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Review
Sarah Masters reviews the film
Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy
“Satya” is a Sanskrit term for “truth” and the truth for many Tibetan Buddhist nuns is that the enemy is their greatest teacher. Award-filmmaker Ellen Bruno captures in this short film their testimonies of faith as they endure imprisonment and often torture under Chinese occupation.
A host of intrafaith and interfaith questions arise from the compassionate and peaceful testimony given by these nuns, who only appear to be in their teens and early twenties.
They speak of how the Buddhist concept of death affects the way that they conduct their lives and how Buddhist precepts shift their perceptions of “the enemy.”
Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy also examines how choosing a nonviolent path can be effective and encourages viewers to consider ways in which their own spiritual traditions and practices force them to think about what they will stand up for and when they will voice their own “truths.”
Bruno’s film captures the courage and devotion of these young resistance leaders. “Our enemy is our greatest teacher,” one nun says, and “our imprisonment is our greatest test of faith…I ask that those who imprison us be freed from the darkness of ignorance, that the clouds which obscure the truth give way to clarity.”
Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy is both powerful and poetic, and ultimately an uplifting film.
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Completed: 1993
Running Time: 28 Minutes
Producer/Director: Ellen Bruno
If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at http://www.brunofilms.com/orderform3.html. A VHS copy for individual home use costs $30.00.
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
Rabbi Dr. David J. Zucker reviews
Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss
“There once was an old and somewhat wise woman whom everyone called Grandy. She just suffered a big loss in her life. Pops, her husband, suffered the same loss, but in his own way.” (1) These are the opening lines of a thoughtful, tender, and very effective picture book dealing with, as the subtitle aptly describes, “healing after loss.”
In the book, Grandy finds she needs to make her own “Tear Soup” in order to work through her sorrow and sadness. No one can do this for her, and there are no preset recipes.
Tear Soup is applicable for a variety of ages and a variety of situations. It tells the story of how Grandy deals with her grief and loss. By not specifying what Grandy is grieving, the authors invite readers struggling with any sorrow to mourn in their own way. The book honors all kinds of losses. Homespun wisdom and common sense fill the book. For example, “It seems that grief is never clean. People feel misunderstood, feelings get hurt and wrong assumptions are made all over the place.” (6) Even after some time passed, when Grandy “looked out the window it surprised her to see how the rest of the world was going on as usual while her world had stopped.” (17) Grandy learned “that most people don’t like being around tears.” (11) She also came to understand that no one could “tell her what she should do to get through this terrible loss.” (26)
The book does not minimize or trivialize – nor does it seek to hurry – the grieving process. It states clearly, “Making tear soup is hard work.” (34)
Grandy does not isolate herself. “Grandy kept attending worship even though she was mad at God. Sometimes she yelled at God and asked why this happened . . . Grandy trusted God, but she didn’t always understand God.” (28-29)
Grief cannot be rushed, and no one can tell you the “correct way” to grieve. “To make matters worse, grief always takes longer . . . than anyone wants it to.” (6)
The book closes with a few practically-oriented pages devoted to “Grandy’s Cooking Tips:” “If you are the cook,” “If your friend is the one who is making Tear Soup,” “Soup Making and Time,” “If a child is the cook,” “If you are a male chef,” “If there are two of you cooking,” and finally a couple pages of “Where to find help.”
Beautiful illustrations add immeasurably to the book. They are comforting, and are neither morose nor gloomy. This work is a valuable addition to the chaplain’s toolkit.
Schwiebert, Pat and Chuck DeKlyen, illustrated by Taylor Bliss, Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss, Grief Watch, Portland, OR, 1999, 55 pp.
Rabbi Dr. David J. Zucker, BCC, a member of the Advisory Board of PlainViews, is a frequent contributor to this forum. He is Director of Behavioral Services at Shalom Park, a senior continuum of care center in Aurora, CO. He Chaired (or Co-Chaired with Rabbi Bonita E Taylor) eight consecutive NAJC annual conferences, including the 2003 EPIC Cognate Chaplains’ conference in Toronto where he was Chair of the Executive Planning Committee. David's book, The Torah: An Introduction for Christians and Jews (Paulist Press, 2005) was reviewed in PlainViews, 2/1/2006, Vol. 3, No. 1.
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