There are saints living in Tokyo, Japan: Buddha the Enlightened One, and Jesus, Son of God. After successfully bringing the previous century to a close, the two share an apartment in Tachikawa while enjoying some well-earned time off down on Earth. Buddha pinches pennies like a typical neighborhood housewife, while Jesus is prone to making impulse buys.
British Buddhist monk, Ven. Ñanavira Thera ordained in Ceylon shortly after WWII and lived as a hermit on the outskirts of a remote village, Bundala, until his suicide in 1965. His complex and innovative writings remain largely unknown - in part because of his suicide, but also due to the challenging and unorthodox nature of his work. The film explores Ven. Ñanavira's biography, writings, and the questions around monastic suicide.
A documentary about the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in London.
Jason Lu, a Hongkonger living in LA, works a shift at a restaurant and finds himself in a bizarre situation, and facing a deadly problem.
Explores the lives of seven Black Millennials – Atheist, Buddhist, Christians, Muslim, Ifa, and Spiritualist – and the challenges and discoveries with faith and spirituality.
All the gist of Buddhism, the very words of Buddha loaded on to a visual circus where every image has an act for itself. The director is an old student in Vippassana, the Buddhist meditation technique that Buddha taught for forty five years of his life, twenty five centuries ago, and the director brought on to the screen, his visions and hallucinations during deep meditative trance, to remind himself and those intent on attaining Nirvana, and to inspire the future monks / spiritual aspirants to discover themselves.
This is a simple act of redemption; a consequence of a hit & run.
Tears of the Buddha: Spirituality and Emotions explores the spiritual path through the lens of emotion. Director Joel Lesko interviews modern Buddhistic teachers to find out how their teachings apply in daily life - are emotions an impediment to spiritual growth? What about so-called unspiritual emotions like anger and hate? Do emotions trap a seeker in the personal self? Tears is a serious look at an area of life that is often confusing and problematic for people in spiritual practices. Rather than another documentary about a teacher's enlightenment or awakening, Tears of the Buddha questions age-old teachings about emotions and leads to an important conversation about individual selfhood - is it real, or is it an illusion? Lesko shares his own experiences and interviews leading teachers including Gangaji, Eli-Jaxon-Bear, Jeff Foster, and others.
How do we live, knowing we are going to die? In search of answers, we probed the minds of atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, physicians, philosophers, authors, academics, a legendary stand-up comic, and scores of random pedestrians.
Weaving together original film and photographic archives, A CLOUD NEVER DIES tells the story of a humble young Vietnamese monk and poet whose wisdom and compassion were forged in the suffering of war. In the face of violence, fear, and discrimination, Thích Nhất Hạnh’s courageous path of engaged action reveals how insight, community, and a deep aspiration to serve the world can offer hope, peace, and a way forward for millions.
Tibetan Buddhist nuns from the Thupten Choling monastery in the Himalayan foothills discuss their mentruation practices.
Documentary on the Great Stupa at Sanchi, built by the Emperor Ashoka, and adorned with some of the finest examples of Buddhist art in the world.
This documentary is the third part of The Yatra Trilogy created by John Bush. Vajra is the Sanskrit word signifying the thunderbolt of illumination, and yatra is the word for pilgrimage or spiritual journey. This film offers a cinematic pilgrimage to central Tibet, bearing witness to the indomitable faith of its endangered Buddhist community and the imminent threat to its very survival.
As a rising star in the field of abstract mathematics, Michael discovered that he could see beauty and pattern where others could not. But his path was not to be inside academia, or even inside society. He went on a grand adventure to unify his Buddhism with his ability to see an expanded view of reality. He created beauty in a place where nobody else would, and made his friends amongst dolphins.
Prajna is the Sanskrit word for radiant wisdom, and yatra is the word for pilgrimage or spiritual journey. This visually stunning documentary is a cinematic pilgrimage exploring the lost civilization of Angkor in Cambodia, including the largest temple in the world, the magnificent Angkor Wat. The journey continues to sacred sites of the natural world, Hindu Bali, jungles of Java, and discovering Buddhist Borobudur. A John Bush film.
Short documentary on the Ladakh.region.
More than 50 years ago, the Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition was driven from its refuge deep within the Himalayas. This is the story of the long and difficult journey that followed. Told through the lens of one Bon teacher born in exile -- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche -- this film reveals something very precious and very old: a rich spiritual heritage, hidden for millennia, whose secret teachings are only now becoming known to the world. There may be no unbroken spiritual tradition more ancient than Bon, which traces its beginnings to a buddha who predates Shakyamuni by thousands of years. Yet this tradition today may be facing its greatest challenge thus far: to preserve its rich heritage beyond the land of its birth.
By way of a journey through the landscapes of Himalaya's mountains , the film invites us to discover the everyday life of Bokar Rimpoche; one of Tibetan Buddhism's great spiritual masters Master. Through his teachings, Bokar Rimpoche proposes a real introduction to Buddhism.
SAINT☆YOUNG MEN 2nd Century imagines a world where Jesus Christ (Kenichi Matsuyama; Death Note) and Gautama Buddha (Shōta Sometani; Himizu) take a vacation on earth and become roommates in an apartment in Tokyo. When the two attempt to hide their identities and partake in all that modern Japanese society has to offer, including cosplay in the otaku mecca that is Akihabara, hilarious antics are sure to ensue! From shopping for rice cookers to playing the lottery, not to mention an unexpected brush with the law—this film offers a refreshing and imaginative narrative of two supreme beings’ perspectives of the mundanity of everyday life in Japan. Based on the popular slice-of-life manga SAINT☆YOUNG MEN, serialised in Japan since 2006, this comedic series of vignettes featuring Jesus and Buddha are sure to put a smile on your face.
The Kabul National Museum, once known as the "face of Afghanistan," was destroyed in 1993. We filmed the most important cultural treasures of the still-intact museum in 1988: ancient Greco-Roman art and antiquitied of Hellenistic civilization, as well as Buddhist sculpture that was said to have mythology--the art of Gandhara, Bamiyan, and Shotorak among them. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, some seventy percent of the contents of the museum was destroyed, stolen, or smuggled overseas to Japan and other countries. The movement to return these items is also touched upon. The footage in this video represents that only film documentation of the Kabul Museum ever made.