Compassionate leadership dialogues draw large audiences in New York and Boston

ik - a relevant bite from the Shambhala 'wire'

Oct 4, 2008

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Queen Noor of Jordan and Rabbi Irwin Kula took their message of compassionate leadership to packed audiences in New York and Boston last week, in the midst of growing turmoil in the financial world.

They began in the headquarters of Goldman Sachs, one of the most prominent New York-based financial investment companies, addressing some 250 executives and staff.

"We are meeting here at a very poignant time," the Sakyong told a capacity audience in the Goldman Sachs offices which filmed the event for broadcast to their other locations worldwide. "The world right now is becoming more aggressive, more self-centred. Everyone thinks an aggressive leader will accomplish what they want in the short term. But I believe leadership is something that is much more long term, and that is where peace and non-aggression come in."

Rabbi Kula, described by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 50 influential rabbis in America, challenged the notion that the leader is "someone else in the room". "What leadership does," he said, "is create an environment in which we face up to our problems and recognize our own role in having constructed the very falling apart we are experiencing."

Queen Noor of Jordan, known for her international humanitarian activities and for speaking out for human rights, spoke of peace efforts in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. She said concern for the next generation had inspired those searching for peace. "What are we doing for the next generation?" she asked. "What are we going to leave the next generation?"

Describing a ground-breaking gesture by her late husband, King Hussein, she said, "By leading from his heart, he opened up cracks among the most hardliners. They saw his humanity at a time when both sides were polarized."

"What kind of future are we going to build if we cannot feel each other's grief", she asked, "and one day, God willing, share each other's victory?"

The three also spoke to more than 900 students, faculty and members of the public at New York University that evening and went on to a third large event at Tufts University in Boston. Both gatherings were hosted by the presidents of the universities.

To view the webcast of the The New York University event, please click here or go to http://www.vivapeace.org/.

To view a selection of photos from the events, please click here.

These public dialogues also inaugurated a new website, vivapeace.org, which reflects the Sakyong's wish to engage a wider youth audience in the search for peace. To visit, please click here.

A short film of the three events, made for Shambhala, will be posted soon.

(This announcement was from the Shambhala News Service)