Samsara

'Samsara' tells the story of Tashi, a young Tibetan Buddhist monk, who renounces monastic life in favour of a relationship with a beautiful young woman named Pema. Together they have a child and as the story unfolds Tashi's life in the material world becomes increasingly complex and difficult.

The movie successfully captures the difference between the contemplative life of a Buddhist monk, and the worldly life of a husband. This is most clearly shown in the stark contrast between the opening sequence of the movie, where Tashi is in a long meditation retreat, and the sensual sex scenes later on.

The majestic landscapes of Ladakh, one of India's most remote regions, provide a pristine Himalayan backdrop. And the original soundtrack and chanting is haunting at times.

The movie has English sub-titles and moves along quite slowly with limited dialogue and many pregnant pauses. This may be disconcerting for some viewers, but to me this reflective mood seemed appropriate for the subject-matter.

'Samsara' could be said to build on the groundwork provided by popular movies such as 'Seven Years in Tibet' and 'Kundun', to provide a more authentic and detailed portrayal of the vicissitudes of life and culture in central Asia. (If you enjoy 'Samsara' you may also like 'The Cup'.) This award-winning movie can only enhance a growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism in the West.

I have read all the comments on this film here and I was surprised one more time to see how differently people react to one and the same film. What struck me also was that some of the viewers clearly mistake Tibet for India, because apparently they don't know that there are Buddhists in India as well.

Buddhism has its origins in Hinduism itself as it is believed that Buddha is a reincarnation of lord Vishnu The Preserver, one of the three main Hindu gods. But through the centuries Buddhism slowly developed as an independent religion. The film was shot in Ladakh which is in the Indian Himalayas, not in Tibet and two of the characters go to the town of Leh which is the capital of Ladakh and hence it is also in India. I thought that it is important to clarify these details as I don't think that one should mistake Tibet for India. India is not just Bollywood and as a country living under the phrase "unity in diversity" it surely has lots of different religious communities and lots of different cultures.

As for the film itself - I loved it, not only because it has been so beautifully shot (by the Bulgarian D.P. Rali Ralchev) and not only because it meets us with a part of the world we barely know, but mostly because I could identify with the characters and their desires, anguish, pain, joy, dreams. "Samsara" (the Hindu concept of reincarnation) asks some philosophic questions in a very earthly manner, I think. The ideas of Buddhism, the detachment from earthly life in order to reach enlightenment, the conquering of ourselves, our ego, our earthly desires (to love, to have family, to enjoy the simple but earthly life of a farmer, to possess objects and to command love from the others) are ideas or rather dilemmas that many of us face from time to time. Buddha has said that the middle way is the right way to follow, but how can this way be found? Is it through experiencing the earthly life, then renouncing it and then devoting oneself to the life a monk, choosing the spiritual life in search of the almighty truth and the great soul? This was the way Buddha has chosen - being a prince himself, having a family, and then renouncing it and devoting himself to the life of a recluse, but of a recluse who has reached the enlightenment and a recluse willing to share the truth with the others.

Everyone chooses one's own way. Tashi is a person who asks himself questions and he's a person who searches for his own right path. To say that he is only an egoist who leaves his wife when he gets fed up the life of a family man and a farmer is quite simplistic, I think. I believe he has been very honest from the beginning to the end and that is why he left the monastery at first and came back to it in the end. The important idea that I have discovered was that no matter what kind of path one will choose there will always be an anguish along the way. Maybe it is because of the eternal question unanswered - what to choose - to satisfy all desires or to conquer the one and only? No matter what we choose we will always doubt from time to time that maybe we should have chosen the opposite.

What I really liked about this film also is the fact that it presented us with the female point of view in the final monologue of Tashi's wife Pema. She was given no choice from him when he decided to go back to the monastery. She had to stay behind and take care of their son. She was shown to us as the keeper of the traditions (not allowing her son to play with the modern toy his father bought him from Leh) but at the same time she had that free spirit to make love to the unknown Lama and afterward to even marry him. I liked the sensitivity of the writer / director who cared not only to show us the pain of Pema when realizing she's losing his husband, but also to make her an intelligent woman who thinks and who turns out be as wise and devoted as her Lama husband.

Normally I would be with hundreds celebrating the arrival of the new year. Last night I decided to be alone with SAMSARA. When the film ended at 1h40am, I was in year 2006 -transformed. A masterpiece about choices that we all have to make sooner or later. I've spent hours surfing net on SAMSARA, reading reactions of people from Brazil to Bombay to Bucharest to Bangladesh. How wonderful so many people are united by SAMSARA. The film opens up your heart and soul. I am normally too much an intellectual when it comes to liking a film. But this one just took me like a storm -mesmerizing cinematography, soothing sound track (one of the best sound design ever!), soul-stirring landscapes and above all masterly written and directed by Pan Nalin -whoever he maybe. It is one of the most powerful first feature I have ever seen. I now eagerly await Nalin's next feature VALLEY OF FLOWERS. Meanwhile for anyone who has not yet seen this movie I say to them just go for it with open mind, leave your issues behind and just dive into SAMSARA...

Very rarely one can find such a well balanced movie with a full commitment from the whole staff: Director (Nalin Pan), all the Actors & the total Crew. Shooting a film like this is not an easy task. The beauty of the locations is just breathless (at several thousands miles of altitude!)... And if the hall has a good air conditioning system, for sure you will really feel the freezing winds that blows at the Himalayas by watching this outstanding film. It is not only the performance of the actors (animals included!... a smart dog called Kala -"Time" in Sanskrit- by instance or some impressive eagle!) but the quality of the script. There are some passages of the film that just tastes like a short documentary. And immediately it is softly engaged with the story. No matter how high could be your achievement, if it is not on balance with the Life Flow, you will face the even... unavoidably? Perhaps... Tashi (Shawn Ku)is a consecrated Lama that has been in the yoghi experience of Samadhi Meditation (Fullest Consciousness) during three years, three months, three weeks, three days... A little bit to much for his Master's criteria but the Disciple wanted to test himself till the very limits of his own potential. Recognized as a Khenpo (a title of tibetan scholastic mastery), some further and higher Initiation will be bestowed on him by the Highest Rimpocheh nearby. However, there is some other experience he has never faced till then: the awakening of his own sexuality and the relationship with the key of human gender, the woman! Therefore this new step will be postponed and replaced by his own decision's sake. As a layman, the Lama he used to be is almost gone. As a husband, he shows the main aspect of any other man of his condition. As a father, he forgets to be the one closest to his own child and... once more: he ran away. Finally, Tashi has to face the reality of Maya & Samsara, the value of the Teachings inside the Dharma from his Master and the higher spiritual level of his wife, the beautiful & convincing Pema (Christy Chung). After listening to her, there are very few subsisting doubts concerning the equal rights for both women & men to obtain the Buddhahood. This is the kind of movie one can see and watch time after time, just to check oneself's evolving... And to enjoy a very nice soundtrack with the exotic melodies of the dialogues in Tibetan Languages. Please, don't loose it!!

In Buddhism there is something called 'expedient means'. You won't speak to a fisherman about emptiness in the same way as to a mathematician, the terms and metaphors change according to circumstances. This speaks of the general practicality and suppleness within Buddhism, there is no attachment to scripture, the point is to help ourselves across using whatever is at hand.

Here we have a Buddhist parable on faith, a young man who's spent all his life in a monastery is nagged inside that he has been trying to cleanse himself before any dust had time to settle. In the opening scenes we see a procession of monks open up a cave where he has been meditating for three years, his hair and nails have grown, dust has settled on the frail, ascetic body. As they clean him up on the way to the monastery we see a young man's face. This is all counterpointed with the Buddha's lifestory, a prince who didn't set out on the journey until late in his 20s.

'Expedient means' in this case means narrative depth is sacrificed so we can get with more clarity the moment of suffering.

The consequence from a cinematic standpoint is that it's evocative enough; windswept Himalayan landscapes, textures, passage of time. But the journey is schematic, from purity in the monastery to defilement in the village, from contentment to the onset of desire. A fabled reality means that what's missing here is a fuller trajectory of a person being changed, we simply jump ahead to the crucial points of the parable.

Something else from the Buddhist point of view though.

Buddhism has developed a robust model about life and practical tools that actually work. Its mission is not really to converse with scientists about the beginning of the cosmos or become bogged down in epistemology about its findings. Its mission from the beginning has been to put an end to suffering; along the way a body of knowledge emerges because in Buddhism ending suffering is not an abstract ideal left to a god's grace, it is a daily practice of observing mind and self, all sorts of insights appear.

There's no question that the problem of conveying an insight is mirrored across Buddhism and film. You say too much and you risk obviating the matter, too little and maybe it's not enough. Here as a deep inspection and mindful exercise the film falls short, the fabled reality puts us at a distance. But the narrative moments when desire and dissatisfaction manifest should be familiar to all and carry a simple power that is the essential Buddhist matter, seeing suffering right now.

Beginner's Buddhism is some of the most powerful of all.