SIT Short Documentary Film 

Im a 15 year old buddhist from Brazil. I never met another buddhist. I never went to a temple. No one of my family except me is buddhist. I found refuge on the Three Jewels Im now 18 and im finally going to a buddhist retreat! Its going to be an entire month of learning and practicing the Dharma

I am a Zen Buddhist from Indiana and I think that mini documentary was absolutely amazing. Even if I was not a Zen Buddhist, I would still think that it was absolutely amazing. It touched my heart very deeply.

Thanks for this video. I’m not a Buddhist but watching it reaffirmed my belief that there is no one best way to live and that everything comes with tradeoffs. The best we can do is to balance them. Desire might cause suffering but having no desire can also cause suffering. As with Okumura’s quote about needing to go out into the world to live life, as an outsider it seems Buddhist teachings are more applicable when we have already experienced the stress, anxiety and depression of focusing too much work, on the future and/or the past.

This is beautiful! A sisters love for her brother, a Fathers love for ‘the way’ a brothers honest struggle..... finding a path.... spacious and touching.... heart to heart communication! :) a beautiful creation!

I found this film and this film inspired me a lot.

Yoko, I found your mini documentary and was enthralled. Visually and artistically, each shot was a pleasure to watch. The story was universal. I come from a family that did the opposite of your gentle Mom and Dad. The expectations to live for my parents honor were paramount. You quickly set up the conflict. You have a spiritually minded Father and Mother who believe that attachment to desire is the root of suffering applies even to the natural desire that our kids “grow up”. There is a point in a child’s life where loving them is allowing them to become who they are. Obviously, you don’t do this to children. I could feel immediate judgement of the seemingly permissive parenting style. I was rooting for the son to leave the nest. It turns out, sometimes the adage “Don’t just sit there, do something!” Should be rearranged to “Don’t do something, just sit there!” There is wisdom and strength exhibited when we stop interfering. Maybe nagging parents would have delayed your brother’s journey. Thank you for this gift. I am sorry I am seeing it so late. Sincerely, Dr Dave

This is absolutely wonderful! I am so impressed...deeply moving. Excellent work, beautiful movie. Thank you

Awww. Yoko i love this. Im a youngish soto practicioner. This touches me deeply. My love to you and your family. In the suchness. Aaron York, Vermont

This is beautiful! Thanks so much for creating such a lovely film. Finding the balance between inner peace and adding value in the "real world" is a life-long opportunity for growth.

When I was 20 my father sit me down one day and said okay bud this is it. I found you an apartment you can have the old furniture in the basement. Have a nice life.

I like how in the very very last second of the film the bird and the fish finally understand what the sky and the ocean are like & what this world is about, and become great masters.

This was awesome. As a casual fan of Okumura's work this was a delightful find. Beautifully shot and edited too!

That was beautiful, thank you!

Thank you for sharing this story.

Just beautiful..

Thank you so much for this short movie. It is beautiful!

Oh, this was lovely!!!! Master Okumura is a man I admire and I can't help but be impressed by his all around peacefulness. His family is lovely as well. Might not be traditional in every way, but everyone is finding their way! Loved this short documentary. Thanks for sharing.

Beautifully done. Thank you for art 💙

incredibly moving. thank you for this.

Very interesting. Mr Okumara had too much expectation and wanted freedom, yet his son felt like there was not enough....

Thank you very much! Amazing movie!

Great film. Thank you 🙏🏼

Love! Such a wonderful film, thank you for creating and sharing for the rest of us to enjoy! In gassho

What a great film! Thanks!

What a beautiful story! I am deeply touched by the words, nature, sounds and yet above all: the messages within and beyond. Cheers & gasshō

Beautiful film ..thankyou .........

Beautiful.

Loved this. Thank you.

Beautiful film, i love japan, i love zen practice. 🙏

Very touching, well realized, and very true.

Very beautiful...thank you for your quietness...and gentle manner.

I just watched this beautiful film now and it made me tear up. heartwarming on so many levels :)

Just life, immeasurable life! Namu Amidabu!

Great film! Thank you! I hope Masaki san has become a cook by now!

The end is perfect.

This was really well made. Yoko, this is great.

Great job! Very very well done...

Beautiful

Very peaceful, beautiful and lovely family, this is a short but very amazing film

Thanks, Yoko - you all seem smart and healthy and humbling to see your real problems of finding identity - I also think being a second-generation immigrant is a part of it but definitely not all. We have to make it ourselves and the harder we try the more original we are at least.

Fantastic!

BEAUTIFUL ART stuff thank you for sharing this

Really good doc👌

Pops looks like a 18 year old Marine guard. His posture is bamboo-erect, his face like glinting gold, and he speaks serene sentences. Documentary made one think, and hungry. Son is blessed with a good family. Thanks.

Very interesting and nice. Thank you.

Awesome documentary! I stumbled across it because Brad Warner mentioned it in his book 'The Other Side of Nothing'.

Yay!!!

🙏

Plain old good work Fellas. I know the follow up film will be just as well done, Thanks from Philadelphia

good job!!

Oh darling, i get you & there are many of us .❤️

Dear Yoko. Congratulations for you wonderful work! I walk the Way of Zen and I am in charge of a Zen group in Madrid (Spain). I am also a filmmaker. I wonder if there are a version of "Sit" with Spanish subtitles, so my Sangha may enjoy your film. If not, I would love to translate the fim for you and for anybody who wants to see your film with Spanish subtitles. Thanks a lot!

Shows the impact that solipsism can have on a family. Both father and son seem to exhibit symptoms of this syndrome.

Bird. Fish. *Bows* Thank you all!!

🙏🙏👍🏼

Please make more films.

💎💎💎🙏

when is the feature length cut coming?! :) great short. cheers.

Wow

A bit fan of your father, Yoko. Thanks for making this

He has become a Tenzo 😊

Maybe people need some pressure now and then.

I think your beautiful son Came knowing about the environment. It’s harsh for some of us. Please just let him be as he is. Maybe he will open his own restaurant where he can be a chef

For more videos of Shohaku Okumura, check out his temple's RU-vid channel here: ru-vid.com

❤G❤A❤S❤S❤H❤O

I was zen practitioner for 18 years but im sick of my kidneys and i can't continue practice in zen center...im sad , zen requires healthy condition...😢

Meditate in a position which is comfortable for you. You do not have to cross your legs.

I honestly don't understand why everyone in the comments is celebrating this as if it's the pinnacle of the Buddhist teachings. Buddhism goes beyond sitting down and doing nothing. You can never practice zazen and still have the clarity of the Buddha, and you can sit all day and contemplate life and still get nowhere. Buddhism is not an action, but a way of being. If all you do is sit and play video games (as the film portrayed the son as doing) you are in fact caught in the trap of desire that the Buddha warned against. If all you ever do are things you are comfortable with and that give you pleasure then you will be forever stuck in the cycle of Maya. The father said himself that the important thing is to practice zazen without expectations yet he fails to apply this same principle to his son correctly. When the son says that he doesn't want to go to visit the campus because he isn't ready, that's him creating an expectation of what he should be and of what the campus will be like. But if he doesn't go he will never truly know what it is that he must become and what it is that the campus is. In other words, he will never be "ready" to go. That's the entire point of Buddhism. There is no preparation, there is no road to travel. Life is something that is happening and if which you are a part. You are not just living, you are life. Just like a wave and the ocean are inseparable. And the entire point of life is that it never stops in something, never reaches a set or fixed identity. Life is running ahead and you have to run with it. Only once you accept this fundamental impermanence and let go of expectations or ideas about being "ready" or "worthy" or "good enough" can you fund true peace.

The Western World (America as its grossest manifestation): a dog chasing its tail. At some point the dog dies.

Wow all that silence and he didn’t even learn to raise a child.

Lazy Japanese kid ? Does that ever exist? Aren't most japanese very hardworking and focused ?

He has no desire because he is lazy as himself said. What a ridiculous was of justifying inaction and uselessness. Call it Buddhism or whatever else.