Search - Journey Into Buddhism: Prajna Earth on DVD

An unbiased review

Y. Jossa | NJ | 04/29/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It is obvious after watching this DVD that the creator of the "Journey Into Buddhism" trilogy, John Bush, (a SUNY Buffalo alumni) is a knowledgeable Buddhist who studied in an Buddhist monastery in India.

I have to give Mr. Bush an A for his effort in putting this trilogy together, however, the truth is that it is clear that despite Mr. Bush's extensive knowledge and love for the different schools of Buddhism, he is not a professional documentary film maker, narrator or a cinematographer.. unfortunately on the other two DVDs that are part of this Buddhism trilogy he tried to be all three things himself: Writer, Narrator and Cameraman, and the results are mixed: a poorly edited DVD with amateurishly filmed video, and very confusing documentary structure.

Fortunately Mr. Bush saw the light, and hired Sharon Stone to narrate this DVD, "Prajna Earth" (the one you are reading this review about), which is far more enjoyable to watch than the other two trilogy DVDs and i recommend.

For those interested in Buddhism and the lives of Buddhist practitioners, i recommend you watch the Michael Palin "Himalaya", Werner Herzog's "The Wheel of Time" documentaries, and the Eric Valli movie "Himalaya" which were created by professional crews and film makers and are far more enjoyable and do not take themselves so seriously as this DVD.

If you are computer savvy and are truly interested in Tibetan Buddhism, i seriously recommend the following:

1 - 5 hour Michael Palin "Himalaya" BBC series, for sale here in amazon.com

2 - El Laberinto del Tibet, a 3 hour Spanish documentary (with English Narration), 2 DVD series available only in Europe, which is by far the best documentary about Tibetan Buddhism created so far. This item is now out of print but can be found on different bittorrent sites."