“The greatest effort is not concerned with results. The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go. The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.”

In today’s culture, this old Buddhist proverb is highly counter-intuitive. People strive for results, focus rather than let go, and allow appearances to deceive them.

In a daring journey through the holy sites of Tibet, University professor Steven Dancz, shed societal norms and followed these wise precepts.

Dancz co-created and scored a documentary of this trip entitled “The Sacred Sites of the Dalai Lamas: A Pilgrimage to the Oracle Lake” that will premier in Athens at Ciné this Friday.

“The strength of the Buddhist practice, after all these years of Chinese occupation and cultural genocide, is still strong, with multigenerational evidence at temples and monasteries all over the country,” Dancz said, in an e-mail interview.

The University jazz studies director and one of the Music Business Program’s founders, Dancz always has harbored a fascination with Tibet. He can still recall the moment in elementary school when he first laid eyes on a picture of the Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lama.

So when Glenn Mullin, Dancz’s former teacher and author of more than 30 books on Buddhism, invited him to go on a spiritual journey to the famous Oracle Lake, Dancz was thrilled to accompany him.

Dancz, Mullin and the rest of their team traveled lightly, and documented the trip with a small handheld camera. They had to stay under the radar because many sites they stopped at are occupied by the Chinese and closed to the public.

“The Tibetans as a society exhibit more joy and generosity than you can imagine,” Dancz said. “They were continually impressed by the fact that we, as Westerners, had travelled from the other side of the planet to come to Tibet to experience sacred sites of Tibetan Buddhism.”

The travelers visited caves, monasteries and other holy spots important to the history of Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. Their journey ended at the Oracle Lake, located at an altitude of 17,000 feet, where every Dalai Lama in history is said to have had prophetic visions.

“Altitude sickness was an ongoing problem as we topped off over 18,000 feet,” he said. “Food and road conditions were challenging, both leading to plenty of nausea … It was all worth it, though.”

Upon returning home, Dancz narrated and scored a documentary of his spiritual quest. This film first premiered in India for the current Dalai Lama upon his request, and now it has made its way to Athens.

True to the spirit of Dancz and his companions, the documentary allows viewers to let go and see through the foreboding appearances of Tibet to an enchanting culture of spiritual mysticism.

“I hope that the film serves as a timeless record of a precious land, its people and culture,” he said.