Dalai Lama Advocates Reliance on Compassion

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Emory Wheel
By Roshani Chokshi
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The Dalai Lama takes the stage at Emory University as part of his professorship at the private Atlanta school, Monday, Oct. 18, 2010. The Tibetan spiritual leader is holding a series of events on campus Monday and Tuesday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

In his first visit to Emory University since 2007 in his capacity as presidential distinguished professor, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama spoke with the help of his translator on Sunday morning concerning the levels of compassion needed to address issues plaguing the modern world in his first lecture of his 2010 visit.

The Dalai Lama’s lecture, titled “Teaching To The Buddhist Community,” focused on how to achieve compassion and balance human emotions.

Arrayed in saffron and scarlet robes, Tibetan monks stood in front of the attendees to open the beginning of the event with a prayer. Afterwards, a hushed silence fell over the audience as each of the audience members stood in their seats and began to search anxiously for the Dalai Lama before greeting him with a shower of applause.

A long-time guru of the Dalai Lama was present at the event and sat beside him.

“Fortunately, he does not understand English,” the Dalai Lama confided to the audience with a laugh.

Given the advancement of science and technology in the material world, the Dalai Lama commented on the need to maintain a balance within those achievements.

“These achievements should not become destructive, but should be constructive,” he said. “These things stem from responsibility.”

To aid the evolving maturity and experiences of humanity, the Dalai Lama argued on behalf of a relationship between the economy, physical and mental health and mental stability, and said that each must be approached with compassion.

He differentiated between the emotions of non-human objects such as flowers and leaves to human emotions and said emotional responses play the largest role within the human system.

“Consciousness is definitive and receiving, while fear brings caution, and it is how we defend ourselves,” the Dalai Lama said. “Then there is compassion, and that emotion brings positive feelings. It is a sense of closeness, nice feelings. I think one needs both anger and fear, and the other affection of compassion or love. These are both life, but the dominant force is compassion.”

He added that compassion dominates from the moment of birth because “life starts with affection.” He further emphasized the positive factors of compassion and the negative implications of anger and fear, which he said can affect sleep and damage humans’ health.

“From the birth, the seed of intelligence is sown but we never contain the knowledge, but we make every effort to cultivate it,” the Dalai Lama said. “That means we recognize the potential and necessity of further nurturing.

Our intelligence grows with our effort, and that knowledge itself can internally go with attachment and desire and anger.”

The Dalai Lama cautioned against acute intelligence when accompanied with anger because it can act as a catalyst for aggression and discrimination, while influencing internalized discrimination and exploitation.

With soaring numbers of general population growth, he attributed the increased competition that leads to violence and destruction a consequence of negative emotions.

“Intelligence is very helpful [in the development of] positive emotion, the seed of compassion is already there much like the seed of intelligence is already there, and you need to nurture through awareness,” he said.

The Dalai Lama elaborated on what he sees as two layers of compassion, with the initial being limited and biased and the second level defined as objective and stemming from a reasoning mind aided by intelligence.

He said that education is a form of “analytical meditation,” with the knowledge acting as the benefit. He added that there is a secular way in which people practice the reasoning of awareness.

“One point, at the time of young age we receive immense affection, I think that experience is really absorbed, and it remains there for the rest of our lives. And we see that those children who receive maximum affection, their minds are much healthier and calmer and intelligent. Their body also grows, and that experience remains their whole life,” he said. “In the monastery or the lay people, those who are in their own way affectionate no matter if they are wealthy or poor are very happy.”

The feeling of communal well-being and love is critical to happiness, according the Dalai Lama, who cited studies done with young rhesus monkeys who, upon being separated from their mothers, were more prone to fighting and other forms of aggression.

“In order to build real social animals, you need full trust,” he said. “Therefore, by nature I think every animal appreciates honesty and trust.
That means we are social animals and need trust. Trust comes transparently, we need warm-heartedness. Constant fear is eating our immune system, whereas the more compassionate mind is very helpful to sustaining the immune system.”
In order to practice compassion, the Dalai Lama said must familiarize themselves with this practice and make an effort to incorporate compassion into their everyday lives.

“Positive emotions with reasons are much more stable,” he said. “Without reason it is not necessarily helpful. Reasoning and investigation is very essential, and I think that is the main practice. Those believers on top of that can pray to God.”

­- Contact Roshani Chokshi.