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Before I left Japan, I had the honor of seeing His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He spoke of globalization, financial crisis, climate change, compassion and warm-heartedness.
As he said, we live in a global economy, we are all interdependent. No one nation can solve global warming, we have to work together. Each individual should think of the environment as part of him or her. As we damage the environment, we damage ourselves.
The global financial crisis and European sovereign debt crisis were caused by greed and speculation. But rich people suffer from stress, anxiety and loneliness. In Japan, more and more students suffer from loneliness.
In international relations, we speak of peace and equality. But there is too much violence, with the strong taking advantage of the weak. Religion is too often used for exploitation.
Even in this 21st century, rapid technological progress has not led to better moral principles.
The Dalai Lama has two main commitments. First, there is his commitment to compassion and warm-heartedness. Compassion is the basis of a calm mind and inner beauty, the basis for maintaining the human system. His second commitment is to religious harmony. This is not based on one religion. It should be based on secularism, with the respect of all religions, and even the respect of non-believers.
Researchers, the brilliant minds of this world, should look into the issues of compassion and warm-heartedness. And education systems should teach compassion and warm-heartedness, the basis of inner peace. Unfortunately, anger, hatred, jealousy and fear are eating away at the human system.
The Dalai Lama supports Chinese President HU Jintao's concept of a harmonious society. But China's policies towards Tibet are not promoting a harmonious society.
The Dalai Lama taunted a Chinese journalist from Xinhua by making fun of his lack of freedom.
Was there much media coverage of the Dalai Lama's visit to Japan? No! Japan and its media are too worried about what China thinks.
How free are we?
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