Well, it’s over! We finished up our amazing week today, with a rousing final plenary, replete with music, dance, prayers from many different traditions, words of thanks and exhortation and a speech by the Dalai Lama. When I arrived at the convention center this morning I was surprised to see a long line of people waiting to get in the main doors. Due to the presence of the Dalai Lama, they had put in a security checkpoint at the entrance and we all had to go through the metal detectors and have our bags checked before we could enter the convention site. It made for a slow start to the morning! In fact, I had decided to go to the Qur’an talk given by Dr. Tariq Ramadan, since he is a world reknowned Qur’anic scholar and he is not permitted to enter the US, and it turns out he was late for the session because he got stuck in the security line! His Qur’an study was on the principle of justice in the Qur’an and I was interested to hear him talk about interpreting the Qur’an contextually, which is not something I hear often from the Muslims I deal with in Rochester. He is part of the emerging modern school of Islamic scholars who are tending to interpret the Qur’an in light of the context in which it was written, allowing them some leeway to depart from literal application of everything it says when the cultural context doesn’t make the Qur’anic verses relevant to the modern context.
I went up to the Tibetan monks to see the final version of the mandala. I’ve included a picture of it. During the lunch session today they destroyed it and processed to the river to pour the colored sand into the river. I would have attended that ceremony but the security checkpoints made it inconvenient to keep trying to get in and out of the center, especially as the time for the final ceremony was approaching.
The final plenary was another wonderful fantasia of music, prayers, dance, and chanting from many different world religions. Bob Randall, the aborigine who was the subject of the documentary I watched yesterday was one of the keynote speakers, and the star of the day was the Dalai Lama. He is the most remarkable person. Very funny, very sweet, completely spontaneous and jolly. He and the tribal chief woman from the local aboriginal tribe had quite a little comedy routine going which was completely unscripted but had all of us in stitches! Among the many groups that performed was an Australian girls choir which was excellent. At the end of the program, as the Dalai Lama was being led out, three small children who were family members of the aboriginal tribal leader came across the stage to greet the Dalai Lama, and the youngest child who could not have been more than 2 ½ stole the show.
The Dalai Lama applauded the work of the Parliament, but exhorted us to go back to our home communities and do something with what we’ve learned here. He reminded us that it will not do justice to the work we’ve done here if we all simply go home and get back to business as usual. The Rochester contingent went to dinner together this evening at a Nepalese restaurant and spent some time talking about how we’re going to take back what we’ve learned here to our various interfaith activities in Rochester. And, those of us working on the big conference that we are sponsoring in April came up with a long list of do’s and don’ts based upon what we experienced here.
So I’m almost packed and tomorrow morning head off to the airport for a noon flight. What’s really weird is that I will arrive in Los Angeles on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. which is technically earlier than when I left Australia on the same day! It’s like traveling back in time when you cross the date line!! I then head up to Portland, Oregon to catch up with Tracy at a conference, returning to Rochester on Sunday. I’m going to miss the warm, balmy, sunny, early summer weather here. I’m trying to steel myself for the snow and grey that awaits in Portland and at home! I’m definitely putting Melbourne on my list of places to come back to, particularly during our winter. This is a terrific city and I’m eager to come back when I can have some time to go out and see the sights, both here and in the surrounding countryside.
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