IDS 101: Zen and the Arts in America: Films and Music

Renowned Chef and Zen Master Edward Espe Brown guides students through the mastery of cooking and the importance of how we treat our food.

The program follows in the path of a student priest, showing the physical and mental disciplines demanded in the process leading to satori or enlightenment. (100 minutes)

Nicholas Vreeland walked away from a worldly life of privilege to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk.

This cleverly-constructed film tells the story of Ruth, a half-Japanese filmmaker living in New York, who has inherited a can of bones that she keeps on a shelf in her closet. The bones are half of the remains of her dead Japanese grandmother, which she is supposed to deliver to her estranged mother.

Karim is the son of an assimilated Indian businessman in London. When his Zen-obsessed father becomes the guru of the swinging suburban scene, Karim is swept up into the world of theater, art, drugs, rock and roll and sexual exploration.

In a remote monastery high up in the mountains an old master, a young monk and an orphaned boy devote themselves to their Buddhist teachings. (In Korean w/ English subtitles)

An intimate look at Japanese spirituality and its impact on daily life.

Documentary tribute to American avant-garde composer, John Cage; filmed in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, the program premieres rare archival footage, concert excerpts, and a set of short episodes featuring associates of Cage and contemporary artists.

Inner voice celebrates Monk's life and work, and illuminates the role that Buddhism has had in her artistic practice.

Four American musical artists who haven't been content simply to entertain, but feel compelled to "push the envelope" of music.

The life, music, and philosophy of the composer John Cage.

Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word meaning variously: crazy life, life in turmoil, life disintegrating, life out of balance and a state of life that calls for another way of life. This film presents a concert of visual images that progresses from purely natural environments to nature as affected by people, and finally to our contemporary urban environment that is devoid of nature. Music by Philip Glass.

The comedic misadventures of two brothers from Germany who take a trip to Japan and visit a Buddhist monastery. (In German with English subtitles)

A young man's spiritual odyssey, filmed on location in Rishikesh and Bharatpur, and based on Hesse's novella.

Chronicles the story of Prince Siddhartha and his spiritual transformation into the Buddha.

Ferlinghetti founded City Lights, the San Francisco bookstore and press, which helped change American literature. Includes his poem, Buddha in the woodpile.