Berkeley Zen CenterIf you haven’t done a sesshin, you can take a peek into this rarified (yet totally ordinary) world with the documentary Old Plum Mountain: The Berkeley Zen Center—Life Inside the Gate, directed by Ed Herzog and now showing at the Tricycle Film Club.

In the wide-ranging discussion thread that appears beneath Old Plum Mountain, Tricycle Members are discussing how the film is the next best thing to actual practice in a Zen center. Several viewers even described the film as a meditative experience in itself! We had the opportunity to speak with Ed Herzog about making this film, and you can listen to that talk here.

We’ll bring you the best of Buddhist cinema every month at the Tricycle Film Club. Our next film is called Being in the World, and focuses on the idea of mastery as exemplified by a chef, a musician, and carpenter, and a poet. This film premieres at tricycle.com January 17th. Want to see this film and new films every month? All you have to do is join the Tricycle Community at any member level. And please let us know which films you’d like to see here at tricycle.com. We’re dedicated to supporting the filmmakers that work so hard to produce Buddhist cinema for all of us to benefit from!