Summer Storm - Tatsumi Hijikata (1973)

“A Summer Storm by Hijikata Tatsumi” primarily consists of the legendary Japanese dancer Hijikata Tatsumi's legendary performance shot in Kyoto in 1973, and is a tribute to this extraordinary talent. Now, thirty years later, it is still funny, sad, and infinitely gripping. Hijikata was the pioneer of the reputed Butoh dance. Butoh, performed in slow, unique movements by dancers, with their bodies painted white and bent-forward, is an antithesis of the traditional Western dance. As the only remaining footage in color of his performance, the film shows Hijikata as an eternal punker, rebel, and sufferer.

Naga Baba Tradition Baba Rampuri

Baba Rampuri, an American expatriate, has lived in India since 1970, when be became the first foreigner to be initiated into India's most ancient order of yogis and shamans, the Naga Sannyasis. He is now a guru with a number of disciples within the order. During his long discipleship in this mystical and sometimes dangerous world, he received traditional teachings in sacred speech, mantra, tantra, ayurveda, logic, ritual, and, encompassing all the above, the way of the yogi in the Yoga Tradition. Baba says, "Your tool of knowledge is Speech, because its boundaries establish the possibilities of the world."

Dust and Ashes - Maha Kumbh Mela

 

A 50 minute look at the profound faith of Hinduism that led 15 million people to the world’s largest human gathering - the great Kumbh Mela pilgrimage In Alahabad, India in 1989, for BBC 2’s “Under the Sun” series.

The Sadhu who came to Varanasi from Italy

In 1974, a 22 year old Italian named Alessandro traveled to India. He never went back. The moment he entered Benares, he was captivated. He adopted the life of a Sadhu and was given the name Shiva Das. The gentle soul departed his mortal body in May 2020. 

I believe I met Baba Shiva Das at Assi Ghat in Varanasi in January or Feburary 1997. This is what he said to me (I wrote it down): 

 “Just make silence, the idea of turning off the ego machine and listening with your whole being. Become the harmony that is chanting the mantra, the names of God. Surrender to cosmic Bhakti, Live with balance in nature. Avoid the conflicts and chaos of desire. Realise what you need and travel through what is called days and nights. The moon is soma juice for all plants and from thoughts and actions you create us. Switch off and make the flow go the other way. Then tune consciousness through levels of perception to new states of ecstasy. What is really you is eternal and has been. We are all ascending into energy but there has been a breakdown. There has been a blockage along the way, a disturbance in the flow. Thoughts are self-fulfilling, so what happens if you stop thinking? Reality makes itself. Do not be distracted by your mind. Silence is penance.”

"The Life of Milarepa"

MILAREPA Part 1 - "How I met Marpa" - Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche Homage from Oseling on Vimeo.

Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ, Wylie: rje btsun mi la ras pa, 1028/40–1111/23) was a Tibetan enlightened Yogi, who was famously known as a murderer when he was a young man, before turning to Buddhism and becoming a highly accomplished Buddhist disciple. He is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and spiritual poets, whose teachings are known among several schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is also famous for the feat of climbing Mount Kailash.

Samadhi Part 1 - "Maya, the Illusion of the Self" (2017)

"The Ego Construct is nothing more than the impulse to repeat."

Tantra: Indian Rites of Ecstasy (1969)

This early western film documentary (filmed 1967-68) features Hindu Tantric rituals and visualisation as images and sounds from Northern India and Nepal.
Tantra (Sanskrit: तन्त्र) literally means "loom, warp, weave".
The connotation of the word tantra to mean an esoteric practice or religious ritualism is a colonial era European invention. The term is based on the metaphor of weaving, states Ron Barrett, where the Sanskrit root tan means the warping of threads on a loom. It implies "interweaving of traditions and teachings as threads" into a text, technique or practice. The aim is to experience immediate revelatory or conscious shifts in awareness through disciplinary practice; both physical and mental.
The word appears in the hymns of the Rigveda such as in 10.71, with the meaning of "warp (weaving)". It is found in many other Vedic era texts, such as in section 10.7.42 of the Atharvaveda and many Brahmanas. In these and post-Vedic texts, the contextual meaning of Tantra is that which is "principal or essential part, main point, model, framework, feature”. In the Smritis and epics of Hinduism (and Jainism), the term means "doctrine, rule, theory, method, technique or chapter" and the word appears both as a separate word and as a common suffix, such as atma-tantra meaning "doctrine or theory of Atman (soul, self)".
The term “Tantra” after about 500 BCE, in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism is a bibliographic category, just like the word Sutra (which means "sewing together", mirroring the metaphor of "weaving together" implied by Tantra). The same Buddhist texts are sometimes referred to as tantra or sutra; for example, Vairocabhisambodhi-tantra is also referred to as Vairocabhisambodhi-sutra. The various contextual meaning of the word Tantra varies with the Indian text.
Directed by Nik Douglas, Produced by Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser. Limited initial release in 1969 on college cinemas and galleries in the USA and England. Re-released in 1994 as a VHS cassette. 

Tantra of Gyuto Sacred Rituals of Tibet (1968)

Monks of the Gyuto Tantric College perform sacred Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies in a style of chanting that expresses the ecstasy of true meditation. Tantra Of Gyuto - Sacred Rituals Of Tibet is a 1968 British documentary film made by Francis Huxley vesves Mark Elliott. It focuses on the monks of Gyoto Tantric

Juggernaut

The Karthikai Deepam Festival in Thiruvannamalai, India

Jump to chapters:
1. The town of Thiruvannamalai 2:02
2. Preparing for the Festival 5:59
3. Inside the temple 10:46
4. Offerings 14:57
5. Morning 18:25
6. Rain 21:37
7. Pulling the chariots 25:51
8. A moment of rest 29:08
9. If I can help I will help 32:28
10. The last day 36:26
11. Arunachala 39:58
12. Shiva's Fire 44:14

Yoga : Aligning to the Source

The film introduces audiences to the vast subject of Yoga. Millions of people around the world today practice some from of Yoga and this film explores the origins of Yoga, its development and practices, its integration across religions in India, the science behind it and its successful spread all over the world. It demonstrates how Yoga can be a comprehensive set of tools for life, for realigning one's mind and body in equilibrium and for accessing a higher sense of consciousness and awareness.
Release date
2013
Running time
26:20
Language
English

Tibetian Yoga Masters

Tibetian tantra masters. Very rare colore video.



Two masters meet, and touch Milarepa's dorje.




Very rare color video. Tibetan monks in retreat.

The last 3 faces you'll see in the video are:

1) His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage in India

B) Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, great realized master in the Kagyu lineage.

C) His Holiness, the 16th Karmapa! The head of the Karma Kagyu lineage. A legendery realized master, said to have attained the 'rainbow body' feat.

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi

This is a biographical film on Bhimsen Joshi who is undoubtedly the singer of this century.An exponent of the Kirana Gharana he is equally at ease with lighter varieties such as 'Bhajans' and stage shows. His guru's have taught him not to be gimmicky and therefore he remains one of the most sought after vocalists at most prestigious music concerts.

A Day with a Sadhu

A tale about the daily life of Gajender Gipi Mharai, a naga sadhu, at Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, India.

Lost Worlds of the Kama Sutra

"A religious text written in stone"
The Khajuraho Group of Monuments in Khajuraho, a town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, located in Chhatarpur District, about 620 kilometres (385 mi) southeast of New Delhi, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculptures.

The name Khajuraho, ancient "Kharjuravāhaka", is derived from the Sanskrit words kharjura = date palm and vāhaka = "one who carries". Locals living in the Khajuraho village always knew about and kept up the temples as best as they could. They were pointed out to the English in the late 19th century when the jungles had taken a toll on the monuments.In the 19th century, British engineer T.S. Burt arrived in the area, followed by General Alexander Cunningham. Cunningham put Khajuraho on the world map when he explored the site on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India and described what he found in glowing terms. The Khajuraho Group of Monuments has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is considered to be one of the "seven wonders" of India.

Ram Dass ◦ Fierce Grace ◦ Full Movie (2001)

Mickey Lemle's documentary Ram Dass, Fierce Grace is a portrait of Ram Dass (Richard Alpert), author, 60s guru, spiritual teacher, cohort of Timothy Leary, & author of Be Here Now, one of the most influential books of the 1970s. The film begins in the present, as Ram Dass deals with the effects of a massive stroke he suffered in February 1997 that left him physically incapacitated, & with impaired memory & speech. Interweaving current conversations, interviews with people in his life, & archival footage, Lemle then looks back at his childhood, the controversy surrounding his research with Timothy Leary in psychedelics at Harvard, his studies in India with Neem Karoli Baba, who renamed him Baba Ram Dass (Servant of God), his work with the Seva Foundation in social action projects dedicated to relieving suffering in the world, & his impact as an author & guru to millions of followers.

Several examples are shown of his compassion & his ability to feel the pain of others. In an early sequence, his beautiful "Rachel's Letter" comforts a family after their daughter was murdered. In the final sequence, Ram Dass listens to a young woman struggling to overcome her grief at her boyfriend's violent death. She brings him to tears when she tells him about a dream she had in which her boyfriend speaks to her from beyond with a reassuring message.

When Ram Dass received the "fierce grace" of being "stroked," he admits he did not have any unusual spiritual epiphany. He recalls, "Here I am, Mr. Spiritual, & in my own head I didn't orient toward the spirit. It showed me I have some work to do." He has written about the stroke in his latest book, Still Here in which he talks about slowing down, & finding out about the "everything" that is out there. For Ram Dass, aging has become a gift. "I was galumphing through life before the stroke," he says. "I'm at peace now more than I've ever been. The peace comes from settling in to the moment."

Enhanced by the music of Krishna Das, the documentary is more than just a bio-pic or a meditation on the process of aging, it is an inspiring portrait of a man whose life can be summed up in one word -- service. Ram Dass has said, "What one person has to offer to another is their own being, nothing more, nothing less." In Ram Dass, Fierce Grace, Lemle has given us Ram Dass's being, nothing more, nothing less. That is a gift of love.