Post by nodstar on Oct 1, 2009 3:54:28 GMT 4
Dalai Lama in Vancouver : Pursuit of peace and compassion a complex path[/SIZE]
www.vancouversun.com/life/Dalai+Lama+Vancouver+Pursuit+peace+compassion+complex+path/2041171/story.html
By Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun columnistSeptember 28, 2009Comments (21)
The Dalai Lama greets supporters in downtown Vancouver Saturday afternoon.
The Dalai Lama greets supporters in downtown Vancouver Saturday afternoon.
Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — Although the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle and Karen Armstrong aren't necessarily everyone's spiritual cup of tea, you wouldn't have known it Sunday as throngs of enthusiastic British Columbians and others turned out to welcome them with adoring arms.
The world-famous spiritual teachers joined roughly a dozen other well-known spiritual and humanitarian notables in two public dialogues on Sunday at the University of B.C.'s Chan Centre.
They were almost mobbed by some affectionate fans.
Well-dressed audience members, some of whom paid hundreds of dollars for tickets to the Vancouver Peace Summit, were enthralled as they heard nuggets of wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist leader; Tolle, the Vancouver-based author of The Power of Now, and Armstrong, a British author of numerous best-selling books on world religions.
The two key topics of the Peace Summit sessions, which included a total of four Nobel peace laureates, were peace and compassion. The discussion centred on how to more effectively promote them around the world.
The sweeping concepts of peace and compassion turned out to be less sentimental, and more complex, than many may have at first thought.
When it came to compassion, many speakers said it amounts to much more than feelings of pity or idle sympathy. Compassion, they said, demands direct action, both individual and institutional.
The dialogue on peace, like the one on compassion, centred on the bigger role women need to be able to play in being catalysts for change. Some of the talk explored the difficult question: How aggressive can one be in the cause of peace?
There were many funny and moving moments as the spiritual and humanitarian leaders sat on chairs on the Chan Centre stage and talked about their topics in a decidedly non-sectarian way, which befits a West Coast province where many people like to say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious."
The summit — which started Sunday, takes a Monday break for the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and ends Tuesday — marks the third time in five years that Vancouver's dynamic Victor Chan has brought his friend and co-author, the Dalai Lama, to the city.
Chan has a remarkable knack for gathering high-powered and diverse spiritual leaders and humanitarians together in this city.
In addition to the Dalai Lama, Tolle and Armstrong, Sunday's events featured Archbishop Desmond Tutu's daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu (Desmond had to cancel on the Summit because of a ruptured disc); French Buddhist monk and author Matthieu Ricard (whom the European media have dubbed "the happiest man in the world"); British educator Sir Ken Robinson; former Irish president and peace activist Mary Robinson; Irish Nobel peace prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams, American Peace prize winner Jody Williams (an anti-landmine crusader), as well as philanthropist Pierre Omidyan, who also happens to be the founder of eBay.
What most of the ticket-buying audiences didn't realize was that Chan had also helped bring the likes of Omidyan and more than 120 other major global business leaders, educators and philanthropists to Vancouver to privately brainstorm about spreading their significant charitable work further.
I was the only Vancouver journalist permitted to attend one of the private meetings of the influential group, called Connecting for Change.
The invitation-only gathering took place after the second public event at the Chan Centre. It consisted of a question-and-answer session with the Dalai Lama, who offered them thanks, encouragement and insights on the value of meditating, reducing anger and avoiding prejudice.
Vancouver singer Raffi concluded the short Connecting for Change event with a song about children's right to peace. Delegates to Connecting for Change will continue to meet Monday in a downtown Vancouver hotel.
Despite all the good will expressed at the Vancouver Peace Summit, not all Metro Vancouverites have been entranced by its bold display of progressive spirituality, politics, philanthropy and peace activism.
While most readers have seemed exceedingly positive and grateful for the Peace Summit — as well as the Dalai Lama's role as guest editor of The Vancouver Sun for Saturday's edition — I've been receiving emails and blog comments from annoyed readers with more conservative and skeptical inclinations.
They think the noted spiritual teachers at the Vancouver Peace Summit are getting too much positive media attention.
Some disgruntled readers — including evangelicals, Catholics and, perhaps ironically, atheists — have complained to me that the Dalai Lama, Tolle, Armstrong, Ricard and members of the Tutu family represent only the "liberal" side of the world's religious spectrum.
As such, the critics argue, such spiritual leaders do not represent the majority of the planet's religious people.
While it may well be accurate to say that most of the spiritual teachers at the Vancouver Peace Summit reflect the views of only a minority of those who follow institutional Christianity, Judaism or even Buddhism, they have nevertheless gained extremely large audiences.
The teachers at the Vancouver Peace Summit have proved popular because they've broken down religious barriers.
They've reached out to the many people, especially in B.C., who have become turned off, for whatever reason, about organized religion.
Even if critics try to complain that their teachings are "watered down," they can't ignore the likes of the Dalai Lama, Tutu and Ricard are providing many people with spiritual guidance.
And in an increasingly "secular" world, that can't be all bad.
dtodd@vancouversun.com
Read Douglas Todd's blog at www.vancouversun.com/thesearch
www.vancouversun.com/life/Dalai+Lama+Vancouver+Pursuit+peace+compassion+complex+path/2041171/story.html
By Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun columnistSeptember 28, 2009Comments (21)
The Dalai Lama greets supporters in downtown Vancouver Saturday afternoon.
The Dalai Lama greets supporters in downtown Vancouver Saturday afternoon.
Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — Although the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle and Karen Armstrong aren't necessarily everyone's spiritual cup of tea, you wouldn't have known it Sunday as throngs of enthusiastic British Columbians and others turned out to welcome them with adoring arms.
The world-famous spiritual teachers joined roughly a dozen other well-known spiritual and humanitarian notables in two public dialogues on Sunday at the University of B.C.'s Chan Centre.
They were almost mobbed by some affectionate fans.
Well-dressed audience members, some of whom paid hundreds of dollars for tickets to the Vancouver Peace Summit, were enthralled as they heard nuggets of wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist leader; Tolle, the Vancouver-based author of The Power of Now, and Armstrong, a British author of numerous best-selling books on world religions.
The two key topics of the Peace Summit sessions, which included a total of four Nobel peace laureates, were peace and compassion. The discussion centred on how to more effectively promote them around the world.
The sweeping concepts of peace and compassion turned out to be less sentimental, and more complex, than many may have at first thought.
When it came to compassion, many speakers said it amounts to much more than feelings of pity or idle sympathy. Compassion, they said, demands direct action, both individual and institutional.
The dialogue on peace, like the one on compassion, centred on the bigger role women need to be able to play in being catalysts for change. Some of the talk explored the difficult question: How aggressive can one be in the cause of peace?
There were many funny and moving moments as the spiritual and humanitarian leaders sat on chairs on the Chan Centre stage and talked about their topics in a decidedly non-sectarian way, which befits a West Coast province where many people like to say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious."
The summit — which started Sunday, takes a Monday break for the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and ends Tuesday — marks the third time in five years that Vancouver's dynamic Victor Chan has brought his friend and co-author, the Dalai Lama, to the city.
Chan has a remarkable knack for gathering high-powered and diverse spiritual leaders and humanitarians together in this city.
In addition to the Dalai Lama, Tolle and Armstrong, Sunday's events featured Archbishop Desmond Tutu's daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu (Desmond had to cancel on the Summit because of a ruptured disc); French Buddhist monk and author Matthieu Ricard (whom the European media have dubbed "the happiest man in the world"); British educator Sir Ken Robinson; former Irish president and peace activist Mary Robinson; Irish Nobel peace prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams, American Peace prize winner Jody Williams (an anti-landmine crusader), as well as philanthropist Pierre Omidyan, who also happens to be the founder of eBay.
What most of the ticket-buying audiences didn't realize was that Chan had also helped bring the likes of Omidyan and more than 120 other major global business leaders, educators and philanthropists to Vancouver to privately brainstorm about spreading their significant charitable work further.
I was the only Vancouver journalist permitted to attend one of the private meetings of the influential group, called Connecting for Change.
The invitation-only gathering took place after the second public event at the Chan Centre. It consisted of a question-and-answer session with the Dalai Lama, who offered them thanks, encouragement and insights on the value of meditating, reducing anger and avoiding prejudice.
Vancouver singer Raffi concluded the short Connecting for Change event with a song about children's right to peace. Delegates to Connecting for Change will continue to meet Monday in a downtown Vancouver hotel.
Despite all the good will expressed at the Vancouver Peace Summit, not all Metro Vancouverites have been entranced by its bold display of progressive spirituality, politics, philanthropy and peace activism.
While most readers have seemed exceedingly positive and grateful for the Peace Summit — as well as the Dalai Lama's role as guest editor of The Vancouver Sun for Saturday's edition — I've been receiving emails and blog comments from annoyed readers with more conservative and skeptical inclinations.
They think the noted spiritual teachers at the Vancouver Peace Summit are getting too much positive media attention.
Some disgruntled readers — including evangelicals, Catholics and, perhaps ironically, atheists — have complained to me that the Dalai Lama, Tolle, Armstrong, Ricard and members of the Tutu family represent only the "liberal" side of the world's religious spectrum.
As such, the critics argue, such spiritual leaders do not represent the majority of the planet's religious people.
While it may well be accurate to say that most of the spiritual teachers at the Vancouver Peace Summit reflect the views of only a minority of those who follow institutional Christianity, Judaism or even Buddhism, they have nevertheless gained extremely large audiences.
The teachers at the Vancouver Peace Summit have proved popular because they've broken down religious barriers.
They've reached out to the many people, especially in B.C., who have become turned off, for whatever reason, about organized religion.
Even if critics try to complain that their teachings are "watered down," they can't ignore the likes of the Dalai Lama, Tutu and Ricard are providing many people with spiritual guidance.
And in an increasingly "secular" world, that can't be all bad.
dtodd@vancouversun.com
Read Douglas Todd's blog at www.vancouversun.com/thesearch
Glad to hear you've done well. 
