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

The first Dalai Lama scholars… with the 14th Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama Scholars program was envisioned by Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez of the University of California at Irvine, and formed as an honorarium to His Holiness in conjunction with his appearance there in 2004. The Dalai Lama does not receive any payment for his appearances - instead, all net proceeds from tickets and other sales (after expenses) go to benefit appropriate causes and organizations. [UCI Juniors Rajiv Ramdeo and Aswathi Sreedharan, recipients of the inaugural scholarship 2006, are pictured here with the Dalai Lama.]

Lori Warmington was instrumental in the creation of the scholarships, and in this interview, she describes for us how they came about as well as what they’re about.

The Dalai Lama Foundation featured the scholars in its March 2007 newsletter. The University describes the endowed scholarships on its web site. His Holiness gave two talks at the University of California Irvine, both of which are archived online (video/RealPlayer).

On June 6th, several of us from the Foundation met with Professor Abelardo Brenes of University for Peace (headquartered in San José, Costa Rica) to discuss the Earth Charter and the principle of universal responsibility.

Brenes described the Earth Charter in a 30-minute monologue which you may play (below).

University for Peace (UPEACE) is a UN initiative which operates independent of, but was mandated by the UN. “Headquartered in Costa Rica, the United Nations-mandated University for Peace was established in December 1980 as a Treaty Organization by the UN General Assembly. As determined in the Charter of the University and endorsed by the UPEACE Council, the mission of the University for Peace is: “to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.”

In a 2003 online “paper,” Brenes describes (in Spanish) the initiative.

And in a 2003 print interview, as well (on irenees.net, A Website of Resources for Peace).

UPDATE: Abelardo Brenes faculty page at University for Peace

Educators For NonViolence [EFNV.ORG] is a group of educators operating under the auspices of the Metta Center for Nonviolence Education. It was co-founded by The Dalai Lama Foundation a couple of years ago.

EFNV is holding its second summer teacher conference on Friday and Saturday, 20-21 July, 2007 on the University of California campus in Berkeley CA.

The coordinator of Metta Center’s volunteers as well as coordinator of the planning activities for the EFNV conference is Jordan Pearlstein at the Metta Center.

Michael Nagler is founder of the Peace Studies program at Berkeley, and leader of EFNV. I had a Skype conversation this morning with him where we discussed the conference and the organizations.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Links we promised during the interview:

• EFNV.ORG and its conference page
• The Metta Center for Nonviolence Education
• Michael Nagler’s UC Berkeley courses PACS164A & PACS164B for web viewing and podcast download
• Eknath Easwaran
• Rachel McNair
• Dr. Joseph Marshall - Omega Boys Club
• Azim Khamisa - The Tariq Khamisa Foundation
• Jack Duvall - A Force More Powerful

I sat down in a coffee shop in Berkeley (CA USA) a week ago with Jonathan Kathrein, the founder of Future Leaders for Peace.

FLFP conducts workshops in schools - from grade-school thru college - their workshop lasts 90 minutes, including a video, to capture attention and inspire; it starts with interviews of people the kids can relate to, from sports figures to real people, and continues to Jonathan sharing his stories, including the shark attack he survived at Stinson Beach in 1998; proceeding to then get the kids to share their own stories in small groups of 8 or so - their challenges and conflicts and experiences. To paraphrase Jonathan - It’s amazing how similar their challenges are and yet each one thinks they’re unique - by sharing, they learn how to better approach and overcome adversity in their lives.

Jonathan has also written a children’s book Don’t Fear the Shark - a story of his shark attack, but one in which the shark is a bully mistreating humans because it has been mistreated itself - the story looks at how the cycle of violence arises and can be prevented. As he says, the story ends abruptly and the reader has to figure out how it would or could end.

Jonathan is also a hard-working member of the organizing committee for Educators For NonViolence.

[posted with ecto]