First Forum 2000

Here is a picture from the first Forum 2000 conference I attended in Prague in 2006. At the time I was looking for my next challenge, and was in what my friend Lekha Singh calls "sponge mode"--soaking up everything around me reading the signals, talking to everyone about everything. Being in that mode led me to this moment with the Dalai Lama in Prague.

The day before this picture was taken the Dalai Lama had been on a panel talking about the nature of religious life as it relates to world peace. At one point a Catholic Bishop from France, Michel Dubost of Eveché D'Evry-Corbeil, referred to religious beliefs, gesturing to the other representatives in the room:Islam, Shinto, Protestant and representing Tibetan Buddhism, HH the 14th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama smiled, leaned into the mike, and said "yes, but I'm a non-believer."

His assertion electrified me, because I realized that all these discussions about peace were revolving around reconciling beliefs, rather than looking at the ground of belief that we all hold in common. This was the moment I realized that I was going to do something concrete around world peace.

For a transcript of the whole panel's conversation, click here.