the dalai lama

i’ve done a few interesting things lately, but i’ll split them up into separate posts.

two weeks ago, marty and i attended a lecture given by the dalai lama, religious leader of tibetan buddhism, at the assembly hall. the dalai lama received the nobel peace prize in 1989 for his persistent message of compassion towards tibet’s greatest threat, china. shortly after WWII, china invaded neighboring tibet, bombing almost 2,000 monestaries, and sent the teenaged dalai lama into exile for the next 60 years. today tibet is included in china’s borders, comprising 1/3 of its land.

at this lecture, the dalai lama gave an unscripted speech about the source of compassion in all people. he believes that anyone who had a mother or caregiver that provided love and affection knows how to be compassionate. he used various philosophical arguments to support this idea as well as scientific research demonstrating that the more a baby is touched and held, the better its neurological development will be. and he makes the jump, the better that person will understand compassion. this combination of science and philosophy is common to the dalai lama’s logic, and i think it’s an interesting way to spread his peaceful message.

recently the chinese government has stated it intends to approve the selection of the next dalai lama (when this dalai lama passes away, tibetan buddists will seek out his reincarnation to be the next dalai lama). from anyone else, i would expect a reaction of outrage and injustice. but the dalai lama calmly explains that it makes no sense for china to select the next dalai lama because as a communist country, by definition their government is not interested in religious practices. he also says that the institution of dalai lama does not absolutely have to continue. if it will prevent conflict, they can simply abstain from selecting a 15th dalai lama altogether.

i am so struck by the logic in his peaceful message and by the conversely illogical nature of hateful messages spread by our president and his allies. i took from this lecture the conclusion that hate of any form can never be justified logically.