photos by Markus Smith and Nora Grīnberga
The 2025 Schools Program celebrated its year in a combined Grade 10 and 11 graduation ceremony at Cape Town City Banqueting Hall. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis was in attendance, together with parents, teachers and many CTII volunteers, and the venue was packed.
The CTII Community Choir has given its first public performance as part of the exciting “Boundless Compassion” event. Held at St. Georges Cathedral in Cape Town South Africa, the event is a part of Tibetan mediation master Mingyur Rinpoche‘s first visit to our country and continent.
Last night (Thursday 28th August) was such an awesome interfaith event. Thank you to Alex (Kunkhyen), the Boundless Compassion team and all who helped to make it the success it was.
Thank you to Zebada for representing the indigenous people of this country so well. Rinpoche certainly connected with Ubuntu, the African version of Dependent Origination. Tibetans are also indigenous people, who are resisting erasure from a dominant colonial power.
The same goes for the representatives from the Nguni spirituality. Tibetan Buddhism is a mix of Himalayan Shamanism and Indian Buddhism.
Thank you Nima for holding the intrafaith space. You handled it with poise and grace.
Aydin does not speak much, but beautifully connected Boundless Compassion from a Muslim perspective with that of Buddhism. The Buddhist-Muslim dialogue is important. It already happens in places like Malaysia. South African Islam had it roots in a country where Buddhist, Hindu and Animist spirituality formed the ground.
Thank you to Rabbi Andi for holding the space for the Jewish-Buddhist connection in her own gentle way.
Many thanks to all the faith leaders and other representatives who came in support of this momentous interfaith event
The choir was on fire! The dedication and your hours of practice, showed. This is one of the best vehicles to promote CTII and our interfaith activities.
Where else, but in Cape Town can you find a Muslim father singing in a choir with his Buddhist son!
I am so proud of the youth from our schools programme. Thanks Pippa. Thank you to all the facilitators, teachers and elders who made it possible. There was nervousness – it was a big occasion in the bastion of interfaith activity, but you all came out on top. Well done to the CTII Youth!
Last but certainly not the least, thank you to Mingyur Rinpoche for gracing our shores with your presence. It is a privilege to have you here. The Dharma will expand, because of you being here.
I really enjoyed the chanting of the Om Mani.
I hope that by now, someone made Rinpoche some mielie pap. I got the sense that he wants another food example to use in his explanations of Buddhism. Something other than his usual, pizza stories. 😁
I wasn’t there last night , but I enjoyed the event on screen and I look forward to meeting Rinpoche in person next week.
The CTII Community Choir had its inaugural practice last Saturday.
Many of us were meeting for the first time but the chemistry was good and a sense of possibility prevailed. We are placing values of trust, presence and participation alongside any musical aspirations, and the goodwill we already have was very encouraging to experience.
We were hosted by our friends at the Turquoise Harmony Institute, and fittingly noted the word “Harmony” in the middle of their name. It is too early to share any recordings, as we will be finding our feet for the next while, but here are a few pictures to give a sense of the occasion.
Music and song are strong uniters of people. Using our voices to express the hearts desire for unity and universal compassion is not only a beautiful thing to do in and of itself, it also serves an important social function in a fractured world. And the resources of the world’s song and interfaith/interspiritual communities are more available to us than ever before.
We pray for the formation of friendship, community and music as we move forward.
