When Monterey Media Inc. offers filmmaker, writer and explorer Rick Ray a meager budget laced with the opportunity to interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- pending his willingness to film and document his journey -- Ray's biggest dilemma concerns just how he plans utilize his precious hour with the revered spiritual leader.
When he arrives in India, he faces a much larger predicament. No one had bothered to schedule the interview. Left to his own devices and innate travel savvy, Ray tracks down -- of all things -- the e-mail address of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet at his monastery in Dharamsala, India. With his interview secured for three months into the future, Ray takes on a sort of spiritual quest to immerse himself in the culture of India, Tibet and parts of the Middle East in preparation for the assignment of a lifetime.
But "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama" isn't a film about a journalist on a self-fulfilling mission of personal achievement. Ray's documentary poignantly weaves together the religious history of Buddhism, the amazing acknowledgement of 2-year-old Lhamo Dhondrub as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama -- and thus, a manifestation of the Bodhisattva, the Buddha of Compassion -- and the uniqueness of such a selfless, humble and fiercely intelligent leader against the tragic backdrop of China's seizure over Tibet, His Holiness' homeland.
Ray's interview questions come to him through his traveling observations and although some are quite broad in scope and interpretation -- "Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich?" -- others intimately address specific, pending issues, such as the Tibetan government in exile -- "How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence?"
Some questions -- "Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future?" -- come across as both specific and globally fundamental, easily applying to numerous areas of the world as more and more countries compete for modernism.
The Dalai Lama's answers to the 10 questions lead the viewer down the historical path of his leadership and reveal an unparallel individual, despite his unyielding insistence that he is, "just a simple Buddhist monk -- no more, no less." His acceptance and tolerance of other religions, his ability to admit fault and wrongness and his infectious, lighthearted chuckle and spontaneity starkly contrasts him against other political -- and religious -- leaders of the world.
Beyond his trips to India, Ray spent two years tracking down rare archival footage of the Dalai Lama's youth, the hostile Chinese takeover and secretly shot footage from inside a troubled Tibet. The result of his research and his very personal experience is an engaging and fascinating tribute to a living legend.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
