Summaries

Synopsis

This movie, chiefly written by Bruce Lee, is about obtaining Enlightenment, so this synopsis also contains some Buddhist interpretation of "Circle of Iron." Many things happen in a very subtle manner, so I explain their significance, even though the movie does not.

This movie is about finding the Buddha, within your own mind (and heart, and soul). And so, after Enlightenment, you become the manifestation of Buddha. Then, you can truly say, I AM the Buddha. (Of course, some lucky Christians also achieve Enlightenment. Then they can say, I AM the Christ, although a manifestation of Jesus as a human being, not as being God Himself.)

Teachings (and Rules) are important for the Way toward spirituality, but they cease to teach you when you are Enlightened (or, on that last path to receive Enlightenment). At this point, every person decides what they will do to live their own spiritual life, and what they believe about the Supreme Being.

Cord sets off to find "The Book." It is guarded by Zetan: "the Keeper of The Book." The Book contains the secrets of the Universe (and it really does), and gives you the information needed to become Enlightened.

Along the way, there is a flute playing a haunting song (and his Spiritual Guide who plays that flute). Whenever Cord hears the music play, he is about to face a step on his journey (or, one of his 3 Trials).

Cord tried to become the Seeker to Zetan by entering the Contest, offered at a local monastery. Many martial arts masters are there to vie in ritual combat to be awarded the Medallion. This is the prize. This Medallion proclaims its wearer as that monastery's Seeker (to face and defeat Zetan, so he is allowed to read The Book). Everyone sent in the past has failed to defeat Zetan.

The movie opens toward the end of the Contest. We watch Cord quickly win 2 rounds of the Contest. The final round arrives; it is Cord versus Morthon. During their combat, Cord hit Morthon while he was down on the ground. So, Cord is disqualified, and Morthon wins the Contest. The medallion necklace is put around Morthon's neck.

Cord objects to be required to obey every Rule . But the official proclaims that rules are Rules, and perfectly following them is an important trait of anyone in order to defeat Zetan. The next morning, Morthon sets off to find Zetan. Cord follows him for a day, but then runs off when he hears the inviting flute music, until he gets to where the sound is coming from. He witnesses a fight. A man with a flute fights, and quickly defeats, many angry men who attack him.

Morthon left, so Cord leaves alone, on his journey. Along the way, Cord has 3 Trials. For the first 2 Trials he is forewarned about the situation.

. . . . . . . The Monkey Trial: Don't turn your back on the attacker, even if he is just a Joker.

Cord hears the music again. So he follows the music again, and meets the man playing it. Later this man will become Cord's Spiritual Guide. This Guide has a scene with a Monkey. The Monkey screams loudly, and keeps trying to get behind him. He constantly turns to face the Monkey. After the Monkey leaves, Cord asks if this is the secret of how to handle Monkeys. ... Yes, it is.

Cord walks on alone and finds Morthon, bleeding and unable to walk. Cord asks: "Did Zetan do this to you?" ... Morthon moans: No, "I failed the First Trial." ... Cord asks, "What was that First Trial?" ... ... "Monkeys." As he dies, Morthon tells Cord to take the Medallion. Cord puts it on. Now, Cord is the "legal" Seeker for the monastery.

Cord enters the nearby cave, full of monkeys. There he witnesses another Seeker with a Medallion (from a different monastery), fighting with the Chief Monkey. It rages on for minutes. (During this fight Cord hears his Spiritual Guide repeat the lesson: "Unmask his ego" and you will win against a Monkey.) The fight finishes. The Seeker is killed, and his medallion is yanked off from his neck (and added to a pile of medallions, from all of the other dead Seekers).

Cord walks up. The Monkey says many things to belittle Cord, and make jokes of Cord's every answer, and keeps circling around him. Cord stays focused, and doesn't allow himself to forget why he is there -- to defeat the Monkey (and win his First Trial). Finally, Cord says: "I don't want to fight you"; so "let me just walk around you." The Chief Monkey replies: "That is not in the order of things" (you must fight me, in order to go to Zetan). The fight is ON. Cord hits and hits, the Monkey gets blocked at every blow. The Monkey stops. Then he tells Cord how to find Zetan: "Go to a wilderness, and find a rose there." ... Cord has survived his First Trial.

Cord gets his next clue of the upcoming Trial. Cord meets a man standing in a barrel of oil. This man has been inside of the barrel for 10 years. He is trying to melt off his penis. His legs are like spaghetti, and his penis is just a wisp. He is doing this because he can't prevent himself from having affairs (after making 100 Vows of Celibacy over the years, and lacking the courage to cut his penis off). His wife (after earlier not liking the idea) supports him living in the barrel, and even brings him food to eat. When Cord tells him he's looking for Zetan, the man warns him that sex will get in the way, and that Cord will falter in his search because of his sex drive. Then he invites Cord to get in the barrel with him (because -- he thinks -- Cord will fail, just like the man did, and then Cord will want to melt his off ). Cord laughs, and walks off. Cord has taken a Vow of Chastity a year before, and he "knows" that he will remain faithful to his Vow until he attains Enlightenment. The man in the oil was weak about sex, but Cord is NOT weak.

. . . . . . . .The Sex Trial (in 2 parts). . . . Part one. Cord arrives at an encampment, in celebration, with dancing and fireworks. He sees a veiled woman go by, with a rose on her robe (Find a rose in the wilderness). This is the Way to Zetan! He follows the woman into a tent. Changshaw invites Cord to sit next to him. He offers Cord whatever he needs for his journey. Cord says he wants to "Find a rose in the wilderness." She is Changshaw's 9th wife, "You may have her." Cord tells him about his Vow of Chastity. Changshaw laughs. "My wife would break her promise of fidelity to me, and you would break your promise to yourself."

A man with another Medallion wants to fight Changshaw; Changshaw tries to talk the man out of it. The man insists. OK. The fight is on. Changshaw kicks him in the groin over and over. He dies with a crushing blow. (His medallion is yanked off and thrown into a box of medallions.) Changshaw announces that by dying, the man has finally found what he was looking for, knowledge and truth. Cord watches. That night, Cord decides to sleep with wife number 9. He has realized that sex is a beautiful thing. He falls in love, and asks her to come live with him. She agrees, but tells him to get some sleep for their journey. The next morning, Cord finds out that she is dead, and Changshaw has killed her (and left the area). Cord is filled with anger at Changshaw. Eventually, Cord discovers why the other man wanted to fight Changshaw -- in revenge for killing his lover, Changshaw's 8th wife.

Cord meets with his Spiritual Guide: Cord tells him his understanding of the lesson: "Don't hold on too tight" to anyone else. Cord is told: "You can't even possess yourself, how can you possibly hope to possess someone else?"... Good lesson. Our minds wonder from second to second, so we cannot possess our own mind completely ... therefore, how can we control the mind of another person? ... Well, we can't. ... This lesson (later) gravitates inside of Cord to become: 'Don't hold too tightly to your feelings of revenge on Changshaw.' ... Don't let your journey for Enlightenment come to an end, just because of this betrayal by Changshaw.

. . . . . . . Time for the Third Trial. It is a dark night. Cord goes to sleep. A scary noise awakens him. A growling panther arrives. Cord is afraid. Then Cord realizes what is happening: the panther is Death (incarnate). Cord was at first afraid, but then finds his center and says: "Come any time, welcome guest." ... Cord has passed the Third Trial. He faced Death itself, and didn't want to hold on to his Life. By offering his Life, he has saved his Life. Now, onward, to find Zetan.

Cord asks his Spiritual guide to be his Teacher. He will only be teacher if Cord asks him no questions about anything Cord sees him doing. "Agreed." Then, Cord sees 3 separate incidents where he couldn't understand his Teacher's actions, 2 apparently angry and destructive to someone, and 1 other which seemed irrational. Cord fires his Teacher, and asks him "Why?" . . . and finds out how blind he was; the Teacher explained each situation to him, and Cord saw that his actions each time were absolutely what should have occurred. The former Teacher leaves. Now Cord is on his own for the rest of the way.

The Sex Trial. Part 2, Cord arrives. Changshaw greets him, and then he kills a bull with a karate chop (maybe, to let Cord know this Trial could kill him, like the man before). Changshaw brags about killing his 9th wife with his own 2 hands, because Cord had slept with her. But Cord replies, "I killed her, with THESE 2 hands" (by his very act of sex, and asking her to leave her husband). Changshaw lets him know he has passed this Trial: (You are) "Not the same Cord" (I knew before).

Now a final battle, to learn the secret of all the Trials. Cord blocks all of the blows. Then Changshaw suddenly becomes the Monkey he had fought before, Cord loses his center and gets hit. Then Death appears, growling, Cord gets hit. He hears the music, smiles a knowing smile (all 3 of the creatures in my Trials are the same man), Cord relaxes and finds his focus. He lands all of his blows, and gets none back. Changshaw pulls back from him. ... It's over. . . . Changshaw smiles, Cord smiles, and laughs. ... Cord hears the magic words: "You are the Chosen" (the one to meet Zetan). Zetan is on that island. A boat arrives and transports Cord across the water. Cord is ceremonially cleansed, and given a new robe to wear (the same one that everyone else is wearing there). Cord is now ready to face Zetan.

Comment: Cord has faced the Monkey trial, in which he has resisted becoming shamed (and from losing his focus on the task at hand). Cord faced Changshaw, with love, instead of with hate and vengeance (after Cord's beloved girlfriend was killed because of his affair with her). Then, Cord invited Death to come and kill him whenever he wants to. Cord has conquered his fear of Death, his fear of obsession with sex (and revenge), and his fear of being shamed. These are 3 Trials which face all men, all of our lives. How we react to these Trials controls our actions (and our feelings, and our view of Life). While passing through Cord's 3 Trials he has transcended those blocks to living freely, and so, he is one of the lucky people who can now read from The Book, and find personal Enlightenment.

Cord is led to a group of people. Cord asks to see Zetan. The group opens up, and there stands an old man, with a large image of 3 Roses on his robe (like the Monkey said: "Find a rose there" ... the 3 Trials). Then Zetan offers Cord a rose he picks off of a bush. Cord refuses. All he wants to do is to read The Book. Zetan walks him across the monastery. There are many people in the courtyard. They haven't read The Book, "They are called the Near Ones. They are studying the perfecting of perfection" (instead of finishing their journey, and reading The Book, after passing their own 3 Trials). Zetan has Cord sit, and drink tea. Cord asks, "When do we fight?" Zetan says, "About what?" ... "The Book."

Zetan mocks all of those Seekers who come to read The Book. He invites Cord to just live there, in the monastery's perfect harmony. But Cord will not be deterred from his mission to become Enlightened. Cord again asks to see The Book. Zetan escorts him away, saying, they are on their way to perform the ceremony of "Your becoming the Keeper of The Book." ... What??? ... but Cord walks on.

Zetan asks Cord to sit on the Seat of Knowledge (which fills Cord with the peaceful atmosphere of the monastery). Then, Zetan tries to convince Cord to take over Zetan's job, of being the Keeper of The Book. Cord refuses, and asks for The Book. It is brought to him, and is lovingly held by one of the Near Ones. Cord opens The Book. Page one appears, Cord is surprised and confused. ... Page 2 is confusing. Page 3, a knowing smile appears. Page 4, the power of Enlightenment hits. Cord closes The Book.

All 4 "pages" are mirrors. All that Cord could see in each page was his own face. Cord now knows the secret to Enlightenment: It is all within Cord himself -- look within yourself, deeply into your soul (where all your pure thoughts and desires live), and that continuing to hold onto that deep look will bring forth Enlightened thoughts, one after another.

Cord asks what happens to people who have read The Book. Zetan says that some of them become teachers, and provide the 3 Trials that Seekers must overcome. Cord says, "And one of them plays a flute that only I can hear"(his Guide). Cord laughs with his realization. Zetan again asks Cord to become the Keeper of The Book. Cord laughs. Zetan begs him to become the Keeper. Cord laughs more.

Comment: All these many years, Zetan himself has been afraid to look into The Book. Good grief, for all these years, Zetan has failed to complete his journey. Zetan stopped just inches from success ... and instead, Zetan has to witness Seeker after Seeker who WILL look into The Book. Then, add to this, that he can't find anyone to take over his job commitment as the Keeper of The Book. But, Zetan is just another person who has turned away from his Goal, and who has lived to regret it. What they say (in almost any religion) is, don't start on a deep spiritual path half-heartedly, because stopping that journey before you finish it, may later leave you worse off than if you hadn't started it at all.

Cord follows the music to his Spiritual Guide, who looks at him and says: "You've looked at The Book, Cord." ... "Yes." ... "And what did you see?" ... "Everything." ... Wow! Cord is in the club of Enlightened beings. They excitedly hug each other. Then, he hands his flute over to Cord, and Cord begins to play music (a different song), while his Guide dances. The journey ends. The new journey begins. The credits roll.

Afterthoughts. Cord did not play by the Rules (of the Contest at the monastery). This very act of not blindly following Rules is the need of a Seeker, in order to find personal Enlightenment. These rule-followers are the many Seekers who die along the Way, or just get distracted from their Goal. So, it is important to follow the Rules most of your life. But, when the time comes to seek Enlightenment, rules just get in the way of progress toward your Goal. Enlightenment requires a different view of Life and events. Keep focused on the Goal, but be open to making all of the changes (in attitude and perspective) that you need to continue to go along your journey in order to achieve that Goal.