But little bit related to what I'm going to talk today,
even when you do the translation, you need to
see the subject matter which you are going to translate.
In many ways, for example, first
if you're going to translate the book you need to read carefully
the title of the book and the contents and index
of the book before reading anything and get some idea what
may be there in the rest of the book
and then if it is not so clear, you will develop a curiosty
which will help you go much more, you know,
smoothly when you actually read the different chapters.
It's really like if you want to see
the panoramic view of this beautiful land,
one way of seeing it is, seeing from the top of the mountain
or from the aeroplane, which I did,
then you are able to get a very panoramic like view,
but that panoramic view is very beautiful,
but if you
want to know the details that would not work.
You have to get down, go to specific places,
houses, ask questions and know all the details. So a translator first has to
have an idea about this,
how, what this whole book is about, what this whole chapter is about.
then you need to know about the specific chapters,
the specific, you know, paragraphs and so forth.
So that is more or less the art of translation and the beauty of doing
translation is that you are able to
go into the minds, some so many great thinkers
and you try to express those
beautiful thoughts in a different language
where people will also be able to understand those talks
exactly what that author
talked about and you are not supposed to be in between.
You should go away, you know, you do the job and go away from the scene.
And that is not easy, that is not easy because many translators, interpreters
they get in between and then, you know, put their thoughts in between
so that is doing a little bit of damage,
so therefore, the system, one has to be careful.
So similarly in life we need to have a panoramic view,
a view about the whole universe, the whole world
the whole cosmos and then it is not enough that you talk about
universal values, cosmic values and then fight with your neighbours.
You also need to be in harmony with your neighbour,
the members of your family and so forth, so that is why
you know, the process of translation is very much related to the topic that I am
going to speak -
inner disarmament for external disarmament.
I'm speaking on this topic, or trying to speak on this topic, not because
I want to do an intellect, you know academic talk
or something like that but I'm really sometimes concerned
if I think about what is happening in today's world,
despite so much material progress and development
still the leaders
and many people, their bent of mind is how to stop by arms.
Each country
is making more and more dangerous, complicated, sophisticated wars,
you know, weapons, with the thinking and idea if my neighbour does something nasty I
will be the one
who should destroy everything. Yes,
we have now the capacity to destroy everything.
We have all heard about biological warfare,
chemical warfare, smart bombs, what not.
Smart bombs, you throw a bomb, destroy all people,
but the building will be intact. Smart bomb, chemical warfare, you know,
biological warfare. So mean.
That you bring sacks and sacks and throw them into the field of your enemy -
unthinkable, you know.
We have have such destructive, nasty,
mind and we cannot
afford to do this continuously if we are
in the true sense of the term generally
intelligent human beings. We call ourselves
intelligent human beings. We will proudly call this
age, the age of information. Yes
you get lots of information, but
think carefully. Much of this information that you get today
is junk information,
junk mail
and in one of the Buddha's teaching he says, 'Don't make your mind
a garbage bin.'
We cannot afford to do this.
One of the Buddhist teachers says 'life is short',
there are too many things to do
and it is not possible for you to pay attention to everything,
it is not possible for you to learn everything and it is also not necessary
that you learn everything.
You should take those things which are good for you,
which are good for you family, which are good for your society,
which are good for the whole world.
After all, if you think about the meaning of human life -
this is a very, very important question to ask
before you ask any question. What is the meaning of human life
before you explore the stars, the planets.
And today we a very good at talking about the stars, the planets, how they
function.
We have all the details you see, but when there is a tragedy there is a difficulty.
We are dumbfounded, we are not able to solve it.
We have all the ways and means to keep in touch with
external things but we are not in touch with oneself.
There are many people who say I have everything but something is missing.
I feel something is missing from me. I feel some,
you know, emptiness, hollowness inside.
This is true because you never keep in touch with your self,
because you never replenished your internal resources, you have
never strengthened your internal resources.
That is why despite having everything,
you feel empty, you feel lonely
you feel dependent on others all the time.
The problem of modern society is that we neither know
how to live with others nor we know how to live alone.
That is the problem.
On almost each and every occasion when I speak to the people
I ask a very simple, direct question.
'Do you all want happiness?'
I'm asking the same question to you. Do you all want happiness?
Everybody says yes, except one
or two maybe bit different reasons or maybe extremely clever or whatever.
But everybody says yes, we all want happiness.
For how many day? I ask the next question.
You want happiness but for how many days?
They all laugh. They all laugh
because
as far as the question of getting happiness and peace is concerned
it is not a question of experiencing it just for a few months, a few days.
At least for this whole life you want that reliable peace and happiness
and if you are a believer in the future lives like the Buddhist
and other
spiritual traditions, then you need to plan in such a way
that you have that peace and happiness for many lives to come.
You need to have this master plan.
Should this wish to have happiness,
rather reliable long lasting happiness
and the wish not to have any suffering and any problem at all
this is something, this is not something that we learn from our religious
traditions.
This is our inborn art.
This is something that we all, no matter from which country you come from,
which religion you belong to, man and woman, doesn't really matter, whatever is
your affiliation,
we are all the same in that. First of all
understand this message, this basic reality.
Another question that I repeatedly ask people is,
After the birth, what is the first job that the child does after the
birth?
The first job that the child does after the birth is not laughing,
crying against him.
The first thing that the child does is crying - American child, Tibetan child, Chinese child.
Whoever, same, interesting. Isn't that interesting?
Crying, believe me that
when the child cries I am
hundred percent sure that the child is not asking for a lengthy discourse on Buddhism
or on any religion.
The child is simply asking for mother's milk which means
somebody's unconditional love and affection.
When I talk about internal disarmament
it's the only dimension. We have so many threats,
stockpiling of arms, external
weapons, arms, nuclear bombs so forth.
How can we reduce this stockpiling of arms and do away with them?
We can do that only if we become a good human being
with unconditional love for others.
Understanding that basic reality.
This is how we all came into this world
and on the day
when we leave this world
at that time also your main concern is, I am sure, in the case of the majority of the
people,
your main concern is not money, not wealth,
not name, not fame. There is so much in between,
we do so much, we
in between, but at the time of
our death or passing away,
or when we are sick, when we are dying,
when we are lonely, the one thing that you really,
really need is again somebody's genuine love and
affection.
This being the case, His Holiness the Dalai Lama repeatedly says this being the case,
how come you forget these qualities
in between when you are able to take care of yourself,
when you are a little bit energetic, when you have some money,
some friends, and so forth. You should not forget this.
Of course related to this,
all this sounds good, but he will say oh this is true but you know,
if we are without arms then the country on the other side who is nasty, who is addicted,
they will do all the things, they will destroy all of us,
the good people. You know all these questions will be there, but if we had time we can
discuss more about those things.
But then all I'm saying is, that is not the solution.
Killing each other is not the solution.
Tibetan Masters teach their students by saying you don't have to kill people,
they will die.
So, you can see how intelligent we are.
We harass people,
we create more suffering on other people as if
these people are looking for suffering. They are in need of suffering,
so you create suffering.
They already have a lot of suffering, a lot of problems
so you don't have to create more additional suffering
when they are already suffering, when they already have problems.
You don't have to kill people because they will die.
And then look at this reality. How long are you going to live?
and bring this short span of life of your visit on this planet.
Which one is good to be constructive,
to be kind, to be helpful
or to be destructive, negative?
As as a result others will suffer, you will suffer
and we know this.
Someone with the wisdom said that when you came,
as I said earlier, when you came into this world,
you came crying, other people received you
laughing and smiling. Happy birthday or whatever.
So therefore you should live your life in such a way that when you leave this
world
you will leave others crying, you will go smiling and laughing
because you did your job. You lived beautifully.
And it's in our nature. You know, I had this privilege of,
you know, meeting so many people from all over the world, people basically
ordinary people. Most of the people their hearts are so kind.
On any small occasion or big ocassion when there is really a need
it's the ordinary people who come for you. There's no need for
you to know each other or introduce each other, you know.
And that is beautiful and that is what it should be
because at the time of tragedy and difficulty the only thing that will help
all of us
is to show our love, to show our compassion.
And I have seen this many times. I am sure you have seen this many times.
For example when you take a flight,
the weather is clear, the flight is smooth
and everybody pretends that I am also somebody.
Yeah, you're also somebody.
At the most you'll say hi. Not much.
Okay you take your seat, I'll take my seat.
Everybody sits dignified, looks well.
Now I'm saying this is the situation when the
flight is smooth. After some time there is turbulence,
or rather big turbulence. Everybody looks at each other and starts smiling.
That is the thing when you first experience difficulties,
then what helps you in you're strength, your happiness, your
harmony is other people's smile.
Genuine friendship, not pretension,
not arrogance, not pride.
I see this reality on so many occassions.
Unfortunately people forget all these things when they are slightly
better off.
They forget all these inner values, spiritual values.
I'm not even talking so much about religion, I'm talking about in the
religious and spiritual values
which are necessary for all of us, believer
or not-believer, even those who are against religion,
all of us, universal values fundamental good human values,
without which we cannot survive, we cannot survive.
So nurturing, preserving and protecting
these inner values is a necessity,
not a luxury, not a luxury, necessary, without which
you cannot survive, or you cannot have a happy harmonious life.
Look at this world, almost everybody's
expecting their peace and happiness from outside
through sensual gratification.
You satisfy your senses. Eye, ear,
so on, forget about yourself, you just go out
be dependent on your husband, you wife, your children,
the car, the house, the money, just go after this.
The government also just thinks about this,
forget about all the ethical values, norms,
you just do your business with the dictatorial country,
whatever, so long as the money's coming,
you don't worry about these ethical values.
The end result will be sooner or later -
your people, including yourself
will start suffering.
I'm a Tibetan refuge.
I thank the Australian government and the Australians
hosting some of our Tibetan brothers and sisters, although not a big number but
still in Australia I really thank all of you.
So the first thing when they landed in Sydney
was visiting a homeless
area. So many people
homeless, drug addiction
now if this, the homeless situation and
situation of drug addiction is there
among the refuges,
little bit understandable
but when so many people are suffering from homelessness or drug addiction or what not
suffering in a so-called independent,
not only independently developed country,
what is the cause of this problem?
Can you just solve this by just giving somebody some many?
Is this the way to solve the problem?
Lots, lots to think about this problem
and I for one would say that such,
such kinds of problems mostly to do
with forgetting
loving kindness to others, forgetting
the basic human values.
Each and everyone thinks, oh I can manage
so long as you're not sick,
I can manage. I don't care what is happening there.
You don't come with an education system where these values are taught.
In all the education, most of the education systems, they talk about how to earn money.
There's the problem. And the good news is
that we have today all agreed that we all want happiness.
I mean you expressed that that was there with you long time, but you
expressed publicly
that you all want happiness, long-lasting reliable happiness.
Now if that is generally the case,
not then from today onwards, I'm sure many of you are also doing,
and in fact when I give such a talk, I sometimes say to people
that I feel embarrassed to say anything in front of you because those people who
come to
such talks are already good people,
so it's almost like preaching to the converts. You're already good people, but
it's good
that the good people come together. It's not that I'm saying something and you for first time
are learning. No, no that's not the case.
You already know and know much more than I know,
but what is important is that we discuss,
listen and talk about these things so that we don't forget these things
in our daily life. In our daily life we forget these values
then we land into problems, land into difficulties.
And sometimes I even have to go to the extent of saying that even if your
concern is money
and health, you will get lots of money
and lot of health, if you observe these ethical values.
You save a lot of money. If you don't follow these
ethical values, become a drug addict
or whatever and you have a little bit of money, you throw everything like that and you
ruin your health, everything, because you don't have that system
of ethical values. If you have ethical values
you sleep at the right time, for sleep, you do the right thing at the right time,
you smile, you do your exercises, you're peaceful.
Even in terms of your health and wealth,
as we say, if wealth is lost, then nothing is lost, if health is lost, everything is lost.
And the health means not physical exercise only, unfortunately again,
in more developed countries people are suppose to be very health conscious
and for that matter they do a lot of exercise, running every day, in the
morning or jogging and exercising and stretching and pulling their muscles and
whatever,
but they don't do any exercise of the mind.
There's the tragedy. You feed it with only those things that you can see.
but you completely ignore the real power, the real energy,
which is controlling your whole life - the mind is your boss.
It is important that you elect you president, you elect your prime minister
a good president, a good prime minister, very good.
At the time be very careful about that, but what is even more
important is
first you elect your own leader, a good leader
and electing that leader you don't have to depend on others
you judge yourself whether your mind is predominantly controlled by greed
or contentment or anger or patience,
you just do total research, is your mind predominantly controlled by loving kindness,
compassion,
wisdom,forgiveness, then you've chosen a good leader.
Wherever you go you will be fine and that is not to say that you will not
encounter problems and difficulties
but what I'm saying is when your mental outlook and attitude is fine,
even when there is a tragedy, even when there is suffering,
there will be no suffering even when there is suffering, there is no suffering.
It looks like paradoxical but what I'm trying to say is
suffering and happiness is very much related to your mental outlook
and much of the so-called sufferings that we are experiencing today are
our own creations.
Sixty, seventy percent of the so-called sufferings are not even sufferings.
It is your mental creation and you thought that this is wrong, this is problem
and unnecessarily you are suffering and so you can change your attitude,
sixty-seventy percent of your suffering will be gone like this.
Isn't that good news?
Having removed sixty - seventy percent of suffering, there may be another
twenty,
let us say, twenty percent suffering still there but if you look closely
on those sufferings, you will again find, yes, these are really sufferings,
but they are changeable sufferings.
So instead of sitting there and complaining
you get up and do things you can change it.
You can remove those twenty percent of sufferings also, so what is left is
around ten percent of sufferings also and those ten percent sufferings and those kind
of sufferings
which are deep rooted sufferings or unchangable suffering,
so why should you care about it, go hell with you. I'll do something else.
That is how you can make your life happy,
by changing your mental outlook because the problem we are facing today
is that we have this tendency to focus on small problems,
and difficulties and completely get bogged down with that.
Oh my goodness, I have this problem, I have this difficulty.
Out of all the people in the world, I am the most unfortunate.
Your mind is making it up.
So then whenever you encounter some problems, some difficulty, just don't
sit
and think about it alone, but think about other people.
There are millions of people who are much much
less privileged than you, less fortunate than you and sometimes
I ask people, you know you are really fortunate people
you have many things you must be happy, appreciate that
and people immediately measure that in terms of money,
what do I have to be proud, to be,
you know, happy. I tell them do you have both
eyes intact? Yes. Do you have both hands intact?
Yes. Both the legs intact? Yes. So
here you are. Have you appreciated that you have all these things intact?
There are millions of people who have
lost their arms, lost their legs, lost their eyes.
Still they wish if I had both eyes intact
I can do this, I can do that. I have both hands intact.
I can do this, I can do that. You have these and you're not appreciating,
therefore you're not doing
what you should be doing. So all I'm saying
to make this a long story short, without wasting your time, all I'm saying is
if we are to make this world harmonious and peaceful
there is no other method, no international treaty,
UN agreement can solve this problem as we've seen
over the last many centuries, the solution is to come
from each one of us, each one of us
must make our small contribution to make a difference, to make everything
beautiful. So therefore what you need to do is
know this is a Buddhist kind of meaning of
ethics, morality or observance of
ethics or discipline on morality or whatever term you want to use, you
can use it, but basically
proper ethics according to Buddhism means
three things, do not harm others,
extremely important
ethical value. So also having discipline doesn't mean that
you always have some set of rules and regulations
imposed upon you by some external force. Ethical discipline from this viewpoint
is number one don't harm others. If you do that, you're wonderful.
Imagine if nobody harms each other.
This world is almost already
like a heaven. Imagine
that everybody is peaceful and happy and you do not have to have any fear.
Nobody harms each other and this is important.
Many people ask me how, to make a long story short, how
should I practice it?
Then the Buddhist teaching is that you should practice in such a way that you
should
always yourself be the example and do onto others what you want others
to do to you and don't do to others
what you don't want others to do to you. Very simple.
You want others to harm you. No.
So don't harm others.
So don't harm others. Second not harming others is
very very important, but
that's not enough. You should also do many good things.
Not harming others is also one good thing,
but in addition to that issue do many good things, helping others.
The second ethics,
in order to do all this
why are you not harming others, why are you helping others?
Because you want to serve to make others happy, peaceful, so therefore serving others.
There's the third, not harming
and collecting good qualities
and then helping others. These said are basically
the meaning of the fundamental
ethical values. So you can try to observe these values.
That is called inner disarmament
because normally when somebody
harasses you or does something wrong you immediately get angry,
you armour yourself with anger, thinking that anger is the response,
violence is the response for that
but in the long run, that is not the solution
and its also against human nature
because this and nobody
who is in senses
will choose getting angry as a good thing.
There's nobody who right in the morning makes a motivation
and thinks that today I will really get angry.
There is nobody. That means people don't like it.
And then somehow in the day because of the situation, because of the coworkers
you might get upset, you might fight, you might get angry,
but in the close of the day, the end of the day, there's nobody who again will see
that I got very angry today therefore I really enjoyed the day.
There's nobody. So this clearly shows
that anger is not good. And anger makes you ugly.
This nobody wants to become ugly,
whether you are man or women, we make sure that we dress properly,
use some cosmetics, you know, whatever,
put on some golden rings, things like that to make oneself presentable.
But having done all this,
ostentatious decorations you get angry and see
how beautiful you are and then you get angry, your eyes almost become like snake eyes.
Wrinkles appear on your forehead,
eyes become blood shot, your breathing becomes difficult,
your blood pressure increases, one hundred thousand things,
destructive things arise. It's not just Buddhist has a saying,
scientists have tested and proved this is true.
And you all know, you are all experienced in that, easy.
What a mess we create when we are angry so this is just one example
of this,
the destructiveness of negative emotions -
anger, jealousy, negative competition,
judgement,
greed. Mahatma Gandhi said
there is enough for everybody's need, but not enough for everybody's greed.
Today we are destroying the whole planet
in the name of progress and development and we don't,
sometimes I am dumbfounded, I'm stupid because of that maybe I'm not
knowing the meaning of development and progress.
We are destroying the whole planet and its equilibrium
and we are saying, we are a very developed country.
If there is many high rise buildings and in between some shiny roads,
we say, wow, a big city, highly developed country, not knowing
that many people in those high rise building are suffering from loneliness,
have lost interest, depression. Loneliness, can you imagine?
Somebody living in a place where there are twenty, thirty millions of people living
together
and there is somebody suffering from loneliness. Imagine.
Very often some of my western friends have asked me
some of these meditators who
stay high in the mountains, don't they feel loneliness?
I told them no, no, no, they don't feel loneliness because
physically they are in the mountains
but mentally they are with all sentient beings.
Their full of friends and relatives down in the plane, you know,
but in our case physically we live with millions of people,
mentally, individualism, egoism,
selfishness, therefore we suffer.
So what I'm saying may not be completely true but there is an element
of truth there so give some thought to this.
So therefore the real road to happiness,
satisfaction, peace is within oneself,
not outside. This is a bitter truth that we all need to learn
and at end of the day,
it will be you who has to look after oneself,
not your leaders, not even your husband and wife however nice they may be.
It is not possible, that is the rule of the game. That is the truth, that is the law
of nature.
Even your best friends' relatives, husbands, wives,
however loving, however good they are they cannot
enter into the head quarters of your mind and think for you
and make you happy. They can only from outside give you some consolation, some support,
things like that.
But if your mind is disturbed the whole world is disturbed, so no-one can help you.
Very difficult. So therefore
that's why I like this exploration, you know when you meet somebody
and you depart and they say bye, take care.
Nobody says bye I will take care of you.
You see even on a very ordinary level, we do have some inkling or understanding of
this,
but we don't, you know,
give deep thought to this important thing
and take care of oneself and the Buddha has very clearly said
self is the protector of the self, no one else is your protector.
Self is the enemy of the self, no one else is the enemy.
Self is the enemy when somebody harms you,
harasses you, or cheats you. You feel miserable.
Oh my beloved friend has cheated me, left me alone.
When somebody cheats you, you feel miserable, lonely and complain.
but when you cheat yourself, it's okay. How many times?
A hundred times you did yourself by not doing the right thing,
by going in the wrong direction, that is cheating.
So if you really want others to not cheat you, first stop cheating yourself.
One of the Buddhist teaching says there is nobody who will catch hold of your hand and
throw it into heaven.
God also can't do this, Buddha also can't do this
and there is nobody who will get hold of your leg and drag you into
hell.
Your peace, your happiness is in your hand.
Do not me cheat yourself. Do not deceive yourself.
So in this way, if you start reflecting on this, beautiful,
wonderful inner potential and start strengthening
this inner potential. Wisdom, compassion, loving kindness -
these in Buddhism, these are said to be the most
costly, precious wealth, not the external material accumulations.
The external material accumulations can be destroyed by water, destroyed by
fire,
stolen by thieves, burglars and so on, but these internal qualities
of love, of strength, of patience of compassion,
wherever you go, they are with you.
You'll be able to solve your problems, problems of the society, of the community,
of the world and so forth.
This is how we should make our country rich, our society rich.
Where everybody's able to ... Look at the small kids. If you know that the small
kids who are so pure, so innocent.
They don't need much, just throw some simple toys,
they can spend the whole day
full of laughter, greatest laughter.
And if there is a misunderstanding between the the two small kids they will fight over
it,
after two minutes again
playing together. Now look at
the grown ups like us.
We are very calculating, the innocence is not there, the purity is not there.
If somebody
says something you keep it deep down in your heart, okay wait,
I'll see you in the corner, kind of thing, you see.
So therefore we should ... of course we are ordinary human beings we are not enlightened beings,
we make mistakes.
That's okay, but we call the mistakes as mistakes.
If there is some argument, so fight, okay, it happens.
The next time after that fight, after the disagreement,
go, have the courage to go touch the hand
and shake their hand and say I'm sorry. We have been such wonderful friends for so many years
but today
unfortunately this thing happened, you know, that is the end of the story.
Your friendship becomes stronger.
Now how many of us can do that? If we do that we say oh,
they went there and
asked for forgiveness so he must have done something wrong
and you also think or other people think he's the loser.
This is our attitude, you see.
So the inner disarmament in a way
is to understand this inner disturbing negative emotions as the
real enemy.
Deal with it for your own peace and happiness and for the peace of the world
and if our society, our community of people
are able to embrace these qualities, cultivate these qualities
we will be able to improve our vibration,
through which we will be able to elect leaders who also have
similar qualities.
But if we just completely forget all this and give the
idea or impression that all we want is money,
the leaders are very good at manipulating it. Okay, all you want is money.
Okay build a casino, build big Malls, that's all you want.
Get distracted, just like
an educated or small child.
Create all these gadgets so that you get completely distracted.
So therefore,
I will stop here and
I'm giving a lot hints.
What is important is to really think about it and
make our journey on this planet meaningful.
Each and every day bring happiness in the mind of others.
If you do that it is a natural law, it is in
our blood. You have given a
helping hand, given a gentle smile.
You didn't get anything from that person, you get a gentle smile,
they give you deep deep satisfaction.
On the other hand if you cheat and exploit others you
might get a lot of money, but deep down you feel unstable.
Oh, I've cheated this, he might have known it
and at least your conscience knows it. Easy.
Happiness means deep down satisfaction
and that deep down satisfaction will come from a life
which is free from duplicity.
Therefore I think it is extremely important for all of us to
take our baby steps and make the effort
to dismantle, reduce all this
awful destructive weapons
each and every country is doing. That is not an easy thing,
but I think there is no other way if we are to
survive and remain happy and healthy.
Thank you.
...
We have two microphones at the top there. We have time for questions
so please put up your hands if you would like to ask a question and
a mike will come to you very quickly. Thank you very much for that.
My question, I'm up here.
My question is actually about
How do you deal with passive aggression?
...
That the problem is that you can appear to be really compassionate and loving
and kind
but really it gets, it can come from a place of
hiding the aggression and resentment and fear even.
You can live you whole life like that.
So it becomes a tricky problem then. I know.
There's the problem you see.
If you don't nurture these qualities
on a large-scale right from the beginning then when
these kinds of aggressive limits come up, number one
this aggressive limit come up because you have not prepared the
people right from the beginning. Easy, so there is no
quick-fix solution for this kind of thing. Education, through mass
education should nurture,
cultivate our children in such as way that number one
such elements do not pop up. It can be done
or at least it can definitely be minimized because the young children
can be led into any direction. It is the responsibility of us the
grown ups.
They are like ..., you know, you shape them in any way.
They are very intelligent and insensitive so it depends what kind of
environment are we giving to them, what kind of education are we giving to them so
the first,
the most important thing is try to give that
education right from the beginning so that we don't see such elements.
That's why like many of these
difficult situation between Iraq and
Afghanistan, in so many places. Sometimes
people come to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and ask him
His Holiness what role you want to play. This is the problem.
What can you do? He only says, nothing I can do. All these things should have been
thought much
earlier before the conflict took place and once there is a conflict and
fire
and hundreds have been killed on each side then it is not easy.
Then it is not easy. His Holiness the Dalai Lama also sometimes gives
more practical advice also.
He says if a mad dog is chasing you to bite you
it is sensible to run away
rather than sitting there saying, 'oh I'm practicing patience and compassion.'
If you do that, the dog will bite you.
So the sensible thing is you run. Okay.
And then if you're somebody who
is really trained well, even if it is not a dog, but somebody with a gun
and then of course you cannot say, 'don't shoot I'm practicing love and kindness.'
It may work in some cases, it did work in some cases, in American
in some places there are stories of people who really stood
firm and look at my eyes, I did nothing wrong to you,
you know, then they stop. That happens but in many cases,
the crazy people with gun, they just shoot, you know.
So if you also have a gun, there is a possibility you snitch the gun
and shoot back, probably
in the leg or something, not to kill that person.
This needs a lot of training, but what I'm saying is
the most important thing is
general education and then
through the practice of love and compassion because many people think
loving kindness and compassion are signs of weakness.
No, they are
signs of strength. If you use a gun,
you don't need any strength, a bullet will do the job.
So that is actually weakness.
So whatever be the case,
several ways of thinking in that line
and then on a higher level there are people who even say,
okay, even if they kill me, I will not fight back.
Let them kill me. There is death to my body,
but not to my mind. The Tibetans, you can't believe it, the Tibetans are doing this
right now in China.
One hundred and thirty killed themselves
by dousing themselves with fire
things like that.
without doing any damage
to the torturers. Can you imagine? This is
happening today.
So it is possible, it is possible.
So what all I'm saying is that at the end of the day, violence is not the solution.
So what is the matter? How to stop it? There are so many
things to discuss about, but violence is not the solution.
So the main question is by which human rights
value to the increasing one population
would be better to support compassionate and considered awareness
to help and better understand His Holiness the Dalai
Lama's ongoing purpose for continuous religious
autonomy and to provide the city for the Tibetan people. His Holiness is
not just asking for religious autonomy he is just
asking for general autonomy, not religious or anything, general
autonomy for the Tibetan people
because his Holiness had foresight and wisdom
despite all the unfortunate happenings with the Chinese
government, His holiness has always
asked the Tibetans that violence is not the solution.
Let us have negotiation, let us have dialogue.
And he thinks that is the human way, there is a problem then we should
solve the problem through discussion and dialogue,
not through using force. This is the
basic fundamental belief. So therefore he
has said let us not talk about the history.
Leave the history to the historians. Whether Tibet is an independent country or
not,
leave that historical part to the historians.
What is important is the future,
to the people are talking about globalization.
Look at the whole Eastern European countries,
they have changed to become democratically free.
Look at the relation between France and Germany,
which used to be sworn enemies. Now today
the European Union, things are changing, so therefore what is important is
the future
and Tibetans and Chinese live side by side.
That geographical border
cannot be shifted to another planet.
We need to live side by side. This being the case, if we solved the problem through
negotiation and dialogue, then we can live side by side peacefully.
If you tried to solve these problems through guns, through power,
which unfortunately the Chinese government is doing today, then you may be able to
solve the problem today,
but not tomorrow, not next year.
That's not the solution because violence breeds
counter-violence, so therefore His Holiness the Dalai Lama
said for the last more than fifty years
continuously sticking onto this
path of non-violence and compassion, so many people had died and sacrifice
their lives
without resorting to violence,
so therefore the
path of non-violence is what is needed.
not only in the case of Tibet but throughout the whole world.
Non-violence is not just the absence of violence.
Non-violence is not pessimism,
it is dynamic, it is a dynamic force.
Non-violence is best, an active practice and compassion,
feeling for others' well being, so that is what is needed
in solving the Tibetan situation and also solving the problems
that have been everywhere on any level.
I was just a little bit curious
if you were born into being a monk or it was something you
sought out yourself.
Nobody is born as a monk. No, no, no.
Everybody choose but in my case, it is difficult for me to say
I have chosen it because in Tibet
materially not developed,
spiritually highly developed, especially more than ninety-eight percent
follow Buddhism. So therefore Buddhism was the only thing that everybody
admired and appreciated and the parents encouraged.
You know you should become a monk, little sons and
daughters, oh you become a monk, you become a nun, and you see.
So some western writers they say ten percent of the Tibetan
population are monks and nuns.
That may not be true but there are many monks and nuns.
There is this encouragement. There is this environment so people prefer to
become,
you know, so that is primarily because of the situation you
cannot see that
you've chosen it because you aren't you, you are too young. I also become a monk when
I was very young,
but believe me, I'm not regretting it.
Thank you. Thank you so much Geshe Lhakdo.
Your talk today is a real timely reminder
to us all here that piecework is personal.
I come from the perspective of an international lawyer by training
and as we know international law deals with the united nations
and for too long now we have left the idea of peace work
to countries and look at what has become
of the world today and I think increasingly
we now need to realise achieving peace, keeping peace,
maintaining peace is actually a personal
endeavor. And Geshe you mentioned too
that we are now in an age of information where
everybody is connected. Unfortunately
we all know too well that there's a lot of connectivity,
but very little connectedness amongst human beings.
Those of us with teenage children would know
their euphoria when they say I have one thousand friends on Facebook,
but come Saturday, they are locked up in their room. They can't find someone to go
out
for a meal with. So that is the state of loneliness
that I think I Geshe has alerted us to.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has often said that people
in our lives who push our buttons are the ones we need to be grateful for.
They are our greatest teaches. They should be our treasure.
And on that note indeed, it reflects precisely
what Geshe has been talking to us today and that is the idea of
inner disarmament for external disarmament.
Human beings for too long now have focused
on the conquest of outer space when in fact
it should be inner space that we turn to. So thank you very much once again
for your most enlightening talk and on behalf of the Center for Peace and
Social Justice
and the University we would like to show appreciation
with Baden presenting our small token
to Geshe.
I would also like to
give my thanks very much for Geshe Lhakdo
and his speech today. Through this semester
my students have been struggling with the question of how to think for ourselves
as we face the very complexities of
the world and the problems that are
thrown at us. The definition of the word problem in fact means to have something
thrown at you and you have to
catch it and deal with it and I think that
it's so true from
what we heard today that the most important thing is
with education and educating ourselves
to understand how to meet those complexities
in the world, how to become culturally sensitive,
culturally intelligent from a humanities point of view.
I would like to formally thank
Geshe Lhakdo for coming today to Lismore, to Southern Cross
University.
The vice-chancellor unfortunately couldn't be here. He was very
happy to host this event
and it's with his support that we've been able to have his marvelous
gathering today. It's wonderful to actually have students from various
high schools from the region. So I acknowledge and respect the fact that
you've come here
to partake and listen to
a very distinguished visitor to the region and thank you for those of you
who have come from
far and wide to Lismore today.
Thank you very much for coming from the Centre for Peace and Social Justice at Southern
Cross University.
I we wish you well. Thank you.