Upaya Zen Center’s Nomads Clinic
INTO THE HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN
Award winning production company BY NATURE FILMS presents ‘Into the Heart of the Mountain’ a film about a western spiritual leader of Zen Buddhism, a social and peace activist Roshi Joan Halifax on her path to empower women and indigenous people to preserve their culture and bringing medical support. We believe indigenous peoples have the power and solutions to solve many of today's problems when respected and empowered to do so. We can really learn from native people and their way of life. In our Western culture we have the loss of certain values. That's why we need to keep looking at indigenous peoples to learn or rediscover what's really important in life. A deeply intimate pilgrimage with Tempa Dukte Lama and the entire team of Nomads Clinic in the most remote high altitude regions of the Himalayas of Humla District, Nepal.
The film is now in the post-production phase and will be released shortly. Direction, cinematography and editing - Annegré Bosman Additional drone footage - Kigaku Noah Rosseter Sound - Ramona van Gennip Production - Lama Jigmey Rinzin and Tseriing palden Lama Horse man - Bhumdhar Lama
photo by Noah Roen
Healthy emotional empathy makes for a more caring world. It can nurture social connection, concern, and insight. But unregulated emotional empathy can be the source of distress and burnout; it can also lead to withdrawal and moral apathy.
Empathy is not compassion. Connection, resonance, and concern might not lead to action. But empathy is a component of compassion, and a world without healthy empathy, I believe, is a world devoid of felt connection and puts us all in peril.
Upaya’s annual Nomad’s Clinic has offered services to the indigenous, high-altitude, mountain communities in Himalayan Nepal since 1980. Each year, a thousand people receive free medical care from a team of Western, Nepali and Tibetan doctors and healthcare workers. The clinic has provided schoolbags for children, blankets, solar lighting and tons of food in disaster and emergency relief. And it has worked in partnership aiding Royhingya refugees fleeing from genocide in Myanmar. Roshi Joan's early vision of the traveling Nomad’s Clinic was not only a tool for providing medical support, but as holy pilgrimage. With close to a hundred horses and mules carrying supplies, team members trek into these sacred regions, connecting and fostering cultural and spiritual exchange with the communities they serve.
To learn more and donate go to Upaya’s Nomad’s Clinic.