Ethics for the new millenium

“Regardless of violence and the hardships we are going through, I believe that the final solution of all our conflicts, internal and external, lies in returning to the foundations of our own nature, which is sweet and sensitive“ (the Dalai Lama)

“Remember that the best relationship is the one in which the love you feel for each other exceeds the need you feel for each other.”
(the Dalai Lama)

On July 6, 2002 on his 67 birthday, the Dalai Lama landed in Split. After spending two days in Split, he left for Zagreb. Then he went back to Dharamsala.
Several years ago the Association for Support of Tibet was founded in Split, which was the first of its kind in Croatia. It is impossible now not to notice that lovely non-accident–the Dalai Lama’s age matching exactly the date of his arrival and that he came first to Split, the town which was the first in this part of the world to cry for help for a country that had been marginalised and removed from the focus of attention and interest of the world powers.
Such episodes remind us of those that Jung called “causeless correspondences.”

In the Spring of 1991, the Dalai Lama was in Budapest. A few of us went to see him and to listen to him talk. On that occasion, stirred by the turbulence on my native soil, I asked him:
“What is to be done when one’s community consists of opposites–restless minorities and arrogant majorities?”
He said something very simple that I’ll always remember:
“Imagine you are walking down a busy, crowded street. Next to you is a friend of yours. She is smaller and weaker than you. Because of this she is afraid of the crowd. What do you need to do? You should embrace her and walk along like that.”

A kind word, no matter how kind it is, is not enough. If the Dalai Lama’s life hadn’t been a testimony of what he preached, his words wouldn’t have been worth writing down, emphasising, or getting elated about. With his life he has been saying that what seems to be impossible is possible. It is possible to embrace the one who is out to get you, it is possible to love your “enemy.”
When someone is robbed of his land, his house broken into, his family banished and killed, his books burned and his icons smashed, what should such a person feel, what should they say or do? Some say they should feel anger and frustration, call for rebellion and uprising, demand their house and property back, and call upon the courts and justice system to gain the support of powerful people. However, such a person would be an active volcano of resentment, restlessness and fear, isn’t that so? Instead of all these usual reactions, the religious and worldly leader of Tibet, the “householder” of a seized house, is radiating freedom from fear, anger and bitterness. And freedom from such emotions automatically frees our compassion, tolerance, goodness, and non-violence.

Who should learn from this example? Everyone from wife-beaters to short and long-term presidents of empires and municipalities should pay attention, those who over and over again believe that it is all about them. But the Dalai Lama’s message is not just a story about how to be a heroic individual. His message is about God’s dream for humans that they understand that on the path to realisation, there is no nation which is not ours and no human being whose destiny is not our business. The Dalai Lama’s story is an example of applying ancient ethics to the new millennium.
No wound on the body of a nation can be cured by isolating or ignoring it. There are no more isolated troubles. They cannot and do not exist in isolation. Growing awareness about this around the world and the feeling of shared responsibility of all parties-the temporarily rich as well as the temporarily poor-is the only safe course for solving the inequalities under all the roofs, in all the cellars and in all the godforsaken spots on earth.

The Dalai Lama says he is sure of his return to Tibet. When? When inside the enormous body of China a new bloodstream starts circulating, a bloodstream with a different perspective and different values, when a different will gets stronger with the goal of freedom and the purpose of goodness. And further he says he will return when the most closed up communities get “infected” by this process and when this process is vitally intensified where now it is only talk and not a reality. When this happens, every part of the world will be equally important, equally “strategically important” for humanity as a whole.

This process could be called a re-education of consciousness, a re-upbringing that shifts the focus of education back to character with the awareness that it is not only for our own lives but also for the lives of others who are dependent on us, such as troubled little ones and the aggressive ones as well. Solutions that do not want or do not take into account this expended awareness, solutions which represent the will of a Few of Them, are most often just postponements like anesthesia without surgery.
The Dalai Lama who is smiling goodness, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989, a refugee, a world traveller, the first name for a peaceful dialogue, and a teacher and loner is sufficient proof that all of this is possible.

A flower does not do anything to be a flower. A good man does not do anything in order to be good. He is simply what he is–a good man. A flower does not need confirmation of the sweetness of its scent. The scent is a sufficient proof. A good person does not need a Nobel Prize for peace because his or her goodness testifies to this. Goodness is the Path we need to tread and the Teaching we need to emulate is that of a good man-the Dalai Lama. It is up to us to help spread this knowledge so it is recognized and not forgotten.

I will paraphrase the Dalai Lama’s words: goodness is religion and truth and love are divinity. These words would not be as strong if the Dalai Lama’s life was not an example of their practice. Nothing less and nothing more is necessary.

GOODNESS IS ALWAYS SMILING AND INNOCENCE IS ALWAYS CHEERFUL BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS, IN SPITE OF ALL, RECOGNISE THEMSELVES IN OTHERS. GOODNESS HAS ALWAYS BEEN INVITING US TO DISCOVER THAT OUR OWN SOUL IS REVEALED TO BE STANDING BEFORE US IN THE FIGURE OF A GREAT TEACHER.

Instead of some other gesture of gratitude, I dedicate this essay to those whose lives have been a consistent teaching of non-violence.