ETHICS FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA
RIVERHEAD BOOKS 1999
PART V
Chapter 5: The Supreme Emotion
On a recent trip to Europe, I took the opportunity to visit the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Even though I had heard and read a great deal about this place, I found myself completely unprepared for the experience. My initial reaction to the sight of the ovens in which hundreds of thousands of human beings were burned was one of total revulsion. I was dumfounded at the sheer calculation and detachment from feeling to which they bore horrifying testimony.
- I stopped and prayed – moved profoundly both for the victims and for the perpetrators of this iniquity – that such a thing would never happen again.
- In the knowledge that just as we all have the capacity to act selflessly out of concern for others’ well-being, so do we all have the potential to be murders and torturers, I vowed never in any way to contribute to such a calamity.
- Events such as those which occurred at Auschwitz are violent reminders of what can happen when individuals – and by extension, whole societies – lose touch with basic human feeling.
- Although it is necessary to have legislation and international conventions in place as safeguards against future disasters of this kind, we have all seen that atrocities continue in spite of them.
- Much more effective and more important than such legislation is our regard for another’s feelings at a simple human level – the capacity to empathize with another – and the inability to bear the sight of another’s suffering.
- Alongside our natural ability to empathize with others, we also have a need for other’s kindness, which runs like a thread throughout our whole life.
- It is most apparent when we are young and when we are old. But we only have to fall ill to be reminded of how important it is to be loved and cared about even during our prime years.
- Though it may seem a virtue to be able to do without affection, in reality a life lacking this precious ingredient must be a miserable one. We see this appreciation of kindness reflected in our response to the human smile – one of our most beautiful characteristics.
- Consider the relationship between peace – the fruit of love – and good health. Our constitution is more suited to peace and tranquillity than to violence and aggression. Peace, tranquillity and other’s care are essential to recovery from illness. Peace suggests life and growth while violence suggest misery and death.
- This is why the idea of a Pure Land, or of Heaven, attracts us. If such a place were described in terms of unending warfare and strife, we would much rather remain in this world. Our nature prefers life over death, growth over decay, construction over destruction.
- Our innate capacity for empathy is the source of the most precious of all human qualities, which in Tibetan we call nying je a term which also connotes love, affection, kindness, gentleness, generosity of spirit, and warm-heartedness.
- It is also used as a term of both sympathy and of endearment, but there is no sense of condescension. It denotes a feeling of connection with others, reflecting its origins in empathy.
- We can understand nying je in terms of a combination of empathy and reason. We can think of empathy as the characteristic of a very honest person; reason as that of someone who is very practical. When the two are put together, the combination is highly effective.
- The more we develop compassion, the more genuinely ethical our conduct will be. When we act out of concern for others, our behavior toward them is automatically positive.
- This gives rise to strong feelings of confidence. I find that whenever I meet new people and have this positive disposition, there is no barrier between us. I can speak to them as old friends, even at our first meeting.
- Ultimately we are all brothers and sisters and there is no substantial difference between us.
- When we act out of concern for others, the peace this creates in our own hearts brings peace to everyone we associate with. We bring peace to the family, to friends, to the work place, to the community and to the world. Friendships come about not as the result of bullying but compassion.
The world’s major religious traditions each give the development of compassion a key role. Because it is both the source and the result of patience, tolerance, forgiveness, and all good qualities, its importance is considered to extend from the beginning to the end of spiritual practice. But even without a religious perspective, love and compassion are clearly of fundamental importance to us all. Given our basic premise that ethical conduct consists in not harming others, it follows that we need to take other’s feelings into consideration, the basis for which is our innate capacity for empathy. And as we transform this capacity into love and compassion, through guarding against those factors which obstruct compassion and cultivating those conducive to it, so our practice of ethics improves. This, we find, leads to happiness both for ourselves and others.