Lesson #1: Impermanence is a fact of life

Starting from the very beginning of the show, Riley had to face the fact that her best friends will be going off to another high school. She found this hard to deal with, and cried secretly on her own once she got out of the car. What was once a hockey camp that she was looking forward to with her best friends became a camp that she started stressing herself over as she was worried about not having any friends in high school. This very pivotal moment for her shows us how our conditions in life are transient, that things can change at any time, as with our emotions. Nothing is truly permanent and forever, as our life changes at every moment in time.

Looking at how Riley is always managing her emotions – joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, anxiety, and so on, pinpoints the fact that all our emotions are always changing from moment to moment. Hence, just as Buddha taught, these emotions are not permanent, our lives are constantly on the change. This very important lesson on impermanence of all phenomena leads to the next lesson, which is that our emotions do not define our identity.

Lesson #2: The ‘I’ is empty, our emotions and beliefs don’t define us

Whenever Riley gets a new core memory (that shiny ball they hold), it first begins with a strong emotion like joy. It then gets placed into the lake where it becomes a belief for Riley, forming her sense of self. Riley’s belief and sense of self at the beginning was only one - “I am a good person”. However, anxiety came into the picture and she started forming more beliefs about herself, one that led her to think that “I am not good enough”. This change in her core sense of self shows us how we are constantly changing, adapting to our environment, and becoming a different person than we were before. It is linked to impermanence.

At the end of the show, we can see all the emotions hugging Riley’s core sense of self, trying to calm her down from her anxiety attack. Then, the emotion Joy decided to make a lifechanging move, which is to remove her core belief that “I am a good person”. Slowly, we saw how Riley started forming new beliefs, changing at every single moment. She has good ones and bad ones, from “I am selfish” to “I am kind”, and that really shows us how we are constantly changing at every moment. Even though our beliefs form our identity, all these are inherently empty from their own side, just as Buddha has taught. Thus, the “I”, our self-grasping identity, is empty. There is no self that truly exists on its own side. This leads us to our last lesson which is that we all have Buddha nature within us that embraces both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ inside of us.

Lesson #3: We all have Buddha nature within

The beautiful part about Inside Out 2 is that it teaches us to embrace everything within ourselves – the good, the bad, the ugly, the sweet. When we accept and embrace every part of ourselves, that’s when we grow and blossom to be who we really are. It is like how Buddha accepts all beings for who they are, teaching us that there’s no true ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parts but this is all a part of our experiences that makes us who we are. It is how we can awaken ourselves to accept and embrace all beings too.

Through unconditional self-love, acceptance, and compassion, we extend this love to all beings just like how Buddha loves all sentient beings. This is awakening the Buddha nature within us, this compassion, that all of us have inside of our souls. This is especially prominent during Riley’s anxiety attack scene, where she was struggling to be a ‘good person’ and at the same time dealing with the belief that she is not ‘good enough’. This breakdown eventually pushes her to grow into someone who has so much love for all of her ‘bad’ sides as well, and not just someone who only focuses on her strengths. She began embracing her flaws fully. This is how Riley had the courage to step up and apologise to her best friends for her unfriendly behaviour over the hockey camp.

Conclusion

Inside Out 2 had many unforgettable moments that taught us to embrace ourselves, no matter how ‘bad’ we are. The Dharma lessons we can learn in how impermanence is a fact of life, and that our identity is inherently empty, is wisdom from Buddha that we can carry on throughout our lives. Just like how Riley overcame her anxiety attack by not grasping onto the self so tightly, shows us that a compassionate acceptance of every part of ourselves can help us have a more serene and loving mind for all beings. In this way, we are better able to enjoy life and face challenges with resilience once we can accept how everchanging our core identity is, and grow from our life experiences. This is the start of awakening our Buddha nature within us.

If you want to discover more about your Buddha nature and go deeper within yourself, do check out our weekly Dharma teachings by Singha Rinpoche, where he shares practical and experiential Dharma insights for everyone to benefit from. Click here to listen to one of the teachings on how to deal with emotions.