A Knight’s Tale
A Brief Summary
 William
Thatcher is a 14th century peasant who breaks
all the rules when he passes himself off as a nobleman
and a knight and takes the jousting world by storm. He
was brought up by his father, a thatcher, to believe he
could ‘change his stars’ and rise above the level into
which he had been born. When he was a young boy,
William’s father found a post for him as squire to a
knight on the tournament ‘circuit.’ Some years later,
when the old knight dies unexpectedly, Squire William
decides to take the old knight’s armor and horse and
venture into the world of jousting as the young knight
Sir Ulrich.
While
feeling out his new role and learning the art of
jousting, William/Sir Ulrich sees the Lady Jocelyn and
is smitten. The two court each other as William/Sir
Ulrich jousts in the different tournaments on the
circuit, even once competing against the crown prince of
England. Just as his star begins to rise, Lady Jocelyn
gives him an ultimatum, which leads to an unusual twist
in the story.
William’s deception is eventually found out, but
through his strength of character, events transpire that
bring him into fortunate circumstances. He truly
‘changes his stars.’
Commentary
The
movie, A Knight’s Tale, is really a bodhisattva* story. When the young man
William Thatcher actually made the decision to change
his stars, that is when he became a first level
bodhisattva. When Lady Jocelyn begins to respond to him,
she does so because, when somebody is changing their
life, they attract interest from others.
There
are plenty of folks out there who... live day in and day
out following the same old trends. All the old mental
attitudes are at play, so things are always handled in
the same way. When somebody starts to make changes, then
that person becomes quite attractive. Other people can
feel this extra-ordinary quality that has come to life
in that person.
Jocelyn knew that, like all the men at the tournament,
William/Sir Ulrich was jousting for his own glory. The
first level bodhisattva starts out that way, doing it
because you think you are uplifting yourself. You are,
but you need to…begin to function for the good of the
whole. In other words, you stop staring at yourself. You
come to a place where you have to face yourself. That is
what the young knight did when Lady Jocelyn put a stigma
on his winning, and said,
“If you love me, you’ll lose.”
We are
really looking at this movie as a metaphor for spiritual
life, so we are not looking at it in ordinary terms. You
can change
your stars; you can change your life in that spiritual
way. As far
as putting your trust in other human beings who may not
have your best interests at heart, remember that Lady
Jocelyn knew that she would give herself to William, but
if she was going to give herself to him, she wanted to
know that he was going to give himself to her. None of
those other men would have done that, and William
wouldn’t have done that either, unless she demanded it.
“If you love me, you will
give up your pride and you will lose the match.”
It is a startling thing to ask of someone. She wanted to
see if he truly loved her, which he did. Of course, then
he had to hate her for a little bit because his pride
was still in argument. But as soon as she saw that he
was willing to lose the match because he loved her…, she
turned it around quickly. She didn’t want him to lose.
She just wanted to know he loved her.
In the
spiritual life, it is very much the same way. The
Spiritual Master is always testing in that manner. How
strong is your commitment? What’s important in your
life? If you are willing to put your pride aside,
because of your love of spirituality, then there is
something inside of you that moves to Bodhisattva Level
Two. In other words, you have developed enough satiety
with worldly life…to know the difference between
superficiality
and quality.
 You
want quality, and the
quality is more important than the superficiality.
That doesn’t mean that you are not going to be tempted
by the superficiality. It simply means that you make a
decision. You will give up some of the superficiality to
make sure that you keep your spirituality in your life.
When you do that, you begin to realize all the habitual
ways you have been operating from all your life.
This
knight had to overcome all his memories of feeling that
he wasn’t good enough….and take the stance,
“I can change my stars.” He wasn’t going to turn his
back on who he truly was, even if he got arrested.
He had already given himself to Jocelyn, but he
knew that to run off with her would be wrong. He felt authentic; he knew who he was. He knew
inside of himself that he
was a knight.
He was so sure of that, that he allowed himself to be
captured and ridiculed.
Just
as Jocelyn released him from the stigma by saying,
“Yes, now go win…,”
this time, because William was so centered in who
he was, the crown prince…set him free, and made him a
knight officially. He made him publicly authentic.
Whether or not that had happened wouldn’t have mattered;
William was still a knight. He had that brilliance
inside of himself to know who he was.
So,
this movie is really a bodhisattva story. You can see
that taking a bodhisattva vow sets you on that journey.
When you first take the vow, it is just a feeling of
joyousness, filled with anticipation of awakening, which
is wonderful. Out of that anticipation and excitement of
awakening, you begin to live differently. Eventually,
you pull out of that place where you are always looking
at yourself, and
your
needs. Instead, you function
for the good of
the whole. That place where you stop functioning for
self, and begin to function for the good of the whole,
that’s the first bodhisattva level. Powerful!
Even
if a person never gets beyond the first bodhisattva
level, if they are really
living that level, they are enlarging their wakefulness greatly.
* A bodhisattva is a
dedicated practitioner who seeks to attain enlightenment
for the upliftment of all sentient life, one who
consciously acts for the benefit of others as an
essential part of pursuing one's own enlightenment.
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