A voice raised for peace
k.d. lang has been a practicing Buddhist for 15 years, and it was renowned teacher Pema Chödrön who helped inspire her. As a result, lang says she is “beyond excited” to share the stage at Royce Hall with Chödrön for an evening of music and conversation.
The June 20 event will benefit the Pema Chödrön Foundation and Tools for Peace, a Pasadena-based nonprofit organization that lang helped found in 2000 to give young people tools to deal peacefully with conflict using meditation.
Chödrön, a Buddhist nun and author of books including “When Things Fall Apart,” “is an amazing translator of the dharma to the Western mind,” lang said in an interview. “She really makes it clear and accessible. She’s a bridge for Western to Eastern philosophy.”
The evening is presented by publisher Sounds True, based in Boulder, Colo., and its founder, Tami Simon, will moderate the program: first a talk by Chödrön, then a conversation about mindfulness and art with Chödrön and lang, followed by a performance by lang, a Grammy-winning singer.
Interest in meditation in general has boomed in recent years, said Jamie Price, executive director of Tools for Peace. She credits social media, compelling scientific evidence of its usefulness and a critical mass of effort by its promoters. “There have been a lot of people investing a great deal of time and energy into this, and that work is finally coming to fruition,” she said.