Forum in Seattle

The Seeds of Compassion event was thrilling. The Dalia Lama drew over 55,000 people to hear him speak on creating a more compassionate world on Saturday. At the Interfaith panel on Tuesday, about twenty-thousand people were inspired by the words of both His Holiness and the Dalai Lama. At the end the Seattle Symphony and a huge choir performed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

 The Sunday forum I served on involved around 180 educators, social workers, and youth ministers. The purpose was to come up with specific goals, for example “Increase funding for social and emotional learning programs” and “Train the educators of educators to promote social and emotional learning and maximize its impact on school programming and student success.” It’s interesting that in order to speak about spiritual education or educating the heart in the arena of public policy, we have to use spiritless terms like “social and emotional” learning, but gratifying that these important principles are gaining public recognition.

April 18th, 2008 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 1 Comments

Dalai Lama

I’m excited about being part of a panel on compassionate children at the Seeds of Compassion event, featuring the Dalai Lama, in Seattle, April 15th. Some of you know that Living Wisdom high schoolers visit the Dalai Lama every other year in Dharamsala. His prominence and the worldwide respect he is accorded has advanced the understanding of the relationship between education and non-sectarian spirituality. In the New York Times, Sunday, November 4, 2007,an article reported on the Dalai Lama’s visit to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his being made an honorary faculty member. The university is or was a Methodist institution. Robert Paul, the college dean says, “His Holiness is a religious figure who is not dogmatic, not sectarian, doesn’t advocate ‘My way of the highway.’” Going on to justify the Emory-Tibet partnership, as it is known, John Dunne, a faculty member says ”…the university’s credo, ‘Educating the heart and mind’ has become a vanguard attitude among universities. ”

It is wonderful to hear that this is the perception of an Emory faculty member:  that educating the heart, along with the mind, is critical to a truly fulfilled life. Of course, this principle has been a tenet of the Education for Life methods for over twenty years. I look forward to sharing some of our techniques with the parents and educators in Seattle. For more information on the conference, and an opportunity for your child to post an artwork, go to http://www.seedsofcompassion.org/

Susan Usha Dermond

March 28th, 2008 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments