Dalai Lama inspires local community

Avalokitesvara means Compassion. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is recognized by the people of Tibet as the incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion. In the Tibetan tradition, the Dalai Lama is a Bodhisattva, a spiritually enlightened being who postponed his own Buddhahood in order to bring greater understanding to other beings on earth.

The presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on November 17th at Salve Regina University indeed brought greater understanding to our community. I was honored to attend his lecture “A Human Approach to World Peace”. The Dalai Lama exuded a sense of joy and optimism touching an audience of over 3000 people. His talk was a blend of spiritual lessons, personal illustrations, and commentary about the challenges of modern society.

The Dalai Lama certainly has experienced challenges over the course of his lifetime. Despite his efforts toward a peaceful resolution with China, in 1959 he was forced to flee and established the Tibetan government in exile in India. The Dalai Lama has remained steadfast in his commitment to liberate Tibet from China. At the same time, he has worked to preserve Tibetan history and culture through ongoing education programs for Tibetan refugees. In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating peace through non-violence.

During his visit, His Holiness imparted a great spiritual truth that World Peace comes about through external and inner disarmament. The Dalai Lama affirmed the efforts of some countries to disarm especially nuclear weapons and put forth the vision that the whole world should be demilitarized.

The focus of the lecture was on “inner disarmament” which proceeds “external disarmament”. He explained that some emotions are harmful both to other people and to the self. Negative emotions such as hatred, jealousy, and anger destroy inner peace. When we experience those feelings, we are unable to see clearly which leads us to make wrong decisions and to act in damaging ways.

According to the Dalai Lama, we can find inner peace by developing our sense of compassion. Compassion allows us to step back into a wider perspective. When we are self-centered, problems can overwhelm us. When we are able to take a wider view, it becomes clear that our negative emotion is not reality. We are then able to engage in dialogue with others, compromise, and create a peaceful resolution. Compassion is the realization that other people share the same rights. Genuine compassion is a sense of oneness and equality with all living beings.

All people are called to this spiritual work, which transcends the differences of religion and culture. The Dalai Lama emphasized the essential unity of the world’s religions. Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism and Unitarian Universalism share some basic principles that guide human beings to be good. All religious traditions carry a message about the importance of love, compassion, forgiveness, and tolerance. It is important to recognize that despite major differences in concepts of the Divine and the Afterlife, all religions carry an essential message of love.

The Dalai Lama also cited scientific evidence that compassion is good for our health. People who are more self-centered have been shown to have a greater risk of a heart attack whereas people with a more compassionate outlook tend to be happier and healthier.

My prayer is that our community will find ways to embody the message of the Dalai Lama. Each one of us is called to step back into a wider perspective of compassion. We must heed the spiritual and scientific teachings that call upon us to transcend our own desires to see the greater good. This spiritual work begins by acknowledging our own negative emotions and instead of acting from them, remembering that there is a greater truth. All living beings are interdependent. May we find new ways to promote dialogue in our community for to do so is a step toward world peace.