RAMBO - The spiritual search for an identity

It's beautiful to watch how the series has been evolving, but the basic theme at its core always stayed the same: a man in search of and finding his own identity through the transcendence of all the burden he carries from his attachments to body and physical life, scars, traumas, wars, tortures, dead friends, pain were guiding him out of the ego and control of life into surrender to it by seeing himself as a soul, rather than the conditioned mind/ego. It started back in 1982, the year characterized by an element of water reflecting innocence, birth, depth of emotions, dire austere conditions that come along with it, the need for self protection and self preservation, the imagery enhances the sense of abandonment, of loss of an identity and the darkness, also very much a characteristic of an age of pisces that lasted till the late 90's. In 1985 Sly’s ascendent reached aquarius, a light hearted and hot constellation reflected by the location, weather and sacral/sexual imagery, Rambo II (as well as Sly) was under an influence of an alchemical fire of transformation from a victimhood towards a freedom of having control over life, with images like the crucifix (cross) formed by the shot of Rambo from the back tying his headband signaling the crossing into a new age of self realization, posters full of fire and flames, or the statue of Buddha and his pendant, this was a baptism by fire, an element that doesn't seem to have a depth of emotion, it is full of hot open excitement, then came 1988 and the real Sly/Rambo/the film was transcending, crossing over and ascending even higher beyond the physical plane, symbolized by the indestructibility, bigger scope and God-like portrayal of the character, 3rd film stood with all the images and an element of air or wind for mysticism and a higher physical realm mirrored by the evolved human mind and perspective of sufi islam, the first 3 films are like 3 stages of an ascension of the spirit from darkness towards light, from separation towards unity, and also 3 stages of reality going from a lower vibration towards higher-from ground towards heaven-from realistic towards magical/spiritual. It’s no wonder Sly from 82 till 88 was removing himself more and more from the influence of society, people accused him of a growing ego, but what was really happening that he was becoming more of an individual himself without an influence from the outside perspectives, friends, fans, critics, etc. The result brought up visions of reality that was mirroring Sly’s own authenticity, beautiful divine coincidence that he went through a divorce at that time, it was only his authentic self on his own at the time. http://youtu.be/Mu2QxY3Ifmg?t=2m30s

Then in 2008, at the age of aquarius that started few years before, came "John Rambo" it was a time of maturity and self-awareness, no longer needed a father figure, nor a country to feel whole, he already transdended all the materialism/realism 20 years ago, now the time was 2.0. - a new beginning, a new mission and pattern for growth, it was about descending from heavenly realm back to Earth with a sense and peace of who he really is in order to ground all the skills he was born with and use them maturally, and the element was Earth, the imagery, sound and music of the film is also very earthly and grounded, Rambo is given a cross, a symbol of christianity, of faith, but also as a symbolism beyond any ideologies the crucifix stands for a crystalizing crossing stage of the spirit into another realm. In conclusion there is basically only one film that deals with the theme and cycle of being a victim/perpetrator, and that is First Blood, it’s about blame and the loss of identity/responsibility, in 2nd the theme is redemption and self-healing, he finds spiritual freedom (through the guidance of a buddhist perspective to leave all the past behind, nice symbolic touch to have Buddha even during the opening credits, all this was intentional) reflected by his demons/his past he was finally facing with a sense of peace one last time and then burying it once and for all, in 3rd he attains full transcendence of physical limitations and human body by fighting for something higher than is himself (through the guidance of Sufi Islam, pointing to his self sacrifice towards God/higher cause) it's worth mentioning that Sly almost killed himself doing the film, his self sacrifice was mirroring the theme of the film and Rambo's himself, in 4th the theme is self-realization and rebirth by embracing his full self, both divine and earthly (through the guidance of Christian faith) the element of water served as a cleansing to wash away all the negative emotions so he'd see the purity of his own self. His self-sacrificing Islamic spirit he carried over from the previous film (die for something or live for nothing), the same way he carried disillusionment from First Blood to 2nd film, and Buddhist self liberation to 3rd film. In Rambo films there is very evident symbolism of a crossing stage of the heart.

He does remain a killer, but how many people noticed or share a perspective from seeing the last Rambo that he is no longer scarred by the past traumas, by a sense of guilt, victimhood, revenge, his mission is very balanced and self aware, Rambo means God’s warrior, a messenger that uses the outside conflicts and wars including his scars on the back, chest, arm, cheek, belly and shoulder as the reflections of his inner challenges and markings of the soul guiding him to escape from physical attachments to the outside world of illusions and thinking back to its soul origin in his heart and consciousness, that is why most of the time he is always just running away from conflicts and war, but they merely play out as the challenges for growth that he’s learning from, this is his identity and his evolvement just like in all of us. In a way not everyone is supposed to be a monk, we are what we are, but still we do have a choice to turn it around, so Rambo could change into a completely different person, but I don’t feel that is the purpose of this series, and neither why Rambo was born and exists, we all are killers at our core, the point is how do we “consume“ another life, with love, gratitude, surrender and awareness? or egoic emotions like hatred, disrespect, guilt, regret? this kind of maturity Rambo might be facing in the next film if he has not already attained this level of consciousness inside him in the last film. What is also poignant that people resonating with First Blood more than other films used to remain trapped in the low down to Earth dark vibration of the first film characterized by the boundaries and attachments of the logical critical mind trapped and victimized by the outside mind programming control of our own potentials, our world, of all what is possible, that might even be a majority of this world, those resonating with the rest of the films are usually atuned to higher frequencies and more prone to perceive and exhibit the magic and psychic powers or what others call the supernatural of this world, it also very much depends what each one of us sees and what and how it reflects back to us vibrationally/emotionally, sometimes it might be in a subliminal way the elements underlining each film that speak to us, but each film parallels with the aligned constellation of the planets, and if anyone talks about Rambo, these days it’s better to ask which Rambo.

There have been self-projected ego notions that the last 3 films glorified violance, however parts II and III have been ironically and paradoxically achieving a completely different and self healing objective, by overcoming the wounds and traumas, guilts, self-hatred, digusts, suicides by lightening up above all these earthly notions and emotions by completely embracing the truths of the world, the truths that Rambo is a warrior and he does what he does without guilt or regret, also what is it that Trautman said to Murdock before he said what you call hell is his home, there is also a reason that at the end of Rambo III he smiles since the first minute of First Blood film, that was an image painting his real victory, the victory over the past, ego, horrors of the world with love, joy and peace, acceptance and understanding. But audience are as much participators of the experience as the artists and whatever people feel is what they are themselves inside, if they feel it glorifies violence by believing it should be seen as horrible, they devalue life as a whole by not being whole themselves, because their own love in their heart is conditional by being divided by duality of good and evil/right and wrong and not seeing the oneness of the world and love in all things created by God and the universe, if love is in your heart there is never anything horribe, but it’s all a self projection of our own state of being, our heart, our inner world, and inner peace or battle. What applies here then is what Rumi once said: Beyond the right and wrong there is a field, I'll be waiting for you there.

I can feel the 5th film very much depends on the time when the film comes out, as each film in the series reflected Stallone’s astrological chart and positions of the planets, based on my estimations I can see one reason why Rambo goes on a mission, because after witnessing his dad and friends dying from an old age he decides to go to battle because he knows who he is. I can see that for the sake of a natural developing progression of the character, for the first time he might be experiencing the value of a human life and he won't be using any guns anymore, just his knife and hands, but he might as well see the oneness between him and all those he stands against, that was never a theme in any previous film and would be interesting to watch him in sort of a poetic Hamletian fashion praying before killing like Arabs do using halal prayers.

I'm also curious about the language and texture of imagery (colors, shapes and feelings) and the transformation Rambo would go through in the middle of the film. What is waiting to be a crossing point. I don't see the end of Rambo by the means of death, but by seeing him walking away from society that believes he died in the battle, unknown to them and only revealed to us as spectators he'd be walking away in the opposite direction disappearing in the unknown, in what seems like a desert, but no city, no men, no trees, nothing, just a land and the sky, symbolically painting an image where this man who transcended and ascended above all the physical pain, mortality and the outside existence is going to roam the world without attachments to society or men, only Gods. And the poetry of images is going to close the film with him disappearing almost like a ghost. The main element of the film very strongly points to the Sky or Void, the highest energy.