Dear Friends,
Recently a friend of mine,
Jeanette Amen attended a talk given San Diego State University. The most precious guest speaker was the Dalai Lama.
The focus of his talk was Compassion.
Thanks to Jeanette, I am able to provide a series of concepts from this
wonderful talk. Thanks Jeanette!
“There are 7 billion people
on the planet,” he said.
“Compassion comes from the
mind and emotion of all of us. There are 2 kinds of emotion:
Fear and anger lead
to destructive emotion.
Love and compassion
lead to constructive emotion.
We survive by our mother’s
care; the seed of compassion is in all of us. Fear & anger in small
children is very bad.”
Perhaps what His
Holiness was trying to convey was that we must all work to cultivate that seed
of compassion in our children by our own deeds and words.
“A very important rule: At
death or illness the most important factor is being surrounded by family and/or
friends, not money, not being physically perfect, not possessions.”
“Compassion is the most
important part of life.”
To be happy think in terms of
togetherness: your life is my life; your health is my health.”
“Mental worry causes alcohol,
drug, and eating problems. Physical comfort can’t subdue mental pain. But
mental effort can subdue physical pain. Mental pain is from worry &
loneliness. The mental level of experience is more important and more serious
than any other.”
“The new ‘cancer’ is the
corruption and injustice around the world today. Ultimately we need self-
discipline.”
“Religion makes us very
narrow. We need another approach
not based on religion.” [AMEN!!]
Secularism will solve problems universally – not out of disrespect for
religion, but in respect for believers and non-believers.”
“As children grow they get
socialized and they start to think: if I make this friendship how much will I
get. This fosters jealousy and extreme competition. Competition is good,
extreme competition is bad.”
“We have 2 egos:
1.
One builds
strength, courage, a strong sense of self, and compassion
2.
One builds
desire, attachment, self-focus and is destructive
One being can rob the sense
of self of another being.”
“Anger:
1.
Anger out of ill
feeling is bad.
2.
Anger out of [injustice?] is fine.”
“If there is maximum
affection from our mother when we are a child, then when we are grown up, then
throughout our life we will have trust and affection of others. If there is no
affection from our mother, then our whole life we will feel unsafe, insecure,
suspicious and jealous.”
“A healthy mind causes a
healthy body, when we come with open warm-heartedness as our attitude. Jealousy
and fear are caused by our human interaction with our mortal brothers &
sisters. This is not the same fear as fear of death, which is there to protect
us [and cause to think before we act.] When you open your heart you can see the
other parts of life and it reduces anxiety. When you are suspicious it leads to
distrust.”
“When he wakes up the first
thing the Dali Lama decides to think about is Buddha and altruism, then the
whole day he thinks of dedicating his mind and spirit to it.”
“We can change by doing this
practice daily, monthly, and yearly. This is a centuries old concept:
THINK
MAKE EFFORT”
“If you THINK ‘you are a part
of me’ you create togetherness.
If you Think ‘you are
different’ you will create distance and problems.”
“THINK: Create inner peace to create family
then…
MAKE EFFORT: to create a better world.”
See part 2 next week
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