Talk by Dalai Lama

Talk by Dalai Lama

At the start, the Dali Lama was very informal with no notes and humble about his own knowledge and expertise. He noted that prayer and meditation while important, aren't that effective at actually improving the world (referring to the external world I presume). He was also particularly critical of Indian officials who pray in the morning (to Ganesh or Shiva) but during the day are corrupt. He said that it is important to put our moral standards into practice in our day to day lives so that everything we do is reflective of our ethics. He encouraged the young people (most of the audience were students) to help make the work better for the remaining 9 decades of the 21st century as the future belongs to them (he won't be around to see it).

After about an hour of speaking he opened the floor to questions. One question was about changing religion. His answer was that one should not change religions; it is better to stay within your current religion. All religions teach that we should be kind and compassionate to others. I inferred (and have heard in the past) that Buddhism does not directly address God and our relationship to God, but instead tells us how to live our lives for our own betterment and the betterment of others. We can practice Buddhism without being in conflict with our current religion and should do so.

Another student asked if our identity should be based on external factors like our sex, religion, hair color, clothes, etc. or based on who we are, our habtis, likes and dislikes, etc.. The Dalai Lama disagreed and noted that it is not good to base our identity on any of those. He talked about the ego which we use to distinguish and compare ourselves with others and noted that this is unwise, that it simply leads to more misery and suffering. He noted that there is also another kind of ego which is confidence in ourselves, a belief in our own ability and value, and that this form of ego is essential. We really can't begin to change and improve ourselves without this form of self confidence.

Another student asked what should India national government do to promote Buddhism? The Dalai Lama first noted that India has long been supportive of Buddhism and that Tibetan Buddhism was founded on the teachings of great Buddhists from India. He also noted that Buddhism is not really statues and shrines but knowledge. He noted that he has been consulted by the Indian government on how to make Buddhist monuments more accurate and that he had suggested that they include scriptures in various languages to add that dimension to the statues and other edifices. His suggestions were followed and so the India government is already helping to promote Buddhism in a meaningful way by promoting knowledge of Buddhism. He stated that he would like to see more efforrs to increase knowledge of Buddhism and other religions (allowing the government to remain secular, respecting all religious beliefs).

The last question was a written question from a professor. It was asking how to resolve the dilemma that love leads to attachment, love being good and attachment being unwise / harmful. The Dalai Lama answered that there were two sorts of love. There was the biological love which definitely comes with attachment, a preference of one person over another. It is much the same as the biological feelings of hatred we have toward our enemies. He said that we should try to reduce and even eliminate the biological love and hate which causes attachment (and aversion) to select individuals and not others. At the same time we should use training and the practices to develop a different kind of love and compassion that applies to all individuals, both our friends and families as well as our enemies equally. This sort of love does not cause attachment and should be developed.

At the very end (after the formal end of the talk), the Dalai Lama was walking out and Tibetan students who had been permitted to sit on the floor at the very front came forward, some with their katas and the Dalai Lama spoke with them briefly in Tibetan. He mentioned Michael Jackson about five times and made other words of encouragement to them (as reported by a Tibetan student).

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This page was last updated on March 23, 2012