I strive to craft my films in The Dreaming Buddhas Project to a high standard of academic integrity. My work toward upholding these values as a filmmaker includes reading and research into methods and practices of ethnographic filmmaking. In light of this, I was particularly pleased that the Society for Visual Anthropology accepted ALMS as part of their festival this year.
I’m excited to announce another upcoming screening of my first doc on Buddhist life in China, Amongst White Clouds. The INNER PATH Buddhist Film Festival opens in New Delhi, India on April 27th and runs until May 1, 2012.
Years ago I was a student in India with the Antioch Buddhist Studies program in Bodh Gaya. So returning to Buddhism’s birth-place with Clouds holds particular significance for me. As part of this trip, I am also planning to travel to Varanasi and Sarnath, the site where the Buddha gave his first teaching. What an amazing country.
Krista Tippett’s On Being radio programs always resonate strongly with my life and with my work. The recent Easter week program this year was a re-broadcast. I listened to it last year and enjoyed it but somehow this year it really spoke to me. Perhaps because I’m editing some material right now with a strong theme of farming and meditation. And growing up with gardens around me and staying at the monasteries of my teachers in China, where gardening is a major part of daily life, this program spoke to me. The music for this episode is profoundly beautiful. Vigen Guroian is a real poet.
When Adam gardened, he imitated his Maker in a purely recreative act of cultivation and care. He did not need to subdue the earth in order for it to yield fruit. Rather, the plants were Adam's palette, and the earth was his canvas. There was nothing but delight in the Garden, for Eden itself means "garden of delight."
Listen and share this with anyone you know who gardens from the heart.
