Zen emphasizes awareness in the moment and interconnectedness if your objective is to reach inner peace – so it also depends on what you want and what is your objective, doesn’t it?
Let me put it very simply, I just don’t think it works, no matter what the objective is. I could give you a huge rational for this. But I know it doesn’t work for me and not for most people on this planet unless they really don’t have to engage with the world. Because you live in a hurry in this imperfect world of ours. So I do understand, respect and observe a certain ability to have an inner calm, where I can calm in the middle of a storm, where I don’t allow my emotions to take over at times of crisis so I can step away. But there is a difference between having a holistic vision of things, i.e. have this ability to distance myself a little, and live in this perpetual nowness which I think is completely unrealistic.
When you live the life of an actor, on three continents, in four separate film industries (Hollywood, Bollywood, Europe and Pine Wood in London), the thing that drives you is sheer survival.
I am part of an industry that is probably one of the most insecure professions in the world. You have absolutely no guarantee that the next film job will come up. Meanwhile you have a family to raise, children to educate, mortgages to pay and a lifestyle to maintain. So at a primal level almost, with no highflying vision of artistic grandeur, your basic survival mechanism is what is driving you in this profession. There are of course periods of calm when things are going well and you don’t have to think at that level.
