Latin American: Be Wise Go Kind 2023 – TALK 3: We Don’t Need What’s Awesome

This talk was August 31 at 5:30 pm PDT. Please join us for the upcoming talks. You can find an overview here. You can also register here for the entire series and get access to the recording of this talk, and all the past talks. This talk is in English, with translation to Chinese and Spanish.

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From a being a gangster in Hong Kong to playing one as a celebrated film actor, from seeking a Buddhist blessing for his career to teaching meditation, from being blacklisted for activism to surviving a deadly illness — with stops along the way as a radio personality, film producer, and businessman — Chapman To is full of surprises and no stranger to adversity and success. Yet humor and joy pepper all his conversations. In his own words, said with a twinkle in his eye, no matter what he does, he’s always in trouble.

And that’s a key to his success: finding strength and joy in the depth of difficulty, in concert with devotion to his Buddhist path. A longtime student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, he leads weekly meditation classes at Nalandabodhi Taipei, which he calls his “most favorite job of all.” 

Best known for playing Tsui Wai-Keung in the Internal Affairs trilogy, he also had a popular radio show on Hong Kong’s Commercial Radio 2, and is a renowned film producer and YouTube star of Chapman To’s Late Show. He currently is writing a movie script, and recently launched a business venture distributing specialty foods in Asia and North America, with plans to open dim sum restaurants in Taipei. 

But his biggest trouble to date — a life-threatening condition and near-death experience — is what taught him about awe. Learning the formula for finding awe is easy, he said, while doing it is not: “You meditate and fight for your life by meditating, by doing nothing. Then you realize, you don’t have to fight for it. The most awesome thing in the world is we don’t need anything awesome.”

Learn more about Chapman To

This third talk We Don’t Need What’s Awesome with Chapman To is on Thursday, August 31, at 5:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). The talk is in English, with live translation to Spanish, and Chinese.

Timeline and recordings

This talk is part of the complete Be Wise Go Kind: Awaken Awe series, featuring a new talk every two weeks. You can find an easy overview of the series here. Following the series of talks, there will be a day-long experiential program with special guests, at Nalanda West in Seattle and online.

Recordings of the talks will be made available until Thursday, December 14, 2023. 

Pricing

This talk:

$ 21 – Standard ticket
$ 40 – Sponsor ticket (this helps us offer scholarships to those in need)

You can also register for the entire series: 

$ 108 – Standard ticket
$ 210 – Sponsor ticket (this helps us offer scholarships to those in need)

Curious about all the different talks? Please find an easy overview here. 

Scholarships

If these prices are beyond your budget, please know we would still like to help you attend the program and would be happy to offer you a scholarship. Thanks to our many supporters around the world and their generous offerings, we are able to make this and many more programs available, regardless of one’s financial situation. If you need assistance, please click here to access our scholarship page and fill in the form to request a scholarship.