Sky’s Blog @ The Dalai Lama Foundation — Spreading the word in a networked world

I don’t generally engage in hero-worship. But I do sometimes get wound up in interesting people and stories.

And speaking of such, George Lucas is one of the people I’ve only “gotten close to meeting.” So when a group of our Project Happiness students from Mount Madonna School were able to interview him last year (for the Project Happiness movie), I really enjoyed it.

Well, the “next best thing” to time with George was also really interesting. George’s assistant, Jane Bay, has been with him since just after the first Star Wars film was released. She and I both waited in line to see the film at the Coronet Theater on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco - though a couple of weeks apart. She got a job with George shortly thereafter, and I did not - I remained an academic for a couple more years and then started DesignWare (an edutainment software company), which ended up being my eventual reason for a few visits to Skywalker Ranch. (Continue for the audio interview…) (more…)

No time is more apt than right now for me to post an audio interview I conducted a few months ago. The time is apt because of what’s happening in Tibet over the past two weeks (best reports are at the BBC - search for Tibet). During most of its human history, Tibet was an isolated and difficult-to-reach high plateau, which only remotely came under the influence or control of the Mongols or the Chinese from time to time. The Dalai Lamas were in fact assigned their name and governmental role by Mongol overlords around 1578.

Tibet only “opened up” to the non-Asian world in mid-twentieth century. My introduction was via Lowell Thomas Jr.’s book Out of this World (published in 1950 - I will have more to say about the book elsewhere). And I read this book when I was a teenager in middle America, some time after Tibet was occupied by the Chinese army and just before the 14th Dalai Lama went into exile in India. The Chinese government claims that Tibet has always been a part of China. Those of us who have come into contact with Tibetan people know them as hard-working and dedicated, open and welcoming, and will never forget our encounters.

Last year I met Jane Bay. Jane has worked within the film industry for some time, and Jane came to know Tibet thru some interesting events - but most directly because she sponsored and adopted a Tibetan refugee daughter. Initially her daughter, Namgyal, lived at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India, but due to circumstances and political pressure she moved back to Tibet. And Jane lost touch with her. This story is told in Jane’s first book, Precious Jewels of Tibet.

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Late last year, as The Missing Peace (TMPP) was being prepared for exhibition in San Francisco, I began working on an adaptation of my Pervasive Interactive Technologies so that I could run a location-based mobile phone “game” in conjunction with TMPP and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. My idea was to have mobile phone users begin this new game at home and complete the game at YBCA, where they would visit the exhibition. Please join us at Making Peace after you read this article!

I had met Joel Barraquiel Tan, the Director of Community Engagement for YBCA, about two years ago, so he already knew about my technologies and games - one of which is played at Yerba Buena Gardens, right outside his front door. In one quick conversation, however, we took a huge jump forward…

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Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee of the Global Oneness Project (on the road in the Australian outback)

Here’s a two-for-one post. Not only have I run across a great project and cause, but it’s a media project!

The Global Oneness Project has chosen the approach of professionally recording video interviews with individuals who are contributing to our awakening. I recorded an interview with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, who directs the project. [12min:37sec QuickTime]

From GlobalOneness.org… “The idea of oneness is not new. For thousands of years it’s been a basic part of human consciousness, taking countless forms in the world’s spiritual, religious, artistic, and cultural traditions. Indigenous lifeways, myths showing the interconnectedness of all things, intricate philosophical systems, literature, and art are just a few of the ways we’ve sought to understand and express oneness. For the most part, however, these different expressions have been isolated from one another by geography, language, and time, or restricted to an intellectual or spiritual elite.

“In contrast, today we experience global interdependence with a unique level of clarity and urgency. In natural sciences like biology, physics, and mathematics; in technology, economics, and ecology; and in spiritual, cultural, and social movements across the planet new perspectives on oneness are emerging with breathtaking beauty and transformational power.”

Here are links to a few videos that address spirituality, community, and service:

• Words From the (17th) Karmapa
• Waking Up (Tenzin Palmo)
• The Heart of Religion (Alberto Luna)
• Seva Cafe: Love All, Serve All (Anjali Desai)
• Living Service (Jayesh Patel)
• Barrio de Paz (Nelsa Libertad Curbelo)
• The Land Owns Us (Bob Randall)
• An Invitation (Don Alverto Taxo)