| Women of Tibet: The Buddha's Wife | |
|---|---|
Image for Women of Tibet: The Buddha's Wife |
|
| Directed by | Rosemary Rawcliffe |
| Produced by | Rosemary Rawcliffe |
| Cinematography | Peter McCandless |
| Running time | 57 min. |
| Country | USA |
Women of Tibet: The Buddha's Wife is a documentary film directed and produced by Rosemary Rawcliffe. It is the third and final film in the Women of Tibet trilogy and is expected for release in 2011.
Contents |
The Buddha's Wife is the final film in the Women of Tibet trilogy of one-hour documentaries exploring the Buddhist values at the heart of Tibetan culture — compassion, nonviolence and peace.[1] Forced by the demands of modern living we delve into what it means to follow a spiritual path while reexamining traditional roles. This film seeks to shed light on what happens when two primal forces, the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine, begin to work together to create a more harmonious and peaceful world.
This story begins long before the Buddha was the Buddha. As the story of Yashodhara's marriage to Siddhartha unfolds, the film takes us on a journey into the profound changes we all experience on our quest to become fully realized human beings. We learn that theirs was a sacred marriage, a karmic journey across time and space. He destined to become the Buddha, she, the Buddha's Wife.
By using their story as a metaphor, we learn from Dr. Angeles Arrien that "sacred marriage" is an esoteric term for two life force energies living within each of us, a dynamic force and a magnetic force. Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox explains that we all have these two energies, the feminine and masculine, inside each of us, whether we're male or female.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama shares his struggles as a young man bringing these two forces into balance. He describes these forces as the positive and negative energies in all living things, and how when they are in balance, a person becomes stronger. Rinchen Khando and Tendzin Choegyal (the Dalai Lama's younger brother) share what they've learned from each other during their 37 years of marriage and how integrating these two life forces within themselves individually has helped develop each of them spiritually. Ogyen Trinley Dorje, The 17th Karmapa talks about his experience of being in a male body, yet in his everyday life he has a strong feminine emotion, and relates childhood memories that affected how he developed his inner feminine.
And then Tibetan Oracles and Mediums, Lhamo Yudronma, Khandro Choechen, and Khando Lhamo Tseringma bridge heaven and earth, past and future, known and unknown, showing us that there are "sacred marriages" to be found everywhere and in everything we do.