Joy In Service
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore
Good Happens.
Pay It Forward!
Center For Living Peace
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Archive for the tag “wisdom”
A Guide for Life From Gandhi
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
Good Happens.
Pay it Forward!
Love is Active
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”
- Fred Rogers (The World According to Mister Rogers)
Photo originally posted by Mac A Doodle
Good Happens.
Pay it Forward!
Living Peace Series: A Day with Dr. Jane Goodall
This past Tuesday, October 2nd, we had the honor of hosting Dr. Jane Goodall of the Jane Goodall Institute and Roots and Shoots! We are thrilled that over 1,000 guests were able to hear Dr. Goodall’s wisdom at the speaking event in the UC Irvine Pacific Ballrooms. We wanted to share photos from the speaking event and the following VIP reception.
The live broadcast of this event will be available on our website for a limited time! Stay tuned for more details.
Chancellor Drake welcoming Dr. Goodall to the stage.
Dr. Goodall enthralling the crowd.
Dr. Goodall speaking to the audience of over 1,000 guests!
One of the giant peace doves from the Living Peace Projects flying at the front of the room.
Dr. Goodall greeting guests at the VIP reception following the speaking event.
Center for Living Peace staff members with Dr. Goodall.
Guests at the VIP reception.
Dr. Goodall and our founder Kelly Thornton Smith at the VIP reception.
Celebrating UCI Vice Chancellor Parham’s birthday!
Big thanks and gratitude to our lovely photographers: Alex Abercrombie and Jason Niedle. We also wanted to thank UCI, all the students, staff and faculty that came out to hear Dr. Goodall, Apples & Oranges for filming the speaking event and Orange County Films for streaming the event for us! And of course, a big thank you to all of the guests who joined us. We are so grateful to have such an amazing community helping us make peace real!
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
Love the Earth
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
- Walt Whitman
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out!
Aimee Mullins and Her 12 Pairs of Legs
“There’s an important difference and distinction between the objective medical fact of my being an amputee and the subjective societal opinion of whether or not I’m disabled. Truthfully, the only real and consistent disability I’ve had to confront is the world ever thinking that I could be described by those definitions.”
-Aimee Mullins
Speaking from her wide ranging life experiences as an athlete, model, actress, and activist, Aimee Mullins challenges society’s view on the ideas of beauty and disability. Aimee had both her legs amputated below the knee when she was a year old because she was born missing fibula bones. She broke several world records at the Atlanta Paralympic Games in 1996 as the first person to use woven carbon-fiber prostheses, which were inspired by cheetah legs. Aimee was also the first amputee to compete in the NCAA in US history during her time at Georgetown University.
She has worked with major fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen and starred in movies such as Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3. Aimee continues to act as a champion for women and the disabled in sports serving on the board of several non-profits and sports foundations such as the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Spire Institute.
Visit her TED profile to watch her other videos and learn more about Aimee’s approach to living peace.
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out!
Living Peace Series featuring His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama!
What an amazing and inspiring week it has been! Last weekend we had our working groups, which were followed on Wednesday by the Living Peace Series with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama! Here are some highlights from the events.
Working Groups for Compassion and Global Leadership
On Saturday, April 30, 2011 we held working groups at CLP with youth between the ages of 14 – 24. They gathered together to work on projects and awareness raising initiatives that promote compassion and global leadership in their lives, their communities and the world.
A few days later, our working group participants were invited to attend a speaking event with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, called PTTOW. At this event, His Holiness watched this video:
We are so thrilled with the outcomes from the working groups. Here are a few of the service projects and initiatives that they will be working on…
High Tech High Media Arts’ 4 Africa Club will be executing a local week-long awareness campaign about issues in Africa and how individuals can help. They plan to include: an organized 5k walk that will help them gather donations and supplies for youth in Africa, documentary screenings, a benefit concert, and a letter writing campaign.
Peace Jam plans to research the issue of access to and scarcity of clean water throughout the world from local and international perspectives. They are also going to organize a beach clean-up; raise awareness about water in local schools, neighborhoods and through social networks.
The Interfaith Youth Council will host a county-wide interfaith youth forum (which will be planned, run and facilitated by high school teens) that will encourage interfaith understanding, respect, and civility. They hope to increase attendance at the event this year from 120 (in 2010) to 200, and build on the 12 faiths previously represented by including Baha’i and Hindu youth as well.
Students for Integrative Medicine plan to pair volunteers with bedfast individuals to record the bedfast individuals’ stories. Volunteers will be trained in compassionate listening and will visit patients in a 5-session program designed to give the participants time to build rapport, share stories, and crucially, to say “goodbye.”
We are so thrilled to work will all of these organizations and assist them in their projects as they grow and evolve!
The Living Peace Series featuring His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
On May 4, 2011 His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama returned to UC Irvine as a part of the Living Peace Series to engage students and the community in a discussion about compassion, happiness, interfaith harmony and global leadership.
He spoke about how the goal of education should be to “develop sensible, compassionate leaders who are realistic and warmhearted.” He also stressed the importance of respect for all religions, and nonbelievers as well, which elicited cheers from the audience.
The event opened with songs from Tibetan singer, Yungchen Lhamo
Followed by an introduction by UCI Chancellor Drake, where he explained the partnership between UCI and The Center for Living Peace and also introduced the Dalai Lama scholars (including our very own Programs Manager, Rebecca Hendrickson!)
Then His Holiness stepped onto the stage with Thubten Jinpa, His Holiness’s English translator, and the fun began!
The Dalai Lama wowed the crowd with his compassion and sense of humor– when asked about the secret to happiness, he replied “If there is some secret factor for happiness, I must keep it.” He also encouraged people to “pay more attention to [the] young and provide maximum love and compassion to [their] children.” He explained that ”if we make some effort now, in the later part of the century we can produce very sensible compassionate leaders.”
… Like our wonderful Kelly Smith!
If you missed the speaking event, you can watch it on our Livestream page!
PTTOW!
Immediately following the speaking event at the Bren Center, His Holiness met with our working group participants at PTTOW!.
PTTOW! (Plan to Take On the Word) is a conference that brings together the nation’s top marketers, from companies such as Microsoft, Red Bull, Mastercard, Electronics Arts, Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, Quiksilver, Pepsi, and many others. The Dalai Lama spoke about the power of youth and technology to catalyze global change, promote ethical leadership and spread compassion. Here is a video from the PTTOW event:
A special thank you to: Apples & Oranges for filming our working groups and Living Peace Series events, Alex Abercrombie for her beautiful photography, Philip Schneider and Lisa Rueff from Jacmel Children, PTTOW!’s Roman Tsunder and eXcel Youth Zone’s Bryan Banville for presenting at our working groups. And of course, all of our participants! YOU help us make these events possible!
“A compassionate mind thinks more about others, that makes it very easy to communicate.”
- His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
Virgin Unite Names Kelly Smith Entrepreneur of the Quarter!
Each quarter Virgin Unite picks their favorite entrepreneur to honor. This time around, they honored Kelly Smith for all of the work she has done in the past year establishing the Center for Living Peace!
Image Courtesy of Anne Chatillon
Congratulations, Kelly! We are so proud of you and all of the amazing work you are doing to make good happen! You can read the Virgin Unite article here!
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
Living Peace Workshop with Richard Reoch!
Richard Reoch has been involved with human rights, peace efforts and humanitarian work almost his whole life. Richard Reoch began working at Amnesty International in 1971, and by 1978 he was appointed to head Amnesty’s global media operations. Currently, Richard Reoch serves as the President of Shambhala, which is one of the world’s most influential Buddhist communities. He is also on the board for the Center for Living Peace, the Chair of the International Working Group on Sri Lanka, as well as a trustee of the Rainforest Foundation. In his spare time he speaks at schools and colleges, is trained in oriental medicine, teaches tai chi and qigong, and travels throughout the world to help spread the ideas and principles of Living Peace.
On February 19, 2011, human rights activist Richard Reoch will be visiting the Center for Living Peace to lead the first of a four-part series on cultivating inner and outer peace. The beginning of the series opens with the question, “What is Living Peace?”. Delving deep into this question, participants will explore the definition of living peace and how it is applicable to their own lives. Richard Reoch will guide the discussion and exercises based around these ideas in order to discover more about how we experience living peace on a personal level, and reflect that into our respective communities. The agenda for the day includes presentations, dialogue exercises, and meditation.
To find out more or sign up for the class, click here.
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
Peace in Motion Movie Night: Let Freedom Sing!
In honor of Black History month, we will be screening Let Freedom Sing, a documentary about how music inspired the Civil Rights Movement.
This documentary follows the development of the Civil Rights Movement and the music associated with it. The music of the 1960′s Civil Rights Movement inspired and encouraged its listeners, enabling them to stay strong in a time of struggle and turbulent change. The songs gradually transformed from spiritual to freedom songs; serving as a common thread that connected people across the country as they fought for change. The music motivated people in the darkest times and inspired them to persevere with hope and optimism. The effects of this movement are permanent and continue to resonate with a messages of equality and hope. Most of the songs that came out of this movement are widely recognized now– but the context and history of these songs is known only by a few. Let Freedom Sing sheds a light on the story behind these inspirational songs.
Here is a teaser clip from the film:
Some of the songs included in this documentary are “We Shall Overcome,” “A Change is Gonna Come,” “Free at Last,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “People Get Ready.”
Here is one of the songs that is featured in the film, “I Shall Not Be Moved,” by The Harmonizing Four:
Another song, feautred in the film is Billie Holiday’s song, “Strange Fruit”
It is going to me such an amazing film screening! I cannot wait! To find out more about the film screening, or to sign up for the class, click here.
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
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