Walk with Me

How do we live, knowing we are going to die? In search of answers, we probed the minds of atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, physicians, philosophers, authors, academics, a legendary stand-up comic, and scores of random pedestrians.

Joao Texeira de Faria, also known as John of God, is a world famous spiritual healer from Brazil who has been attributed to many miracles that science cannot explain. His work attracts both controversy and acclaim. For the past 30 years, thousands of people from all over the world have been flocking to his remote village in Brazil in search of cures for illnesses Western medicine offers little hope. Film maker Michelle Mahrer follows the journey of two of her friends on a healing odyssey to Brazil - Lya Shaked from Australia has terminal cancer, and Fred Porter from USA has HIV. Will they be lucky enough to receive a miracle?

Ram Dass is one of the most important cultural figures from the 1960s and 70s. A pyschedelic pioneer, author of Be Here Now, beloved spiritual teacher, and outspoken advocate for death-and-dying awareness, Ram Dass is now himself approaching the end of life. Since suffering a life-changing stroke twenty years ago, he has been living at his home on Maui and deepening his spiritual practice — which is centered on love and his idea of merging with his surroundings and all living things. Shot in a nuanced cinematic style, the film is an intimate summary of his life learning and awareness, and is ultimately a poetic meditation on life, death, and the soul’s journey home.

An engaging reflection on the meaning of existence and on the theme of death in the different spiritual traditions of the East and West.

Four men from a nomadic Tibetan tribe undertake their annual, ritualistic pilgrimage to a sacred salt lake. Salt gathered in this traditional fashion will be sold to provide the economic livelihood of the tribe for the coming year. The journey, necessary for the group's survival, also incorporates a number of rituals necessary for their culture to survive in the modern world.

Buddhist monk and photographer Matthieu Picard as he returns to the Asian country in the Himalayas where he spent a decade after seven years away, revisiting breathtaking landscapes and experiencing local traditions.

Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi is a play retelling the Jesus story, with Jesus as a gay man living in the 1950s in Corpus Christi, Texas. This documentary follows the troupe, playwright, and audience around the world on a five-year journey of Terrence McNally’s passion play, where voices of protest and support collide on one of the central issues facing the LGBT community: religion.

Shannon Harvey was working in her dream job as a radio news journalist when, at the age of 24 she was diagnosed with a devastating auto-immune disease. Determined to find a solution, she began researching cutting-edge mind-body medicine. Is it really possible, she wonders, that a simple practice that can be done anywhere, any time, by anyone, can ease suffering and promote physical and mental healing? Synthesizing the work of leading scientists with the ways of mystics, she undertakes a year-long experiment, with herself as the subject. Will meditation revolutionize her health and well-being, or is it just another over-hyped self-help fad? This compelling account of her journey provides fascinating insights about how to be well and happy in the modern world.

This documentary for PBS by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere, tells the story of the Buddha’s life, a journey especially relevant to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. It features the work of some of the world’s greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia, have depicted the Buddha’s life in art rich in beauty and complexity. Hear insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Join the conversation and learn more about meditation, the history of Buddhism, and how to incorporate the Buddha’s teachings on compassion and mindfulness into daily life.

From Executive Producers Jewel and Deepak Chopra, comes "The Mindfulness Movement," a feature documentary that examines the growing number of people throughout society who are working to create a healthier, happier world by spreading mindfulness - a peaceful quality of attention anyone can develop by simply focusing on the present moment in a non-judgmental way.

The films looks through the eyes of the first generation of Western Dharma teachers at the myriad issues Buddhism faces and how it is adapting within a culture that runs on the engines of competition and greed, where many consider cruelty to be kindness and ignorance to be knowledge. But throughout its history Buddhism has adapted to new cultures with almost chameleon-like ease. So if its past is any judge, the sublime path our colonial forefathers dubbed Buddhism has begun a migration that over time will leave it, and quite possibly modernity itself, greatly transformed.

Authors, teachers, social activists and feminists explore manifestations of contemporary women's spirituality in the Western world.

Sociologist David W. Wahl explores the identity work involved in Kay Parker shifting from being a legend of the adult film industry to her current occupation as a metaphysical counselor.

Resulting from an ancient volcanic eruption, revered as sacred by the Chalun and Matsun Native American Tribes as the home of the Firebird/Thunderbird (California Condor) a supernatural being of power and strength. Pinnacles represents transcendent moments, spiritual guidance and forging new timelines within interpersonal landscapes.

In this fascinating and unusual conversation, writer and physician Deepak Chopra talks to religion professor Robert Thurman about the connections and differences between two of India's most important philosophical beliefs: Vedanta and Buddhism. Chopra explores the foundation of Vedanta, while Thurman -- the father of actress Uma Thurman -- provides the Buddhist point of view in this meeting held in 1999 at New York City's Tibet House.

Three students seek the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhist master, soccer aficionado and filmmaker Khyentse Norbu in this captivating documentary, which takes viewers on a journey from the World Cup in Germany to the isolated Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan. Bernardo Bertolucci and Steven Seagal make appearances in the film, and the world music soundtrack is provided by Sting, Tara Slone and Joydrop, Steve Tibbetts, U.Man.Tek, Kunga 19 and many others.

Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.

From the creators of You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie comes a compelling portrait of three modern lives in need of new direction and new meaning. In his first-ever movie, Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world. The powerful shift from the ego constructs we are taught early in life by parents and society—which promote an emphasis on achievement and accumulation—are shown in contrast to a life of meaning, focused on serving and giving back. Filmed on coastal California’s spectacular Monterey Peninsula, The Shift captures every person’s mid-life longing for a more purposeful, soul-directed life.

Developed by Thích Nhất Hạnh himself, the exercises taught here combine simple stretching and graceful gestures with mindfulness meditation. Join Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village monk Brother Michael to explore ten unique movements. Practice them before or after sitting meditation anytime you have a few minutes to refresh your body and quiet your mind.

"Celso: a portrait, a place" is a documentary that emerges from a year of sporadic visits by the documentary filmmaker (until then a convinced agnostic) to the Capuchin complex, a block that is, among other things, a place to preserve the memory of the Capuchin friars in the Serra Gaúcha, southern Brazil. The daily life of the space and the ramblings of the charismatic friar and artist Celso Bordignon are interspersed in an attempt to contemplate aspects of religious life, art, and the awareness of the nuances of the action of time on matter, body and spirit.