their hearts and minds, so they can experience their true "tone" (their true self). In the process, he learns to open himself.

The music is beautiful, and the movie is great. From beginning to end, the movie is about love--about the external and internal obstacles that stand in the way of expressing love, about the journey to self-acceptance, self-expression, and the acceptance of and by others that constitutes true love. It is a fantastic movie, well worth watching--subtitles and all.

Along the way, the movie excoriated the church, pointing out in no uncertain terms the ways in which church teachings differ from love. Some of my favorite lines from the movie:

• There is no such thing as sin. It only exists in your head.
• The church invented sin. They hold out guilt with one hand, redemption in the other. It's all a lie to suppress people, to gain power.
• God never forgives--because God never condemned.

While there is no such thing as "sin", there is (of course) such things an unhealthy self-image and behavior that hurts others--all topics that are dealt with by various members of the choir. But one miracle transformation after another shows that change is possible, that you can take charge of your life--and that, more than anything else, was the message of my martial arts training in Jung SuWon.