Amongst White Clouds
by Edward A. Burger
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chinese Buddhist hermit monksDirector: Edward A. Burger
Brand: FESTIVAL MEDIA
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Unknown)
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-06-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Festival Media
Movie Reviews of Amongst White Clouds
Movie Review: At the entrance, my bare feet on the dirt floor, Here, gusts of heat; at my back, white clouds"---Czeslaw Milosz
Summary: 5 Stars
AMONGST WHITE CLOUDS ultimately impressed me. This is filmmaker/Zen Student Edward Burger's interview documentary with Ch'an (Zen) hermits living in seclusion in the Zhongnan Mountains of China in keeping with an ancient tradition of Chinese Buddhist hermitage. Most of them live alone or in small communities.
This tradition was thought to have been undone in Mao's Cultural Revolution, but it clearly survived that period of repression as it has since time immemorial.
Although the film starts out slowly and is a little tiresome to listen to (for non-Chinese speakers there are English subtitles to follow), it builds on itself as we are introduced to more and more of the monks and we become more immersed in their state of existence and way of thought.
From the 20-ish monk whose family came three times to kidnap him back to town to the 90 year old man who looks and acts like a sage of antiquity, we discover a wide divergence in the types of men and women who elect this life. At the same time, we find a striking similarity in the fact that most of these practitioners outright reject the hurly-burly of daily life in favor of quiet contemplation. Most of the monks do not live in caves. They live in well-built huts. Some have electric lights and running water. Some go to town (apparently within walking distance) regularly, while others refuse to leave their bucolic setting. Comparing and contrasting the views Burger gives us of the natural environment of the mountains with the mad rush of city life, it is not hard to understand why.
A previous reviewer states that the film is short on the "Why" of Zen practice: WHY do they choose this life, WHY do they feel impelled toward Enlightenment? The answer is that there is no answer. Zen is like that. There is no "Why" to practice, merely the doing of it.
AMONGST WHITE CLOUDS answers no questions, it merely invites us to be amongst white clouds.
Summary of Amongst White Clouds
Gain rare access into the lives of Zen Buddhist monks who live in the remote and scattered hermitages along China's Zhongnan Mountain range. Often forgotten by history, this location and practice has helped these hidden sages attain enlightenment for some five thousand years. Writer/director Edward Burger is one of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these wise masters, and he graciously shares their tradition so we might begin exploring our own modern-day suffering and enlightenment. 86 minutes.Similar DVD Movies
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