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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Dalai
Lama: Renaissance (documentary)
Narrator: Harrison Ford Director: Khashyar Darvich Camera: Steven Ashley Wilson Composer: Henry Reid Location: Dharmsala, India Rating: none, no objectionable material Running Length: 82 minutes This documentary by Khashyar Darvich tells what happens when forty of the world’s top scholars are invited to the home of the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India. The group includes musicians, scholars, physicists and religious leaders. There is to be held a symposium to discuss world problems. An enormous task to be sure, and not one to be accomplished in a few days, yet there must be a first step taken. The photography is beautifully done with a memorable soundtrack by Henry Reid. In the lush setting of India, the camera follows various personages as they participate in meetings and discussions. Some of the people with comments are Barbara Field Muldoon, Jean Houston, Michael Beckwith and, of course, the Dalai Lama, himself. We travel with the invited group by train and then into meeting rooms. One thing for certain, with various personalities comes various opinions. This is evident when the group is rested and begin to integrate. Day One has them about eight at a table in a “World Café.” As you go from group to group you see one group is silent while another active. One or two people become leaders with mild arguments. The Dalai Lama reflects on this with humor, as does the organizer who says “brilliant minds are sometimes thin as eggs and must be handled gently.” The word used to describe the meetings is “synthesis” or the combination of parts into a whole. Day Two are possible solutions and this is where louder discussions occur. Egos are coming forth and one person describes himself as a “cosmic nudge,” or loud mouth. It is wondered by this time whether the Tibetan people are the lost tribe of Israel? As the meeting comes to a close, you see who tries to get an opportunity to actually meet the Dalai Lama (time constraints here) and when presenting gifts, it is not from their group at home, but from themselves, individually. Dalai Lama: Renaissance does give me insight into this spiritual leader, who has a gracious speaking voice, sense of humor and hearty laugh. His idea is not to be able to solve world problems overnight, but start with the self, then spread to one’s family and beyond. His point is always given with a touch of laughter which gets the point across. We do not see anything of the Tibetan crisis with China and the end of the documentary tells that participants were “discouraged to seek economic sanctions against China.” Whether there will be another symposium remains to be seen, but from this one comes knowledge that there are others around the world who, too, seek change. Copyright 2009 Marie Asner
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