A Message From the Dalai Lama

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, spoke about how love and altruism can help get us through the pandemic. In dire times, the Dalai Lama's life story is one that is worth repeating. The adversities include being taken away from his parents as a child and placed in an old palace, where he had to relearn nearly all of the knowledge he had garnered in his previous incarnation as the 13th Dalai Lama. Then, at age 15, being required to confront Chinese officials who were invading his country and would soon seize control over it. Later, at age 23, his holiness was forced to disguise himself and flee Tibet under the cover of night, spending the next few weeks crossing dangerous stretches of the Himalayas before arriving in India, where he has lived in exile for the past 61 years.
 

Through it all, his role as spiritual leader of the Tibetan people was to act with equanimity. That he did so -- and continues to do so -- has made him an international beacon of light and hope to millions. When asked what advice he had for people who are struggling through the pandemic, he replied: "Now this pandemic is very serious. Very sad. We're just so afraid. That's not useful. We must attack it -- specialists, scientists, doctors, I very much appreciate. If the problem can [be] overcome, then no need to worry; make effort to overcome. If no way to overcome the problem, there's no use too much worry."
 

When asked how he kept himself from worrying, his holiness responded: "Through training how to tackle destructive emotion, and how to develop positive emotion. This is very important. All destructive emotion [is] based on appearances, not reason, so we cannot meditate on anger, hatred, fear. But positive emotions such as compassion, altruism, or enthusiasm are based on reality, on reason, so we can train [them] through meditation. Ignore seeing, ignore hearing, pay more attention [to] your mind. Only the human brain has the ability to concentrate on a point and analyze."
 

The album "Inner World" was released July 6 when the Dalai Lama celebrated his 85th birthday. His first musical album is a sacred offering of mantras and teachings set to music. His holiness chants key Buddhist mantras and delivers his insights that trace much of the world's pressing concerns to the spiritual malaise characterizing life in the new century. In short, much of the world's problems owe much to its neglect of the soul: the "Inner World."
 

Toward the end of the record, his holiness says that whether believer or nonbeliever, "we are the same human beings (who want) a happy life, a peaceful life." This could be attained only by inner conversion. "We have to make every effort to promote through education about inner values," he concludes.
 

The Dalai Lama's renewed calls for "inner values" are peaceful and nonviolent exhortations that are addressed as much to modern mankind as to Communist China, which has been enslaving Tibet for nearly 70 years now.