What's going on in this video?

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Lingpupa
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What's going on in this video?

Post by Lingpupa »

I find it hard to get away from the feeling that there is something strange about this video clip. It's hosted on Facebook, but as far as I can tell it is visible to non-members:



A number of suggestions have been floated. One is that it is not strange at all, but might seem strange to Westerners because we are not used to such high-intensity, spontaneous devotion (although it would not be hard to draw a parallel with some of the more extreme versions of evangelical Christianity).

Another is that it's essentially a set-up, possibly a bunch of extras for a film who are supposed to be displaying their devotion. This could explain the random bunches of people dancing with scarves, putting up umbrellas, taking umbrellas down, opening their arms to the statue, but not apparently reading any text or performing any ritual as we normally understand it. A bit like those scenes from B-movies that are set, for example, in "old London", where the scene is set in a running shot as the actors walk past cliched "old London" activities such as selling violets or matches, drinking gin, picking pockets and wearing battered top hats with St Paul's in the background.

A third is that something - large snowflakes, small petals, paper ash, who knows? - is falling out of the sky and is being taken as a very physical sign of blessings being poured out on the place.

A fourth is that it's just ridiculous.

Any better speculations? Or is there even somebody who has actual knowledge of what's going on here?
All best wishes

"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
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Grigoris
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Grigoris »

Why don't you ask the producer of the video?
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
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"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
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Norwegian
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Norwegian »

Grigoris wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 1:49 pm Why don't you ask the producer of the video?
Why can't Lingpupa ask DW?
Tiago Simões
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Tiago Simões »

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fb ... 2564396398

In case anyone feels like translating the comments...
I am also curious.
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Grigoris
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Grigoris »

Norwegian wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:08 pm
Grigoris wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 1:49 pm Why don't you ask the producer of the video?
Why can't Lingpupa ask DW?
Where exactly did I say that he cannot ask DW?
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
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Lingpupa
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Lingpupa »

ང་ཚོ་བཙན་བྱོལ་ནང་དུ་བླ་མ་རྩལ་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམ་པ་ཚོས་བཀའ་དབང་ཟབ་མོ་ཇི་ཙམ་གནང་རུང་བྱིན་ཞུགས་ནས་ལུས་འདར་པ་དང་གཡོ་བ་ཕར་བ་སོགས་མཇལ་མྱོང་ཡོད་དམ། ངས་ནི་མཇལ་མ་མྱོང་།
འདིར་བྱིན་ཞུགས་ནས་འདར་པ་དང་ཕར་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་འདུག།

But my Tibetan is not up to learning much from that.
All best wishes

"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
PSM
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by PSM »

The rain is similar to something a lama friend told me is called 'flower rain', which is a really light rain from a mostly clear sky. It's seen as very auspicious.

As for the statue, I've been very deeply affected by one statue in particular - it seemed well beyond just being a nice sculpture.
yeshegyaltsen
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by yeshegyaltsen »

It's a little confusing but the Tibetan basically describes what you see in the video, with the suggestion that it is due to the power of blessings entering into people their bodies shake and quiver and act like wild dogs and so on.

The comments are often quite incredulous, with many claiming this is not buddhist at all. though many seem to think that snow or hail is flowers and so on. Even the tag on the video seems to say that the person who filmed/posted it didn't experience anything, but you can see other people acting strange. It seems to be a mixed crowd. Not sure what the yogis wearing white and blue are. Can only guess they are Bonpos of some sort.
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Lingpupa
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Lingpupa »

yeshegyaltsen wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:56 pm It's a little confusing but the Tibetan basically describes what you see in the video, with the suggestion that it is due to the power of blessings entering into people their bodies shake and quiver and act like wild dogs and so on.

The comments are often quite incredulous, with many claiming this is not buddhist at all. though many seem to think that snow or hail is flowers and so on. Even the tag on the video seems to say that the person who filmed/posted it didn't experience anything, but you can see other people acting strange. It seems to be a mixed crowd. Not sure what the yogis wearing white and blue are. Can only guess they are Bonpos of some sort.
Thanks for taking a look! I had gathered a gist to the comments much as you describe, but I think you understand them much better than I do.

The statue has dorjes, not swastikas, but the amount of blue being worn does suggest some kind of Bon event.
All best wishes

"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
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明安 Myoan
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by 明安 Myoan »

Mudita for others' devotion. It is a beautiful statue, I don't think I've seen many with such a big smile.
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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

Two more hypotheses, not completely serious. Almost looks like a group rushen practice. Or they got a bunch of good acid.
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Grigoris
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Grigoris »

One way to solve the mystery is to identify who the statue is.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Varis
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Varis »

Most of the monks look uncomfortable. Reminds me of that picture of Pope Francis at a Charismatic service.
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Josef
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Josef »

Imagine sitting in front a thirty foot statue of the person who you see as the embodiment of all the qualities of wisdom, love, compassion, and spiritual power and having large drops of rain fall from a nearly clear sky while surrounded by members or your community who are having a deeply emotional experience.

It isnt so hard to imagine a scene like this being deeply powerful for people, especially if those people have spent generations living in a remote part of the world dedicating themselves to a tradition that sees such things as signs of extraordinary auspiciousness.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by jet.urgyen »

Thomas Amundsen wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:36 pm Two more hypotheses, not completely serious. Almost looks like a group rushen practice. Or they got a bunch of good acid.
yeah, hahah it's truly funny :rolling:

well we don't know what happened :shrug:
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
PSM
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by PSM »

Josef wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:54 pm Imagine sitting in front a thirty foot statue of the person who you see as the embodiment of all the qualities of wisdom, love, compassion, and spiritual power and having large drops of rain fall from a nearly clear sky while surrounded by members or your community who are having a deeply emotional experience.

It isnt so hard to imagine a scene like this being deeply powerful for people, especially if those people have spent generations living in a remote part of the world dedicating themselves to a tradition that sees such things as signs of extraordinary auspiciousness.
Yes, it looks like it was an amazing experience for those involved. I would suspect that the statue is of someone who recently died, too.
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

Josef wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:54 pm Imagine sitting in front a thirty foot statue of the person who you see as the embodiment of all the qualities of wisdom, love, compassion, and spiritual power and having large drops of rain fall from a nearly clear sky while surrounded by members or your community who are having a deeply emotional experience.

It isnt so hard to imagine a scene like this being deeply powerful for people, especially if those people have spent generations living in a remote part of the world dedicating themselves to a tradition that sees such things as signs of extraordinary auspiciousness.
:good:
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Yavana »

Those people look very devoted to the Dharma. The umbrellas are a bit out of place absent rain, but something is raining down, which explains that. Otherwise, I'm not sure why this video stands out to the OP. Looks like devotional activity.
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Josef
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by Josef »

Grigoris wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:42 pm One way to solve the mystery is to identify who the statue is.
Choying Dorje Lama Norsok
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
passel
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Re: What's going on in this video?

Post by passel »

Can't get it to play...
"I have made a heap of all that I have met"- Svetonious
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