NEW YORK, May 5 – His Holiness the Dalai Lama ends his Canada visit tomorrow evening after a meeting with key media leaders, including senior editors, columnists and publishers.
By and large, this has been one of his most hectic and successful overseas visits. Over 80,000 people have heard him directly in public talks and spiritual teachings. He has met political leaders, community leaders, and religious leaders. He has also interacted with some 500 mediapersons in Canada as well as in the US earlier.
Almost every single day of his stay in the US and Canada was reported extensively in both the print and electronic media.
As ever, the purpose of this visit was to contribute to the flowering of the seed of kindness that is inherent in all human beings, but needs to be nurtured so that it grows in every one of us, and leads to a change in the world, making it more caring, more compassionate and, by extension, more just and equitable.
Acutely aware of the hatred that is being bred in the name of religion, His Holiness has for many years made
special efforts to foster understanding and respect between different religious faiths. “We need different religions to serve the varied spiritual needs of human beings. Just as one medication cannot cure all illnesses, and just as one food cannot please the palate of all individuals, so is it foolhardy to think that one religion can satisfy the spiritual needs of all human beings.”
A true practitioner of any religion, His Holiness believes, will show kindness, rather than hatred, to another living being, even though he or she may be different from us. This is because kindness, love and compassion are the core teaching of all religions, His Holiness says.
As we begin to see all human beings as our brothers and sisters, having the same desire to achieve happiness and avoid suffering, we will realize that we do not need to waste our resources on building an army and military hardware. Instead, nations with surplus resources can help the poorer regions.
Environment consciousness is another matter that His Holiness hopes to promote. He is concerned about the present trend of economic development, which sees the earth as an infinite source of resources to satisfy our greed and consumeristic life style.
“This beautiful planet is the only home we have. If we destroy this, our survival will become a thing of the past.
We can survive without religion. We can survive without many other things that we hold dear. But we cannot survive if we destroy the planet earth.”
These then are the mesagges His Holiness has brought to the United States and Canada. These are the very same messages he had taken to other parts of the world. And, he will take the same messages elsewhere, including to France.
“I have nothing clever or intelligent to tell you. I neither have anything new or great to tell you,” he said in one of his earlier public talks.
Over the past couple of decades, His Holiness has spent most of his time travelling tirelessly, believing that his message of love and caring for each other would “help contribute in however miniscule a way” to the betterment of the world.
The purpose of his life, as that of all human beings, is to do his bit in every possible way to bring happiness to others, His Holiness often says.
