Clicking here will take you to the Book Review

Sarah Masters reviews the film

Home to Tibet

Home to Tibet offers a rare view into the world of Tibet and its people.

We first meet a Tibetan refugee as he toils building a stone wall in Massachusetts. The camera follows him as he returns to his occupied homeland for the first time since his escape 12 years earlier and travels primitive roads to his village. The sight of his sister, who remained in Tibet and farmed the family plot following his escape, shocks him. She has aged greatly, while he appears strong and healthy in middle age.

In his village he confronts his past, including training as a Buddhist monk, and his past is enhanced by archival footage that focuses on the history of Tibet. He also confronts his future and the future of Tibet as he prepares to return to America. There are wrenching scenes as parents in his extended family make the decision to send two of their young daughters with him across the border to India, so that they can receive an education. Everyone realizes that it may be the last time the family is together.

Familial, spiritual, cultural and social issues familiar to Chaplains shine through in the poignant, unrehearsed moments captured in Home to Tibet.

Completed: 1996
Running Time: 55 Minutes
Directors/Producers: Alan Dater and Lisa Merton

If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Masterworks” on the homepage for more information. The cost of the film is $29.95/VHS.

Sarah Masters is the Managing Director of the Hartley Film Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to cultivation, support, production and distribution of the best documentaries and audio meditations on world religions, spirituality, ethics and well-being.

Book Review

Rev. Charles J. Lopez, Jr., reviews

Still Listening: New Horizons in Spiritual Direction

In recent years, spiritual direction has grown and expanded. In order to reflect that growth, editor Norvene Vest has compiled thirteen ”cutting edge” (Introduction, p. ix) essays from the practice of seasoned spiritual directors. Vest provides three sections of essays: 1) the person who comes for direction, 2) special life issues that intersect with spiritual development, and 3) the social context.
Each essay reflects the variety of faith traditions for the director as well as the directee. In these essays, spiritual directors are addressing: abused persons, the poor, church drop-outs, and gays and lesbians. Several essays look at spiritual direction in new contexts, such as the congregational setting, the corporate arena, generational issues, and direction at the turn of the century. The final section addresses some specific circumstances: working with the addicted, direction with those who are dying, using art in spiritual direction, and spiritual direction and social justice.

The essays are useful from the standpoint of diversity. They point to the fact that the spiritual director needs to be sensitive to individual issues, life issues as well as social context. These essays reinforce the notion that spiritual direction involves trusting the relationship enough to share ones deepest fear, shame, guilt, and anger. Indeed, directees help uncover the Mystery called God.

I was drawn to Margaret Guenther’s essay on spiritual direction and the dying (Chapter 8). As a parish pastor and now hospice chaplain, the needs of the dying are, without question, very significant. Spiritual issues rank near the top as people are dying, even though they may resist the chaplain by saying, “I’m not ready yet.”

“Prayerful presence,” (p. 106) as Guenther writes, is a good way to describe spiritual direction with the dying. We need to recognize that spiritual direction with the dying has its own time frame (p.106), patience is needed (p. 108), the spiritual director needs to be guided by the dying person (p. 109), and spiritual directors must face and know themselves (p. 116).

Howard Rice’s essay on the generations (Chapter 5) focuses on the builder generation, the silent generation, the boomer generation, the survivor generation, and the millennial generation. It provides some insight into how the different generations search for God’s reality.

Holy listening or companionship on the sacred journey is also found with the marginalized, that is, with those who appear invisible and inaudible. Juan Reed says that they serve as “witness” to an unfolding story. Those most excluded are the voices that need to be heard in a spiritual direction relationship. (Chapter 7). Spiritual direction is about being with the Spirit in discovering the connection we may already have with the Holy One.

Use of visual imagery (Chapter 11), artwork, and other forms of aesthetics may serve as road maps to the depths of our being. Both the right brain (visual/images) and left brain (linear) are needed in spiritual direction.

I agree with Norvene Vest when she writes, “[T]the essays do not speak with a single voice, but with a diversity that emphasizes the unity of our lives in God’s Spirit.” (Introduction, p. x) As spiritual directors, we find that we ourselves are formed by many influences, not least of which is God’s ongoing call to us to unfold in holiness.

Vest, Norvene, ed. Still Listening: New Horizons in Spiritual Direction (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 2000), pp 214.

Do you have thoughts about these reviews you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org