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[woman narrating] For centuries, Tibet was an isolated land,

high in the Himalayas,

almost untouched by the outside world--

until 1949--

when the Communist Chinese forcibly entered

and claimed sovereignty over it.

After near annihilation over the next ten years

against an army of supreme strength,

the Tibetan people, high lamas and spiritual leaders

fled to the surrounding countries.

Over the coming decades, 1.2 million Tibetans died

as a result of Communist Chinese policies,

and many more were imprisoned or put into labor camps.

The Tibetan Buddhist religion,

which had been protected in the mountains for almost 1,000 years,

was threatened with extinction.

Some lamas thought that once the Communist Chinese left,

they would be able to return to their country.

Others thought that Buddhism would return to India

where it had started 2,500 years earlier.

Few had considered the possibility

that Buddhism would instead spread throughout the world

or how it would be carried there.

[woman] I used to have a lot of questions in my mind.

I mean, since I was quite young,

I would wonder about-- [laughs]

you know, the existence and many things.

And I never really got any proper answers.

I came from an academic family,

and, there, religion doesn't play a big role.

Humanistic values are a natural thing.

I couldn't believe that either you believed in God

or you would be doomed forever

and that everybody who did not follow God,

wherever they were in the world, that they were lost.

Denmark is a Christian country, but not very religious.

Whatever Christianity was there

was definitely not giving the answers I was looking for.

I was looking for the truth.

Hannah was born in '46, right after the war.

And at that time, we lived in-- [indistinct] in Denmark.

[man] She was very intelligent, indeed, in university,

in the top of the class.

My father was a very logical person.

You can say he was a rationalist.

It was not the feelings,

it was the thoughts, for him, was the most important.

If he has influenced Hannah, it must have been in this way.

[woman] As Hannah grew elder,

my parents were much more strict about her.

She would like to go out with friends

and go to dance club and so,

and I had to fight a little for her

so that she was allowed to go.

When I left for the States, Hannah had a boyfriend.

I think his name was Hensing, like--

And when I came home,

she had a new boyfriend, and that was Ole.

[laughs]

He had this thing about him, like, not dangerous,

but "don't mess with me" thing.

He was a good drinker and a good smoker.

[Thomas] He was a wild guy, you know,

who liked to pick a fight.

He'd make himself quite clear, at once--

[laughing]

to those who are not so much in touch of his personality.

Must have been '65 or '66 while I was studying.

I was sitting there, checking out the new ladies,

when suddenly she came in.

[woman] That was after I finished high school.

And I started on university,

and we had a meeting at university.

And also there, you know,

we both had very strong reaction.

She was a little disturbed by my brother and me

because we were quite rough.

[Hannah] His wildness was more boyish,

but it was pretty violent at the time, yeah?

So it took a few years before we decided

to really stay together.

[Ole] You know, Hannah was a part of '68 generation.

She was 22 in '68.

[acid rock playing]

[Hannah] It was a time when gurus started to manifest,

even in Denmark, Hindu gurus.

A lot of our friends,

they became disciples of these gurus.

We were not so interested.

We didn't go the religious way,

but we went more into the psychedelic experiences

because we were interested in the mind.

I was reading Aldous Huxley who, of course, also said

that psychedelics were useful, and so on,

and we didn't know about karma at that time.

So we thought that mind would really be freed by that.

That was our idea. That's what we wanted to reach.

[man] There was this phase where you're allowed just to be

and when people were using drugs.

Because it was approached with an open mind

and looking for something.

It was not an escape.

It's a big difference from then till today,

where a lot of people take drugs as an escape.

Here, it was deliberately looking for something that was better.

We wanted to learn something.

We wanted to seriously learn about mind.

[Hannah] The first Buddhist-- I think, Buddhist teachings that I ever read,

Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines,

put everything there.

It just fit, you know, and it really gave so many answers

to the things I had really been wondering about, yeah?

That's where everything-- the connection to Tibet and everything

just clicked, clicked, clicked in like that.

[Hannah] When you were interested in the mind,

that's where you would go, to Nepal.

[jet engines roaring]

[Ole] We went out together to the East.

We drove out,

driving all the way down. [sharp exhale]

Crazy Turkey, you know, funny Iran.

Cool Afghanistan.

Cool place, cool people. Really.

And from there to India.

When you come out of the mountains,

you can see miles and miles and miles.

And it's one of the most fantastic scenic views you can imagine.

[Kate] Kathmandu was a very, very special atmosphere.

At that time, there was so few foreigners.

We were looking for the truth-- [laughs] in Nepal.

Kathmandu itself was not-- at that time-- not so full with Tibetans.

[man] The eastern Tibetans were in exile

as a consequence of the disastrous economic policies

of Communist China after '59,

a disastrous upheaval of the Cultural Revolution.

It was a complete destruction of their country.

One and a half million Tibetans, out of six million, died.

Only a hundred thousand managed to escape.

They lost everything.

Their country was destroyed,

their monasteries, everything.

They were poor refugees in a poor country,

sitting all on top of a hill.

And the only thing, actually, they had were their lamas.

[monks chanting]

Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche,

the lama they met for the first time in 1968

when they came to Kathmandu,

the lama actually who kept Buddhism alive.

Nepal was a kingdom, was in an Indian dynasty.

They were Hindus. They were not Buddhists.

And it was due to the incredible benevolent

and wise influence of Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche with the king of Nepal--

with the old king of Nepal--

that actually this Tibetan Buddhist activity

was allowed to take root in Nepal.

[Ole] We came to him in the middle of the night.

He had half of one of these long clay houses.

[Hannah] Then we saw this man sitting there,

and we felt immediately--

We didn't know what it was.

Today we would say blessing, yeah?

But we didn't know, and we were put in front of him.

There was some very interesting wallpaper

while we were sitting there.

Then I noticed something.

I began to see the pattern on the wallpaper through him.

I thought, "That's funny." I thought, you know,

"I don't want hypnotism."

I just thought we're not going to have that.

So I took out a Danish matchbox.

I thought, if this is hypnotism,

this will also be transparent, just like him.

But the box was solid, and he was transparent.

Then I was really impressed, right?

We didn't know what was happening, but we just felt--

We just felt a really unusual,

clear and very wonderful feeling in the air.

He left such a strong impression in our mind

that he came to our mind all the time.

And actually we could feel

that he was kind of connected to us already,

and even without knowing who he was.

We really wanted to get more understanding

of what all this was, these incredible beings.

[Ole] It was clear that a lot of the people here

had found some inner truth, some inner peace,

some inner power that we would have to work to get.

[Hannah] We had to go and find this man again.

Every time we went there, they told us,

"Well, sorry, he's not home. He's with Karmapa."

And that went on for days, and finally it's, "Okay.

Where is Karmapa? Who is Karmapa?

Where is he?" In order to find Lopon Tsechu.

And then they told us, "Okay, you go to Swayambhu,

and then Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche will be there."

So we went to Swayambhu, and we were climbing--

We could see there was a lot of things going on.

[Ole] It was two days before Christmas, and it was very low sun.

We looked up, and we were like blinded.

[Hannah] That was our first impression of the Karmapa.

We were totally fascinated, and he was looking to us.

So we went up and came close to him,

and he blessed us for the first time.

[Ole] We just said, "What is this?" We were totally blown away.

[Hannah] The comparison would be like LSD.

But we were not on anything.

I had kind of a glimpse of the mind.

It just changed something completely.

[monks chanting]

[narrator] 2,500 years ago,

an Indian prince named Siddhartha

realized the true nature of mind

and became the Buddha,

meaning "the enlightened one."

The teachings spread and, in the eighth century, came to Tibet.

Part philosophy, part religion,

Buddhism is seen as a tool by which practitioners

can experience the innate limitless qualities of the mind.

The Buddha taught that a great lama will be born 1,600 years later

and would live in many successive reincarnations.

He would be called Karmapa.

Karmapa was the first lama to consciously reincarnate,

beginning what became a long Tibetan tradition.

He was the head of one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism--

the Kagyupas.

[Tomek] Oh, Karmapa was "the man" in the Himalayas.

He was the teacher of kings.

He was a friend of prime ministers,

of Indira Gandhi-- a personal friend.

He was the sun for the Tibetans.

[children singing]

[Hannah] He was just amazing.

He was so kind to us.

We went to him, and Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche was there.

And we were so happy to meet him again.

Twenty years later,

Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche told us what happened there.

When we had gone out of the room,

Karmapa asked him who we were.

And he'd called us his disciples already.

And then Karmapa said, "Okay,

but now, like, they are my disciples."

[audience laughing]

And he invited us to come to Rumtek.

[horns blowing]

[Tomek] Rumtek was chosen as Karmapa's seat by Karmapa himself

outside Tibet in an autonomous region,

actually independent--

independent entity at that time, which was Sikkim.

When the Karmapa came back to Rumtek,

I mean, just general discussion,

he always says that there is one couple,

very special, coming from Denmark.

He mentions several times,

and we all wondering what kind of person

and when they will come.

[crow cawing]

It was summertime. Then Ole and Hannah came with a rucksack.

And they came there by walking,

and they told us that they were led by a black crow

and that they followed the black crow,

and then they landed up to Rumtek up in the mountain.

[woman's voice] "Dear Mom and Dad, the biggest thing has happened.

Karmapa has sent us a written invitation to Rumtek

to come and get his instructions there.

We feel an amazing happiness to be so totally accepted

as students of the greatest man in the world.

At the moment, it's totally impossible to say how long we will stay there.

What we're doing now is only possible

because we're 100% into it, both of us.

Much love, Hannah and Ole."

[Hannah] We had been waiting for this moment so long, yeah.

Finally, we saw him again.

We really wanted to get more understanding

of what all this was, these incredible beings, yeah?

First Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche and then Karmapa,

and they were so amazing

and we could feel there was something there.

So we wanted to learn to know what was behind that.

First, we followed Karmapa everywhere.

And we were running up and down the mountains.

He was coming in helicopters,

and we were there before the helicopter.

And, like, it was-- It became a kind of joke I think for them

that we were always there.

[Jigme Rinpoche] They are always following everywhere.

So means more like kind of a family

or familiar kind of relationship.

The Karmapa considered them almost like his own children.

[Hannah] Ole and him was always joking a lot.

Even at the physical, they were kind of--

Like squeezing his hand,

and he was clapping the shoulders,

which normally you don't do with Karmapa.

But we didn't know that.

And he didn't seem to mind.

He was just laughing a lot.

[Shamar] In the beginning time, hippies are very strange.

And then later, people get used to it.

[woman's voice] "Dearest Mom and Dad, the days are passing by,

and the most incredible things are happening,

which are difficult to describe in words.

On the 15th--

on the day of the full moon-- we took refuge,

and we are now fully accepted as Karmapa's disciples."

[Hannah] We had just totally surrendered to Karmapa there.

[Ole] Something happened there that had special meaning,

you know, that wouldn't go away.

He gave us names.

I got Ocean of Wisdom,

and Hannah got Mighty Holy Lotus.

[woman's voice] "If you came here, you would immediately

be struck by the love which radiates from these people,

so modest and so calm in their expression."

In the morning when they go there,

Karmapa would let them sit on the floor.

Then he translate whatever question they had.

His Holiness Karmapa gave the answer to them and guided them.

[Hannah] The more we got into the practice,

the deeper our bond to Karmapa was.

He all the time-- He would check our confidence.

He would drop us in the water,

and then you would have to learn to swim.

[narrator] After several months, Karmapa entrusted Hannah and Ole

to the great Tibetan teacher Kalu Rinpoche

to deepen their Buddhist practice.

[woman's voice] "In one part of Kalu Rinpoche's monastery,

he is training 15tulkus and monks intensively.

For three years, three months and three days,

they have to stay there without seeing or talking to anybody else

except their guru.

It's very powerful.

Some die from the diseases which come earlier than normal

because of the strong karmic purification.

Some flip out, as it is called in modern language.

And some come out as Rinpoches."

[Hannah] They were not many who spoke English.

The only thing we knew was--

I knew the alphabet, so I could use dictionary.

Together with the dictionary, we learned the meaning,

and we had it checked with Kalu Rinpoche.

And so I started then to really learn the oral language

and to translate.

[woman's voice] "We start our day at half past five.

We're going through the preliminary school,

which is needed to be able to work with the advanced meditation practices.

And it seems to be effective enough, indeed.

We're thinking much about you

and try to have you in everything we do

and hope that you can feel it.

[person breathing deeply, slowly]

We're now making 1,000 prostrations per day

in three concentrated hours.

And besides that, we are busy learning the Tibetan language

and meditating.

The deeper we go into it,

the more we understand how great the science of mind is."

[man's voice] "Dearest, a couple of words to praise Hannah

before this is sent.

It is completely unbelievable, what she's been managing

and is managing every day.

Simply, completely incredible

what the dharma and her willpower can get out.

Lithe and happy and completely sure of herself

and her love for everything living, she dances along,

radiating in all directions."

[Hannah] For us, it was, like, okay, now we have met Karmapa.

Now we're in Sikkim.

Now we will stay here forever.

One day, he called us up and said, "Okay, now you go home."

Home?

Where's home? [laughs]

He said, "There will be some other people there

who also like to hear about what you have been learning here."

Then Karmapa said, "I want you to do this work.

Start Buddhism in the West."

[narrator] As Hannah and Ole returned to Denmark,

they were unaware of the enormity of the task that lay before them.

[Ole] A lot of my young friends from the early '60s

started getting into situations I would not go.

They were not taking care of their bodies, you know.

They were shifting from hash and LSD.

Some are getting into opium, the opiates,

some in amphetamine, stuff like that.

It wasn't so good.

[Kate] In my eyes, Hannah, she was different,

but not like with Ole.

He don't smoke, he don't drink,

so he got much more...

He still has his energy, but it was in another way.

People could see that there was some stability,

that we'd found something that gave meaning to everything.

And, actually, the people on bad trips and so on,

they used to come to us.

We would just fix them up mentally and let them go again.

We had a big mind-fixing industry going at the same time,

so we helped a lot.

A lot of people who got hurt on drugs, we were able to help.

[Lizbet] I could feel, when I was with Hannah,

that she really had found something

she wanted to live for.

And she was very determined to live this way.

[man] They were feeling their way at that time.

It was more, "Come and sit down

and let's talk about different aspects of Buddhism."

[narrator] Hannah and Ole knew it was important for new practitioners

to meet the Tibetan lamas face-to-face.

Two years after their return,

Karmapa sent their first teacher to Europe,

the Great Kalu Rinpoche.

[Flemming] He was a very special man.

When he was looking at you, you know,

you felt his gaze go all the way through.

He was not of this world.

Hannah took me to him, and I could feel the power around him.

And I could certainly feel that Hannah was very happy

around what was happening to her.

[Hannah] When we invited the lamas to come to Europe,

I happened to start to translate.

And then you had to learn more to be able to translate,

so it was a sort of natural process.

At that time, you know, very little was translated,

and very few of the teachers spoke any English.

So we just had to learn it.

[Ole] We had to get all the meaning of the Tibetan practices.

We needed to be precise.

And it took quite a while.

[Hannah] It was '74 when Karmapa came the first time.

[people chattering]

[Flemming] At that time, Ole and Hannah had been going on

at least for a couple of years in Copenhagen.

And I guess there must have been

maybe 50, 60 people already following them at that time.

And what Karmapa said was that we needed

to spread Buddhism much more.

[Ole] It was an explosion of activity.

All the time, it was coming out of him.

We started centers in Norway, Sweden,

down through Germany-- Munich, Hamburg--

and Graz and Vienna and so on.

Everybody saw that Karmapa was the power of Tibetan Buddhism.

He was the man. He was...

[narrator] As Karmapa traveled throughout Europe,

he would perform a spiritual ritual called the Black Crown Ceremony.

According to tradition,

the ceremony would further the spiritual development of those who took part.

I've seen him in some Black Crown Ceremonies

where he did-- not dissolve.

I could see him, but it was like

the colors of him and the surrounding was the same,

flowing in and out of it.

I don't know what happened, if they put something in the air.

But I don't think so. I think it comes from somewhere else.

[Ole] With the Black Crown, he opened up people's minds.

People really changed when they saw it.

[horns blowing]

[man] At that moment that the crown actually sat on his head,

one had a feeling that time was suspended,

that it was an eternity of now.

You couldn't bend. You had to sit straight like this.

And you couldn't move this way. You couldn't move that way.

[Bryan] The mind normally wanders to somewhere else.

During that moment, it never would happen.

You would be so there.

[Hannah] Many people were a little afraid of Karmapa

because he was so powerful.

If he was laughing, the whole house was laughing.

And if he was frowning, the world was going down.

It was like so powerful.

[woman] The compassion of His Holiness was limitless.

He would bless people till 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning.

He never tired of questions or of seeing people.

[Hannah] He would melt everybody's heart, of course.

And people, if they were Buddhist or not,

everybody would get their blessing.

[woman] Often after teachings with the Karmapa,

Hannah would gather up the new people

and say, "Did you get the teaching?"

You know? And they'd say, "Oh, we have a few questions."

And Hannah would answer the questions,

and then they would have a little session

where she would teach meditation to the new students.

Karmapa would just be one big smile when Hannah was around.

It was an amazing relationship.

They were so close, yeah.

[Hannah] One time, in England, Karmapa gave us a note.

A money note.

And he kind of did tell us,

"If you completely keep the motivation pure

and no self-interest,

then you will never lack anything.

If you always have the right motivation,

if you keep your bond,

then you can't go wrong.

Then whatever happens will have meaning, will be right."

Around that time, they decided not to have children,

because they wanted to put their whole life in Buddhism.

[Hannah] We were quite young when we started.

So at that time, we didn't think of we would have children or not children.

But once the work started--

which means not to really stay at one place

and had to be available at any time,

then you have to think how you want to use your life.

And what we were doing at that time,

you know, was more important.

And we both agreed to make the choice of not making family.

[Ole] In '76, we said to Karmapa,

we're going to the Communist countries now.

We're going to see what we can do there.

He wanted to know where it was, and we first had a small map of Poland and so on.

And then he said, "But what's over there?"

Then somebody had a world map, and we rolled it out all the way,

up to the Ural Mountains via the Baikal Lake

on to Vostok, you know, and Japan.

He said, "All Communist?" I said, "Yes."

"So you make centers all the way to there," he said, and pointed.

[gunfire]

[people shouting]

[Tomek] In Poland, people always rebelled against this Communism,

which was imposed on us from the East after World War II.

The country became a jail. All freedom--

No electricity, no light,

no telephone, no freedom of travel.

More than three people on the streets, you could be arrested.

And all of a sudden,

in that completely hopeless and helpless situation,

Hannah and Ole arrived.

[woman] Poland was always a very Christian country.

And in deep Communism time,

church was not only the spiritual offer

but was also like a sign of Communist resistance.

[Tomek] They wanted the young people--

were especially afraid--

to get interested in Eastern religions or philosophies

because that would weaken the power of the Catholic Church.

It was a strategy, and that's why they gave them the visa.

Ole and Hannah brought this very fresh atmosphere of freedom,

which was, at that time, probably quite typical for Western Europe,

but it wasn't very typical for Poland

or other countries behind the Iron Curtain.

[Mira] For me, it was a proof that it's possible

to find ultimate freedom

not dependent on our, let's say, poor condition at that time.

[Tomek] First time, my friends went there. I didn't go for that lecture.

When they came back-- They came back, my sister and other friends.

They came back so changed.

When he came for the second time-- [indistinct]

My sister and I, we organized his lecture already.

I was already translating for him.

So these two gentlemen appeared to Maggie and I the day before

and said, "If this lama...

says something political, or something will happen,

both you and your mother will be arrested immediately

and you will not live."

And so, we are going that lecture,

surrounded by riot troops-- a Buddhist lecture.

Hundreds of riot troops. They even brought water cannons, right?

And there were hundreds of people,

I was translating next to him.

We're sitting on a table there.

The secret police was right in the first row.

They had it painted on their faces.

And he started, "You are very lucky here in Poland."

And I translated and thought, okay, so far, so good.

And then he said, "Because obviously nothing works in this country."

And I knew we are skating on thin ice.

Because obviously nothing works in this country.

And there he got immediately an ovation from the people, right?

And then the policemen who were there,

one run out, one to get pen.

And it was clear. He says one more word,

and it's the end of Buddhism in Poland for the next ten years,

and we will-- arrested.

And then he said,

"Because you don't have the distraction

and the Disneyland on the outside

that we have in the West," meaning West Europe.

"Having nothing on the outside, you will naturally turn inside.

Turning inside, you'll look for permanent values.

Looking for permanent values,

you'll achieve permanent results.

Congratulations."

And, you know, he said it so convincingly--

because he talked from experience as well-- that he melted everybody.

And the secret policemen even took their pens and--

and nodded in full agreement.

[crowd jeering]

[Hannah] Once you focus more on the genuine values

of your mind itself,

instead of trying to get everything from outside--

instead of trying to make you happy through outer circumstances--

then you slowly realize that everything you have, it is in your mind.

That is-- It means in the life, yeah?

[Tomek] What Hannah and Ole managed was to transform

this incredible desire for freedom--

the same energy, that same raw energy--

everything that we felt against the Communist Party,

against that police that pushed me the other night,

against the riot police who beat me up,

who beat my friends up--

into a desire to achieve enlightenment

for the benefit of all beings.

[Hannah] No matter what you are up against

and how people treat you and how bad everything is,

we need not to get carried away by negative reactions.

Then that you keep your level, you don't follow that.

And even if you have to do some actions which might look rough,

then you don't get angry.

You never get angry.

Buddhism was like a beginning of a big journey for us,

and it came, I think, exactly at the right point.

Because there was this openness.

Several pilgrimages were organized.

The one I took part was in 1981 in autumn

together with around a hundred friends

from different parts of the world, with Hannah and Ole.

We started from Copenhagen, took three months' tour

to India, Nepal, Sikkim and so on.

And some morning when we're sitting there,

listening to a talk of some lama,

suddenly another lama came in, gave the one a piece of paper.

And he opened it and closed it again

and jumped from the throne.

And so something serious must have happened.

And soon after came the message

that Karmapa had died in the hospital in the United States.

[Hannah] We had the last meeting with him in Boulder.

When we said good-bye to him, suddenly I started to cry.

I didn't know why. There was no reason.

After we had gone, he called us back.

And again he said more, and it was in a different way.

Looking back, it was so clear it was last time,

but, all right, you don't really always want to know that.

But he knew exactly that it was the last time.

He told us all to come where he then knew he would die.

[Ole] He died on the fifth, flown in on the ninth,

and then put in meditation posture.

Day and night, you could hear the drums

and the flute and the songs.

And they made all kind of what they call offerings.

Of course, you could always see sadness in many faces.

[Hannah] In the middle of all the sadness,

there was this enormous blessing

where you could feel his presence

and which was just beyond everything.

[Ole] Because Hannah and I were his first Western students,

we were allowed up there to say good-bye to him.

The only thing I could think about

was to put the top of my head against his thigh

and just thank him so much for all our friends he had helped,

for everything he had put into the world,

for just being the way he was.

[narrator] Buddha taught that all living beings reincarnate when they die.

When a Karmapa dies, the belief is that he consciously reincarnates

to retake his position as the head of the lineage.

Immediately, right after the ceremony,

the issue was, what about the next incarnation?

So four of his closest disciples were chosen

as those responsible to find his next incarnation,

which became the issue for the Karma Kagyu lineage.

From that day one.

And, you know, already at the cremation-- at that moment--

a certain split already manifested.

Nobody wanted to see it, but this was--

It-- It spelled trouble for the future.

[Hannah] After the 16th Karmapa passed away,

we tried not to think too much

of when does this 17th Karmapa come,

what will it be like.

We actually had a lot of confidence

that it would be right whatever would happen

and that our job was just to continue to follow his instructions

and to stick to that.

They had their time with Karmapa,

but there was such a big activity waiting for them after his death.

[Erik] They knew they would have to take much more responsibility

how to get the work growing.

This was their task.

[woman] It was really like explosion.

And at that time, we didn't make public advertising.

It's just the people that came by themselves.

Friends through friends through friends,

and they heard from their friends.

It started to... expand all over Europe.

We have people from United States.

We have people from UK, from France,

from Australia and New Zealand even.

And it was a happy time.

[Erik] We were all young. We were not working regularly.

People who got to universities,

or they had a lot of breaks.

And this was the time for great travelings.

We were all freaks. [laughs]

We were all hippies, or sort of. Late hippies.

[Ole] The ones with the energy to break out of the mold

and create something new,

they're always the same kind of people--

the artistic types, rough types,

the dreamers, the poets,

warriors, you know, all kinds.

[Karola] During the lectures, Hannah will be the translator.

But many occasions, Hannah simply couldn't go on speaking

because she was touched herself so much that actually--

She had tears in her eyes, and what she usually did--

Because she had long hair, that she was just

taking her head down so the hair was covering her face.

Sometimes she would sit like this for five minutes

because she simply couldn't talk anymore.

And then, at a certain point, she came up

like really totally spaced out, and then--

Okay, the lama said this and this and this.

To me, hearing the stillness behind the voice--

I don't know if that's a bit strange to say,

but-- [chuckles] to me, Hannah seemed to be

not completely in the same place as all us.

And I think that you can hear this in her voice.

[Hannah] The potential of the mind is limitless.

But as long as you are attached to your own ego,

you limit it down, so to speak.

Then you only experience your own subjective words.

We make our own limitations.

[narrator] In the 15 years since they returned to Europe,

Hannah and Ole had set up over 100 centers

all across the Continent.

But far from seeing their work as done,

they decided to spread Buddhism further and further afield.

[woman] They just were so interested in meeting with the people

and taking part in their well being

and taking part in their lives

and giving them the methods and the information

which would help them to really get free.

[woman 2] To travel nonstop, tour, not sleep,

to give everything to everybody.

Not having a private life.

If you don't have a special mind,

a developed mind,

you will not be able to stand that.

And Hannah was definitely on top of that, yeah?

She was living Buddhism.

[wind howling]

[Ole] We always wanted to see Tibet.

We had spent nearly four years in the Himalayas.

I mean, we had done a lot of things there.

[monks chanting]

Just at the ending of the '80s,

there was this break-up in China

where the old system didn't hold anymore,

and we managed to get in at that time.

There was so much to see--

all the destroyed monasteries everywhere along the way.

We saw that, and you say, why did they do that?

Tibetans had been--

There had been quite a lot of trouble.

The Chinese had been beating them up, shooting a few and so on.

There were several demonstrations

at that Tibetan new year at that time.

You was allowed only to come by flight to Lhasa

and fly back from Lhasa.

But in the night, Hannah managed to contact somebody.

So we jump in-- in some truck

who make black market from India to Tibet.

And this night, it was so cold, so cold.

We need to go through one pass 6,000 meter high.

It was so cold I think I will lose my feet.

[Ole] I'm telling you, this is cold.

-[woman coughing] -This is evilly, really cold.

We're going over a pass that's close to 18,000 feet.

It's in the depth of winter, and it's cold.

[engine rumbling]

Hannah was tough as always.

I put a lot of my clothes on her,

and the others did the same.

In one of the trucks in front of us,

four people died crossing the pass, just from cold.

But I tell you, Hannah, not even this night,

not even in the top of the mountain, say nothing.

She no complain.

And the other big guys, they start to say good-bye.

[Hannah] When you are-- [indistinct]

you learn not to be dependent on outer circumstances.

You have to learn to rest more in yourself,

so that makes it easier always to be on the road.

But it is a lifestyle. You can learn it.

Hannah was the toughest person I knew.

She was, as Ole said, all-weather.

The power of her mind was so strong--

at high passes in Tibet, on an Indian train,

on buses for two days nonstop without food in Russia.

She just went on and on.

She was fearless.

[Ole] Well, South America was quite a story.

Death could hit any moment.

It was really violent. Very, very dangerous.

[man, in Spanish]

[Tomek] We were in Colombia in the most dangerous time,

about 1991.

You know, Ole decided that we'll go overland.

Because why? We were going to Venezuela.

Because flying was $200, overland was $20.

In the early morning near Bucaramanga,

which is right on the border to Venezuelan side,

we were dozing in the bus.

About 100 yards ahead, there was a girl

in a white T-shirt and camouflage trousers,

and a tree fallen across the road.

And I thought to myself, well, this is not the army.

[people screaming, sobbing]

There was panic, shouting.

And the kidnappers were very young--

teenagers-- and shaking.

They were so afraid-- or nervous. Not afraid, but nervous.

The only difference is that they had the machine guns.

And the passengers were crossing themselves and saying,

[speaking Spanish]

"They will kill the gringos."

And you start looking where are the gringos here.

And it turned out it's you.

"Gringos" meaning "foreigners" there.

They march us to a village.

And there, their leader started a speech.

And I remember like today the first sentence of that speech.

He was saying in Spanish-- [speaking Spanish]

"I'm not the Prince of Death,

but if I have to kill, I will kill."

And then Hannah asked, "What is he saying?"

And somehow I couldn't deliver the whole news.

I just said to Hannah, "Well, he says he's not a prince."

[Ole] And then he said, "If I find anybody in connection with"--

All the guys we had in our address book, right?

"...I will kill."

[speaking Spanish]

Three, four times there was somebody who came to the commandant

and said, "We have gringos." Right?

He looked over, he looked around,

he looked to the side, he looked somewhere else.

And he couldn't see us. Several times, you know.

[Tomek] We are there for about five hours.

I was sitting on Ole's left. Hannah was sitting on Ole's right.

And Hannah, in those most difficult moments,

she sit down and started meditating.

It wasn't like a meditation that I want to close myself

because reality is so unpleasant.

It was-- She was shining.

She was completely fearless.

Then right at that time, they called and said,

"We need you somewhere else." Something like that.

He got a message. He called the people together.

You know, forgot us again. and then he said,

"If any of you show your faces here again"-- You know?

"...then we'll kill you." Right?

Then they moved away.

We sort of walked a little bit low

because we're also bigger than the locals, right?

So a little bit low so we wouldn't be so conspicuous.

The next day, we flew. We didn't take the bus again.

[Tomek] Why did we end up in those dangerous places?

We were not doing adrenaline tourism.

You know, people go to dangerous places and get a kick out of it.

No, Hannah and Ole were going there simply to, you know--

to bring-- to bring the dharma for those who were open to it.

Otherwise, they wouldn't-- Maybe that was the only chance in this life

that they could get it.

There is a little bit of this macho culture.

I think you have heard about that. [chuckling]

In general, a woman has more value if she has a man.

[chuckles]

But when I saw her,

I mean, I saw a very shining woman,

a very happy woman,

a very independent woman.

To be honest, I was not seeing this before.

To see a woman so happy, so independent,

this I liked very much.

Who has-- Who has what?

[in English]

-Well, I mean-- -[both laughing]

It's quite obvious, isn't it?

[laughter]

[speaking Spanish, indistinct]

But we supplement each other very well.

That's why we can learn from each other.

[woman] Ole was always saying to the public,

"Oh, this is my wonderful wife."

He was always showing how they loved each other.

[Ole, in German]

[Dilia] And to see a woman so independent

and at the same time such a well-functioning couple

was very, very impressive.

[Hannah] You know, in Buddhism,

there is not that distinction between man and woman

in connection with practice.

As you know, Buddha taught that all beings

have the potential of enlightenment.

[woman] She could be sweet, she could be calm,

but she was not weak at all.

She was always both-and, not either-or.

She was hardworking, she was strong,

and she was totally sweet, soft, inspiring, feminine.

And people were so touched by that.

Because in that way, she was such a great example.

She opened new horizons for these ladies.

Because she said, "Oh, I don't have to be like a man.

I can be a woman, I can be totally feminine,

but I can find my own inner strength."

[Tomek] We were in Mexico City, and they were phoning us from San Francisco.

Ole would stop his lecture, and they came to the phone.

And they had the receiver in between their heads, Hannah and Ole.

And then at one point, Hannah started saying,

"No, not him, not him. Please, not him."

And what happened, Jamgon Rinpoche died in a car crash.

[Ole] At that time, they said that Shamarpa put a bomb in the car,

and that was how it blew up and stuff like that.

I said, "What?"

[narrator] Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche

was a key figure in the Kagyu lineage,

and one of the four regents entrusted to find the new reincarnated Karmapa.

[Tomek] When the 16th Karmapa died in November 1981,

you know, they lost everything.

But in the interim period when one Karmapa dies,

before the other Karmapa-- the next Karmapa-- manifest,

it becomes increasingly important

that that transmission doesn't disappear.

Since the 15th Karmapa left a letter

with the details of his next rebirth,

the general belief was that the 16th also left such a letter.

After the death of Karmapa, the lamas got together

in Rumtek, in his seat outside India,

and they decided that, actually, four of his closest disciples

will be in charge of finding the next incarnation.

And those were, first and foremost, Shamar Rinpoche.

The second in that hierarchy was Situ Rinpoche.

The third one was Jamgon Rinpoche.

And the fourth-- Gyaltsab Rinpoche.

And there they formed a joint committee.

It was a novelty.

It has never been done so in Tibet,

but, okay, the times were different.

[Hannah] A lot of people were pressuring the Rinpoches.

All time, they said, "Please, you must-- Now.

We cannot wait any longer. You must find him now."

Nothing came out of the Rinpoches.

And '82, '83, '84, '85-- nothing.

We didn't hear anything,

and this speculation grew more and more.

There was a tremendous pressure on the four Rinpoches

to come with results very fast.

We're already talking '92.

It's already 11 years since the Karmapa had died, and nothing.

All of a sudden, Situ Rinpoche called a meeting.

And he noticed-- Sometime in 1990,

he noticed that he was carrying here, like, a protector

that the 16th Karmapa had given him

back in the '70s in Calcutta.

Then when he opened it,

instead of regular prayer, what was there?

That prediction letter.

He just noticed that he had been going, you know--

The future of the Kagyu lineage dangling around his neck

all these years without knowing it.

And he waited two years, for whatever reason,

to inform his other Rinpoches.

And Gyaltsab Rinpoche accepted the results.

Shamar Rinpoche had his doubts.

And they decided that Jamgon Rinpoche will travel to Tibet

in order to contact the child and make the first contact.

[engine revving]

He got a present from the king of Bhutan--

a brand new white BMW 525, a rocket on wheels.

Rinpoche, of course, wanted to be part of the modern world,

and he was learning how to drive.

He decided to take that car to Tibet

when looking for that child.

Not far away from Rumtek, he swerved the car

and hit head-on-- collision with a tree.

And Rinpoche and three others died instantly.

[Hannah] You know, apart from the shock--

it is not right to accuse...

the head of the lineage

of murdering the next in the lineage

and all these totally crazy things that I was eye-witnessing.

It was a complete absurd accusation.

I read the letters myself where they say

that Shamar Rinpoche sneaked under the cover of the night

and poured sugar in the tank of the BMW,

and, as a result of which,

the car accelerated to 160 kilometers per hour

and the engine catapulted itself from the body of the car.

Here, in those years, it became clear

that the division was actually becoming a split...

within the four Rinpoches.

[horns blowing]

[narrator] Despite Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche's death,

accusations of murder

and doubts about the authenticity of the prediction letter,

news came that the 17th Karmapa had been recognized in Tibet.

This 17th Karmapa-- in a convoy--

in an official convoy escorted by the Chinese authorities

appears in Tsurphu, the seat of the 16th Karmapa, in Tibet.

A thing that would have taken weeks, if not months,

took only a matter of days.

And the Communist Chinese authorities

were very much part of it--

Communist Chinese who only 40 years earlier

completely destroyed Tibet

and waged a war against Buddhism.

[in Chinese]

[Hannah] Karmapa would emphasize the importance

of not mixing the activity with politics.

That was one of the things he told us so much,

so much that we didn't know what he was talking about.

Because we didn't know what he meant with "politics."

[Ole] We were a bit disturbed, both of us.

What we said was, "Check it out.

Take your time.

Check who is behind it, who is pulling the strings."

The situation in this region,

in the Himalayas, is very explosive.

It's not settled.

You have India on the one side of the Himalaya,

and you have China on the other side.

And something that the people don't know very well

is that, in 1962, there was a war between India and China.

China took over a lot of territories in the west of India--

Northern Pakistan and Kashmir nowadays.

So, the one who has the power in Rumtek

to some extent has the religious power over a lot of people,

a lot of followers in Sikkim.

And if this very person

is favorable to the Indian interests, it is one thing.

If this person is favorable to the Chinese interests, it is another thing.

[Tomek] The agenda of the Communist Chinese

is to control Tibet.

And they decided the best way to control Tibet

is by controlling the lamas.

They couldn't control Dalai Lama. He was outside Tibet.

So they shifted their focus on Karmapa.

It's very important to say that the system--

the medieval system in Tibet-- it was basically flawed.

Finding a lama here

meaning gaining incredible not only religious

but also political power.

Very often the spiritual arguments were left--

put aside in favor of the political arguments.

Powerful families, powerful factions,

were constantly fighting to have the incarnation of a certain lama

within their family.

Hannah and Ole felt that they owed the truth to their students.

They would not make sacrifices, for the sake of the truth.

[Hannah] If you have to make a choice--

[chattering]

I don't know, I'm quite pragmatic

on that scale, at that level.

You know, just what is there, what's happening, who is doing what.

And then conclude from that. I think that's healthy.

And inform oneself, yeah?

There is absolutely no reason to be against this boy.

He didn't do anything wrong.

It's not his fault.

You also have to see the background

of the people who follow that.

Like the whole Tibetan history

which made the Tibetans follow here and there.

It goes back hundreds of years.

[narrator] The decision that Ogyen Trinley Dorje was the reincarnated Karmapa

left a division between Gyaltsab Rinpoche

and Situ Rinpoche on the one side

and Shamar Rinpoche on the other.

We knew that Gyaltsab Rinpoche was the best the teacher we had.

You know, he was a bit-- ta-ta-ta-ta.

He could teach on-- Incredibly, right?

But also, he hadn't really grown up.

Then we had Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, who had now died.

We also knew Situpa, and he had apparently made a character change

in a not so pleasant direction.

Then there was Shamarpa.

And Shamarpa was, you know, nobility.

But at the same time, he is honest.

Hannah and I always said to each other, "This is a decisive moment.

This is where we have to decide what we want to do, right?"

[birds screeching]

[in English]

[narrator] In 1993, these tensions erupted into violence

in Rumtek Monastery, Karmapa's seat outside of Tibet.

Monks and lamas were forced to agree to Situ Rinpoche

and Gyaltsab Rinpoche's choice of Karmapa

or face the consequences.

The 16th Karmapa genuine monks

were chased out of Rumtek Monastery.

Some were thrown to jail, some were beaten up.

And they have to-- Some, they had to run for their lives.

[gunfire]

[in English]

[Tomek] Shamar Rinpoche was left very much alone,

but he had just a few people whom, in the new situation, he could fully trust.

And, first of all, that was Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche--

Hannah and Ole's first teacher.

Secondly, Topga Rinpoche. He trusted him,

the general secretary of Rumtek.

And finally Hannah.

There was a lot of bad style in the East and West,

accusing each other

and slinging mud at different lamas.

It was a very difficult situation

for most of the Tibetan Rinpoches,

because a lot of them had monasteries in Tibet,

because they came from Tibet.

They had relatives there, they had students there,

so they were really caught.

All of a sudden, 90% of the lamas went to the Chinese side.

Yeah? I mean, of course, in some cases,

it was somehow understandable

because they had monasteries in Tibet.

Or imagine the ears of your grandmother will be cut off

if you are not signing a paper.

You would do it, right?

So they were not in the position

to politically resist and stand up.

But we in the West, we could.

[chattering in English]

[Ole] What Hannah didn't like, was, right from the beginning,

the people around Gyaltsab Rinpoche,

tried to turn her against Shamarpa.

She said, "I will not hear that."

Hannah is a strong lady, and she heard enough, right.

We had just to be honest,

and it was clear that the continuation of Karmapa's work

and everything went through Shamarpa.

There was no doubt about it, you know,

that he was the one to trust and the one that Karmapa also trusted.

Towards the end of 1993,

we begin to hear that Shamar Rinpoche got some information.

A person of great confidence of the 16th Karmapa approached him

with direct instructions from the 16th Karmapa

concerning the next incarnation.

And on the basis of those instructions,

it all pointed to a certain boy in Tibet, in Lhasa.

The father of that boy was a very well-known Nyingma lama.

The house was an open house.

People were coming for consultations with that lama.

[man] I was born in Tibet, in Lhasa,

the capital of Tibet at the time.

What I remember is that, the moment when I was able to talk,

you know, after I was born,

um, I had-- I believe I had told a few others,

as well as my mother, who was there most of the time,

and the Karmapa and so on.

My father being a Rinpoche,

he thought that it was his responsibility

to make sure that, if this is it,

then we must be prepared.

Because it's not a simple life that you live.

For eight years of living in Lhasa--

the time I mostly spent indoors, actually--

there would be daily practice,

daily rituals of reading, writing, memorizing.

We constantly focused on the dharma.

So therefore, there wasn't many, let's say, coloring, painting,

buying toys, ice cream.

This very, very different environment, yes.

[Tomek] There was too much commotion,

too much movement around the house, around this family.

And the Chinese police, of course, noticed.

They had informants everywhere.

And they came, they approached the family,

and they told them, "You have a very gifted son here.

We want to take him. We want to give him special education in China.

He will go with us."

So the whole family was about to be shipped somewhere in China

for educating this gifted boy.

They of course-- They didn't know exactly

that he was a candidate for--

another candidate for the Karmapa.

They had the Karmapa in Tsurphu.

As far as the Chinese were concerned, they had the right one.

They had what they needed.

They definitely didn't need a contender.

It was incredibly dangerous. It was matter of--

of highest importance that he be smuggled

or taken out of Tibet secretly as soon as possible.

[narrator] Convinced that this boy was the reincarnated Karmapa,

Hannah devised a plan with Shamarpa

to ensure that he could be brought to safety.

[Karmapa Thaye Dorje] My father was hospitalized,

and my mother had to take care of him all the time.

And on top of it, this news that, you know,

that their son has to be taken away.

They asked me, "Do you want to do this?"

I thought, "Why not?"

"Let's try," I thought. So we went.

[narrator] In 1993, Hannah and Shamarpa

smuggled the boy and his family out of Tibet

and brought them to India.

[Shamarpa] The whole airport was busy, busy, busy, busy.

He was the one-- As if the time has stopped.

Either like they were all moving too fast

or he was moving too slow, I don't know what.

He was coming towards me very casually.

And when he came to me, he came with a big smile.

And he touched my forehead. He said, "How are you?

So good to meet you finally," he said.

And a tall, white lady came.

She was very gentle and very sweet in her tone.

[speaking German]

[narrator] On the 17th of March, 1994,

Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje was enthroned

at the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Delhi,

the place that was to become his seat outside of Tibet.

When the 17th Karmapa was announced in 1994,

we all rushed to India.

I remember I was--

It was a call that whoever could come

should come to KIBI institute.

[woman] The Karmapa Institute was a wish of the 16th Karmapa.

He arranged everything.

He wanted that this should be a meeting point for the East and the West.

[horns blowing]

[Hannah] In KIBI, where he was the first time put on the throne,

and that was very wonderful experience, you know.

On purpose, they had been no, like, training before.

And the way he sat on the throne,

the way he put on his own crown for the first time,

was very, very impressive.

It felt so right.

The presentation in KIBI, or ceremony--

But you had the information that something will happen.

I was just there at a nice welcome ceremony.

I was very happy.

I was standing in the last row, standing at the window, you know.

And then almost at the end of ceremony, some buses arrived.

And I was looking out of the window,

and I felt, "Oh, poor pity them.

They are late for the ceremony.

They missed it." You know?

Then I thought, "Oh, this is weird."

They start shouting, holding signs. Angry faces.

And I thought, "What's going on here?"

[loud commotion]

[crowd shouting outside]

[Shamar Rinpoche, in English]

[Michaela] Hannah, you know, she stood up,

and she was like the general.

The position of her body very clear, you know.

She said, "Men out."

The men went out, took broomsticks but not for hitting.

But taking the broomsticks with two hands to push people back.

They were just defending. Very good style.

For a split second, you know, I met the eyes of Karmapa.

So we were looking in each other's eyes for just a split second.

And I became totally calm,

and I knew everything's going to be all right.

[Hannah] He was just 11 years,

but, in that moment and in that situation,

he could have been a hundred years, you know.

[narrator] The enthroning of Thaye Dorje in Delhi

meant that there was now a Karmapa supported by Shamar Rinpoche and India

and a Karmapa supported by Situ Rinpoche,

Gyaltsab Rinpoche and the Chinese.

[Hannah] Ole and I saw everything very, very pure here.

We thought everybody would be at a high level

among the lamas, among the Rinpoches.

And, of course, they are not.

And we had helped in giving that image,

so then, when that cracked,

we felt very responsible

for preserving this trust in the dharma itself

so that that would not disappear.

Because there was mistakes happening at other levels.

[Tomek] Hannah was there to ensure--

And this was directly Karmapa's wish, I'm sure--

to ensure that the transmission that they were bringing to the West

arrives in its totality.

[Karmapa Thaye Dorje] It's never an easy task.

You need a lot of energy. You need a lot of patience.

If you look at the timetable

and how much sleep that they get

and how much traveling that they do,

it's really a record, one could say,

in terms of what the body and what the mind can do.

[Shamar Rinpoche] She phoned me from Bangkok, I think Bangkok.

She told me that they are going to Australia.

And after Australia, they will fly to New Delhi

and then go to Kalimpong

and meet His Holiness Karmapa and quickly come back to New Delhi

and fly to Mexico.

All the way from New Delhi to Mexico.

[sighs]

And, then she told me, in Mexico,

she will spend only one or two nights, something,

and fly to Moscow.

And in Moscow, again, only two or something, two nights only,

fly back to Mexico.

And in Mexico, also about only one night or two nights

and fly-- going to fly to Hungary, she said.

Then I told her, "Quite crazy you are."

[Hannah] I can control my mind better than my body.

[laughing]

Things happen all the time,

and as long as, also, you know--

both physically and mentally when you are in the world, yeah?

But through meditation,

you learn to relate to what happens in a different way.

You cannot just change what happens,

but you can change how to relate to that.

[Tomek] When we came back to Europe in the summer,

Hannah, she was constantly coughing.

And then she decided to take a break in Denmark.

She came to Copenhagen for some checks.

And, of course,

in her perspective, that was not serious.

[man] Hannah as a person,

she is normally not telling much about any symptoms.

She lost six kilos in three months.

Karmapa came for a visit,

and it was an unexpected visit.

He drove 2,500 kilometers from Spain nonstop

to see only Hannah for a few days.

[Karmapa Thaye Dorje] I was trying to really pump her up in a way,

to give a lot of courage that she--

to offer as much optimism as possible.

[Tomek] And then, all of a sudden, she said with a smile--

completely without any change.

She told me, "Tomek, I'm ready for everything."

And I-- In that moment, I thought,

"Oh, how dramatic." You know?

She looked so good and everything. Why such a drama?

And I completely didn't even want to hear it.

I immediately threw it out of my-- of my mind.

[Dr. Thoma] For the New Year's, of course, they came to Stuttgart.

We got the results.

I remember exactly what they said--

that Hannah had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

It's the third opinion, and this is it.

And then they said maybe she has only two weeks to live.

And in that moment, everybody had wet eyes,

everybody except Hannah.

She only asked for one thing. She asked Ole to take a walk.

[Ole] There was nothing-- no fear, no anything--

just really that she found out she was leaving now.

No, there was no drama.

She was just-- told me that,

and I probably had the strongest reaction.

[Hannah] In Buddhism, the whole awareness

about the impermanence of everything is extremely helpful.

Death, it's something either taboo

or something we're afraid of and--

It's not something one needs to be afraid of.

But one should just get used to that.

That is how it is.

Then it's not so painful.

[audience cheering]

[Dr. Thoma] We went on New Year's Eve, around midnight,

to the hall.

She went onstage.

She said-- I'm not have the same words,

but, like, "Sorry.

I have to say good-bye."

I like to thank everybody.

I've been on a cloud of good wishes from everybody,

and I could feel that.

And I'm sure it's already working.

I feel already much, much better.

-So thank you. -[audience cheering]

[woman] For her to come home to Copenhagen,

it was essential, because everyone would be there.

[no audible dialogue]

[Tomek] People flew from Australia,

from Argentina, from Mexico, from Russia.

I was every day making the trips to the airport.

During that time, you know,

what was so touching is to see those two.

And Hannah was holding Ole, you know, and cradling his head.

You know? And it was just so sweet.

You could see how deep a relationship can go

when there is a beyond personal task that unites you.

[woman] I've never seen any woman loving a man

as much as Hannah loved Ole.

It was-- It was something special.

She really loved him so much.

It was a complete team.

Energywise, it was really complete.

I came in to visit her as often as I could.

And I felt all the time

how the people around her just loved her.

That made me good.

She has very good experience of meditation.

Therefore, I understood that, while she was dying,

she didn't have any suffering mentally.

She could implement all the dharma teachings.

She could hardly speak in the end.

And, of course, she was speaking in Danish when she could,

and she was giving teachings.

I remember one thing she said was, you know,

"What really carries you through everything, this is compassion."

[Dr. Thoma] Her breathing went down to zero.

She was clinically dead, and she came back 15 times.

If you have a break of two minutes of nonbreathing

and not any heartbeat,

maybe you have the chance to come back once or two times.

Maybe three times.

But you will not make it 15 times.

It was...

one of the impressive things I have seen as a doctor.

And then, in the end, Ole said, "Hannah, now you go.

You cannot use this body anymore. Now you have to go."

And then we started to sing "Emaho,"

and then she left and she didn't come back.

[Hannah] When your teacher dies, it's a kind of--

It's a mixture. At a normal human level,

of course you are sad and you miss him.

And it's-- You know, you cannot avoid that.

At the same time, in the middle of all the sadness,

then there was this enormous blessing,

which was just beyond everything.

And which also confirms your nature,

which is there are-- no matter if you have a body or not--

these qualities, they continue and they go on.

And if you connect with that,

that will always stay with you.

The totality cannot die.

Whatever we've done, thought and said will continue.

Whatever we do. So you can say we continue.

Nobody really gets lost.

That's probably the most impressive feeling of it all,

that she never really left.

She was still there. She smiled. It's a good feeling.

It's something meaningful. And I still think she's there today.

Smiles at me through the faces of many women, right?

Her knowledge comes in when I hear things, and suddenly I think,

"Oh, but Hannah used to say that.

That's what she meant." And so on.

Nobody really leaves.

She was a really big example for me,

the way she could live her life...

and be something for some-- for other people.

Not just talking about it, but doing things.

[Tomek] In my eyes, she was definitely beyond the personal.

I've seen it so many times in situations--

in life-threatening situations.

In situations where she lost everything she had.

She had nothing left.

And she didn't change in those moments.

She was a comfort to others. She was like helping me.

I was so shocked and-- and, you know, destroyed to pieces.

In the end, she got to put me up. "Don't worry, don't worry."

After Hannah's death, when sometimes Ole started to, uh,

have tears in his eyes onstage,

or how he said that it is like an amputation, yeah?

Then, finally, you could understand

that, actually, they were not really separate, never.

[Tomek] And today, the way I see it,

I think, in a way,

Ole acquires more and more

certain qualities that Hannah manifested.

[Karmapa Thaye Dorje] I'm very grateful to the both of them,

and mostly to Hannah particularly for what she has done.

Because of what they started,

they have connected thousands of families.

And the most precious dharma.

They've connected that-- you know, tied the knot.

I think that's amazing. Yeah.

[Hannah] Since Buddhism is about the mind,

then the way it helps you--

it helped me, and I guess it helps other people also--

is how to relate to your own mind and to other people.

You get more space.

You're not caught by what is going on.

You get more understanding for what is happening with other people,

and it's very joyful.

It was very clear we'd been together in former lives

and we were together this life again.

It was completely simple.

We saw that when we met the first time in this life.

I was ten years old. She was five.

Simply, I began to pull bushes out of the ground

and I made like a cabin from.

And then I wanted to sit in there with her.

And there was all-- The only thing, just sitting down.

Apparently, there was some memory of former meditation together.

Just sitting with her next to me in there,

and we both felt that was what had to be done.

It's just very, very old-- very old connection, right?

And from the moment we met, it started happening.

We went to the East. We met-- All these things.

Buddhism started, you know. Everything started, right?

So it was just-- It just clicked, that connection.

I'm interested in what happens next life when we meet.