English subtitles for this video are available by clicking the CC button at the bottom right of the video player.

‘If we have any chance at all, then this is our chance – that we become calm’:
a Zen Buddhist priest voices the deep matters he usually ponders in silence.

Director: Chris Santiago (https://www.santiago.film/)
Producer: Daryl Hefti

Watch 'Stille' on Aeon: https://aeon.co/videos/azenbuddhist...
Watch more free videos on Aeon: https://aeon.co/videos
Subscribe to the Aeon Video newsletter: https://bit.ly/2MfCgqO
Follow us on Twitter:   / aeonmag  
Follow us on Facebook:   / aeonmag  
Follow us on Instagram:   / aeonmag  

Born into a wealthy Austrian family, the life of Vanja Palmers changed course dramatically in 1972 after a psychedelic experience. Abandoning his plan to enter the business world, he became a Zen Buddhist priest and founded a silent meditation retreat, first in Austria, then in Switzerland. Chris Santiago’s short documentary Stille finds Palmers in his 70s and still embracing a life centred on Zen practice. As the camera follows him on his meditation rituals and on a hike through the Swiss mountains, Palmers gives voice to his philosophy of nonattachment and his understanding that life is a precious, if fleeting, opportunity. ‘It is a great consolation that things are not eternal,’ he says, leaving viewers with the somewhat confronting message that if humans continue on our current trajectory of growth, consumption and harm to fellow creatures, we’ll soon disappear – and for the better.