The following are interview participants in the documentary film Compassion and Wisdom: "The Bodhisattva's Way of Life":

His Holiness The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Peace, is the living embodiment of Avalokitesvara, bodhisattva of infinite compassion. He is the head of state and political leader of the Tibetan people and their government in exile.

His Holiness Sakya Trizin is the supreme head of the Sakyapa order of Tibetan Buddhism, the 41st throne holder in an unbroken lineage stretching back to 1073 AD.

Robert Thurman, Ph.D is Je Tsongkhapa Professor and head of the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He is one of the founders of Tibet House.

His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche is one of the principal lineage holders of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and a widely acclaimed author and teacher of Buddhism to the west.

Robert Aitken Roshi is the unofficial American patriarch of Zen and founder of the Daimond Sangha in Honolulu, Hawaii. Zen master, scholar, author and radical pacifist, he is a respected elder to Zen Buddhists across the United States.

John Daido Loori Roshi is abbot and spiritual leader of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. A dharma successor of Taizen Maezumi Roshi, he is the author of a number of books on Zen and founder of The Mountains and Rivers Order.

Donald S. Lopez, Jr. is professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan. Universally recognized as one of the top Buddhist scholars in the world, he is the author of a number of books including The Heart Sutra Explained and Elaborations on Emptiness.

Lewis Lancaster, Ph.D is the chair of the Group in Buddhist Studies and professor of Oriental Languages at The University of California, Berkeley.

B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D is the newly appointed chair of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A monk for 14 years, he has interpreted and translated for internationally known Tibetan lamas including H.H. the Dalai Lama.

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is a lineage holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. He is the abbot of Ka-Nying Shedrup Ling Monastery in Boudhnath, Nepal.

Khenpo Palden Sherab, one of the most qualified scholars of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, was in charge of the Nyingma Studies Department at The Central Institute of Tibetan Higher Studies in Varanasi, India for over 17 years.

Tsultrim Allione, a student of H.H. the Sixteenth Karmapa, is one of the first western women to be ordained as a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She is founder and director of Tara Mandala, a Buddhist center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

Ven. Robina Courtin has been a Tibetan Buddhist nun for over 17 years. She has been an editor at Wisdom Publications for 10 years and taught for 7 years under the auspices of The Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition.

Shohaku Okamura, a Japanese Zen roshi, is the official representative of the Soto Zen tradition in the United States.

Taigen Daniel Leighton is a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. He is the author of a new book on the tradition of the bodhisattva and co-author of a book on Zen master Dogen's standards for the monastic order.

Mu Soeng is director of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. A monk in the Korean Zen tradition for 11 years, he is the author of Thousand Peaks: Korean Zen Tradition and Teachers and Heart Sutra: Ancient Buddhist Wisdom in the Light of Quantum Reality.

David W. Chappell, Ph.D is professor of Religion at the University of Hawaii, Manoa and one of the world's leading experts on the Ti'en Ta'i Buddhist tradition

Jakusho Bill Kwong Roshi is abbot of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center and one of the Dharma heirs of Suzuki Roshi.

Peter Coyote Narrator is an internationally acclaimed actor also known for his deft skill in narration and voice overs. He is a long time student and practitioner of Zen Buddhism and lives in northern California where he is an active participant in local community issues.

James Zito Producer/Director is an independent film and videomaker living in northern
California. Interested in exploring Buddhist issues on film and in
the electronic media, he has been involved in helping to create electronic
archives of Buddhist materials as well as documenting the progress of
Buddhism in America and the west. He has had the oppurtunity to meet,
interview and document many of the world’s greatest remaining Buddhist
teachers. The current film “A Guide To The Bodhisattva’s
Way of Life” was made over the period of three years and is, according to some
that have seen it, the most comprehensive and deep examination of Buddhist
ideas yet in film. Zito is currently working on a documentary examining the
history of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet.