The Dalai Lama Foundation-Canada

The Dalai Lama

The basic sources of happiness are a good heart, compassion, and love. If we have these, even if we are surrounded by hostility, we will feel little disturbance. On the other hand, if we lack compassion and our mental state is filled with anger or hatred, no matter what the situation, we will not have peace. We will feel insecure, and, eventually, afraid and lacking in self-confidence. Then even something small can destabilize our inner world. But if we are calm, even if we are confronted by a serious problem, we will know how to handle it.

To utilize our human intelligence fully, we need calmness. If we become unstable through
anger, it is difficult for us to use our intelligence well. When we are overly influenced by
negative thoughts, our intelligence becomes tarnished. Looking at human history over the last few thousand years, and particularly in the twentieth century, we see that human tragedies like the holocaust arise from negative emotions such as hatred, anger, fear, and suspicion. And we also see that the many positive developments of human history have all come from good mental states, such as compassion.

On every level of work concerning the happiness or satisfaction of the individual, the family, the nation, and the international community, the key is our altruistic mind.

Compassion, love, and forgiveness are not luxuries. They are fundamental for our survival.

We must begin by investigating our own daily experience and reading stories about others to see the consequences of anger and the consequences of love and compassion. If we make a comparative study of these two attitudes, we will develop a deeper understanding of the negative results of anger and the positive results of compassion. Once we are convinced of the benefits of compassion and the negative consequences of anger and hatred – that they always cause unhappiness within us – we will make greater efforts to have less anger. We usually think our anger is protecting us from something, but that is a deception. Most important is to realize the negative consequences of anger and hatred. Negative emotions do not help at all.

In my experience, even though anger gives us energy to act or to speak out, it is blind
energy and difficult to control. During that moment we may not care, but later we will feel much regret. When we are angry, we use nasty or harsh words, which, once spoken, cannot be withdrawn. Afterwards, when our anger has disappeared and we see the
other person again, we feel terrible. During that moment, we lost our judgment and became half-mad. There are many different levels and forces of anger. When a small anger is about to arise, it is easy to control. But, if a stronger, more forceful anger comes, we have to try different techniques to handle it. Once we see negative mental states as negative, that alone will reduce their strength. Through my own experience, I am convinced that as a result of less anger, we become happier and healthier, smile and laugh more, and have more friends. Mental tranquility, or calmness, is a very important source of happiness. An external enemy, no matter how powerful, cannot strike directly at our mental calmness, because calmness is formless. Our happiness or joy can only be destroyed by our own anger. The real enemy of joy is anger.

Excerpted from The Dalai Lama, 1996. Cultivating Altruism. In A. Kotler. Engaged Buddhist Reader. Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA

Ray Bradbury

Granger looked into the fire. “Phoenix.”

“What?”

“There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years
he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we’ll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation.”

He took the pan off the fire and let the bacon cool and they ate it, slowly, thoughtfully.

“Now, let’s go upstream,” said Granger. “And hold onto one thought: You’re not important. You’re not anything. Someday the load we’re carrying with us may help someone. But even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn’t use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead. We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us. We’re going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re remembering. That’s where we’ll win out in the long run. And someday we’ll remember so much that we’ll build the biggest goddamn steam shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we’re going to build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them.”

Excerpted from Ray Bradbury, 1953. Fahrenheit 451. Random House, NY.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in conversation with the Dalai Lama

In our country, we speak of something called ubuuntu. When I want to praise you, the
highest praise I can give you is to say, you have ubuuntu – this person has what it takes to be a human being. This is a person who recognizes that he exists only because others exist: a person is a person through other persons. When we say you have ubuuntu, we mean you are gentle, you are compassionate, you are hospitable, you want to share, and you care about the welfare of others. This is because my humanity is caught up in your humanity. So when I dehumanize others, whether I like it or not, inexorably, I dehumanize myself. For we can only be human, we can only be free, together. To forgive is actually the best form of self interest.

Excerpted from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan, 2004. The Wisdom of
Forgiveness. Intimate Conversations and Journeys. Riverhead Books, NY.

Although it is increasingly evident how interdependent we are in virtually every aspect of
our lives, this seems to make little difference to the way we think about ourselves in relation to our fellow beings and our environment. We live at a time when human actions have developed a creative and destructive power that has become global in scope. And yet we fail to cultivate a corresponding sense of responsibility. Most of us are concerned only about people and property that are directly related to us. We naturally try to protect our family and friends from danger. Similarly, most people will struggle to defend their homes and land against destruction, whether the threat comes from enemies or natural disasters such as fire or flooding.

We take the existence of clean air and water, the continued growth of crops, and availability of raw materials for granted. We know that these resources are finite, but
because we only think of our own demands, we behave as if they are not. Our limited and
self-centred attitudes fulfill neither the needs of the time, nor the potential of which we are capable.

Today, while many individuals grapple with misery and alienation, we are faced with global
problems, such as poverty, overpopulation, and the destruction of the environment. These are problems that we have to address together. No single community or nation can expect to solve them on their own. This indicates how small and interdependent our world has become. In ancient times, each village was more or less self-sufficient and independent. There was neither the need nor the expectation of cooperation with others outside the village. You survived by doing everything yourself. The situation now has completely changed. It is no longer appropriate to think only in terms of even my nation or my country, let alone my village. If we are to overcome the problems we face, we need what I have called a sense of universal responsibility rooted in love and kindness for our human brothers and sisters.

In our present state of affairs, the very survival of humankind depends on people developing concern for the whole of humanity, not just their own community or nation. The reality of our situation impels us to act and think more clearly. Narrow-mindedness and self-centred thinking may have served us well in the past, but today will only lead to disaster. We can overcome such attitudes through a combination of education and training. I encourage you to act for the benefit of all sentient beings and this earth that is our only home.

Excerpted from Joanna Macy and Molly Young, 1998. Coming Back to Life. Practices to
Reconnect Our Lives, Our World. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC.