The Tricycle BuddhaFest Online Film Festival continues today with Cave in the Snow, a 52-minute film about the life of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, one of the most senior nuns in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She spent twelve years in a Himalayan cave—and at times had to tunnel through several feet of snow in order to get out—and would have been happy to spend twelve more years there. But her life didn’t work out that way. She found herself thrust into the role of advocating for full ordination of women in the Tibetan tradition (full ordination exists only in Chinese Buddhist traditions) and eventually began a nunnery, Dongyu Gatsal Ling. Her story is an inspiration to all who have faced adversity and prejudice.

Watch Cave in the Snow here.

We’ve been very pleased with how well the films of the Tricycle BuddhaFest Online Film Festival have been received! In Colors of Compassion, which portrayed Thich Nhat Hanh’s 2004 retreat for people of color, Thay (as his students call him) discussed inter-being and our “true home,” a deeply resonant concept for Buddhists and for all who feel displaced. A BuddhaFest particpant wrote:

Thanks for sharing this beautiful film with us. As human beings, we categorise and scope everything in order to filter and make meaning. Whilst this is important -I guess it stops us from going crazy in a sea of information – it sends us forever hurtling towards generalizations, prejudice and discrimination. As a white person who has been living as a minority ‘foreigner’ in an Asian country for some years, I have learnt a little more in my adult life of what that feels like – to be categorized as a ‘foreigner’ – someone that doesn’t belong here… and many times, I am simply invisible to those around me. It has given me wonderful lessons, humility, understanding and more than all that, it has reinforced my childhood belief that skin colour has no meaning unless you decide it has. I am a sentient being – and I am inter-being with all of you. Namaste.

You can get your festival pass today and watch all the BuddhaFest films—you haven’t missed a thing!

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