Sheila and I went to the UNI campus yesterday to see the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. It was quite an amazing experience, and his message of non-violence, the promotion of secular ethics, and compassion and kindness towards all people is in my opinion undeniable.
I would encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read about this man. UNI has a nice link with some basic information here, you can go to his website here, or I'm sure you can get a truckload of information about him from the normal world wide web (thank you Al Gore) searches like Google and Wikipedia. I've included below his three main commitments. Sheila and I discussed on the way home yesterday what his message said to us about how we live and what we hold dear to us. I look forward to using this experience to continue to attempt to be a better husband, father, friend, and person.
(Sorry for the grainy picture, we were a ways away and this is the best my camera phone could do!)
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Three Main Commitments
His Holiness has three main commitments in life.
Firstly, on the level of a human being, His Holiness’ first commitment is the promotion of human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline. All human beings are the same. We all want happiness and do not want suffering. Even people who do not believe in religion recognize the importance of these human values in making their life happier. His Holiness refers to these human values as secular ethics. He remains committed to talk about the importance of these human values and share them with everyone he meets.
Secondly, on the level of a religious practitioner, His Holiness’ second commitment is the promotion of religious harmony and understanding among the world’s major religious traditions. Despite philosophical differences, all major world religions have the same potential to create good human beings. It is therefore important for all religious traditions to respect one another and recognize the value of each other’s respective traditions. As far as one truth, one religion is concerned, this is relevant on an individual level. However, for the community at large, several truths, several religions are necessary.
Thirdly, His Holiness is a Tibetan and carries the name of the ‘Dalai Lama’. Tibetans place their trust in him. Therefore, his third commitment is to the Tibetan issue. His Holiness’ has a responsibility to act as the free spokesperson of the Tibetans in their struggle for justice. As far as this third commitment is concerned, it will cease to exist once a mutually beneficial solution is reached between the Tibetans and Chinese.
However, His Holiness will carry on with the first two commitments till his last breath.
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