His Holiness the Dalai Lama greeting people during his 2009 trip to Vancouver.
Photos: Wikimedia photos by Kris Krug, others unknown.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will visit Vancouver, British Columbia, Oct. 21-23, for public teachings and other events associated with two Vancouver-area education non-profits.

On the morning of Oct. 23, His Holiness will confer an empowerment of Avalokiteshvara, the Tibetan meditational deity of compassion.

His Holiness with Victor Chan, who co-founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.

That afternoon he will give an introductory Buddhist teaching based on Geshe Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses of Training the Mind (Lojong Tsikgyema).

The Oct. 23 events will be at the Thunderbird Arena at the University of British Columbia, and are being organized by the Tibetan Cultural Society of British Columbia. Please check their website for more developments.

“For us, when the Dalai Lama comes to town we get blessings,” said, Tenzin Gyurme, president of the Society, adding that the event also will help raise funds to bring 250 Tibetan families from Arunachel Pradesh to Canada.

On Oct. 21 and 22, His Holiness will lead programs offered by the Vancouver-based Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, and some other education-related activities.

For instance on Oct. 21 His Holiness is to visit a public school in Vancouver, to speak to students there in the school’s auditorium. He also is to visit some classrooms.

This 2014 visit will be five years after the last time he visited the city.

A moment with His Holiness and Tenzin Gyurme, president of the Tibetan Cultural Society of British Columbia.

Here’s what Victor Chan, who co-founded Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in Vancouver, with the Dalai Lama, wrote about the upcoming 2014 visit:

“I first invited the Dalai Lama to Vancouver 10 years ago in 2004, when he had a ground-breaking dialogue with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi and others on the importance of ‘educating the heart.’ He came again in 2006 and 2009 under the auspices of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.

“In both these visits he emphasized over and over again the need to foster empathy and altruism in children and youth,” Chan wrote. “The ripple effect of his message has been significant. It catalyzed a paradigm shift in the way British Columbians view education, the need to balance cognitive development with kindness, mindfulness and compassion.

His Holiness extends blessings, during his 2009 visit to Vancouver.

“In his coming visit to Vancouver, the Dalai Lama will elaborate further on what he means by ‘educating the heart’ and its effect on our collective well-being.”

His Holiness was invited to Vancouver by the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, the Tibetan Cultural Society of British Columbia, and Tsengdok Monastery Association, according to the Tenzin Taklha, secretary of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.