The following article is from the Autumn, 1996 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here.

The Power of Nonviolence

A Conference with H.H. the Dalai Lama, Social Advocates and Front-line Activists

The long awaited Peacemaking: the Power of Nonviolonce conference with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, social advocates and front line activists is scheduled for June 8-11, 1997 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco. This event is sponsored by Tibet House NY and will be co-convened by Robert Thurman, Columbia University Religion Professor, and Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and a New York Times journalist.

The Peacemaking conference on activism and contemplation will include violence-prevention professionals, innercity youth, teachers, artists, martial artists, community leaders, and contemplation practitioners who facilitate the transformation of violence into peace. The focus of the conference is upon nonviolent methods as the most practical and effective key to positive social change.

The conference aims to change the perception in the public mind, particularly prevalent among young people, that violence is powerful and gentleness is weak and to bring greater awareness to proven methods that can help prevent violence. The conference will provide a forum within which those working to create peace in local communities can benefit from each other's experiences and success.

The plenary sessions will be brief statements of guiding themes (insight, compassion, learning, tolerance, justice, individual and universal responsibility) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other distinguished activist presenters, who will then interact in an hour-long dialog format. There will be experiential and participatory workshops, which will assess methods of violence prevention. There will also be tracks on martial arts, ritual, meditation, and healing arts. These methods derive from the teachings of Buddha, Mahatma Ghandi, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and current grassroots community organizers.

The conference is expected to attract more than fifteen hundred people from the contemplative and activist communities, the former learning the hands-on methods of the latter, and the latter learning ways of strengthening and sustaining their inner work on a daily level. Several hundred young people from communities in California and around the nation, including youth from Tibetan exile communities, will participate.

Some of the invited participants are: Alice Walker (author of the The Color Purple), Bo Lozoff (Human Kindness Foundation, Durham, NC), Joe Marshall, Jr. (Omega Boys Club, San Francisco), Yolanda King (High Ground Foundation, Atlanta, GA), John Bess (The Valley Inc., New York, NY), Sharon Salzberg (Insight Meditation Center, Barre, MA), Jack Kornfield (author of A Path with Heart), Jon Kabat-Zann (Center for Mindfulness, Lexington, MA), Dolores Huertes (United Farm Workers, Keene, CA), James Bell (Youth Law Center, San Francisco), Nane Alejandrez (Barrios Unidos, Santa Cruz, CA), TingJue Zhou (Qi-Gong Master, Los Angeles), Edward James Olmos (actor), and many others.

For more information about registration call (800)937-8728. ä_æ