Maui filmmaker’s documentary on Dalai Lama to debut
Tom Vendetti met Dalai Lama during his visit to Maui in 2007
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was asked in a new Rolling Stone magazine interview about any advice he could offer about coping with coronavirus anxiety.
“This pandemic is very serious,” he said. “We’re just so afraid. That’s not useful.”
And then, quoting the 8th century Indian sage Shantideva, he continued, “If the problem can be overcome, then no need to worry; make effort to overcome. If no way to overcome the problem, there’s no use to much worry.”
Tibet’s spiritual leader has been disseminating wisdom for decades, through books, articles, interviews and live presentations like the one he gave on Maui at the War Memorial Stadium to more than 10,000 in 2007.
Making his home in the foothills of the Himalayas at a monastery in Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama is the subject of a new documentary by Maui filmmaker Tom Vendetti. The “Dalai Lama: China, Mount Kailash, Happiness,” will be broadcast on PBS Hawaii on Dec. 26.
Previously producing the documentaries “Journey Inside Tibet,” “Mount Kailash — Return to Tibet,” “When the Mountain Calls — Nepal Tibet Bhutan” and most recently, “Hawaiiana,” Vendetti first met the Dalai Lama back in 2007 on Maui, “when he went to Lama Dhondup’s house (in Wailuku) which is two doors up from my house.”
When Vendetti arrived at the Dharamshala monastery, “I asked his secretary how much time I would have with him, and he said, ‘You may have five minutes, but it’s up to him.’ The interview turned out to be 45 minutes.”
The new documentary focuses on three subjects: China’s impact on the preservation of Tibetan culture, Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash and how we can all best cultivate happiness in our lives.
It opens with some fascinating historical newsreel footage from the 1950s depicting China’s early reign of terror in Tibet, suppressing religious freedom, destroying monasteries and enforcing slave labor, which led to the Dalai Lama’s exile to India in 1959.
A 2018 State Department report on Tibet noted: “The (Chinese) government routinely denigrated the Dalai Lama. Punishments for displaying images of the Dalai Lama included expulsion from monasteries and criminal prosecution. There were reports of the forced disappearance, torture, arbitrary arrest and physical abuse of individuals on account of their religious beliefs or practices.”
Interspersed with scenes shot in Tibet, the Dalai Lama began by talking about the Chinese government’s impact on his homeland.
“I had been to Tibet several times and I was really curious about his opinion, if Tibetan culture would survive the Chinese government influence,” Vendetti explained. “When I asked the question he started laughing. He said, the Tibetan culture goes back thousands of years and it’s well preserved, because of the cold climate.”
“Tibet should have meaningful autonomy,” the Dalai Lama emphasized. Then “we can preserve our culture and environment and keep nature more balanced.”
The Maui filmmaker was also curious about Mount Kailash, a holy peak which is considered sacred to Buddhists, Hindus and Jains, as the spiritual center of the universe. He had traveled there twice, first with the late legendary flute player Paul Horn, and then later with Lama Gyaltsen of the Maui Dharma Center in Paia.
“The Dalai Lama talked about the different deities there and the monks, ‘like the great yogi Milarepa,’ who spent lifetimes there experiencing extraordinary visions and things. He said, ‘I’ve never been there,’ and he laughed and said, ‘sometimes I feel a little jealousy.’ ”
A retired psychologist and former director of Mental Health Kokua, Vendetti has long been interested in how Buddhist psychology can be adapted to the West, particularly with regard to reducing stress and maintaining happiness.
“As a psychologist I’ve always been interested in it, dealing with depressed people,” Vendetti said. “I really wanted to hear what his message is. He said you can’t be happy just by praying and meditating and so forth, you need to use certain tools to educate yourself in terms of how to be happy, and that’s primarily learning to think differently. If you walk around thinking negative thoughts all day, you’re not going to be very happy.”
As an experiment, Vendetti once spent a morning calculating all his negative thoughts.
“I was working at the time at Mental Health Kokua, and I started at 7:30 and by 10 I had to stop because they were just overwhelming,” he said. “They just kept coming, and I had always considered myself fairly optimistic.”
Buddhist concepts like mindfulness and practices of observing thoughts have become common prescriptions today. “Buddhist teachings have changed the field of psychology,” Vendetti said. “There’s mindfulness therapy and cognitive behavior therapy is basically changing your cognitions, the way you think, into more positive terms. For years psychologists have been taking these terms and recoining them, and making a lot of money.”
Towards the end of the interview, the Dalai Lama asked Vendetti, “if I could help get the word out, especially to try to educate young Chinese about the reality of what’s going on in Tibet.”
The “Dalai Lama: China, Mount Kailash, and Happiness,” will be broadcast on PBS Hawaii at 8 p.m. Dec. 26. Vendetti’s previous documentary “Hawaiiana,” about Aunty Nona Beamer, will be rebroadcast on PBS Hawaii at 9 p.m. Jan. 7 and at 1 p.m. Jan. 10.