"A Sense of Belonging in Belfast" by a Northern Irelander

So my story goes like this....I was born and raised a Catholic in Belfast, and for those who do not know Belfast, it is situated in the North of Ireland and not Ireland, as this is one of the many divisions that leads to many other divisions. North, South, Green, Orange, Protestant, Catholic, are all labels that have signified division, and resulting conflict.

Trying to understand the divisions brought me to a place of awareness of an inner worldview, an inner life similar to contemplative interiority. It was at this time that I began to see and understand duality in its many forms.

Belfast had the perfect conditions for that realisation. Here was I, a Belfast guy, raised Catholic, experiencing all that came with that, the hurt of sectarianism, discrimination etc. became interested in Buddhism and the whole sense of living from a place of non-duality. And first in the year 2000 and for the second time, in the year 2005, with deep heartfelt thanks to WCCM, His Holiness the Dalai Lama made the visit to Belfast.I felt honoured to be involved and to be able to lend support to the WCCM in their ongoing WAY OF PEACE, in any way I could.

My first contact was with Inge Relph, a dynamic woman, natural in her ability to lead and empower others in organising the event. Inge was a shining jewel given to Belfast if only for a short while. Lending support I needed, she brought me in from the cold and into the heart of practice. And there I found a whole new space. Within the heart of being and within the heart of community, a way to inclusivity and non-duality was opened to me Through the Community I was introduced to two wonderful people, Fr. Laurence Freeman OSB and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

From the moment the Dalai Lama arrived in the Hilton Hotel Belfast, to his visit in Corrymeela, where he held the hand of the founder, as if to say in a symbolic gesture, a job well done, to the Mediation Centre in Belfast, a realisation and affirmation of a community developing its own resources to engage in conflict resolution forms, to the Waterfront where I sat closely with Fr. Laurence and the Dalai lama to listen to their inspiring dialogue and the final day at Queen's watching children from divided communities laugh and play with each other, moments of living unselfconsciously beyond division,to the final farewell in St Anne's Cathedral Belfast,filled with people from all creeds, colour, race, class, etc. to come together in shared humanity, to witness the many who had spilled over to occupy the space outside the Cathedral ,transparent through the plain glass doors, faces, looking on in witness, like a Michaelangelo painting of a beatific vision, transfixed, listening and present to 'the other' in our midst.

Frank Liddy

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