Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India – October 28, 2009
On the second day, Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams and Mairead Maguire offered the Dalai Lama their messages of support for the Tibetan people. Mairead Maguire honored the non violent path of protest chosen by the Tibetans and called on people to eradicate the “violence in our hearts, in our families, in our communities and in our governments.” She explained that “peaceful confrontation is part of compassion, prayer gives energy to act, and we need both prayer and action to change the world.”
Shirin Ebadi affirmed the message by saying that “compassion means we must persist in realizing our just demands but we must not do so with violence” and reminded us that governments should live in the hearts of the people rather than depend on the power of the sword.
Jody Williams reassured us that we “don’t have to love everybody to want a better world for all of us.” In thanking the Tibetan people she said that “to experience the loss of your country and not be beaten down or give up, but to keep moving forward- you are an inspiration to us all.” In the afternoon they lunched privately with His Holiness and then held an informal converstion on Interfaith Dialogue that was filmed as a project of Peace Jam for future distribution.