New documentary tells story of West Cork retreat

Chasing The Light, a new documentary by Maurice O’Brien, looks at the work of Peter and Harriet Cornish, the couple who built Dzogchen Beara, a world-renowned Buddhist retreat in West Cork in the 1970s.

O’Brien says the idea of making it came about when he was meant to do everything but think about work.

“I went to Dzogchen Beara to do a retreat. I had never heard of the place, but somebody recommended it because I was burnt out after a big work project. I arrived in the middle of the night, and I didn’t know what to expect, but the next morning, I woke up and went to the shrine room to do a meditation, and I could not get over the view; it blew me away, so straight way I knew I was somewhere special.”

O’Brien says there were people there from all occupations, and many had travelled from abroad, which piqued his interest.

“It was clear that this place was known as an important centre. While I was there, I started reading Peter Cornish’s autobiography. I was blown away by his story of how he came to West Cork from England in the 1970s with his wife, Harriet. They had this dream to build a refuge for people of all religions to escape from the madness of the world.

“It was the height of Catholic Ireland; there was nothing like it, yet they found this perfect location in this beautiful remote place.”

The irony is not lost on O’Brien that he went away to escape work, but instead found what would become his next project. He says Peter, who passed away in 2023, and the centre directors were a little wary initially, but learned to trust him with their story.

“The work they do is often with vulnerable people. If you’re doing a retreat, it’s an invitation to go deeper within yourself, and it can be quite raw for people. Initially, the team wasn’t sure how that would work with cameras. I think the fact I had done a retreat there opened a lot of doors. They trusted that I understood why people go to Dzogchen Beara and what it means to them.”

The Tipperary director, who studied at UCC, says: “Convincing Peter to tell his story for the first time on camera was a big step as he had gone into full-time retreat and wasn’t really seeing people at all. Once he started, he enjoyed it because it was an invitation to go back to the early days of his life with his wife, Harriet, who had passed away a few years before. It allowed him to reflect on all they had achieved.”

Dzogchen Beara suffered a massive shock in 2017 when the centre’s spiritual leader, and one of the most renowned Tibetan monks, Sogyal Rinpoche, was accused of abusing female students. O’Brien says it was difficult for many members of the community to comprehend.

“It was a tricky time for the community. Sogyal Rinpoche was the best-known Tibetan Buddhist after the Dalai Lama. His book, The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying, sold millions of copies and had an enormous impact on how the West now looks at hospice care. In West Cork, it was seen as a coup for the community that he would come for two weeks of the year.”

O’Brien says many people credit Rinpoche, who died in 2019, with changing their lives, but as we see in the documentary, the fall-out was huge.

“Many devoted believers struggle to reconcile what he did. On the one hand, they are disgusted, on the other, many still feel this gratitude for him as their teacher for changing their lives. Can you still take on board what he taught whilst acknowledging he was a flawed individual who hurt many people in very serious ways? It is a big question for many of his followers and something many of them are still navigating.”

O’Brien says filming in West Cork was a gift, and the title of the film, Chasing The Light, has a double meaning.

“Peter says in the film there’s something about the nakedness of the elements in West Cork. The quality of the light is incredible because of the location on the cliffs; the skyline is halfway up the horizon, so the light is constantly changing there. The film title has a double meaning. There are our characters who are trying to work their way towards enlightenment, and there are us, as filmmakers, constantly chasing the light which is changing constantly. It’s the most beautiful part of Ireland.”

The documentary premiered at the Cork International Film Festival last month.

• Chasing The Light is in cinemas now.