Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A Visit from the Dalai Lama

Yesterday, I watched a portion of an address by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.  I'm sure any readers can tell by the way I have introduced him in this post, that, though this is the first time I have heard him speak, I have great respect for him.  The Dalai Lama came to the McFarlin Auditorium at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas to address the people, especially the students, of the community.  Fortunately for me, the library has a room in which the live broadcast was being screened.

I walked in when the Dalai Lama was talking about reality.  Since I watched it live, and have no way of checking his words, I will be paraphrasing.  He was saying that it is necessary to see reality, and that strong emotions block your view of reality.  This is why, he continued, all religions call for love, compassion, and warm-heartedness.  When a person has these characteristics, he is not blinded by anger, fear, jealousy or some sort of feeling of self-righteousness.  There is no feeling of dividing people into us and them, and that we must win.  You come to love all, and obtain peace.

The Dalai Lama quickly then addressed secularism.  He insisted that secularism does not mean some sort of disrespect for religion, or distancing yourself from religion.  Instead, he reminded us that it was about having no preference for one religion over another, and respecting all of them, even atheism.  India, it seems, has had secular governments for a few millennia, even if the rulers practiced their own religions.  His Holiness, for this reason, urged that the concepts for focusing on reality are not religious, but more spiritual in general; they are common and beneficial for all mankind.  Man, he insists, is a social animal, and when their is no love, there is no trust.  Trust is necessary for friendship, and it is at the opposite end of fear.  Love and trust can allow us to overcome our fears.

I agree.  It is common amongst cultures to have moral stories about the dangers of losing control of emotions. When someone does something stupid out of love, it is out of selfish love, out of a sense of possession.  The stronger you are, the more people you love, the more people you include in your circle, the less likely you are to lose control of yourself.  The Dalai Lama was addressing an issue of civility.  Stephen Carter in his book Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy defines civility as "the set of sacrifices we make for the sake of our common journey with others, and out of love and respect for the very idea that there are others... we accept and value them as every bit our equals..." (23).  This is important.  In our secular country, in which differences in opinions are highly valued, it is important to not get carried away in our fervor.   We must not see those who have different values as being crazy people, or evil people, because this would stop the dialogue, and let our antagonism fester.  Instead, we must control ourselves, promote good emotions, be big-hearted, and remain connected to reality.

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Edit: The Dalai Lama's speech at SMU is now up on the SMU website.  Go ahead and check it out.  There was a lot I missed, that I'm sure the rest is as good as the parts I saw.

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