“The power of creativity is unique to human beings. We’re born with the capacity to project ourselves into other places. To be creative, you have to do something. It’s applied imagination.”
–Sir Ken Robinson, Author, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

“We know certain factors, including novelty, keeps the brain growing.”
–Daniel Siegel, Executive Director, Mindsight Institute

“Creativity is where we focus our attention. It’s about mental flexibility,” began Chris Wink, one of the founders of the Blue Man Group and more recently the Blue School, as he started the session on Creativity and Well-being at the Vancouver Peace Summit. Then, he launched us off into a performance presentation featuring three “bald and blue” men who playfully illustrated the mindsets or archetypes the Blue Man cast goes into in their performances (listed below with their opposite):

• scientist (logical, analysis)-shaman (instinctive, focused on synthesis)
• group member (sensitivity to others and collaboration)-the trickster (playfulness, breaking free of groupthink)
• hero (moving toward a goal), and innocent (naïve, childlike, focused on being present)

Before each performance, Wink explained that the blue men get centered so they are not in any one mindset, but instead are able to access and move between any of them, something we could all benefit from practicing off the stage.

After taking us through each of the mindsets, he ended with the “innocent” asking each of us to reach back to a time when we expressed ourselves freely–when we ourselves were innocent. “We don’t enter this state often,” he said, “but we need to. We need to connect to our hearts.”

The theme had come full circle–once again–to the heart. Coming back again, and again.

The first day of the Vancouver Peace Summit was filled with flashes of hope, passion, brilliance, bulbs, and recognition. Media swarmed the Dalai Lama and his entourage, though only allowed to take photos in the hall for the first five minutes of the morning and afternoon sessions. Speakers returned again and again to ancient wisdom, basic tenets of religious teachings, and moral imperatives. Still, it came down to each individual committing to personal change.

Here’s a sampling:

• Victor Chan, the founder and director of the Dalai Lama Center opened the Summit with an intention “to translate compassion into concrete action that will make a change around the world.”
• Tom Beech awarded His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu the Fetzer Prize for Love & Forgiveness. In introducing the awardees, he spoke of living with the reality of fear and violence and the promise of the power of love and forgiveness-a tension the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have certainly navigated in their own lives.
• Cherish oneself and extend it to others. -The Dalai Lama
• People often think compassion is passive. Compassion is action.-The Dalai Lama
• Peace isn’t just absence of violence, it’s deliberate avoidance of violence through peace. -The Dalai Lama
• People are so beautiful, but they don’t know it. We underestimate our capacity for compassion. We need to bring that potential to the surface.-Matthieu Ricard
• Children have a lot to teach us. They give us the gift of being able to forget ourselves.-Rev. Mpho Tutu (who accepted the Fetzer Prize on her father, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s behalf)
• Love isn’t what we feel, it’s what we do.-Rev. Mpho Tutu
• Family negotiation is a model for decision making. I know peace is possible, I’ve seen my parents. -Rev. Mpho Tutu
• Cultivate compassion, all day, everyday. It takes us beyond the prism of selfishness…Now, when things are difficult, it’s time to practice.-Karen Armstrong

And then, there were flashes of recognition that rippled through the audience. A woman sitting by author and Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard, glanced his way and smiled when opening the afternoon session, tenor Mario Frangoulis offered a rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine and sang the line, “Imagine no possessions…” The two shared a moment of amusement.

Later as several references to the importance of parents in demonstrating and building peace were made by Nobel Prize recipient Betty Williams and Rev. Mpho Tutu, I noticed heads turned in recognition and smiles rippled through Sir Ken Robinson’s family, sitting in front of me.

It was infectious. I came back to my room, looked at a photo of my mother I had found in my suitcase from a previous trip and was glad to be able to share this with her–at least in spirit.

For a glimpse of what went on backstage at the Peace Summit yesterday, check out an article by The Vancouver Sun’s Douglas Todd.

Stepping into the cool gray, Seattle morning, I spotted the Yellow Cab hovering several feet from the curb. Little did I know the Vancouver Peace Summit would begin its work on me during my short cab ride to the train station. Though not a speaker on the summit agenda, my driver dispensed enduring advice.

After telling him where I was headed, Sunil, as I’ll call him here, gave me his prescription for peace: yoga, meditation, natural power (vs. fossil fuels), and a positive disposition.

Having grown up in northern India, the son of a farmer, Sunil told me he finds a special peace in his visits to a local park, listening to bird songs, the sound of a breeze blowing through the leaves, and water lapping against the shore. There he meditates.

As I gathered money for the fare, he shared a Sanskrit story illustrating the interconnectedness of the world and how it both belongs to and requires the guardianship of us all, but I’d mess it up in trying to retell it here…

He handed me my suitcase, we said our good-byes, and I turned to walk into the train station, his words lingering in my mind.

Tell us about someone who embodies love, forgiveness, compassion, or peace in your life by commenting on this entry.

Watch the Fetzer Institute’s Prize for Love & Forgiveness being awarded to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Vancouver Peace Summit live on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. PT / 12:30 p.m. ET.

Also, stay tuned to this blog for impressions and updates from the Vancouver Peace Summit.

The Summit is hosted by the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in collaboration with the Fetzer Institute.

The Fetzer Institute’s new web site, filled to the brim with information and resources on love, forgiveness, and compassion, is now live! Find out about their current work, the research they support, what religious leaders from a variety of faith traditions say about love and forgiveness through a series of videos, search their database for specific information, check out their latest events and activities, and lots more.

“The call of the ancient ram’s horn, or shofar, punctuates the 30 days of introspection leading to Rosh Hashanah and the 10 Days of Awe through Yom Kippur,” says Speaking of Faith, host, Krista Tippett.  “The sage of the Talmud, the 12th-century philosopher Maimonides, interpreted the call of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah in this way: ‘Awake, you sleepers, from your slumber. Examine your deeds. Return in repentance and remember your creator.’ Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services build on prayers and confessions of mistakes, transgressions, and ethical lapses, both individual and communal.”

In a compelling Speaking of Faith interview, Los Angeles Rabbi Sharon Brous and Krista Tippett explore the meaning of the Jewish High Holy Days. As the “Days of Awe” begin for Jews around the world, we wish our Jewish friends a Happy New Year.

And as Rabbi Brous said in the interview, may we all remember that “there is a Nekudat Tova, there is something so pure and so good inside of you, inside of all of us, but we can’t even see what it is anymore, because we spend all year kind of papering over it and covering over it either, because we’re too busy, because…our lives and our work are too challenging…or because we’re too embarrassed of it…”

When you pull back the curtain on Thérèse Bartholomew’s life, it seems anything but predictable. Despite dropping out of high school at sixteen, she graduated from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and is now finishing a masters in criminal justice. Why criminal justice? She came to it in the aftermath of her brother’s murder.

A writer and teacher, Bartholomew debuted her first publication, Coffee Shop God, in April and is now working on a documentary film, The Final Gift, slated for completion in the fall.  Both explore the emotional journey she embarked on after her brother’s murder.

“Coffee Shop God shares her personal struggles and heartache over the loss of her brother, dealing with the trial and coming face to face with the man (and his family) who killed her brother. The Final Gift documents Thérèse’s fears, doubts and ultimately, her courage when venturing into the prison to face the man who killed  her brother and devastated her family, to finding forgiveness, compassion, and personal peace.”

Marina Cantacuzino, founder of The Forgiveness Project in England contributed her debut blog entry, “Beyond Good and Evil, “ on the Huffington Post on September 7th.

In it, she uses the recent case of accused rapist and pedophile, Phillip Garrido. “It is so much easier to talk of evil than empathy,” she writes, “but I would prefer to confine that unflinching moral absolute to the rubbish heap because it serves no purpose, signaling the end of conversation before it has even started. A distinction must be made between evil acts and evil people and, hard as it is to acknowledge, somewhere amidst the tangle of Garrido’s depraved thinking lies a flicker of humanity.”

Read her entire entry and while you’re there, also check out Michael McCullough, forgiveness researcher and fellow Huffington Post blogger.

In a letter to Kalamazoo, Michigan’s Season of Forgiveness participants, executive director, Thom Andrews today shared the following:

In recent news, organizations in both Jamaica and the Bahamas have called for a focus on forgiveness.

In the Bahamas, the Carry Your Candle, Light The Bahamas Organization  announced plans for a month-long focus on forgiveness. Community leaders also joined in the call.

In Jamaica, the National Transformation Programme (NTP) appealed to Jamaicans to observe a period of peace and forgiveness for the next five months.

Also, Thom thanked James Herm for his “Viewpoint” published in the Kalamazoo Gazette on September 9th, 2009, focusing on forgiveness.

“I think all of us, at one time or another, when we’ve made the same mistakes over and over again, have felt that we must be a disappointment in God’s eyes. Yet there’s a remarkably high level of confidence across the country that God forgives us, compared to a much lower level of forgiveness for oneself and others,” explained Loren Toussaint, psychologist, upon releasing a 2001 University of Michigan Institute for Social Research Study he co-authored. The study revealed that nearly 60 percent of Americans reported they had forgiven themselves for past mistakes, while almost 75 percent said they felt God had forgiven them. (Toussiant, Williams, Musick, Everson, 2001)

Religion and spirituality offer a way to see life’s experiences in a larger context. Rituals, traditions, and sacred practices can help us navigate the forgiveness process with a greater purpose and a divine guide. In fact, only recently has the practice of forgiveness stepped out of a primarily religious framework and into academia, health, and educational settings. Forgiveness itself is a leap of faith, so to speak.

Many religious teachings define, frame, and provide practices for forgiveness. For instance, in Judaism, there are three kinds of forgiveness–mechilá, “forgoing the other’s indebtedness” requiring the offender to acknowledge the wrongdoing, express remorse and seek to change future behavior; selichá, which requires finding compassion and empathy for the offender; and kaparrá, an absolution of the sinful behavior granted only by God. In Islam, the offender must–with sincerity–recognize and admit the offense to God, make a commitment not to repeat it, and ask God for forgiveness.

During this time of Ramadan and the upcoming Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Muslims and Jews practice forgiveness as part of their observances. Whatever your religious or spiritual preference, practicing forgiveness unearths one of the most powerful and universal forces there is: love. We invite you to share religious or spiritual teachings that shape your understanding and practice of forgiveness by posting a comment in our online discussion on forgiveness.