A group of around 45 people led by Indian born American author and public speaker Deepak Chopra met with the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the latter’s residence in India on Monday. During the meeting, the group listened to His Holiness’s words of wisdom and had an interactive session which was also stream live on the internet.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama called the members of the visiting party, spiritual brothers and sisters, and extended his warm welcome to his temporal home for last 60 years. His Holiness during the meeting held at his residence in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala in North India, explained that despite extensive materialistic development in the world today, we face many problems, mostly of our own creation. His Holiness stressed on putting a stop to fighting and killing among humans.
“In today’s world, despite extensive material development, we face all kinds of problems. Natural disasters are beyond our control, but fighting and killing are things we could put a stop to. However, we pay too much attention to material goals and not enough to human values like love. Many of the problems we face are of our own creation and yet scientists tell us that basic human nature is compassionate. They also tell us that cultivating a compassionate attitude is good for our physical health, while constant anger and fear undermine our immune systems.” explained the Tibetan spiritual leader.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama stressed that “we don’t give enough weight to inner values. We see other people in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Even religious practitioners do this. We distinguish between our country and their country. Young children don’t care about such distinctions. If other children smile and play, they’re happy to be with them. It’s only when we get older that we begin to stress secondary differences between us. We need to look deeper and appreciate that we are all the same in being human. And I believe we have a responsibility to share the importance of warm-heartedness.”
While interacting with the group, His Holiness also stressed that it is of huge waste to dedicate resources and talent in developing, manufacturing and selling weapons. The Tibetan spiritual leader also emphasized on providing lessons about emotional hygiene and ways to tackle destructive emotions to the children in modern education.