Mars Attar and the Attar family.

In honor of our dedicated community of volunteers and supporters in service to the awakening of our essential humanity through education, indigenous wisdom, land stewardship, and care for future generations.

Together with our partners, we direct our gifts, resources, and actions toward a more conscious, compassionate, and responsible world.

♪ - Hello, I'm John Cleese.

Now, have you ever wondered what makes sacred art really sacred?

Does the so-called creative spirit lie within the artist, or is it something channeled through the artist that comes from somewhere else entirely?

In either case, prepare to be totally delighted by what follows: the first-time meeting of a Tibetan Lama and a Navajo sculptress.

So settle back, take a deep breath, and let your creative spirit float in the wind as we join our host, Phil Cousineau, with his esteemed guests for this colorful, art-drenched episode of Global Spirit, the first internal travel series.

Phil Cousineu: Whether expressed through sculpture, music, painting, or dance, art is one of the few human endeavors that can open a special doorway to higher human consciousness.

♪ In most world religions, what is called sacred or spiritual art is intended to transport both the artist and the witness into a more direct relationship with God, the deities, or the spiritual forces that are represented.

♪ As a writer, I'm fascinated by the unique ability of art to foster realizations and transformations of all kinds.

For today's show, we've invited two guests from two very different but related cultural traditions.

Lama Lhanang Rinpoche is a Tibetan Lama and painter from the Nyingma tradition-- that is, he's a Lama who lives and works in the world rather than living a secluded monastic life.

Today Lama Lhanang paints and teaches the buddhist dharma in East Los Angeles.

[all chanting] from the Jemez Pueblo near Santa Fe, we've invited a Native American sculptor named Estella Loretto, well-known throughout the southwest for her bold designs, her mythic vision, and her extraordinary artistic talent.

Estella has traveled all over the world, including India, where she met many Tibetan people.

And just by bringing these two artists and traditions together, I'm wondering if there'll be some spark of recognition of the distant historic affinity between the Native American and the Tibetan cultures.

Welcome to Art and the Creative Spirit.

Welcome to Global Spirit.

Today I'm very excited to be able to have the chance to talk about creativity, the creative spirit, with you.

I'm absolutely fascinated by the notion of this life force called creativity that moves through us.

Can you describe what this creative spirit is in your life and in your work?

- Before I answer, Phil, I'd like to light a couple of candles that I brought.

And it is to ignite the creative spirit of this conversation and for all of us being together.

Thank you.

- Yes.

- It is so wonderful to have these candles.

In the world of the religion, they always use the light or the internal light, or any sacred places, they always use the light.

In Tibet, we use butter lamps for world peace through the inner peace, so we're going to send the light to the world with peace and happiness.

- Lama, would you like to give us an opening prayer over these candles and bless our show?

- Uh, Yes.

[chimes ringing] [chanting in foreign language] Thank you.

- Thank you.

That's a wonderful way to spark the creativity of our show.

And now can you tell us, how does this notion of the creative spirit inspire your own work?

- I think there's so much create ideas in the mind.

Too many things, ideas, comes to my mind.

I have very wild creative spirit.

I think there's so many ideas come in my mind, so I have to reduce some and to make more focused to few things.

- How about you, Estella?

Can you describe what this creative spirit is in your life and in your work?

- I really believe that creating art is a very deep, spiritual process.

It really brings out the depth of where you are in your life, what is occurring in your life in the moment, and how you want to express your inner feelings, your prayer, and how you want to share it with the world.

- Lama, can everybody be an artist?

Can everybody be creative?

- Oh, absolutely.

If you took a step, each step is creating art.

If you say one words, it become--the words is art.

And also, life is art.

But what kind of art you want?

The creative spirit is within you.

The spirit of light or spirit of dark.

Which energy you focus, that energy brings.

That drawing or that art.

So, what I'm saying is, everything is art.

Is what you see.

Everything: houses, mountains, beautiful art.

Ocean, it's so beautiful art.

But inner art is the best when you create a beautiful picture inside of your heart.

That's always there.

Nobody can take it.

Nobody can erase it.

It stays with you.

That's why meditation is the most beautiful art.

It's called ultimate art.

- Well, this is a great chance for us, then, to enter your world and look at some of your art.

- Ah, yes, thank you.

[chuckles] [cymbals clanking] [all chanting in foreign language] [rhythmic drumming] [rhythmic drumming and chanting continue] "Lama" means, like, teacher, and the Indians call it guru.

And in the west, it's often called master.

In Chinese, called sensei.

In Tibet, it's called lama.

"La" means the highest knowledge.

"Ma" means like a mother.

Mother is always kind to the child.

Same way lamas, you have to kind to everyone.

That's sort of the responsibility in lama's job.

[chanting in foreign language] [all: melodic chanting in foreign language] "Buddha" means is truth.

"Buddha" means fully enlightened, energy.

I believe is, there's so many different religions; they think is, "our god, ours is possible."

But to me is, everybody speaking the truth is the same.

It's like, you know, there's many millions of electricity, light bulbs.

But the electrical energy is only one energy.

[lively recorder music] ♪ Everything is art.

To me, everything you see is art.

Everything you hear is art.

Everything you feel is art.

[recorder music continues] [water rushing] I will always draw a lot of birds and dolphins in my drawings because the dolphins, when I see, they have free spirit.

They jump, they dance, their songs, their groups, and we need that.

The birds, dolphins, sea, and mountains, the beautiful country is beautiful art already we live in.

I'm just trying to remind people to try to make sort of these connections.

Say, "okay, look at this, the beauty of this."

So that's why my art changes to more, like, a sort of natural, happy feelings, because in this country, people need more happy spirits.

♪ This one is painted Padma Sambava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 7th century.

♪ All the Buddhas sitting in lotus because lotus is the symbol of compassion.

♪ Our lotus is like our heart.

When we visualize Buddhas and Buddhas offer in the wisdom and compassion in our heart, that make opens our heart is like a lotus.

- Lama, how do you use art in your teachings?

Is it an important part of your spiritual work?

-Uh, yes.

You can meditate on mandalas or deities, or colors or places.

All are relative art.

But also if you use relative art to find ultimate art in your heart.

Also, art has message about, if you see somebody's art, you can know what's going in their mind.

So it's very beautiful way you can see with art, and that's because the art that somebody drawing or sculpture or carving, because they always connect with it in their heart, so the spirit tells the message about what's going in a person's head or heart.

Like, in America, people think it's the head, but in Asia, we think it's heart, so either way, inner mind.

[chuckles] - Estella, do you see any parallels with your own work?

- Yes, I do.

It's just starting your day with a prayer and kind of being mindful in every moment on how you are walking, how you are moving through the day, and how you want to share your day, how you want to use your day.

And really, for me, it's like, what is going to give me joy in my day?

So a lot of it is creating.

Creating art gives me a lot of joy.

It's very therapeutic, and I feel that in my heart, I'm most peaceful when I'm in my studio creating my art.

- This is a wonderful place for us to make a transition, then, into Estella's world.

- The pieces are a part of me.

I am producing them, so they, like, become like my children.

When they leave home, you want to make sure they're beautiful; they're well-dressed and happy to be out in the world.

This clay is an oil clay, and it's mixed with vegetable oil, and it doesn't have any toxic fumes.

So I warm it up, and you can very easily, you know, put it on.

It's very flexible.

I think it's very sensuous.

And it never dries, so it gives me plenty of time to grow with the piece.

For me, this symbol represents new beginnings.

This piece is an unfolding of a dance, relationships that we have, maybe a relationship between a man and a woman, and the balance that needs to be kept.

There's a dance going on.

This is a dance going on with me personally in my life.

Sometimes I'm just trying to learn with the piece, you know, letting the piece teach me.

So it's a study.

I don't know where it's going to go, but I can kind of see this going like that and turning into just an energy.

I'm going to try working with this for a few days, and then if I feel like it's changing, then I just cut her off and just keep going with that energy, bringing it around.

Actually, that's kind of what I'm seeing.

I always feel like I have to kind of meditate on it and pray about it for the courage just to be able to let go, because it takes some courage to just let go.

It feels good, though, to do it.

- I loved how you described some of your pieces as your children.

That's a very intimate metaphor for a work of art.

Can you talk about that?

- Well, you put so much of yourself and you spend so much time with the piece and the pieces that-- you know, like when I do the faces, you know, I'm, you know, just packing the clay, and then I start creating the nose, the mouth, and then I love it when I get to open their eyes, and I love it when I kind of create their smile.

And I always try to make them in a position where they're very comfortable, you know, because they have to sit that way for a while, or they'll have to stand that way for a while, so I want them to be very balanced and have harmony and just have a comfortable place for the whole energy of what I'm trying to create.

- That moment when you create the eyes, when you paint the eyes in, is that the moment when the spirit enters the work and it becomes alive?

- I think it's always there, you know, as you start the whole process, but for me, when I do the eyes and I start doing the face, I feel like it's starting to look at me now, you know, that I'm starting to have a relationship with the piece, you know, so it's like my child.

It becomes, like, a part of me, and you're giving birth.

You're giving birth to... To an energy.

- Lama, I'm very curious about your response to Estella's reflections about the art spirit.

Um, shows me, as like... This shows the, sort of, the-- everything comes, goes, in impermanence.

And we don't know what's coming in next moment.

Everything is a mystery.

We don't know in next hour what's going to be.

So the moment is the gift we have.

And also the way she works in the clay and the vegetable oils, I think I like that, and it's beautiful work.

- Estella, I'm very struck by your comments about learning from your own work.

How do you get this dialogue to move back and forth where you're creating something, and then you listen to it?

How does that work?

- You know, you start every day, and you start with a ball of clay, and you start moving with it, and every moment is different.

And then at a certain point of the day, you know, maybe you have to go work out, play with your granddaughter.

You have other things to do, so you take a break and you come again in the morning, and the next day, it unfolds in a different way, maybe unlike you expected yesterday, and you're open to the change.

You're open to wherever it wants to take you.

I don't get so stuck on where I want it to go.

- Right.

- You know, like when I took off the head, I can take it off, play with it, but if this other doesn't work, I can take that off and put that back.

You know, so it gives me a chance to dance with it, to have fun with it, and just to see where I am that might make me feel good, you know?

But I always feel that we are changing.

We have to be willing to change, to let go, and to move forward.

- Does this make sense to you, Lama, that when we're creating, when we're making something new, when we're inventing, we're growing as human beings?

- Uh, yes.

When I was, come to America... because I grow up in a.. They treat you so different way, right.

When you come to America you have to start everything from the zero, so... But I appreciate it because I learned to cook and how to make a garden, how to paint a house, and I just painted my temple and things like that.

And then sort of every day-- every day is learning and growing, and so, you know, sometimes in America, we think, like, when we lost one job or something, then we think we lost the whole world.

There's more opportunities if you see that.

Because you lost one thing, you focus, focus, you lost.

Then there's so many opportunities open to you.

You can working and learning, enjoying.

The way you're enjoying your learning.

- So does that mean when we're not creating, when we're not making something, we're stagnant or even falling backwards?

-Some people are stopped.

To sort of push down themselves, to closing themselves to, "oh, I don't have hope.

I can't.

I can't."

That means you're sort of closing yourself.

But if you say, "I can," this is wonderful.

We'll do it this way, that way.

Then there's beautiful-- more confidence and more clear vision opens towards you.

- Does this mean that art can heal us?

- I feel we are creating work, I think, that will transform environments.

At least, that's what I want to do.

If you bring home a piece of art, it will shift your home.

It will transform a space because it has energy, and I try to do art that is very serene and very peaceful, and I hope that, you know, wherever they go, that's what it brings to an environment.

- [chanting in foreign language] I feel always that art is not just only drawing, you know.

There's inner art, which is meditation and visualization.

[harmonious violin music] ♪ In this painting, as a person, always we think of Buddha or the truth is somewhere, you know.

Somewhere you have to go to get there, you know?

We have to go to Bodhgaya, or we have to go to India, or we have to go to someplace to really connect with the Buddha, but if really we have a trust in faith strong enough, then you don't need to go anywhere.

We are the one as the center of universe.

♪ We are the one already connected to buddha.

So this person understand that moment, and this girl, she, like, sort of opens her heart.

Oh, Buddha is not somewhere.

In that moment, she feels like raining flowers, and the rainbows come to her, and she feel that moment is beyond words, beyond thoughts.

She get to enlightenment energy.

Ultimate happiness arrives into her.

♪ - Everybody has a gift of art.

Some people have speech art.

They can talk beautifully.

Or they can sing songs and poetries.

There are so many beautiful gifts of speech art.

Some people has mind art.

They can't draw, but they can create things in their mind.

And we all have dreams and want to create things.

It's good.

We have gift of this body's useful to create things and to do wonderful things.

That's why we are here to manifest it and do something, good things to ourselves and to our families, in the world to all the animals, plants.

To me, happiness is the success.

- I really feel that art isn't always, like, the most joyful, because in real life, you have negative emotions as well.

You know, sometimes you have a little hard time, but I think that those experiences also can enhance your art.

You know, those little moments when you maybe have little struggles can make your art more powerful, and then you get happier, you know, because you have negative few moments, and they always turn.

♪ - This is a really nakedness of our mind, an ordinary person.

We all go through these situations.

Some people go through every day.

Some people go through this once a while.

Lot of people don't like.

Some people says, "what happened that day?"

I say, "nothing happened.

This is a great day I painted."

Then they ask me, "what were you thinking?"

I said, "we are like this."

And they said, "how?"

I said to them, "this is a symbol of three poisons..." When we use these three poisons, then we begin to suffer, and there we start.

We don't know why we're not happy, why we're so much angry, why we can't sleep, why we can't eat, why these things happening.

But if you realize because the three poisons.

Ignorance-- when we don't know what truth, we better not judge it.

And just, we know exactly what's going on in our mind, but we don't know other people's mind.

Better not judging other people's, only judging ourselves to transform ourselves to be good person.

Anger is used-- even though somebody did something bad to you or something not nice to you, if you're angry, you not destroy that person; you destroy yourself.

Anger destroys your family.

Anger destroys your friendships.

Anger destroys your business.

Anger destroys your physical health, destroys everything.

So, you know, in the same way, in attachment, we're never satisfied.

We want something more.

When we have little house in the city, then we want another house in the country.

The attachment never satisfies.

When you appreciate what you have, you're the richest person in the world.

So what I'm saying is, it's like I told some people, I said, "okay, just look at this picture.

"You like this picture, you don't."

But this is exactly the truth.

The truth, nobody like truth.

They like lies, white lies.

"Oh, you look good.

"You must be kind person.

"Oh, you're a good person.

You're wise."

People want to hear that, but the truth is like our mind, sometimes messy like this.

- As a writer, I was raised to believe that just about everything could be described by words.

However, I've learned to realize as I've gotten older that there are some experiences, some dimensions that can only be expressed in images.

This is a very disturbing image.

It seems to be a kind of x-ray of the soul of an angry person.

What did you think?

What did you feel looking at that image?

- At first, it seemed I was a little bit confused.

And I wanted to ask him what that was coming out of the eyes.

You know, I didn't understand it, but it seemed angry and confused.

But, again, coming to the word "courage," I think it took courage for you to do something like that.

But I think we all have moments like that, so it's a part of the truth.

- Yes, you can look, and things coming from ears and eyes and mouths and the-- when a person is sort of used to ignoring enticement, jealous, and pride and anger, then what becomes, their mouths is never nice.

For example, when you are a child, maybe, like, five years old, something, six, seven years old, you are in the street.

You see somebody yell, an angry person.

The damage, you never forget your entire life in that moment.

But if you see somebody has peace and smile and some nice to you maybe when you were a child, then you never forget that beauty.

We have light sides, dark sides.

Which one we want to be manifested is the choice, is our motivation.

We can make difference which kind of picture you want.

You want picture of buddha, or you want picture of that?

That is your choice, so that's why I painted that.

- It seems there are many motivations and purposes and reasons for art.

Beauty, traditionally, reminds us of what's life-affirming.

It gives us a reason to live.

But there's an aspect of this kind of work that's disturbing and maybe pushes us off-center so we have to think in a new way.

- You know, people feel shock, and a lot of people ask me, say, "why you paint such like this, like evil, painful-looking drawing?"

And some people may learn from something this because this is the truth.

And sometimes-- you know, who like anger?

But it just automatically rise.

But when your anger rising, you have a chance to look, to transform.

Oh, this, I don't like.

This is the picture of my drawing, like that kind of feelings, but this is sort of way my teachings come out with my art, to show instead, see, this is something we're like, but it's okay.

We can work, and we can transform.

We can change.

So that's way I thought this is sort of one way I teach with my art.

- Mm-hmm.

- [laughs] I hope you like it.

- But I'm curious to know if you sold that painting.

Did someone buy that painting, or do you still have it?

- I still have it.

and also I was thinking maybe make a T-shirt but who s going to wear it?

[laughter] ♪ - This piece is called Unfolding Blessing.

This, to me, represents whatever you're thinking, the moment, every moment in time.

So whatever you're thinking is what you are going to unfold in the moment, in the day, and that becomes your creation, because this energy, whatever you're thinking, you're kind of putting it out there.

So the unfolding that I feel like I'm acknowledging in this piece is like celebrating the gift of every moment, and this piece turns.

I like all my sculptures to be able to turn.

♪♪ If it's in the center, it can be seen on both sides.

And I like this side because it's really peaceful, and it's quiet.

And so where I would like to take this is, do it like an 8-foot-by-8-foot or 10-foot-by-10-foot and remind people of the importance of now, that every moment is just a gift.

So that's what I'm sculpting right now, is just a moment in time.

♪♪ - I know there's a wonderful saying in Buddhism: "present moment, perfect moment."

Can you explore that a little bit?

- Well, for me, that's all we have, is this moment.

And what I was doing in this piece is, whatever we are thinking, wherever our heart is, our state of mind, wherever our thoughts are, is the moment.

We're giving power to this moment by the way we think, because whatever you think, you're going to bring in-- you're going to unfold.

So if you think positive, then that becomes your reality.

If you are thinking negative, then you bring the doubts, the fear, the negativity, the-- you know, that's what you bring in.

- I'm struck also by the title of this piece with the spiral in it.

"unfolding," something's unfolding out of the moment.

But why "blessing"?

How can a work of art be a blessing?

- it's a blessing because it's a prayer.

It's a prayer that went into the piece, and when you're working on a piece, you're putting life into it.

You're breathing your life into it.

You know, we all have so many breaths in our lifetime, and we only have so many, so I think when we are creating, we are giving this piece a life force, so it's a blessing because I don't take my breath for granted.

- Is that the art spirit, the creative spirit we're talking about, the moment when our life force actually moves into a piece that we're creating?

- Without it, without that force, without our breath, we wouldn't be able to do it, so it's life.

It's breath.

It's energy.

It's thought.

It's prayer.

I mean, it's something that doesn't just happen.

You know, we've been brought up all our lives, since we were children, in a certain way, in a certain culture, being taught in our languages, in ceremony, in songs.

We have prayer.

And I think in our lifetime, it's unfolding, and in this time, you know, after many, many years, you know, this is the piece I'm doing, and that's the title, but it didn't just happen now.

It's a whole lifetime of an unfolding.

- Mm-hmm.

It's kind of like letting go and trusting.

She's like, "try just to let go," you know, and not worry and just, like, somehow to have that faith.

I love this piece.

I just think it's so beautiful.

The gold is 22-karat gold leaf.

I wanted to do a piece that would have a very gentle flight, because all the pieces that I see that are done of eagles are always very intense, and this is very gentle.

It takes a lot of time, because I'm into finding balance and grace.

You know, it should be flowing and graceful, you know.

If you're an eagle, then I hope you have a graceful flight.

You know, if you're a woman, I hope you can walk graceful.

It's just sort of how you walk in life.

Because I work in this clay, you can see how I kind of move these feathers up so they kind of have a flow, and I like that opportunity to be able to move the clay, press it down, and working in this clay allows me to do that.

In stone, once you take it away, it's gone.

And, why, because sometimes we stuck, sort of we can't let go.

"i have to have this.

This is mine."

Sort of--we sort of hold it because, "he's so mean to me," sort of, we can't let it go, you know, some people.

But when you let go, and then it's like an eagle.

To me, it's like sort of you have wings to be free, yourself, to flow, and you maybe don't have wings, but you have inner wings to free yourself, is the most beautiful way I see these pieces.

- You mentioned freedom, being free.

I think as when we're children, you know, we're very free.

We're young.

We don't have a lot of responsibility.

But I think as we become adults and we have our own children and we have our responsibilities, sometimes I feel we aren't as free as we used to be, aren't as spontaneous.

We're not as, you know... Just carefree.

And I think as artists, we have to really be careful that we don't lose that.

You know, it's almost like a childlike nature of expression.

You know, we shouldn't get so rigid in how we want things.

You know, we have to be flexible to kind of go with the moment.

- Does this entail a practice?

Because there are a lot of negative forces in the world that really don't want us to be creative.

There are forces that say, "let's keep things the way they are," but have you had to have a practice where you learn to trust this creative spirit that comes out in your painting?

- I think it's not up to Buddha or teacher or anyone.

Really, it's up to you to make your difference in your life.

But you need confidence and clear vision and trust.

So when you have that with the faith, the path of enlightenment or path of awakening is connected with your heart, so you can just follow it.

But it's important to do exercise like tai chi or yoga and then sort of meditation and to sort of relax and sort of breathing, because today in America, we have big problem because we sit in the office.

We sit in the car, sit on the sofa, go to bed.

That's why we get so many problems created in health, so that's why we need to move and breathe and sort of stretch in movements.

Most people, they forget in the moment and always sort of looking for something further, but we don't have further.

We don't know next moment.

- Bye.

- Bye.

- So letting go of our attachments, chasing dreams, you know, that maybe we don't really need, like, too many things.

As I get older, I find that I want less.

I don't want so much, because I think it weighs you down, and maybe something you bought 20 years ago no longer serves you.

It doesn't give you the joy, or it doesn't speak to you anymore, but maybe somebody else walks in your home, and they love it.

So give it away.

- I know some people, some ladies have 300 shoes.

You only have two feet.

- Yeah.

- [laughs] - It's time to give it away, you know?

- I think it's simple.

It's important.

- I'd like to go back to another theme from the film clip when you said, "it takes courage to let go."

What are we trying to let go of?

- Sometimes I think we are hanging on to an old belief system.

We hang on to old emotions, memories, maybe how we were raised, maybe traditional techniques, but as you are growing in this time, in this age, you find new ways to express yourself.

That's what I mean about letting go, and somehow-- and I think we all know what we have to do individually.

We know what has to change and how we need to move to grow in a better way.

- in my own work, I've noticed that if my ego gets in the way, if I'm thinking about success, money, fame, and so on, I can't really write.

I can't do my art.

So the Buddhist notions about moving the ego, putting it in its place, have helped me a lot.

Can you describe this process, Lama, in your own work, about letting go and surrender?

- Yes, very easy and very simple.

And you know nothing is forever.

Everything is impermanent.

And look into our history.

All the famous great kings, scholars, right now is only stories in books.

What happened there is impermanence.

- It's a very humbling perspective.

The answer was the gift.

Thank you.

It's a good chance for us to look at another film clip about you and your work.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- This painting's called The Mothers, the symbol of peace.

In Tibet, we say... It doesn't matter English or Chinese or Tibetan, always started with mama or ma, mother, ma.

The "ma" sound is the first sound.

Therefore, when I paint this, I was thinking about painting tara in the center.

Tara is a manifestation of wisdom and compassion.

They're called mother of all the Buddhas because all the Buddhas born and manifested from the wisdom, compassion.

Tara has seven eyes, and they're watching always, and also she's standing on the mother Earth, and these all rise from the rainbows with mother Earth.

And also, she says she comes again and again to this world.

After that, she comes back as different female forms.

I believe all the female goddesses in this world is Tara manifestations.

So then Asia, this is Guanyin, so big in Asia.

I put in Guanyin, the mother.

And then in the west, mother Mary is the mother of Jesus.

And then I saw in some paintings a black Madonna from different countries.

And then in Native Americans, always talk about their Corn Mother.

So it doesn't matter which religion or which group.

We all live in mother Earth.

To me, the mother is the most important person in the world.

Your mother the one carry you inside nine months and carry in her body.

And then she cleanse you, everything, all the dirty things, bathe you and teach you and speak to you, and she really just sort of watching you growing, always there for you.

Mother has unconditional love for their child.

- I think it's a universal language of love and compassion that all mothers have.

All mothers feel, I think, the same.

We speak the same language, so it doesn't matter what culture we come from.

- And we have similar cultures, Tibetans and Natives here, and always I see in other people, I feel, like, sort of connected with my own people.

And also there's the similar large things, so I've enjoyed to exploring your work and knowing you.

[chuckles] - I remember when I lived in India and we were in Darjeeling and Kathmandu and going to the Tibetan refugee camps.

I was very young, maybe 18 or 19, many years ago.

And when I came to the camps and I saw the Tibetan people on the other side of the world, I felt like they were my family.

I felt like I came home, and I felt very like I was a part of them, like my family was waiting.

And so all the time when I see Tibetan people, I feel like they're my relatives.

You're my relative.

- Same way I am feeling, because first time... First time I'm going there was, like, "why am I going?"

Just, like, sort of, I'm not comfortable going there.

But when I see we were together, there's a fire during the ceremony and then together, and then the altar, the medicine man comes and give me hug and crying.

He said, "welcome, brother."

That moment just touches my heart, and a few days I stayed there, and leaving was just so hard for me to sort of leave my family.

- Mm-hmm.

- It just sort of--i'm saying, "okay, I'm not saying good-bye.

I'm going to say, see you soon."

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

In our culture, we don't have a word for "good-bye."

There's no good-bye because we always will see each other again.

- Mm-hmm.

- And that is good-bye.

[speaking Tibetan] and Tibetans say... [speaking Tibetan].

Means "long life."

[chuckles] - Well, that's a wonderful grace note with which to end our conversation on the creative spirit.

I want to thank you, Estella.

I'd like to thank you, Lama, for joining us here on Global Spirit for this exploration of creativity, art, and the sacred.

♪♪ - Hello, I'm still John Cleese, and I do hope that you're enjoying this unique series as much as I am, and I trust you will join us again soon for another episode of Global Spirit, the first internal travel series.

♪♪ ♪♪ Mars Attar and the Attar family.

In honor of our dedicated community of volunteers and supporters in service to the awakening of our essential humanity through education, indigenous wisdom, land stewardship, and care for future generations.

Together with our partners, we direct our gifts, resources, and actions toward a more conscious, compassionate, and responsible world.

♪