Preparing to meet his Holiness the Dalai Lama and finding out about his new centre
Despite it being 4am on my body clock I join the other participants for welcome drinks, having just flown into Vancouver. Peter Koestenbaum, a famous philosopher who quit the academic world 20 years ago to bring the benefit of his knowledge to the business community takes me under his wing because, he says, he likes my smile. Sure I am the only European here, at any event like this at home, I'd have a few friends. There are social leaders such as Yewoinshet Masresha from Hope for Children, working with children with AIDS in Ethiopia to Michael Karp of AWISH (A World Institute for Sustainable Humanity) from the USA and the First Nations, the indigenous people of Canada are also there to advocate for their land rights, respect and support for their communities.
In these areas children of the indigenous population were forcibly taken away from their families and put into residential schools fifty years ago. This only stopped twenty years ago. This practice resulted in a huge undermining of their communities, traditions and language. Today these groups are extremely marginalised and suffer huge drug addiction and alcoholism.
The next conference day started with the (eerie) song of the First Nation People. Looking over the mountain and waterways of Vancouver, could there be a better place to build the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education?
All the social and business leaders break up into small groups to brainstorm on the following: What role should the Center serve? How should it connect both sectors?
As a social leader who works with the business community through Fair Trade, I have a lot to say. Fair Trade is less well known in Canada and the US, but how can I keep my mouth shut?
Rather than changing the way we do business to cover social and environmental costs, the discussion often seems to conclude that giving a portion of profits to charity is enough. Of course this is a start but not enough to reduce poverty and I am convinced that this is not the solution for sustainability.
What shall we ask him?
This session, I find a bit amusing. I have so many practical things I want to ask him. I am literally bursting to get some practical tips on being more effective at what I do - and yet we seem to be getting bogged down in rather abstract, philosophical questions. Most of us are untrained in philosophy and not of an exceptional spiritual level. I feel that engagements of this kind maybe rather lost on me anyway. We decide to try and stay with practical issues that need to be addressed.
Some of us work on the questions after the Dalai Lama's speech to 18,000 Canadians at the local baseball stadium. It will be great to be close up tomorrow, there's nothing like my making eye contact when talking closely with someone.
The stadium is full and Tibetan music is performed by children on stage. There is a false start the Dalai Lama and his entourage are a little late. One of our group starts singing the Canadian National anthem to fill the awkward silence and the whole stadium joins in. Shortly, round shouldered and dressed in orange and red surrounded by friends, the Dalai Lama comes onto the stage, beaming, hands together, comically walking from one end of the stage to the other one hand over his brow to shield his eyes from the glare to see the audience. He is made honorary citizen of Canada, much to everyone's delight, and then asks about his rights and says if the obligations are too much he won't stick around. His face and demeanor change as he starts to talk about happiness, focusing on compassion and our interconnectedness, discussing how our effort in these two areas will make for greater happiness. After expanding on each he says: "I don't know, I don't know. Is that helpful?" Sometimes he breaks off in a giggling fit and we all join in like giggling teenagers.
Mmm... No life changing messages yet, but what a genuine warmth and what a gorgeous person he is!
How will we be able to engage him tomorrow close up I wonder? Will we manage to ditch some of the formality that is a barrier to frank exchange? Perhaps it is disrespectful but I feel an odd sense of familiarity, he is like my Japanese Tea Teacher's husband - wise, polite but fun to be with and able to laugh at himself. Am I mad? He is the Dalai Lama.