It's up to youth to nurture the seeds of compassion, planted by their mothers, to raise social change at home and around the world, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said during We Day.

“In my own case my mother [was a] very, very kind mother. My father [was] not kind,” the Dalai Lama said to applause and laughter. “So then, I believe, some amount of my compassion actually comes from my mother. Not from teaching, not from religion, but from my mother. We all have [the] same potential of compassion and love.”

The Dalai Lama shared this and other insights on humanity during a 30-minute session as the featured attraction, among a list of celebrity activists including actress Mia Farrow, environmentalist Jane Goodall and Sarah McLachlan showed up Tuesday at GM Place.

The Garage was packed with 16,000 students from about 1,000 schools to beat the drum for young people and their ability to affect change.

The spiritual leader called on teens to carry the world into a more inclusive and peaceful century as the past century left trails of “bloodshed” based on beliefs of “us” versus “them.”

The exiled Tibetan singled out young women in the audience promote peace now that gender and education barriers have largely been erased.

“Now you females should take [a] more active role in every field in a more compassionate way,” he said. “[For] we men, now [the] time has come for more rest.”

Singer McLachlan, who performed two songs to raucous applause, paid close attention to the Dalai Lama's words on motherhood.

“I was racing to get my two kids out the door this morning and I yelled at my seven-year-old because she was picking fights constantly and I just started, you know, I welled up,” she said. “I said, OK, I didn't do it right this morning but tomorrow's another day.”

Dharm Makwana reports for Vancouver 24 hours.