“A deeply moving glimpse into classical but contemporary Chan meditative life. Highly recommended.” (Journal of Buddhist Ethics)

A markedly quiet and contemplative film, One Mind is a rare cinematic portrait of life inside one of China’s most austere and revered Zen communities, Zhenru Chan Monastery, where monks live by a strict code established over 1200 years ago by the first Zen practitioners in the country. In harmony with the land that sustains them, they operate an organic farm, grow tea, and harvest bamboo to fuel their kitchen fires, and at the heart of this community, a group of cloistered meditators sit in silence for eight hours every day. The only voices in the film are those of the monks themselves, who offer their insights about the daily rituals and traditions practiced in this remote mountain monastery. Filmmaker Edward A. Burger’s goal was to craft a documentary that is not about Buddhism, but rather a film that is itself Buddhist, showing that the journey to become wiser, kinder human beings begins when we turn our gaze inward.