IMPACT! Service, Contemplation and Social Justice

A transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you’ve ever seen or felt before. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature’s own prisms of symmetry, savagery, chaos and harmony.

A chronicle of the life of a Buddhist monk from childhood to the end of his days.

Follows Hyongak (Paul Muenzen), an American-born Zen monk and student of Korean Zen master Seung Sahn, on a traditional pilgrimage through South Korea. Introduces various aspects of Korean Buddhism, as well parts of Korea’s traditional culture, such as pottery and music. Also visits Providence Zen Center, a Korean Zen center in Rhode Island, and provides background information on Hyongak’s path to becoming a Buddhist monk.

The Grande Chartreuse, considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries, is based in the French Alps. This documentary shows life in the Grande Chartreuse monastery, home of the Carthusian Order. Using extended shots, no interviews, and no music other than that of the monks’ own chanting, looks at the monks’ days centered on contemplation, work, and study.

With little dialogue, this film is a meditation on the mysterious cycles of life. Set in Italy’s mountainous region of Calabria, it traces the path of one goatherder’s soul as it passes from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. Director Michelangelo Frammartino was inspired by Pythagoras’ belief in ’four-fold transmigration’ of souls, but his film is far more physical than philosophical.

Singer, dancer, filmmaker, composer, choreographer, Meredith Monk’s talents include about as many artistic fields as you can imagine. Celebrates a multidisciplinary career that draws from a wellspring of Zen Buddhist beliefs and spans a period of 40 years.

Selected sections 1. How we think and how to think better 2. Cool rationality and hot thought 3. The strategy of visualization 4. Visualizing concepts and propositions 5. The power of thought experiment 6. Thinking like Aristotle

In the majestic setting of the Himalayas, the brilliant young monk Tashi returns to the world after three years of solitary meditation in a remote hermitage. At a harvest festival he meets the beautiful Pema, and chooses to quit monastic life for the challenges and wonders of the wider world.