Metta Meditation - Filmwest Associates

Quiet Mind: meditation for real life is a new series - the first of its kind - introducing
the living traditions of meditation in a visually rich and imaginative style.
Quiet Mind examines how these ancient practices apply to our contemporary, fast
paced lives through the use of fascinating characters, practical information and experiential
examples.
The Quiet Mind series delivers a fresh and absorbing experience. Each episode presents
informative content and breath-taking locales that will satisfy popular curiosity
about what’s what in the rather confusing world of meditation techniques.
Colourful and engaging, sometimes humorous, Quiet Mind invites viewers to experience
ancient disciplines as they change and adapt to modern times.
Most importantly, each episode of the series is itself a relaxing interlude of engaged
attention; a stress-free 23 minute oasis of Quiet Mind.
6 x 23:00 minutes; Grades 10 - Post Secondary; 2003
The six episodes are:
1.
Zen Buddhism:
Chop Wood, Carry Water
4.
Metta Meditation:
Opening the Heart
2.
Hatha Yoga:
A Return to the Wholeness
5.
Christian Meditation:
The Light Within
3.
Miksang Photography:
Opening the Good Eye
6.
Healing Qigong:
Restoring Natural Harmony
FILMWEST ASSOCIATES
Canada: 2400 Hayman Road • Kelowna, B.C. V1Z 1Z8 Ph: (250) 769 - 3399
U.S.A. 300 West Second Street, Carson City, NV 89703 Ph: (775) 883 - 8090
• Fax 1-800-570-5505 • E-Mail: info@filmwest.com Visit us on the Web at www.filmwest.com

Zen Buddhism: Chop Wood, Carry Water Vancouver, BC
Known for its spare and beautiful aesthetic, the Zen Buddhist practice of
zazen embodies a paradoxical approach - “the truth that can be told is not
the truth.” The meditation technique is utterly simple; cultivating direct,
undiluted, primary experience. The essence of the practice is to relax the
mind by not striving, planning, or strategizing, but by acting simply and
directly - just sitting, just walking.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a Zen priest and abbot, a husband, father,
poet, and author. He is a senior Dharma teacher at the San Fransisco Zen
Center, where he was abbot from 1995-2000. He has published eight volumes
of poetry, including the work “Opening to You: Zen-Inspired
Translations of the Psalms,” which reflects his interest in interreligious dialogue,
as does his work as co-author of “Benedict’s Dharma: Buddhists
Comment on the Rule of St. Benedict.” Norman is the founder of the Bay
Area’s Everyday Zen Foundation which is dedicated to sharing the Zen
attitude, spirit, and practice in a mutually transformative dialogue with the
world.
He is also guiding teacher to the Mountain Rain Zen Community in
Vancouver, BC; the Bellingham Zen Practice Group in Washington; Mar
de Jade in Mexico; and The New York Zen Circle. In 2003, Harper San
Fransisco will publish Norman’s new book on spiritual mentoring.
Hatha Yoga: Return to the Wholeness Singapore
Hatha Yoga recognizes that the body is a spiritual tool containing a wisdom
of its own. Through reflective work with the breath and the traditional
asanas (postures) of yoga, as well as quiet contemplation of the
body’s hidden messages - discovered through modern techniques like journal
writing - this intensive meditation practice presents a path to self-discovery
and the recognition of spiritual in everyday life.
Donna Farhi is a registered movement therapist and yoga teacher whose
holistic approach has made her a popular guest instructor and speaker
throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Australia. She is often
featured in The Yoga Journal, and is the author of the acclaimed and
popular The Breathing Book, and the soon to be released Freedom of
Discipline. She lives in New Zealand.
Miksang Photography: Opening the Good Eye
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Miksang is a Tibetan word that menas “good eye.” It is a new practice of
contemplative photography developed by Canadian Michael Wood and
based on the ancient traditional practice of insight meditation. The practice
is taught through a series of photographic assignments and visual exercises
designed to synchronize the eye and mind so the experience of seeing
is undistracted and fully present - awake. Seeing in this way, perception
is precise and direct, free of visual prejudice and the baggage of habitual
likes and dislikes, associations, and memories, all of which obscure
clear sight.
Michael Wood is the developer and principle teacher of Miksang
Contemplative Photography, which he has presented for 19 years in Canada
and the US. A long-time practitioner of insight meditation, as taught by
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Michael graduated from the Sheridan
College School of Visual Arts in 1970, majoring in portraiture and fine art
photography. He has worked as a free-lance photographer for The Toronto
Star, and Toronto Sun, and has won five Kodak Awards of Merit as well
as a Canadian Magazine Photography Award. He has had fifteen gallery
exhibitions of his work, and has published his ideas on contemplative photography
in Photo Life Magazine.
FILMWEST
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Metta Meditation: Opening the Heart
Spirit Rock, Marin, California and Vancouver, BC
Metta means loving kindness and is a simple, direct and reasonable meditation
practice that opens the heart in friendliness to oneself, to others,
and to all of life. When practiced mindfully, metta develops tranquility
and concentration, provides a way to work with anger and fear, and serves
as a means to experience the interrelatedness of life. Traditionally, metta
mediation is taught by stories from personal experience - stories that
elucidate the method and meaning of the practice, as well as bringing
much laughter and sometimes, poignant tears.
Sylvia Boorstein is a best-selling author and contributor to the Shambhala
Sun. Her books include That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Buddhist, and the
up-coming Pay Attention, For Goodness Sake. Sylvia is a psychotherapist,
and is a teacher and co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in
Marin, California, as well as a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation
Center in Barre, Massachusetts. She is both a sought after Buddhist
teacher and an observant Jew.
Christian Meditation: The Light Within Singapore
Early Christianity, as practiced by the monastic Desert Fathers, had a contemplative
dimension that was lost for hundreds of years and recovered
in recent times by Father John Main. The practice involves the focused
repetition of a short phrase - a prayer-word mantra - to turn the search
light of consciousness away from the ordinary preoccupations of mind,
to discover the greater sense of being found in silence. Meditation in the
Christian tradition is concerned not with thinking but with being - it goes
beyond thoughts, even so called “holy” thoughts of God or Christ, requiring
complete surrender to the simplicity of the mantra, bringing the
distracted mind to stillness, silence and attention.
Dom Laurence Freeman O.S.B. is the Director of the World Community
for Christian Meditation, a global network inspired by the teachings of
Fr. John Main (with whom Dom Freeman studied in Montreal). He now
serves a worldwide network of 27 meditation centres and more than a
thousand weekly meditation groups in 50 countries. He travels regularly
in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Dom Freeman
is the author of several well-known books on Christian meditation, including
“The Light Within, “ and he led the “Way of Peace” dialogues
with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1998, 1999 and 2000. He is a
Benedictine Monk of the Monastery off Christ the King, London, UK.
He has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Oxford, and experience
in merchant banking, journalism and at the United Nations.
Healing Qigong: Restoring Natural Harmony
Sheng Zhen Quji Yuan Gong is a system of Qigong that deepens a student’s
connection with heaven and earth, strengthening the body, balancing
the emotions, and opening the heart. It involves moving and nonmoving
meditations, and its postures and movements also involve messages
and mental images, which are contemplated as they are practiced.
This brings the benefit of healing both body and spirit. When practiced
diligently and with sincerity, from within, one begins to find answers to
the deepest questions in life. Far from being a practice that just enhances
health, Wuji Yuan Gong then also becomes a vehicle for transformation
of consciousness, and an experience of one’s original nature.
Master Li Jun Feng is a teacher of Qigong in the tradition of Sheng Zhen
(Unconditional Love) Wuji Yuan Gong. His background includes fifteen
years as a head coach of the world renowned Beijing Wushu (Kung Fu)
Team of the People’s Republic of China, as well as a career as a movie
actor, playing leading roles in eight films including the critically acclaimed
“Honor of Dong Fang Xu.” In 1987, at the height of his career, he discovered
Sheng Zhen Wuji Yuan Gong and moved to Manila in the
Philippines in order to devote his time to teaching Wuji Yuan Gong to the
world. Presently, he tours Canada, the US, South America, and Europe
throughout the year, training and certifying others to become teachers of
Qigong. He is also the head of International Sheng Zhen Society, the
foundation that promotes the practice of Wuji Yuan Gong.
Canada: 2400 Hayman Road • Kelowna, B.C. V1Z 1Z8 Ph: (250) 769-3399 U.S.A. 300 West Second Street, Carson City, NV 89703 Ph: (775) 883-8090
• Fax 1-800-570-5505 • E-Mail: info@filmwest.com Visit us on the Web at www.filmwest.com