I heard from my old friend Amber Bemak today, who informed me and many others that a film she and her colleagues have been working on for the last five years, Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet, is now available on video. Chariot Videos, the company distributed the film on DVD, tells us more about it:
In the summer of 2005, renowned Buddhist teacher, Tsoknyi Rinpoche III, accompanied by a handful of western students, traveled to the Nangchen region in Eastern Tibet.
The purpose of the trip was to document the lives and assess the needs of the Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns – 3000 remarkable women who live and practice an ancient yogic tradition in nunneries and hermitages scattered across this remote, mountainous region.
Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet tells the story of this extraordinary journey.
Narrated by Richard Gere, the video explores the unique world of the nuns who study under Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s guidance. Their lives are seen through the eyes of the western women who accompanied Tsoknyi Rinpoche to Nangchen and are attempting to make their own link with the often strange, but hauntingly familiar, world of Tibetan Buddhism.
Compelling interviews with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo and Tsultrim Allione place the practice Nangchen nuns in the context of the largely male dominated history of Buddhism in Tibet.
Tsoknyi Rinpoche III tells the remarkable story of the first Tsoknyi Rinpoche, whose revolutionary vision of women receiving the same teachings as men initiated the lineage of Tsoknyi Nangchen nuns more than a century ago.
You can order your copy here.
Upon the invitation of our friend and past interviewee Joan Halifax Roshi, I wrote a little something for this week’s issue of the Upaya Newsletter, which you can read here. It’s a reflection on studying Pāḷi–the Middle-Indo Aryan dialect in which the earliest Buddhist texts are preserved–and how it has informed my path as a socially-engaged Buddhist. It was cobbled together from some old thoughts that have appeared at this blog, inspiration from Roshi, and a few fresh thoughts. Take a look at the piece here and share your thoughts in the comments.
