Dharma Leader Coming to Hawaii

More real life action in Hawaii for you…

The Maui Dharma Center, the Tibetan Cultural Conservancy Center of Maui and Ala Kukui-Hana Retreat Center formally announce the arrival of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to Maui on April 24 and 25, 2007. This is the Dalai Lama’s first visit to Maui.
During his two day visit the Dalai Lama will give two public teachings at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center (MACC) in Kahului. On Tuesday, April 24, the Dalai Lama will give a free public talk at the MACC beginning at 2:00 p.m. The title of the public talk is “The Human Approach to World Peace”. On Wednesday, April 25, also at the MACC at 2:00 p.m., His Holiness will give a Buddhist philosophical discourse on “Eight Verses for Training the Mind”, a teaching promoting the deeper human values of compassion and kindness, qualities which are embraced by all religious traditions and a topic that the Dalai Lama strongly advocates during his many travels around the world.
The public talk on April 24 is FREE, no ticket is required. Tickets for the teaching on April 25 are $20.00 plus applicable service fees and will go on sale at the MACC on Saturday, February 3, 2007. The MACC will open early for both the April 24 & 25 events with the Dalai Lama in order to process security checks. For your convenience, please do not bring large bags, back-packs, cameras or tape recorders to the MACC. Cell phones are allowed, but, no cell phone camera use.
As part of the welcoming of the Dalai Lama, the keiki of Hawaii will be creating artistic projects to be presented to His Holiness. The theme of the educational series is “Visions of Peace: By Developing a Sense of Place and Cultural Heritage We Create Harmony, Kindness, and Compassion”.
The educational activities will focus on peace and harmony as a way to involve the Hawaii educational community in a revitalizing cultural education through the elements of peace, harmony, kindness, and compassion. The educational partnership extends to schools throughout the State of Hawaii. The students will collectively create various artistic activities which will ultimately serve in welcoming the Dalai Lama to Maui. For example, a student will read a selected poem from the published collection of student poetry to the Dalai Lama at the MACC and then present the poetry book; likewise, the winner of the Hawaii Peace Youth Award will read a section from their essay.
The MACC will be decorated with the students’ personalized prayer flags and the Aloha Peace Wall, reflecting Hawaii’s common vision and unity for cultural revitalization through the arts, all for the purpose of extending the spirit of aloha in welcoming the Dalai Lama to Maui.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in Tibet in 1935 and was recognized as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama, at the age of two. The Dalai Lama is the temporal and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, but has lived in exile since 1959 after he was forced out of Tibet by the Communist Chinese. The Dalai Lama is a respected spiritual leader who has traveled extensively throughout the world as an effective voice promoting world peace, non-violent resolution, and drawing attention to accepting “universal responsibility” for advancing the ethics of compassion, tolerance, human rights, and protecting the environment. His courage and absolute dedication to world peace were honored in 1989 when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. His religion, he says, is “kindness!”
For more information please visit www.mauidharmacenter.org call 808-579-8076 or email mauidharma@earthlink.net