For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about the intertwining journeys of Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama as they explore the essence of joy and suffering.
In April of 2015, Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, flew to Dharamsala, India to spend five days with his friend (and fellow Templeton Prize laureate) Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Their recorded conversations — more than 23 hours worth — became the basis for the 2016 New York Times bestseller The Book of Joy, co-authored with Douglas Abrams. Now, Abrams, activist and film producer Peggy Callahan and Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos, backed with funding including $500,000 from the John Templeton Foundation, are at work on Act Like a Holy Man, a feature-length documentary about Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama’s intersecting life stories and the lessons they have learned — often through suffering — about the nature of joy and happiness.
The film’s interlocking narrative arcs will trace the two men’s biographies interspersed by footage from their conversations in Dharamsala. Born in Klerksdorp, South Africa in 1931, Tutu gained renown as a minister, theologian, leader in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, and driving force for the country’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Enthroned as spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhism at age four in 1940, the 14th Dalai Lama has lived as a refugee in India since he was exiled during the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. Since then, the Dalai Lama has been a global religious and political leader, advocating for the Tibetan people and pressing for the cause of nonviolence and religious harmony. Tutu was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2013; the Dalai Lama received the award in 2012.