T’aego Addresses the Great Assembly of Dragons and Elephants

A Ten Thousand Films Production 2011

This is a teaching given by the great Korean Zen adept known as T’aego Bou 太古普愚 (1301–1382).

The teaching begins: As T’aego went to the teacher’s seat, the head monk of the temple struck the gavel and announced:”O great assembly of dragons and elephants to the Dharma meeting! Observe the supreme truth!” To bring up the general guiding principles, T’aego said…

Full text of the teaching and film is here

Many Thanks to: PARTICIPANTS: All those who participated in the filming in London, Cairo, Siwa Oasis, Louisville, Furnace Mountain and San Francisco; TEXT: “A Buddha from Korea – The Zen Teachings of T’aego” Translated by J.C. Cleary; MUSIC: Ahmed Mouneimene for Korean Kayagum Sanjo Variation (가야금 산조), performed by Hwang Byeonggi (황병기) 1966; IMAGERY: Terje Sorgjerd for Milky Way galaxy footage tesophotography.com cc by-nc 3.0

“Ten thousand things return to the one; where does the one return to?”

“If everything is gone, nothing moves.” 圓覺經

“After breaking through the solid gate, the clear wind blows from the beginning of time.”

The Blessed Tree screening – Melbourne, Australia
Sunday, November 28 · 7:30pm – 10:30pm
Coburg Library Meeting Room
, Corner Victoria and Louisa Streets, Coburg, Australia
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A meditation on the themes of love of the Prophet, veneration of holy sites, grace and symbolism. This film tells the story of the meeting between the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) and a Christian monk named Bahira. The meeting happened in the shade of a tree.

Fourteen hundred years later that same tree was discovered still alive in the northern deserts of Jordan. The only tree alive in hundreds of square miles of emptiness. This tree is a link to the life of the Prophet and a place of pilgrimage today…

Those interviewed for the film include:

His Majesty King Abdallah II of Jordan
H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad
Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan Al-Buti
Shaykh Al-Habib ‘Umar bin Hafeeth
Shaykh Al-Habib Ali al-Jifri
Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr
H.E. Shaykh Dr. Ali Jum’a
Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad

Testimonials:

‘”The Blessed Tree has a fruit, the seed of which plants a new branch of Iman (faith) in the heart. I literally felt my Iman increase while watching this film. There are parts which would reduce even the hardest of hearts to tears.”  – Hamza Yusuf Hanson

“A warm and remarkable witness to one of history’s most symbolically crucial religious encounters. The meeting of a devout Byzantine Christian hermit with the future Prophet of Islam in the Syrian desert, is conveyed in a deeply convincing feat of historical reconstruction.” - T.J. Winter

Quotes from the film:

“In this place, we pray to God to make our hearts containers of the love of the Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon Him).”
Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan Al-Buti

“The Prophet sitting under this tree, and its reacting to the Prophet makes the tree the only living terrestrial witness to the Prophet , what we would call in Arabic a sahabi.”
H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad

“This tree was blessed with the touch of the Messenger of God (Peace and Blessings be upon Him).”
Shaykh Al-Habib Ali Al-Jifri

“That thing that deserves to be loved most is that which brings forth from the depths of our spirits the recollection of the Divine Name. The title of the Holy Prophet of Islam is Habib Allah, the Beloved of God. This hub, this love for the Prophet could be described as the great transformative emotion of Islam.”
Abdal Hakim Murad

“You have to be able to apply a symbol in a wise way, from one domain of reality to another. There is, in a sense, a vertical dimension that goes through our heart vertically through our head and up to Heaven. The line of transcendence. This is the inner tree. The roots of it are actually the roots of the Divine reality in our hearts. For most human beings this tree has dried up because they are not aware of its roots. It is virtually there but not actually; and the spiritual life means the reviving of this tree within us by sinking the roots of the Divine once again in our hearts.”
Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr

A New Ten Thousand Films production 2010

Directed and Produced by Mustafa Gouverneur
Edited by Matthew Dixon
Co-produced by Yasin Salazar
Cinematography by Richard Terry
Music by Musa Kala Dieng

DVD Distributors - Order online at:
Fons Vitae Press – USA & North America:  Fonsvitae.com
ZamZam Film Distribution – UK & rest of world:  Zamzam.tv
Invoke Media – Australasia:  Invoke-Media

Saturday, October 9 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Al-Ghazzali Academy
1021A Canterbury Road
Lakemba, Australia

About the film:

A Ten Thousand Films production 2007

ST THEOSEVIA CENTRE FOR CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
OPEN STUDY DAYS IN MICHAELMAS TERM 2010
An Ecumenical Centre for Christian Spirituality in Oxford
at St Theosevia House, 2 Canterbury Road, Oxford OX2 6LU
www.theosevia.org
Saturday 6 November, 10.30am – 4pm
Drawing from the Wellsprings of the Desert
with Sr Dr Benedicta Ward SLG, Dr Elena Ene D-Vasilescu,
and Revd Dr Liz Carmichael

Hermits in Egypt and Anglo-Saxon England;Orthodox monastic spirituality in icons;
Pilgrimage ancient and modern in the remarkable documentary film

‘The Baptism of Jesus Christ: discovering Bethany beyond the Jordan’
(Ten Thousand Films 2007)

St. Theosevia Newsletter 2010

A New Ten Thousand Films production 2010

DVD Distributors
UK: zamzam.tv
Australia: invoke-media

Trailer – a Ten Thousand Films production

Baptism of Jesus Christ film – Private screening for students

Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Time: 2:30pm – 4:00pm
Location: Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London

The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts was founded in 2004 by HRH The Prince of Wales as one of his core charities. The School’s courses combine the teaching of the practical skills of the traditional arts and crafts with an understanding of the philosophy inherent within them.  Read more

Baptism of Jesus Christ film screening

Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Time: 4:30pm – 6:00pm
Location: Pusey Room, Keble College, University of Oxford

(‘Behold & See’ Keble Chapel Mission 2010;  in conjunction with the Oxford University Chaplains’ Mission)

“A documentary film on the discovery of the site of Jesus’ Baptism on the River Jordan—a spiritual journey and archaeological detective story. Where was he baptized? Why was the site lost? How was it discovered and what was found there? What is the meaning of baptism in Christianity? A meditation on the themes of grace, holiness and sacred history.”

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