Vancouver welcomes the Dalai Lama!

Photo of the Dalai Lama courtesy of the Vancouver Sun.

I have to mention "energy" conservation of a different kind. No doubt about it, the Dalai Lama loves Vancouver. It has just been announced that His Holiness will visit us for the third time in five years, this Sept. 26 -29, 2009. Last time he was here, in 2006, he spoke at our downtown hockey arena selling out 30,000 tickets in a matter of hours. This September, the event is dubbed the Vancouver Peace summit.

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The Dalai Lama's Peace Summit will search for ideas for change. You can join in discussions of education and peace activism with His Holiness, five other Nobel Peace Prize laureates(!), Vancouver's Eckhart Tolle and other remarkable human beings such as Mary Wilson, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who was compelled to resign her post after she criticized violations by the Bush Administration.

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The Sept. 26th edition of the Vancouver Sun will be given over to the Dalai Lama as its guest editor. The theme will be "educating the heart". Panel discussions and workshops will be open to the public.

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This all reminds me of when I moved to Vancouver after living five years in Texas. I had grown familiar with a southern, Christian vocabulary that permeated everyday conversation. Texans commonly used churchy words like "share" and "witness." In Vancouver, those words disappeared to be replaced by "energy" and "being open". I quickly met locals who were convinced that Vancouver sat at the crossroads of some global, metaphysical meridians. This powerful and benign flow of energy enabled a great potential for both personal spiritual realization and worldwide advancement. Perhaps, there is something to it.

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On his last visit here, the Dalai Lama opened the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. This 2009 visit is part of a commitment he made then for a continuing series of "Vancouver Dialogues". You have to ask yourself - Why Vancouver?