While we have been quiet on the newsletter front, the summer has been an exciting time for MY REINCARNATION. The film launched on US Public Television on POV and was seen by approximately 2 million people in its first broadcast and streaming period (the film will continue to be rebroadcast on American Television for the next three years). The exciting Satellite Television Tour featuring Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and I – which so many of you so generously help support ­– was seen by approximately 1.5 million viewers. Moreover, 900,000+ people listened to the Radio Tour interviews. At the same time, MY REINCARNATION was launched on DVD in the USA and on Netflix and iTunes, as well as on DVD in Germany and soon in Spain and Argentina!

In our office, Stefanie Diaz and I have been busy all summer working on fulfilling orders for MY REINCARNATION and preparing two wonderful new items: the Three Hour Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Teaching DVD – which we just finished and shipped to all preorders this week – and the Ultimate Multi-Lingual MY REINCARNATION DVD, which will have six languages that we are still working on.

It was a great pleasure to sit in our little editing room for hours upon hours of Rinpoche’s Teachings to make the selections to create the Three Hour Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Teaching DVD. I had forgotten the wealth of Rinpoche’s teachings we filmed over the decades. The DVD is packed with accessible, profound teachings – from six different countries – shot in 2002 and 2008. Take a look at the rich menu of topics included with subjects ranging from how to be present in daily life, the attitude a mother should have during pregnancy, facing death and dying, and much more. I am grateful to Rinpoche for having approved the publication of this fantastic special edition DVD. A limited number of DVD’s can still be purchased on our website for the donation price of $250. They are a precious gift to have.

All funds from these sales will go to help support the making of the Ultimate Multi-Lingual MY REINCARNATION DVD, which we are hard at work creating. Unfortunately, the cost of making this Multilanguage DVD is much, much higher than we budgeted for almost a year ago when we did our Kickstarter campaign, so any and all donations would be gratefully accepted towards this goal. Thanks to Martin Fernandez Cufre and Wes G., we will be able to add Spanish and Chinese to the other languages to be included on the DVD – along with Russian, French, German, Italian, English and Romanian – for a fabulous eight-language version of the film to be experienced by people around the globe! (I am especially excited about the Chinese translation, since the Chinese population makes up half the globe!) Stefanie has done a marvelous design for the new DVD, which will include extra features such as outtakes from the film and an interview with Khyentse Yeshe at the New York opening premiere. The DVD is not quite ready to master for completion yet, as we are still creating these subtitles, but we are aiming to have it produced and begin shipping by early October. (To those who have pre-ordered, forgive us as we ask your patience a little longer!)

Check out our website as we have just completely revamped the MY REINCARNATION web store. There you can find a variety of DVDs, books by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, and other wonderful items and Buddhist gifts for your friends and family.

Meanwhile MY REINCARNATION continues to screen all over the world, including more screenings in the USA, Russia, Germany, Argentina, Italy, and more. I am excited to announce that it will soon be showing in Dharamsala in India to the Tibetan community in exile at the new Dharamshala International Film Festival, created by my dear friends and talented filmmakers, Ritu Sarin and Tenzin Sonam. I have been invited to speak with the film so will be flying to India at the end of October. I look forward to sharing the news of this special event.

Until then, I am sending love to all you who have supported this special project for so many years,

Jennifer

Esalen
“Yantra Yoga Perfect Rhythm of Life”
Big Sur, CA
August 26-31, 2012
http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/11240
http://www.facebook.com/events/362870483758386/

Tara Mandala
“Yantra Yoga and Harmonious Breathing”
Pagosa Springs, CO
September 2-7, 2012
http://taramandala.org/program/yantra-yoga-harmonious-breathing/
http://www.facebook.com/events/253001184757555/

Kripalu
“Five Days of Yantra Yoga: Finding the Perfect Rhythm of Life”
Stockbridge, MA
September 23-28, 2012
http://kripalu.org/presenter/V0007023/fabio_andrico
http://www.facebook.com/events/421908587830574/

Bev Janson

Clinton, TN

It started by someone asking me a question. “Who is God”? Since there was no one in the room with me, I thought I was going crazy, but I answered anyway. “God is the person upstairs who sits in a concrete throne throwing thunderbolts at people for no apparent reason.” The voice answered, “I don’t like that God either, come here, I want to show you something”. And so began an amazing journey at the age of 38, finding the “real” God. I believe I did.

I took a waitress position in a restaurant run by my friend. She was desperate for help and even though, I knew it wasn’t a job I would relish, I took it. Several weeks went by and then one day a young couple entered the restaurant. My first instinct was “UH-OH”, these people are trouble, probably skinheads. I even pointed them out to my boss and she laughed. I went over to take their order, prepared for anything. They started to speak and suddenly,the air around me changed, and waves of love washed over me and through me and a voice spoke, It was words but in pure voice (don’t ask me what that means to this day I can’t describe it) “Feed my children”, and I knew that I knew that I knew, it was God. When God speaks, which is rare you listen, you have to. So after I brought their order I told them that someone had done a random act of kindness and paid for their lunch, I had paid for it but this wasn’t about me. They started talking to me slowly at first and then in a rush they told me that they were homeless and living under the overpass and trying to hitch hike to the girls mothers house and there was one more waiting back at the bridge for leftovers. Well, that did it. My boss and I let them clean up in the restroom, piled the food high and I gave them my tip money for the day. They asked how they could pay me back and I said just pay it forward whenever you can.

I tell this story not to show how great I am but how great and good that God is. For I in fact had been suspicious of them at first and in a bad mood. But when God speaks and I know for sure it WAS God, you listen. Throughout my spiritual journey I have learned that we have lived before, that Jesus taught Buddhist principles (Reap what you sow-Karma), and that God is bigger and wiser than even we can imagine and the LOVE is to be shared and given. Forgiveness is a must and compassion for others. This is my story and this is how I live my life. Thank You for letting me share.

I was 23 and this story took place in 1981. I was a student doing a Postgraduate Teaching Course after a degree in Psychology in Bangor, UK. I was tired doing teaching practice but I try to keep my meditation practice going. Not sure Christian or Buddhist so I sit in front of a Christian Cross and chant a Tibetan mantra. Confused? You bet, but then so were/are the times we live in. I begin to meditate and do the mantra. Disjuncture. Suddenly I wake up in a heap on the floor. I know who I am. My identity is clear. I remember how my mum and siblings come to visit me. I am a Buddhist monk and this place is strange. I don’t recognise anything. I am afraid. I look around the room and don’t understand anything. My eyes light upon a student union card with a picture. Suddenly I recognise this face. It’s mine. Now. This now. (Not the other one) And my present 1981 identity comes flooding back to me. I am student at University in 1981. No, I am Buddhist monk. Student. Monk. Who am I? This arises with increasing urgency and a sense of panic. Student. Monk. Student. Monk. Student. Monk. Who am I? Who am I? No peace. Who am I? A wrestle for identity. Who am I? Who am I? No peace. No resolution. Can’t have two identities. Then …… peace. I am the one who knows both identities. The knower of identities. Clear. No content. Aware. Pure subject. Nothing in it. Clear. Aware. Identity itself or that which identifies but has no identity. Peace.

How to live in the appearance of things? Everyone is that Awareness. What to do with this experience? Years trying to figure it all out, studied with many lamas and other teachers. Bodhisattva Path. Now a student of Ringu Tulku. Doing the best I can with this small glimpse. May I use it well for the benefit of one and all.

You can find the larger/original size photos on our Facebook page!

The film will roll out on television around the country for several months, but tonight is the beginning – the first official broadcast night in America! Spread the word and TUNE-IN to see the film on its national TV premiere, tonight at 10:00PM. Check Local Listings.

Sadly, I have jump back on a plane tonight and head back to Amsterdam to finish my fellowship at the Binger Lab, where I have only three weeks left! But as I head out over the Atlantic ocean, I will be watching the film in spirit with everyone and thinking of Rinpoche teaching in Los Angeles this weekend during as part of his US teaching tour.

Please write me your reactions to the broadcast of MY REINCARNATION tonight. I can’t wait to hear.

Sending Love to all of you who helped to get to this moment,

Jennifer

MY REINCARNATION

As wonderful as this is, I know some of you have encountered obstacles to find the film  in your region due to the fact that it is not airing on the same date and time in all cities. The reason for this has nothing to do with our film. This year, for bureaucratic reasons, PBS switched the night that the POV series airs from Tuesday to Thursday.  This created  havoc for many of the local stations as they already had their own programs scheduled on Thursday nights. (In fact, there was such an outcry about this from the independent film community that PBS rescinded their decision and next year they will move the POV series back to earlier in the week on the national grid! But this does not help the MY REINCARNATION broadcast!)

To help solve this, we have just put up the MY REINCARNATION broadcast schedule by city on our MY REINCARNATION website. Due to the size of America this does not cover everyone. However, don’t despair! Public Television will continue to program the film many times everywhere for the next three years, so it will eventually air in all corners of the USA.

In the meantime, there is a second option for people to see the film: MY REINCARNATION will be streaming for free for the next two months on the POV website starting June 22nd!  So you can tell everyone who misses the broadcast or who doesn’t have the film programed their area right now to go to POV and watch the film online.

But the work isn’t over yet! We need all your support to reach out to your friends and acquaintances in your area and across America and help them Find The Film or let them know that they can watch it Streaming On-Line on POV. How to help spread the word? Facebook the information, tweet it, send out to your email list, write to any organizations whose members you think might like to tune-In, and of course, “sing it from the treetops!’ Try to get your local community and religious groups to post the local air date and time on their websites.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share this very special review of MY REINCARNATION in the Wall Street Journal! Enjoy! There are lots more coming!

On the front lines: I arrived in Los Angeles last night after 18 hours of travel. This morning at 4:30 AM, I began doing press for the film. This afternoon, I had the great fortune to meet film protagonist and Spiritual Master, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, who arrived from Hawaii at 9:00 AM to continue his USA Teaching Tour. A Press Person came from New York to prepare us for the Satellite Television Tour tomorrow morning. The car service will come at 5:00 AM to pick up Rinpoche, Fabio, his assistant, and I to go the TV Studio and he and I will be doing TV interviews in eleven TV markets for two and a half hours in the morning! I hope to have some pictures to share in the next few days.

Deep thanks to all of you for your endless support. I hope the film will give back to the world for decades and inspire many….

Sending Love,

Jennifer

Please pass the word to everyone you know in America to tune into the film on Thursday, June 21^st! Without big bucks, we need each person to tell your friends and family about the broadcast to make sure everyone gets to see this important and moving story about a father’s and son’s struggle to save their endangered spiritual culture. Facebook, Tweet it, eblast and sing it to the tree tops!

Meanwhile, POV has created a wonderful free study guide to use to go deeper and unpack questions within the film’s narrative on religion, identity, spirituality, indigenous culture, Tibetan Buddhism and family. The guide can be used to spark discussion in schools, religious and community groups, and even with your friends and family as you watch the film. Click here to get your MY REINCARNATION Study Guide.

As fate and luck would have it, the film’s protagonist and Buddhist Master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, is beginning his American Teaching Tour prior to the broadcast and will be teaching across America afterward the film airs. He begins to teach in Hawaii tomorrow (6/13-17) and then continues on to Los Angeles (6/22-24), New York (6/29-7/1) and Massachusetts (7/4-10). So you can see Rinpoche on television in the film and then meet him, hear him teach and speak to him in person at any of these locations. To find where he will be near you, click here.

I myself will have the pleasure to meet Rinpoche again in Los Angeles, where I will arrive from Amsterdam on June 18^th. There Rinpoche and I will do a virtual Satellite Media Press Tour, where journalists can call in across America to talk to him and I in a Television Studio in LA on June 20^th – the day before the broadcast! So look for Rinpoche on your local stations, talking about the film and his life!

As a continued sign of our enormous thanks to all of you, we have edited another new video outtake from the film! In O.F.F. #11: “You Have Learned Nothing Yet!” (2002) Chögyal Namkhai Norbu tells about meeting his root Teacher Changchub Dorje in Tibet. Changchub Dorje was not a scholar. In fact, he could barely read or write. Yet, he taught Namkhai Norbu the real meaning of Dzogchen.

Please spread the word to everyone you know to tune into the MY REINCARNATION Broadcast on POV on national US TV on June 21^st at 10PM EST! Let’s make this a huge television event and get everyone talking about the profound issues of faith, identity, family, the meaning of spiritual practice and the importance of saving the endangered Tibetan spiritual culture. Meanwhile, you can still catch the film in cinemas and community groups across the country, so if you prefer to see it on the big screen, check out our Screenings Calendar!

With Love and Gratitude,

Jennifer

Well, Dustin, let me eat my words now. I just spent the last 10 days at Cannes in film heaven, seeing films and talking films and reuniting with friends from all over the world in the film business. And I learned the most obvious thing: the best thing about film festivals is that you get to see films that you could never see otherwise in state of the art cinemas with audiences who are just as passionate as you are. It was so inspiring creatively to watch so many films from diverse countries – including “Amour”, “Rust and Bone”, and “Beasts of the Southern Wild” to name a few of my favorites – that when I went to leave Cannes, I had to tell my friend Dustin that I wished I had arranged to stay a few extra days so I could catch all other films I missed viewing.

Well, I am back from Cannes in Amsterdam feeling renewed and reinvigorated for our art. I am already in the midst of another Lab for Directing Actors with the wonderful Mark Travis. I am also back in the saddle preparing for the premiere of MY REINCARNATION on National Primetime Television as the opening show of the 25th Anniversary of POV on June 21st at 10 pm (check your local PBS listings for the time in your area.).  Please mark your calendars and spread the word! Tweet the date, Facebook it, Eblast your friends and neighbors, and create a stampede!

Meanwhile, thanks to all of your support MY REINCARNATION’s protagonist and Buddhist Master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and I will be traveling to Los Angeles on June 20th for the Satellite Television Press Tour with TV journalists from across America. So look for interviews with Rinpoche and I in your local news on June 20th and 21st!  This will mark the beginning of Rinpoche’s Teaching Tour in the USA, starting earlier in Hawaii then on to Los Angeles, New York and Massachusetts. So don’t miss out to meet him and hear him teach in person. Click here for information about his retreats.

I have more exciting news: CAT SCRATCH FEVER a new fiction film directed by super talented Lisa Duva and Produced by Katherine Nolfi (and Executive Produced by me and others) is having it’s world premiere at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Lisa and Kate are half of the team that created the groundbreaking Kickstarter campaign for MY REINCARNATION. Their film will screen twice: June 2nd at 10:30pm at indieScreen in Williamsburg and on June 8th at 9:00pm at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema in Brooklyn Heights. Don’t miss this spectacular new work and tell your friends and family!

Meanwhile, to thank all of you for your endless support of MY REINCARNATION, we are offering a new Video Outtake from the Film of Rinpoche: O.F.F. #10: “Born in Tibet” (2002). Click here to watch this new video treat!

I can’t believe it: Only 23 Days till the National USA Broadcast of MY REINCARNATION! What a dream.

Sending Love and Gratitude,

Jennifer