Jews to meet with Dalai Lama

PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

The spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, will visit Vancouver this month and several members of the Jewish community will be alongside him during a packed couple of days.

The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the 14th person to carry the title of spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. Though he describes himself as a "simple Buddhist monk," the Dalai Lama is a world-renowned voice for tolerance and peace. He has met with elected leaders and crowned heads, as well as with leaders and laity of other world religions.

The Dalai Lama's trip to the city was initiated by the University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research, especially to mark the launch of its contemporary Tibetan studies program.

"That's what brought the Dalai Lama to Vancouver to begin with," said Mordehai Wosk, who is on the steering committee for the Dalai Lama's visit. But when the general public found out the revered spiritual leader was coming, invitations abounded and a long list of events was slated for his three-day visit.

The centrepoint of the Dalai Lama's stay is a major academic conference on Tibet in the Contemporary World, taking place April 19 and 20, during which top scholars will examine Tibet's religion, culture, economy, social changes, art and language. The Dalai Lama will deliver the opening address, after which the symposium's panel discussions will begin. The conference has reached its capacity. However, there are other opportunities for British Columbians to catch the Dalai Lama.

On Sunday, April 18, the Dalai Lama is to participate in two events at the Pacific Coliseum, including a spiritual teaching session and a public talk on Universal Responsibility. Other events feature a sold-out Orpheum Theatre concert on April 19, sponsored by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Westcoast Sacred Arts Society. Wosk will blow the shofar to welcome the Dalai Lama to this event and actor and Vancouver resident Goldie Hawn will emcee. An 80-voice children's choir will perform, as will Moshe Denburg's Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra and the children's entertainer Raffi.

A Tuesday afternoon roundtable discussion will feature the Dalai Lama and other stellar world leaders, including South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Iranian human rights activist and Nobel laureate Prof. Shirin Ebadi, the leader of the Jewish Renewal movement Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi and Dr. Jo-ann Archibald, a UBC professor and Sowahlie B.C. First Nation member. The Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham will moderate the panel.

Wosk told the Bulletin he has met with the Dalai Lama during trips to India in 2000 and 2003.

"When you speak to him, you're really talking to a wise man who has not retreated from the world," said Wosk. "That was a very moving experience for me. He's a very enlightened individual and one of the most enlightened people on the planet in terms of peace and how to source joy and intelligence and wisdom.... I admire the depths of his of wisdom and intellect and spirituality."

The Dalai Lama's devotion to non-aggression, even in the face of his people's exile, should be a source of inspiration, said Wosk. "I think that sets a very important standard we should all aspire toward."

The Dalai Lama and his form of religious observance resonates with many Jews, Wosk explained. The Tibetan people's exile from their land and their temple has resonance to Jews whose history has been one of diaspora. Also, in the last couple of decades, many Jews have explored meditation and other methods of spirituality. This has led many Jews to explore "eastern" religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. The interest goes both ways, Wosk noted. The Dalai Lama has expressed particular interest in how Diaspora Jews, for 2,000 years of exile, maintained cohesion and tradition against all obstacles.

Spiritual meditation in a Jewish context was the subject of Vancouver writer Alan Morinis's book Climbing Jacob's Ladder: One Man's Rediscovery of a Jewish Spiritual Tradition. Morinis, whose book explored the Jewish meditative practice known as mussar, will participate in an interfaith meditation retreat attended by the Dalai Lama, as well as at least three local rabbis: Itzchak Marmorstein, David Mivasair and Shmuel Birnham.

Mivasair notes that Jews did not have to leave their own tradition to find sources of inspiration through meditation and similar practices. Such spirituality has existed for centuries in the Jewish tradition, especially in kabbalistic circles and among Chassidim, he said, and recently has been rediscovered by wider audiences of observant Jews.

The interfaith meditation retreat is a breakthrough, Mivasair added, because it will bring together representatives of many faith communities that rarely unite in religious observance.

"It's not blending religions," Mivasair cautioned, but rather an exploration of common practices. "There has been dialogue between Jews and Christians and a little between Jews and Muslims, but not bringing everyone together," said the rabbi, who is spiritual leader of Ahavat Olam congregation.

Birnham, rabbi of West Vancouver's Har-El, said the group that comes together to explore meditative spirituality will continue meeting for a year after this initial gathering, exploring meditation from various religious perspectives. Birnham hopes the process will open the eyes of more Jews to the variety of spiritual expression within the Jewish tradition and succeed in "bringing contemplative Jewish practices out of the closet."

The Dalai Lama's history is an epic story. At the age of two, Tenzin Gyatso was recognized as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, and was plucked from his subsistent farming village in Tibet and designated, at that young age, as the new "spiritual and temporal leader" of the Tibetan people. At age six, he began his monastic education and, at age 23, was awarded the highest academic achievement in Buddhist teaching, the Lharampa degree, or doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.

But in 1959, China invaded and occupied Tibet and the Dalai Lama was forced into exile in northern India, where he resides still. In addition to his religious and academic work, the Dalai Lama is the personification of peaceful protest against the Tibetan occupation. He leads the Tibetan government-in-exile from India.
During his visit, the Dalai Lama will receive honorary doctorates from both UBC and Simon Fraser University.

For more information, visit www.dalailamavancouver.org. Specific information on the multifaith events in which rabbis Birnham, Marmorstein and Mivasair will participate is available at www.multifaithaction.org.

Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and commentator.

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