So, So Kind

“Recently I was on an overnight flight, from I think Japan to America or from America to Europe. In the front seat there was a couple with two children. One was perhaps six or seven years old, and the other one year old. The younger one did not sleep the whole night; he was walking here and there and shouting. On one occasion, I offered him a sweet from my pocket. He took it and then carried on walking. At the beginning, the father was taking so much care of him, but after around midnight he suddenly lay down on the chair. Then the mother took care of the child through the whole night. The mother’s eyes became red due, I think, to lack of sleep. So that reaffirmed for me, that the mother is so, so kind. That kind of attitude does not come from religious teaching, but from nature. It is mainly a biological factor. That affection is ultimately the basis of our life…

I have also told the story of a Tibetan monk I knew well before 1959, who spent 18 years in a Chinese gulag. In the early 80s, the Chinese Government adopted a new policy allowing Tibetans to go to India, and allowing Tibetans outside of Tibet to go “home”, to their villages. So this monk then joined Dharamsala. So since we knew each other very well, one day we chatted. He told me that during 18 years in the Chinese gulag he had faced danger on a few occasions. I thought that maybe he meant that his life had been in danger. I asked him, “What kind of danger?” His answer was, “Danger of losing compassion towards the Chinese.” That is the kind of attitude I am talking about. A practitioner has a certain kind of inner peace through that practice, and this is an example…

If you have a sense of global responsibility, all human beings, including non-believers and even those who criticize religion, who are anti-religion, are your brothers and sisters. Once we develop that, there is no problem with people having different religious faith. That is their right. If you look closely, all major religious traditions, as I mentioned briefly before, carry the same message of love, compassion and forgiveness. A different approach is necessary because of different locations, different times and different climates. People’s mentality is a little different. Therefore a different approach is necessary to promote these human values. All major religious traditions carry the message of love, and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. So, it is a matter of a different approach.

Some say that there is God, that God made all these things and that we are therefore brothers and sisters in a true sense. Some say it is the law of causality. Again, good experience comes from love and respect for others. Bad experience comes from harming others. That brings negative consequences. It is the same end but with a different approach. Therefore, if you understanding these things, you will see that there is no obstacle to bringing genuine harmony among religious traditions.

It may be useful here to make a distinction between faith and respect. Faith is towards one’s own religion, respect is to all religions. That is one thing. Another thing is the concept of one religion, one truth and the concept of several truths, several religions. Those two things appear contradictory, but that is due to the different context. On an individual basis, the concept of one truth, one religion is very relevant in developing a single-pointed faith, but in terms of a group of people, the concept of several truths, several religions is relevant. That is a fact. That is reality. Therefore there is no contradiction between the concept of one truth, one religion and the concept of several truths, several religions. That is my way of promoting religious harmony. Full stop.”

~ Dalai Lama, Universal Responsibility in the Modern World, Royal Albert Hall, London, 2008