Through the Eastern Gate

Directors Mironel de Wilde and Julien L. Balmer's Through the Eastern Gate profiles three young Westerners who chucked it all for spiritual enlightenment in India and Turkey. According to Sister Yeshe Chodron, “Everything you want, you'll find in India. It's a place of extremes: heaven and hell.” At 17, the Australian Yeshe became a Buddhist nun, while Californian Aziz Abbatiello found his calling as a Sufi semazen or whirling dervish, and Finlander Ronela Vainio practices Tantric yoga. Yeshe experienced a terrible sense of loss after the death of her father, and turned to drugs and alcohol, but nothing filled the emptiness until she discovered Tibetan Buddhism. After her confirmation in the Catholic Church, Ronela not only felt “flat,” but no closer to Jesus. Both women were looking for change after these transformative experiences (Aziz, on the other hand, had been raised as a Sufi). Each of the three here credit a particular guru or swami—whose comments are also included—for teaching them how to follow their chosen path, and all feel as if they've found the “Answer,” although obviously each has found an “answer” that brings purpose to their individual lives. An engaging look at a trio of modern spiritual explorers, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)