“Change in the world comes from individuals, from the inner peace in individual hearts. Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.” ~Dalai Lama
Who doesn’t love the Dalai Lama and his message of peace and love? The Dalai Lama was just in Portland, Oregon over the weekend and drew huge crowds. Most of the events were sold out well in advance but there are recordings of his talks online at: Dalai Lama In Portland. Most of his talks were about the caring for our environment but he also shared some wonderful wisdom about world peace and compassion.
According to the Dalai Lama:
- Most of our problems are related to the mind, so we have to work to reduce our destructive emotions and
- We can reduce negative emotions through training our mind.
- We need to strengthen such inner values as contentment, patience and tolerance, as well as compassion for others.
- Anger is a sign of weakness while compassion is a sign of strength and confidence.
- We can counter negative emotion with opposite emotion, which for anger would be loving kindness.
- Focusing only on the physical reality of this world leads to despair.
- We must hold the belief that all people are the same, we must live and work together.
- The only way to solve problems is through dialogue, not violence.
He mentioned that while the twentieth century was a period of unprecedented bloodshed, we should learn from it and make the twenty-first century an era of peace. It is not that there will no longer be any problems to resolve, but instead of force we should resort to dialogue in every instance. Peace can only be achieved through non-violence and dialogue. This is something we have to train and educate our children to put into effect.
For more information about the Dalai Lama’s visit to Portland, you can visit his website DalaiLama.com.
Photo Credit: Fizzr on Flickr through a Creative Commons license.
