I have some news that we think friends and supporters of Bright Dawn will like very much! On November 16, Bright Dawn will host an online screening of Carving the Divine, a beautiful film created by filmmaker Yujiro Seki. The filmmaker will join us for a Question-and-Answer session after we view the movie.

By joining us, you not only have a rare chance to see this film and talk to its creator, but also will support Bright Dawn—half the proceeds from the screening will go to Bright Dawn and/or an affiliate dharma organization. You will also have a unique encounter with a Buddhist practice few of us ever get to experience.

Carving the Divine is a documentary film that offers a rare look into a 1400-year-old Buddhist woodcarving tradition and the practitioners struggling to preserve its legacy in a rapidly changing Japan. Determined to pass his craft down to future generations, Master Koun Seki, a former apprentice of a renowned Grand Master, interviews a candidate applying to be his new apprentice. Quickly though, we discover this apprenticeship and the Busshi’s life to be far less glamorous, and much more austere, than we or the candidate would likely have imagined.

Once Master Seki makes his selection, we’re taken on a trip through a guild culture unlike anything existing today in The West: From the growing-pains of a novice apprentice to the entire guild working together as one body to create breathtaking works of art. We also get a glimpse of the near-monastic life of the famed Grand Master Saito himself, alone on his quest to “leave nothing behind but great works.”

What’s more, we’re granted unprecedented access into the secret rites of Shingon (True Word) Buddhism. And faced with the devastation of the Tōhoku Tsunami, we’re given profound insight into the Busshi’s significance within the Japanese psyche, and the nature of human perseverance through suffering.

To date, Carving the Divine has been selected for 30 film festivals, been shown in a total of 22 countries, and has won numerous awards including Best Director Award of a Foreign Language Documentary at World Cinema Milan and premiering at the famous Raindance Film Festival in London.

I count myself fortunate for having gotten to know Yujiro Seki and being able to see Carving the Divine when he was first entering it into film festivals. His relationship to the material is an intimate one—the son of a Butsudan maker, he grew up surrounded by Buddhist statues, incenses, shrines, and the like. At the time, he didn’t think about “the family business” as a big deal.

Later, however, he said that as he interacted with other cultures from around the world, “I realized the environment I had grown up in was something very beautiful, precious and profound.”

While little known in the West, the art of carving Buddhist statues from wood has been an integral part of Japanese culture for some 14 centuries. “Through the rise and fall of many governments, after all the wars and natural disasters, even through the period of time when Buddhism was heavily suppressed, these sculptures survived,” Seki says. “I was determined to find out why.”

The result of his spiritual search into Busshi is a beautiful, fascinating movie, and I think those of us who have experienced the real-life Buddhism embodied by the Kuboses’ teachings will find it profoundly meaningful. Bright Dawn’s leadership council is very happy that Seki-San has partnered with us on this project.

We will screen Carving the Divine on November 16 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific. The screening will be on Zoom, so you will need that app. The donation to attend is $25. To receive the Zoom link, register via email to brightdawncouncil@gmail.com. You can make your $25 donation using the PayPal QR or via PayPal using brightdawn@kubose.com.

If you lead a Buddhist organization and would like to offer this to your members, please email the Bright Dawn leadership council for instructions how your organization can share in the proceeds from this project.