3/19/2023 0 Comments Dalai lama buddhismIn these ways, he is incredibly open-minded for somebody who is the leader of a major world religion. Various textbooks on science have been translated from English to Tibetan. In the monasteries, His Holiness has instituted the study of science, adding it to the curriculum for monks and nuns. This can be of great use to Western scientists too. The Buddhist analysis provides a very scientifically organized overview. For instance, Buddhism provides a very detailed map of emotions – how the whole inner world of emotions works, how to deal with these emotions and so on. Likewise, Buddhism has a great deal of knowledge that it can share with the scientists, coming from the categories of Buddhist science, Buddhist knowledge, and Buddhist philosophy. The Western scientific understanding of how the brain works, the various chemical stuff and so on, it would be a great supplement to the Buddhist understanding. He had said that if scientists can validly demonstrate something that contradicts what we find in the Buddhist teachings, for instance the description of the universe, how the universe began, and so on, it is perfectly okay to drop that from the Buddhist teachings. He has been holding meetings with scientists since the early 1980s, and really wants to learn from them. From a young age, His Holiness has shown a strong interest in science, mechanics, and how things work. While His Holiness’ primary commitment is to benefit everybody, with a specific responsibility for the Tibetan people and a specific responsibility within the Tibetan traditions of Buddhism, these are not his exclusive concern. It would be good to have meetings of very serious practitioners of each religion to gather together and share their experiences, not for a big public audience, but with each other so that we are really talking on a serious practitioner level. He says, “If all of us are trying to teach our followers to develop love, kindness and so on, what method do you use? What method do we use? This is something we can learn from you, to look at the differences and respect them as opportunities to learn something new. To achieve this though, there are lots of different methods, which is necessary because people are so different. His Holiness says that all religions have the same aim, which is to bring about a happier life for those who follow it. He said that we shouldn’t be ashamed of our differences, but that we can learn from them in ways that could be beneficial in our own efforts to improve ourselves. In June of this year, His Holiness had a meeting with some Sufi masters, and he told them he wanted to learn about the differences, not just the similarities. Just saying, “Well, we are all talking about the same thing, we are all one,” and always pointing out the similarities doesn’t help to actually learn about each other. It’s all well and nice, but not very productive. He says that, at many of the interfaith dialogues he participates in, people gather and smile and are really nice to each other, then there’ll be some prayers or silent meditation. What we really fear is the unknown, and onto these unknown groups and religions, we project some sort of fantasy. His Holiness says, in terms of religious harmony, that what we really need is education, not just in secular ethics, but education about each other. There’s mistrust, there is fear, and all of this leads to problems. So much difficulty arises in the world because of disputes between religious groups. We see this in the Dalai Lama’s life itself, which is why his message is so moving. The affection and care of a mother toward her new-born infant is very basic and primal, not only to humans but animals as well: taking care of others. He bases this on what he calls “basic human values,” and so sometimes rather than saying his theme is secular ethics, he says that the time is now for the promotion of basic human values, which are based on biology. This His Holiness calls “secular ethics,” which doesn’t mean it is against any religion or system, but that it respects all systems of belief, as well as the needs of non-believers. What is needed is some sort of ethical system – an ethical basis – that will be acceptable to everybody. Among this population, there are some who are believers in some sort of religion, and there are non-believers. The Dalai Lama has a very universal, open mind, and is always speaking and thinking in terms of what would be of benefit to the 7 billion-plus people on this planet. There is so much corruption, so much dishonesty, and so much lack of accord among people, and all because of a lack of ethics. His Holiness often speaks on the themes of secular ethics and religious harmony, and the reason for this is that the world is in great need of ethics.
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