|
By Frank Stirk
Spiritual leader will headline a ‘peace summit’ in Vancouver
WHEN James Beverley asked in 2000 to interview the Tibetan spiritual and
political leader, the Dalai Lama, for an article he was writing for Christianity Today, he was told that it would be granted on one condition – that he come to the Buddhist monk’s home in Dharamsala in northern India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile since
1960.
“When he travels, he doesn’t do many interviews. So he guaranteed an interview if I went to India,” says Beverley, a professor of Christian thought and ethics at Tyndale Seminary
in Toronto. But although the trek there was long and arduous, he believes it
was worth it just to meet the Nobel laureate face to face.
Likable and caring
“He’s a very likable, personable and caring person. He’s real lively, he has a great sense of humour and he also cares passionately
about the major issues he’s famous for – Tibetan freedom, Buddhism and spirituality.”
For the Dalai Lama’s Canadian admirers, including many Christians, it will not be necessary to go
to India to see and hear him, because he will be in Vancouver September 26 – 29 for an international “peace summit.”
Sponsored by the Vancouver-based Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education,
speakers and participants at the various events will feature fellow Nobel Peace
Prize laureates Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, Mary Robinson, Mairead McGuire and
Betty Williams, plus various leaders in education, the arts, business, politics
and social transformation.
Personal harmony
A major theme of the summit will be that world peace is not attainable apart
from personal peace and harmony.
Organizers are hopeful that the dialogue will not be an end in itself, but
instead will translate into “compassionate action.”
Even before the summit starts, the Dalai Lama will have an unprecedented
teaching opportunity as the guest editor of the Vancouver Sun for Saturday, September 26. The entire issue will be devoted to the theme of ‘Educating the Heart.’
“Because the guest-edited editions are themed,” says Sun editor-in-chief Patricia Graham, “it gives us an opportunity to really immerse ourselves in the subject the guest
editors choose and provide readers with substantial depth and breadth on a
specific topic.”
“Not at all, not at all,” says Victor Chan, the center’s founding director and a long-time friend of the Dalai Lama, when asked if the
summit was in any way a religious event, especially given the fact its
headliner is the world’s most well-known Buddhist.
Secular ideas
Chan points out the center exists solely to advance the Dalai Lama’s “secular ideas for compassion, forgiveness and universal responsibility” and does not get involved in politics or religion.
“We are not doing something that is of an interfaith nature. The themes are more
to do with personal wellbeing, personal spirituality, education, women’s issues,” he says.
“I think surely they would be of quite significant general interest, because
those kinds of themes are very universal and everybody has an interest in these
themes.”
This appeal to a shared humanity resonates strongly with JoyTV host and producer
Randall Mark.
“When you start thinking about people that you respect, you have to peel away
their labels. . . . And so I’m more interested in the ideas that the Dalai Lama stands for, rather than [the
fact] he’s a Buddhist and I’m a Christian,” he says.
“When I look at the life of the Dalai Lama, I say, ‘Your life has been lived in the stream of love and beauty and forgiveness and
reconciliation.’. . . This means he is operating in the stream of God, no matter what label he
uses.”
Mark even sees in some of the teachings of the Dalai Lama clear echoes of what
Jesus taught. “When you become broken, when you become empty . . . and you’re at the end of your rope, now your life can begin. That’s exactly the teachings of Christ,” he says.
Labels do matter
Beverley counters that for the Dalai Lama, at least, “labels do matter. People should pay attention to the fact that he’s a Buddhist, because that’s so central to his life story.” But he adds that “Christians don’t need to be paranoid about him. . . . There’s no, like, hidden agenda to make the world go Buddhist – although he’s a great advertisement for Buddhism.”
In fact, Buddhism already enjoys a broad acceptance in Canadian culture.
A recent Angus Reid poll found 57 percent of Canadians “generally approve” of Buddhism, second only to Christianity, at 72 percent.
Among British Columbians, 46 percent said they had a Buddhist friend and 38 per
cent said they had a “good understanding” of the religion.
Such fertile ground for Buddhism, says North Vancouver Anglican rector Ed Hird,
makes it all the more important that people not throw all caution to the wind
when it comes to the Dalai Lama – despite the fact he actually encourages people not to leave their religion, but
instead become more immersed in it.
“He’s very winsome and humorous about it, but he’s quite frankly as much an evangelist as Billy Graham,” says Hird. “He does it in a different style, but he is someone who has been quite persuasive
for some people, in making them curious about Buddhism.”
Continue article >>
|
Yet Charles Nienkirchen, professor of Christian history and spirituality at
Ambrose University College in Calgary, suspects the attractiveness of an
Eastern religion to so many in the West says as much about modern-day
Christianity as it does about Buddhism.
Spiritual life
“In the West, we don’t tend to produce genuinely spiritual people. Hence the appeal of people like
the Dalai Lama, who seem to predicate their comments about the human reality on
the living of a spiritual life,” says Nienkirchen.
“Having said that, if we are fully versed in the fullness of Christian truth . .
. we don’t need anything from the outside. We’re not deficient. But many kinds of Christianity are deficient, because they’re not deeply imbedded in the fullness of Christian truth.”
Mark goes further. “I think Jesus would say to many Christians, ‘You’re not living out the kingdom’s values. And yet this “heretic” [the Dalai Lama] over here . . . is living out these ideas. He gets it.’”
The Dalai Lama has visited Vancouver twice before in this decade, in 2004 and
2006. Both involved large-venue events that drew tens of thousands of people.
But this visit will be different, with most of the events taking place at the
much smaller Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and the Orpheum Theatre.
“This time around,” says Chan, “we’re trying to create a different sort of experience for people in a more intimate
type of setting. It’s certainly not the same as being in a place to watch the proceedings live. But
to counterbalance the limited access, we’re going to have a very significant live-streaming capability, moreso than in
2004 and 2006.”
Influencing youth
The one large event is the youth-oriented, free-admission ‘We Day’ at GM Place, a day of high-energy music and dialogue, including a speech by the
Dalai Lama, aimed at empowering young people to serve the global community. Its
producers are Craig and Marc Kielburger’s Free the Children Foundation in partnership with the B.C. Ministry of
Education. About 18,000 students from across the province are expected to show
up.
“About 2,500 of them will be coming from 89 different Vancouver schools,” says Vancouver School Board communications manager David Weir. “The schools themselves will decide how students are selected.” A further 1,250 students will be coming from Surrey’s schools.
Weir insists this is not a violation of the B.C. School Act, which requires that
schools conduct themselves “on strictly secular and non-sectarian principles” and that “no religious dogma or creed is to be taught.” “The focus of the event is on global citizenship, not on religion,” he says.
But Steve Bailey, an education instructor at Trinity Western University and a
deacon at St. Laurence Anglican Church in Coquitlam, says no matter how worthy
the cause, the fact remains the Dalai Lama and his religion are indivisible.
Who he is
“That’s who he is. We can respect him for that, and we can respect the work that he
does for that, but that’s who he is,” Bailey says.
“To try to make that distinction, he adds, “would be like asking the Pope as the head of the Vatican State to separate his
secular government agenda from his religious agenda. It’s impossible.”
More than that, Bailey worries that taking students to see the Dalai Lama “outside of the context of a world religions course or some kind of specific
educational context . . . is dangerous. It leaves one open to all kinds of
accusations, all kinds of people wanting to look for hidden agendas.”
The Dalai Lama is 74. And despite his seemingly very good health and ascetic
lifestyle, Chan admits that sooner or later, he will need to cut back his
grueling travel schedule.
“But I think that with [his] help in the next few years, we will hopefully have
created a kind of a sustainability and legacy that will allow [the centre] to
continue on this secular work that he is committed to.”
“He has had a greater impact on Buddhism in some ways than anyone alive, and . .
. he will be remembered for a long, long time,” says Beverley. “But currently, there would only be a couple of Buddhists in the world who are
even as remotely as famous as the Dalai Lama. So it will take a lot for someone
of a new generation to gain his fame.”
See also: A Christian scholar weighs in on Buddhist beliefs
September 2009
|
