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>>First speaker: Near the end of his life Arnold Toynbee, the famed British historian, was asked
what he felt was the most significant event of the twentieth century,
and very quickly he answered it is the… it was the coming of Buddhism to the West.
>> Sarah Coleman: Crazy wisdom is letting go of hesitation, personal territory, and security
--all of our obstacles, any of our obstacles to being present here and now.
He said you have to understand actually we’re not letting go of anything.
We’re learning to let be.
>> Ali Warner: The Awake in the World Festival will also be continuing this afternoon;
and if anyone wants to suddenly come and join us for the afternoon, you’re welcome.
>> Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: We are all too familiar with being reminded
of faults of being human. And even when you use the term human,
it usually indicates faults, that “that’s very human”.
And I think it’s sort of interesting from that point of view.
And the way that we’re using the word human is the notion of
completeness and almost perfection.
Not that we do not make mistakes. We make obviously very…
sort of a lot of stupid mistakes; and we also…, on a daily basis. [Laughter]
And we also, as a global culture, we make horrific… we do horrific things;
and that is completely clear.
And what I want to express is that this situation of human goodness,
how to influence human culture, isn’t coming out of some sort of naïve approach to life.
It’s not just a New Age trend, by the way. [Laughter]
And I always joke; my father left,
the inheritor of the two-thousand-five-hundred-year tradition of Buddhism.
So he was the kind of cornerstone of tradition in his culture; and then, as Richard said,
got off the boat here and then he was considered New Agey. [Laughter]
So something happened on the boat ride, obviously. [Laughter] I’m not sure what.
>> Young woman in the audience: Thanks. Um, I’m Katrina.
I’m a teenager. [Laughter] I just want…
>> Man on stage: Yes [inaudible] and keep on and go for a minute. Do you mind?
>> Martin: I’m actually the living proof of that.
Myself I used to do a lot of drugs. I was very disconnected to myself. I find myself again,
from there on I became actually gay.
If it takes something that intense to change me, what would it take to change those other teenagers
in the same situation that I was in back them? [Applause]
>> Man on the street: It was very rich. I especially enjoy that people can be naked,
as somebody put it, and can be so open and sharing their thoughts, their life situations;
because when they do that, when they really open up, I feel completely connected.
I feel like it completely resonates with what I live and my life situation.
So it’s tremendously helpful.
I’m extremely grateful for being here and being with all these wonderful people.