(TibetanReview.net, Feb09, 2017) – Around 1300 students from some 80 schools in New Delhi and its satellite towns of Gurgaon and Sonepat attended a talk given by Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Jul 6. The occasion was the inauguration of a group called Indian Tradition Heritage Society (ITAHAAS). The venue was the Convent of Jesus and Mary, New Delhi, with the talk being on compassion and ethics.
The Dalai Lama emphasized the need to combine human intelligence with the basic human nature of compassion and warm heartedness which he said would lead to the creation of genuine peace and happiness. “Those troublemakers in the world do have intelligence. But their intelligence is combined with hatred and anger which leads to destruction. We must use our intelligence with a far sighted vision,” he said.
Dwelling on the subject of promoting secular values and ethics, the Dalai Lama said: “Modern education with its focus on material goals and a disregard for inner values is incomplete. Secular education should be included in modern education. The teachers must educate the values of warm heartedness, compassion, sense of oneness of humanity in the current education.”
He said the inculcation of secular ethnic should begin at the individual level. “At the individual level, practice of love, warm heartedness and compassion will give you a happier environment. At the national level, we must strengthen these values to promote happiness in the world,” he said.
The Dalai Lama also answered questions from the audience. Asked by a student what the takeaway was from the hour-long session, the Dalai Lama said, “Be kind, be compassionate; use your intelligence with warm heartedness.”
After lunch, the Dalai Lama took part in an interview with the NDTV journalist Shekhar Gupta as a part of the latter’s Off the Cuff series. Asked how he always stayed calm, the Tibetan leader replied that being a Nalanda student, he always analyzed any situation presented to him; tried to see things in a wider perspective, and attempted to remain optimistic.
The two also talked about the existence of god, among many other things. The Dalai Lama said that while he followed the path of a Buddhist monk, he recognized that “belief in a loving creator God is very powerful.”