![]() ![]() "So one very deep profound idea, and one very practical one, and now I can't leave a room without looking around to make sure those lights are off." 'You'll do a little good for the planet, you know?'" Ray says, gently mimicking the Dalai Lama's accent. "He said when you leave a room, turn out the lights. When asked how the experience has effected him Rick Ray says he's been trying to live up to the Dalai Lamas idea that if you live your life truthfully, you will have nothing to explain. "Ten Questions for the Dalai Lama" recently screened at the Twin Cities Tibetan Film Festival, and opens this weekend for a run at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis. He says he was surprised and delighted when first friends praised the documentary and then film festivals came calling. Ray edited the film at home on his laptop. "When you see the backdrop, when you understand what the Dalai Lama's been though in his life, the suffering, it lends so much more meaning to his compassion," Rays says. He also received video from Tibetan activists of conditions in Tibetan prisons, and arranged for more to be secretly shot to show life in Tibet as it is today. He then spent three years searching obscure film archives around the world for historical footage of Tibet and the Dalai Lama before and after the Chinese invasion. Ray found that even though he had his interview with the Dalai Lama, he needed much more to complete the film. "And he is the first to tell you that if science disproves faith, well maybe faith should evolve." "Another question that he answered surprisingly was 'When do you evolve religious doctrine when faced with scientific fact?'" Ray says. They talked about truth, faith and science. They talked about non-violence, and dealing with the Chinese. They talked about religion and philosophy, politics and history. And if you can't be comfortable after that, then you probably do have some problems relaxing somehow." He walks over to every person in the room and offers them a greeting scarf and hugs them, shakes their hand, looks them in the eye. He's smiling, he's kind of kidding around. "But when he walks in, the moment he walks in, he is "the presence," and that's really what the name 'Kundun' means, 'the Presence,' Ray says. Things changed when the Dalai Lama arrived. ![]() In addition to wondering if he had the right 10 questions, he wrestled with setting up his camera equipment, and his nerves. The Dalai Lama has a habit of cutting interviews short if he feels the interviewer is insincere.Įventually the day came and Ray felt the pressure mounting. Ray spent the next 90 days travelling and preparing his list.Īlong the way Ray learned that the promised hour might not be an hour at all. The e-mail stipulated he would be allowed only 10 questions. You are welcome to meet with him for an hour, have an interview with him alone in three months, and thus a film was born." They said you are welcome to come to the monastery. "The e-mail was his actual e-mail and within just a few days I received a response. He just happened to have the Dalai Lamas e-mail address.Īgain Ray was skeptical - but he went to a cyber cafe and sent off his request. then the driver said he wasn't suggesting a letter, but an e-mail. Ray admits he was skeptical, given what he knew about the Indian postal system.
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