Mount Madonna School will host a commemoration of the International Day of Peace on Thursday, Sept. 21 from 9:30-10:15 a.m. in the upper campus Assembly Room, featuring Buddhist Teacher and activist Tenzin Chogkyi. The United Nations has declared this as a day “devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.”
“Actions of peace are powerful and a single act can make a significant and lasting difference,” said Mount Madonna Head of School Ann Goewert.
“Peace is needed today more than ever,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
All of Mount Madonna’s preschool through grade 12 students will attend the event, which will include students reading peace poems from different spiritual traditions, and songs from the high school choir and MMS elementary students. Tenzin will speak on nonviolence and actions for peace.
Tenzin Chogkyi
Tenzin, based in Santa Cruz, became interested in meditation in the early 1970s. She began practicing Tibetan Buddhism in 1991 during a year’s study in India and Nepal.
She worked in administrative positions in several Buddhist centers in the 1990s, and completed several long meditation retreats over a six-year period. In 2004, Tenzin took monastic ordination with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has practiced as a monastic for nearly 20 years.
Tenzin is a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training, a program developed at Stanford University. She also teaches the Cultivating Emotional Balance program, using contemplative techniques drawn from Buddhism for managing emotions, developed at His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s request.
She is a volunteer for the Interfaith Speakers Bureau of the Islamic Networks Group and is on the Board of Advisors. She is a training specialist for the Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County and is on the Sustainable Caring teaching team. In 2023 she started teaching regularly at Insight Santa Cruz.
