The Dalai Lama is what people call the head of the Monks of Tibetan Buddhism; by the Buddhist beliefs, the Dalai Lama is chosen through reincarnation. They were awarded a Nobel peace prize for their nonviolent efforts for the liberation of Tibet and his concern for global environmental problems in 1989. Through reading Dalai Lama’s writing, he had listed three main commitments: the promotion of certain human values, the promotion of religious harmony, and preservation of Buddhist culture. The promotion of certain human values that Dalai Lama has listed are compassion, self-discipline, forgiveness, contentment, tolerance.
- Compassion – The ability to feel sorry for people that had misfortune time, in other words, to have sympathy. For example, when seeing a homeless person, the first thing comes to mind should not be something like how disgusting or how bad they smell but rather have a kind heart and give them help. These homeless people didn’t end up like this because they wanted to but rather society had put them this way. Compassion does not mean pity but simply just means to have a warm kind heart around other people.
- Self-discipline – The ability to control ourselves. For example, when playing video games or just doing anything, it should have a time frame not too long or too short. If we are trying to pursue a goal, we should make plans to achieve the goal and not be distracted by outside forces.
- Forgiveness – The ability to look over their mistakes. For example, when someone punches you, you should not punch back. They didn’t do it because they just love to go around and punch people, they must have done it because they had a bad day or just the wrong mindset, so we have to forgive for the mistakes that they have made. Hate can’t defeat hate only love can.
- Contentment – The ability to be happy with what you have. For example, we should never compare ourselves with others, nor should we have to get the newest stuff. We should be happy with the food that we eat every day, the clothes we wear and the house that we live in.
- Tolerance – The ability to deal with situations. Patients the greatest virtue a person can have. I have been a tutor when I was in high school, and I would go to middle school and go teach the kids. It is the most frustrating thing because the kids wouldn’t listen to you, they just wanted to play and do their stuff. I learn that in the end, I just have to have patients with them and tolerate their kids’ behavior.
The promotion of religious harmony just simply means that one religion should be able to accept other religious ideas because who said that this religious’ God is right or that religious God is right. People should be open-minded and be able to take in other ideas. Preservation of Buddhist culture, because of the fast advancement of society, what Dalai Lama is trying to get at is that they should not forget what their goal was since the very first beginning, keep the old tradition so that we pay respect to our ancestors. For all three of the commitments, the promotion of certain human values is something that I should practice every day, is not only helping me to be a better person but also allows me to look at society from a different point of perspective.
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