It has been a whirlwind tour in Vancouver, and i haven't had a moment to stop. From the moment i left the house in Croydon, this experience has unfolded flawlessly. I ended up taking a bus to Heathrow and sat next to a new flight attendant who was really sweet. It made the 90 minute journey go swiftly. Once i was at the airport, the line up to check in was suprisingly very quick and easy. I made it through and bought some magazines and breakfast, then proceeded to my gate. I had an aisle seat and air canada took good care of me. The guy sitting next to me was a young university graduate who was making his second long haul journey on a plane to vancouver and then to hawaii so we had a pretty good conversation and breezed through 3 movies. The flight went fast, the food was marginal, but attendants were nice enough to magically produce some baileys for me when it was apparently all gone.
Vancouver international was loaded to the tilt at passport control but i got through pretty quickly and didn't wait a moment for my luggage. My brother picked me up and then we drove over to his apartment where i got to see it for the first time. He's done really well for himself, i'm so proud of him and Lisa. They've been working really hard towards owning a place and they made their place really cool.
I met up with mom, dad and Lisa at the house and we had a really nice dinner. Dad has alot of energy and has been really excited about all he is learning and it was great to see. I ended up crashing around midnite and was so thankful to rest.
Saturday morning, I met up with Ali Bourassa who i had not seen in years. She dropped off a videotape we made for her when we were 14. I had arranged to have it transferred to dvd. I met her adorable son Joshua and then headed over to the pan pacific hotel. When i got the tickets for the Dalai Lama talk, i realised that the talk had already started, so i rushed to drop my bags in the room and hurried to the Orpheum. I was so excited when i got there, I got to see the Dalia Lama and Deepak Choprah along with a panel of canadian scientists and politicians to discuss mental health and stress and violence in the community. I was impressed to see the turnout of people. There is an overwhelming need for reducing stress.
I met with Alan and Amanda and even had a chance to meet and take a photo with Deepak, and then met up with Nick at GM Place for the public talk.
40 thousand people met at the stadium to see the Dalai Lama. I sat with Nick and alot of powerful people in Canada, it was a bit surreal actually. The Dalai Lama was late, and the presenter had to kill time. At one point, a woman a few rows infront of us cut through the silence with her beautiful voice and began singing Oh Canada. One person does make a difference, as the entire stadium joined in reverently to sing out national anthem. It was really powerful, i had goosebumps and the lady beside me choked up with tears. It was awesome. After we finished, the Dalai Lama came out with the mayor and ministry of immigration. And the Dalia Lama recieved his honorary canadian citizenship. He is only one of 3 people in the world ever to receive it.
The Dalai Lama's message is always simple and clear. Compassion, kindness to others, and inner peace. Inner peace is acheived through a calm state of presence. We need to approach today's challenges with a calm mind as when we are emotional and angry we are irrational. We cannot acheive the ultimate solutions through anger. And with the world that is so interdependant on each other, it is insane to battle each other. There is no longer us vs them, or black vs white. There is only one people now. What affects other nations negatively will also affect us. It could not be more evident in the prices of gas. We are all human and rely on each other. He said that in previous centuries were identified by war and bloodshed. He said with conviction that this is a century of talk. We must respect each other's views and talk with each other to approach complex issues and collectively work towards resolution. Of course this is easier said than done. He mentioned that it starts with self, the way we raise our children. If we raise our children to be compassionate to others they will grow up to become compassionate leaders and that is where the long term solutions lie. It all made sense and I think more than anything people flock to see him because he always brings a message of hope and affirms each individual to look at the good elemental qualities that each human has and to focus and nurture those qualities. It all made sense to me, and i think everyone in the stadium took away with them the reminders that regardless of religion, honoring good human qualities and practicing compassion will lead to a happy life. I applied that in rush hour traffic the next day.
In the evening, I was Nick's guest at the special dinner at Ciopinno's where i met with Manish Jain who is involved heavily in education all over india and abroad. I also had the pleasure of meeting various individuals involved in the social services, govt' and law. It was especially good that during dinner the conversations were all about the subject of the weekend. I participated mainly as an observer, but to listen and be exposed to it was very encouraging. Some way, some how, there is a place for all of us to make a difference.
After dinner we headed to Lucy Mae Brown, which is this great little bar. It was Christy's 30th bday, she's one of Nick's staff, so we went out to celebrate with her and i got to meet up with some great people i had not seen since Vietnam. I also got to see Senka and that was icing on the cake!
