GlobalYogi
DVDs
A complete list of recommended DVDs
This list is not by any mean a rating of these DVDs.
1. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (A Way of Life / The Great Liberation)
Death is real, it comes without warning and it cannot be escaped. An ancient source of strength and guidance, The Tibetan Book of the Dead remains an essential teaching in the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas. Narrated by Leonard Cohen, this enlightening two-part series explores the sacred text and boldly visualizes the afterlife according to its profound wisdom. Part 1: A Way of Life reveals the history of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and examines its traditional use in northern India, as well as its acceptance in Western hospices. Shot over a four-month period, the film contains footage of the rites and liturgies for a deceased Ladakhi elder and includes an interview with the Dalai Lama, who shares his views on the book's meaning and importance. Part 2: The Great Liberation follows an old lama and his novice monk as they guide a Himalayan villager into the afterlife using readings from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The soul's 49-day journey towards rebirth is envisioned through actual photography of rarely seen Buddhist rituals, interwoven with groundbreaking animation by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ishu Patel.
2. The Zen Mind
The Zen Mind is a journey across Japan to explore the practice of Zen. We reveal the daily routine of a zen monk and take you inside the walls of the zen monastery and into a world never imagined by outsiders. Step inside the zendo or meditation hall, where the monks sit in zazen - searching for the middle path to enlightenment - it is a long hard journey. Every aspect of zen is uncovered - from a zen center in the middle of the bustling streets of Tokyo, to the mountains above Kyoto. Includes interviews with major zen masters and roshi.
3. Zen Buddhism: In Search of Self
This beautifully produced and photographed documentary takes the viewer on a journey to Zen Buddhism enlightenment. The camera follows the two dozen Buddhist nuns to the remote Baek Hung Temple, in the mountains of Palgong, in Daegu, South Korea. They are practicing a 1000-year old tradition of 90-day meditation, fasting and contemplation. The goal is to attain enlightenment. The film is the first-ever to document the practice of Dong Ahn Geo (Winter Zen Retreat) at the historical temple. Baek Hung Temple was built by the Great Monk Hyeocheol, a revered figure during the reign of King Kyungmoon in the Shilla Dynasty (AD 57 935). The temple is austere, serene and has the look of being timeless. The wooden columns in the buildings are cleaned tree trunks. The floors inside and out are polished and without blemish. The temple and its surrounding area are founded on order, harmony and tranquility. The environment encourages spirituality. The Buddhist nuns come to the temple in November and stay until the lunar New Year, which falls in late January or early February, depending on the lunar calendar. The cold climate and tranquil setting make the retreat that much more intense. The underlying Zen question (Cham Sum) is Shi Shin Ma What is this? Cham Sun is the contemplation of the profound questions (Hwa Du) to attain enlightenment. To achieve this, the nuns follow a rigorous routine of meditation, fasting and exercises. After initial meditation, the nuns are ready for Yong Mung Juin, the seven-day ritual of sitting and meditating without rest of sleep. This rigorous practice commemorates Buddha s own enlightenment. Sung Do or the Way of Enlightenment is a Buddhist discipline practiced for centuries. The focus is inward, stripping the material to find the spiritual. As the 90-day retreat winds down with the lunar New Year, there is more secular activity at the temple. Celebratory rituals and foods are prepared. The nuns make a pilgrimage to other temples and meet Buddhist monks. There are friendly games. The nuns show their playful human side.
4. Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Amidst the World: A Book and 2 DVD Set
A two-day retreat at Findhorn, Scotland — famous as a spiritual center on the leading edge of personal and global transformation — offered an ideal showcase for Eckhart Tolle's transformative concepts, documented in this exciting package containing a book and two DVDs that capture the author at his best. Using his trademark lighthearted but penetrating style, Tolle explores in depth the concept of stillness and how to achieve it. Only by doing so, says the author, can transformation occur. Stillness offers a doorway into the Now and to true personal enlightenment, according to Tolle. Too often, people become trapped in their mind-created sense of self. He explains the compulsions that drive people’s thoughts as they analyze, interpret, and label every conscious experience they have. The result? An inability to perceive the sacredness in oneself and the natural world. Eckhart Tolle's Findhorn Retreat offers serene sanity in a world in desperate need of it.
The Classic Profile of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. This is the masterful portrait of the late 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, the great Tibetan Buddhist master known as the Black Hat Lama. His line of successive reincarnations has its origins in the 13th century when it was the first to identify tulkus, reincarnations of Buddhist teachers. He is recognized as the embodiment of the teachings of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, one that traces its source through Tibet’s greatest teachers Milarepa and Marpa to India’s Naropa and Tilopa all the way back to the Shakyamuni Buddha himself. Features rare footage of renowned Tibetan Buddhist lamas Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Filmed on location in Sikkim and North America, with archival footage from France
6. The Flowering of Human Consciousness [Region 2]
In The Flowering of Human Consciousness, you will come face to face with Eckhart Tolle, for a transformational meeting with this respected teacher and influential author. In clear language, Eckhart explains the process of entering the ?miraculous? state of presence that is always available to us. We are lost, he says, in the maze of our own compulsive thoughts. Only by ceasing this ?mental noise? can we dissolve our egos, and enable the ?flowering of a new consciousness? to proceed ? a transformation that cannot be understood with the mind. From guidance about stress and career to insights into the nature of the ego and the delusion of time, here is a far-reaching session that documents the vision of this modern spiritual teacher, and the truth he brings.
7. Dalai Lama on Life and Enlightenment
Whether or not you're a Buddhist practioner, or simply intellectually curious (as am I), this program is thoroughly engaging. It covers Buddhist practices, beliefs and rituals and history including the recent and current struggles in Tibet with China. There are quite a few teachers or leaders featured in the program, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and even a segment featuring Richard Gere discussing the importance of a Free Tibet. As a bonus item with the DVD set, there is a wonderful audio CD called "Music For Enlightenment" by Rahul Sharma.
8. Peace Is Every Step-Meditation In Action: The Life and Work of Thich Nhat Hanh
Leading Vietnamese Zen teacher and author of many books (including the bestsellers Being Peace, Living Buddha/Living Christ, The Miracle of Mindfulness and Peace Is Every Step), Thich Nhat Hanh has had a profound impact on contemporary thinking and, importantly, social action. His efforts to achieve an early peaceful end to the American war in Vietnam earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a forty-year exile from his homeland.
Peace Is Every Step is an intimate and direct portrait of of a monk who has lived through war and fought back with meditation, love and grace under fire, testimony to the faith that simple practices and insights drawn from (but not by any means limited to) the Buddhist meditative tradition can help change conditions for the better: on a personal level, in the family, in the community, in a nation and in the world.
Narrated by Ben Kingsley Produced and Directed by Gaetano Kazuo Maida. • Filmed on location in Plum Village, France; Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.; and at retreats around the U.S. • Plus: rare archival footage from Vietnam in the 1960s. Bonus feature: Touching Peace—An Evening With Thich Nhat Hanh This 90-minute public talk before an audience of 3500 in Berkeley, California; introduced by author/activist Joanna Macy.