The Vision and Legacy Of The Dalai Lama

Professor Samdhong Rinpoche Lerab Ling, 23 July 2006

The vision and legacy of His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is an extremely vast subject. Let me begin by saying that I do not consider myself competent to dwell on this topic with any authority, because the Dalai Lama’s vision is so vast and so deep, and his legacy so rich, that they may simply be beyond our comprehension.
However, what I will share with you is my own understanding, although I cannot claim that it is an authentic appraisal of His Holiness’s vision and legacy. In any case, everyone will have his or her own point of view, and whether I am right or wrong, you will have to judge for yourselves. The Buddha gave some very clear instructions in a sutra in the Pali canon called the Kalama Sutta, when he said:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason

And it is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all –

Then accept it, and live up to it.

A similar quotation is available in the Mahayana scriptures:

O bhikshus and wise men,

Just as a goldsmith would test his gold

By burning, cutting, and rubbing it,

So you must examine my words and accept them,

But not merely out of reverence for me.

It is in the same spirit that you should examine my words as well, and not take it for granted that just because a person has been in the service of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for more than forty years he will necessarily give accurate information. You must examine for yourselves. Cross-checking and rational examination are important in every sphere, and nowhere more so than in the Buddhist tradition, where it is said that you must take care not to get carried away by hearsay information. About the Dalai Lama

To understand the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s vision and legacy, you have to understand a little bit about his life and the extent of his knowledge. I had the opportunity to see him in person and hear him for the first time in 1952, when I was thirteen years old and he was seventeen. It was during the Mönlam festival at the New Year in Lhasa, when he was giving the teaching on the thirty-four Jataka stories, the former lives of the Buddha, as was the custom for the Dalai Lamas during the Mönlam festival. That was the first time I saw his face, heard his voice and listened to his teachings. From then until now, I have been his disciple, and I have received various teachings from him on many occasions. Between 1952 and 1959, he gave a number of empowerments, including the Kalachakra, and during that period I had the opportunity to listen to nearly all of his teachings. Often, after attending his teaching, I would call on Yongdzin Trijang Rinpoche and repeat what the Dalai Lama had said, so as to review how the teachings had gone. In fact, I became a very devoted disciple of the present Dalai Lama mainly because of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche’s persuasion. In that same year, 1952, Trijang Rinpoche gave quite an extensive, month-long, teaching on the five treatises of Lamrim in the Gomang college of my monastery, Drepung monastery. At that time His Holiness was still very young, seventeen years old, and Trijang Rinpoche told us during the teachings that we were blessed with an extraordinary reincarnation of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. He said that as long as the Tibetan people’s fortune deserved it, the present Dalai Lama would undoubtedly be a combination of the first, the fifth and the seventh Dalai Lamas. Among the thirteen previous incarnations of the Dalai Lama, the first was one of the most outstanding scholars, the seventh was also a quite exceptional scholar, and the fifth, of course, was not only an extraordinary scholar, but also a very major figure in Tibetan history, who managed to establish the government of Ganden Phodrang and ruled all three regions of Tibet in a great and befitting manner.

At that time, I used to wonder how it could possibly be that in this day and age anyone could command such vast knowledge as the first, the fifth and the seventh Dalai Lamas. Of course, we knew from his teachings that the fourteenth Dalai Lama showed an immense and profound knowledge of the Buddhist canon, but he had never had a chance to participate in a regular debate in the monastery, as we used to do. So he might not have possessed the sharp and unassailable turn of mind of a very seasoned geshé from one of the big monasteries, when it came to debating subjects such as abhidharma, vinaya and madhyamaka. In late 1958 and early 1959, the Dalai Lama took the geshe lharampa examination. The first part of his examination took place in Drepung monastery. Everybody was nervous, because they did not know how to put logical arguments to him: could they debate with him forcefully as we usually did, or should they be very polite, and show deference to his position? The most outstanding scholars of Drepung monastery were there, the five abbots, including the senior-most abbot from Gomang college, who was a famous Mongolian geshé, and Gen Pema Gyaltsen from my college of Loseling. When they debated with the Dalai Lama, we found that he was extraordinarily adept at debate as well. The first argument proceeded quite slowly and in a slightly confused manner. The second was with our abbot, Geshé Pema Gyaltsen, who put all his might into arguing with His Holiness, but he proved to be like a rock, and he was never able to defeat him or change his position, despite all his arguments. The second session of the examination took place in Sera monastery, but after the extent of the Dalai Lama’s knowledge had been witnessed at Drepung, the Sera geshés were prepared. They did their utmost, but no one was able to make the Dalai Lama alter his position, and there was not a single one of their arguments that he was not able to refute.

Since then, I have always wondered how he was able to acquire such a remarkable mastery of all these vast treatises, because he simply had no time. He began to learn the five major treatises at the age of fourteen, and usually in our monasteries to complete them takes no less than twenty-five years, and that in the case of someone who is wholly devoted to studying. But the Dalai Lama completed all this within about ten or eleven years. During that time he spent about one and a half years visiting China, from 1954-55, and another nine months in India in 1956-57, when, along with the Panchen Lama, he attended the two thousand five hundredth anniversary of the birth of Buddha, the Buddhajayanti, and then went on an extensive tour. So out of ten years, almost two and a half or three years were spent abroad, and even while he was staying in the capital, Lhasa, either at the Norbulingka or the Potala Palace, nearly every day there would be one official function or another, as well as various other engagements and teachings. The more I thought about this, the more I came to realize why it was that Trijang Rinpoche had said that he would be a combination of all three great Dalai Lamas, the first, the fifth and the seventh. As indeed he is.

Just after the completion of his geshe lharampa examination in February 1959, the Dalai Lama was barely back in the Norbulingka Palace when the 10th March uprising occurred, and on the 17th March he had to leave Tibet. He has lived in exile ever since. He continued to study and receive the teachings of the lineage while his two tutors were still alive, and he has also received teachings from many other distinguished teachers from all lineages. The exceptional knowledge which he now possesses of the entire Buddhist canon may explain in a way why his vision is so vast and deep, and why it may be difficult to comprehend.

In exile, the Dalai Lama has countless tasks and duties to perform, while he has hardly any time for his own study or for widening his knowledge of secular subjects. In spite of this, he is informed about almost every modern subject, and now he is meeting and dialoguing with the some of the world’s most eminent scientists. These encounters with the scientific community have been of enormous value for the spiritual tradition and the lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, as much as for modern scientific knowledge. They have been of mutual benefit to science and Buddhism. So, with this brief background and introduction, let us now look at what the Dalai Lama’s vision could be, and what he will leave us as a legacy, his extraordinary legacy to the world.

The Spiritual Dimension: A New Kind of Graduated Path

First and foremost, we have to understand that a Buddhist teacher never teaches anything that has not been taught by the Buddha. As a faithful Buddhist monk, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will not teach a single word which does not agree with, or has not actually been taught in, the Buddhist canon. So whatever he has thought or said or written comes ultimately from the teachings of Buddha. In fact, to imagine that some masters are saying more than what the Buddha said would be a huge misunderstanding. That could never be the case, because according to tradition the Wheel of Dharma, set in motion by Buddha Shakyamuni himself, will only come to a standstill at the end of five thousand years, and it cannot be altered or added to in the meantime. So whatever a Buddhist teacher explains is exactly the same as that which was taught by the Buddha.

Then you might ask: If that is so, what is the need for, or the relevance of, a master? This is a very crucial question. The Buddhist canon is available in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Chinese, and so why can’t someone just read all the scriptures, and understand the Buddha’s teachings for themselves? That is simply impossible. You must have a teacher to transmit the unbroken lineage of knowledge, and to teach in ways that correspond to the needs of different students. This is, in fact, the role of a master.

Let me elaborate. First, without the lineage you will have neither empowerment nor authorization. Second, without the teacher’s explanations and commentary, you will not be able to understand the Buddha’s words, because Buddha was never consistent in his teaching. If you compare the scriptures revealed by the great religious teachers of the world, you will find that the Buddha’s teaching is the most inconsistent and at variation with itself. Sometimes, he would say there was a soul, and at many other times, he would deny there was a soul. Often he used to say that phenomena do exist independently and intrinsically, and on many other occasions he would maintain that phenomena were devoid of any independent, intrinsic existence. He himself indicated: ”My words will be classified and properly commented on by great masters, such as Nagarjuna and Asanga.”

It is because the Buddha’s inconsistent words have to be understood consistently, without any contradiction, that you must have a master or a teacher. You cannot take all the Buddha’s words at face value, because many statements have to be interpreted, and many others have to be understood literally. And this vital classification and clarification can only be made by authentic, enlightened masters. This is why you need a teacher, a master, a lineage holder, who will be able to present a teaching of Buddha that is relevant and suitable for each of the individual listeners and disciples. But it is not as though anything like a new teaching is being created. What is being presented is the Buddha’s intention and the meaning of the Buddha’s words, in a way that ensures they are readily understood, free from distortion, and suitable to the levels of the students who are listening. This is the great task of the masters and teachers.

While the Dalai Lama does not say anything new that the Buddha did not teach, he has at the same time prepared Buddhism in a very different way from all the traditional Tibetan masters up until now. This remarkable achievement is one that even he, with his characteristic modesty and humility, will sometimes acknowledge. His goal has been to help the vast number of followers of the Dharma who belong to a variety of cultures and to our modern times. Without a teacher like the fourteenth Dalai Lama, many of Buddha’s teachings might not appear relevant or even comprehensible in the cultural environment of the western world in the twenty first century. This is one of his major achievements, and I believe that it forms the basis of his legacy, and lies at the heart of his vision.

When Tibet was a free country, it had no real contact with the outside world and modern civilization. People were born and brought up in its ancient Buddhist culture, and their mindset was one of almost total, unquestioning faith. So they had no need to be convinced of the importance and the relevance of Buddhism. Such things were taken for granted. With individuals from this kind of background, you can begin the teaching from the explanation of the importance of the teacher and the teacher-student relationship. But people who are born into a different culture, and brought up in quite a different way, need to understand the relevance and importance of Dharma or Buddhist culture as a way of life. They also need to become aware of the entire scope of Buddhism as a whole. This is why the Dalai Lama chooses to teach these new students of Dharma in the way that he does, because they are people who are quite open-minded, but not well grounded in Buddhism, and so they need to be given a specific and different kind of knowledge of the teachings.

In order to achieve this, the Dalai Lama goes back to the very style of teaching of Gautama, the Buddha. After achieving enlightenment in Bodhgaya, for seven weeks the Buddha deliberated on how to teach, where to teach, and whom to teach. Finally, he went to Sarnath and gave his first teaching to the group of five monks who earlier had been his companions. There he revealed his understanding of the entire universe, and the cycle of existence. Beginning from the truth of suffering, he went on to explain the cause of suffering, and then the possibility of the cessation of suffering, and the path through which that cessation can be reached. This is what is known as The Four Noble Truths. Making use of this particular sequence, the Buddha taught his disciples the truths he had realized.

The tradition of giving the teachings according to this same structure endured for quite some time. However when Buddhism, and Buddhist culture, had established themselves deeply in one country or another, it became possible to vary the sequence of the teaching. This is because, as we saw, those who have a deep faith in Buddhism can be taught from any given point in the teachings. So in Tibet, almost every lineage developed slight variations in the way they taught Buddhism.

This is where His Holiness has taken a different approach. He always tries to give a broad outline, and an introduction to the totality of Buddhism designed for beginners. First of all he emphasizes the recognition of suffering in general, as well as some particular suffering to which individuals are inclined, or which impels a person to search for a spiritual solution. This is the point from which he begins. Gradually he leads the student to see suffering as it exists. Next, he tries to make him or her realize that it is neither without cause, nor is it not created by someone else or some outside force or power. The cause has been supplied by ourselves, and therefore it can be eliminated by ourselves. Then he talks about the path, and the possibility of the complete cessation of suffering. This is his unique style of teaching, whether he goes through the teachings elaborately over a period of a month or more, or whether he gives the teaching in a nutshell, in half an hour or twenty minutes. His teaching always carries the totality of the Buddha’s message. The Dalai Lama has a very broad vision of how to benefit people through the Dharma, and how to help them find their way into Buddhism in systematic and well-planned stages. He has created, in fact, what amounts to a new kind of graduated path, which you will find in his numerous writings and talks. If you look, closely and attentively, you can detect this framework underlying the teachings he gives. As I mentioned earlier, the entire subject matter was already taught by the Buddha, and so now it is only a question of the preparation. Think of a highly skilled cook, who prepares food to suit a particular customer, so that he or she will find it delicious and appetizing. There lies the skill of the cook. To make the teaching appropriate, understandable, tasty and entertaining is the skill of the master. And His Holiness the Dalai Lama is someone who possesses this skill to a consummate degree.

The Social Dimension of His Vision

Of course, the Dalai Lama is not a spiritual teacher alone; he carries a huge social and political responsibility, rather like Mahatma Gandhi. Therefore, he makes his religious teaching relevant to social and political issues as well. This is something that needs to be appreciated and demands our attention. Because here lies one of the great beauties of his legacy.

Generally, people believe that Buddhism is a salvation-orientated religion, which does not deal much with social systems, and particularly the management of a state. This view may be partially true and partially untrue. It is partially true, because Buddha never gave any particular teaching on how the social system should be, or how the management of a state should proceed. He never talked about statecraft. Nevertheless, he referred at various levels to the equality of sentient beings, and to the caste system and the social evils of his time. He opposed the latter very forcefully, but he never offered a detailed alternative model, so to speak.

That alternative model, in fact, is to be derived from his spiritual teachings. The advice, for example, that he always gave to the kings of the time was to rule their subjects with a religious mind, and in accordance with the teachings of the Dharma. He would impart his advice like this, in a nutshell. But apart from that, he did not spell out any alternative model of statehood and social management.

Nevertheless, if you are seeking liberation or enlightenment, you have to lead this life in accordance with a certain moral code. That moral code makes the individual a sociable person, and actually turns him or her into a kind of social system, by himself or herself. Take an example. We do not grow wheat or rice for the sake of the foliage; we grow them for the grain that we can eat. But while we are cultivating the plants, the wheat or rice will never appear without stalks and leaves, which spring up just naturally. Likewise, when you practise Dharma for the sake of liberation or enlightenment, social cohesiveness ensues automatically as a by-product or side-effect. This explains why the Buddha did not teach a social system as a separate subject. However, many scholars argue that there is actually a social philosophy to Buddhism. There are numerous books that deal with the social philosophy of Buddhism, but in fact it is always something which is extracted from general Buddhist philosophy, and which then has to be implemented and applied in order to create social cohesiveness, as a particular, and separate, objective.

The absence of a specific teaching on the social system does have a negative side to it. In the so-called Buddhist states, including Tibet when it was free, we have all been claiming that we are Buddhist countries, we have a Buddhist government, we believe in and respect Buddhism as our national religion, and so on. This has been the case not only in Tibet, but in many Buddhist countries, such as Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka. The constitutions of Sri Lanka and Thailand still say that they are Buddhist states. In spite of that, these Buddhist states have not been able to do away with violence or war. They are not able to do away with their military forces or police force. They are not able to do away with capital punishment, or a kind of justice system which causes violence to sentient beings. If the Buddha had taught a social system, a way of managing the state in accordance with the philosophy of interdependence and the ethics of non-violence, then the kind of contradictions manifested by these Buddhist countries could have been avoided. The governments of these countries believe that Dharma is for the salvation of individuals, while the state is to manage this present lifetime of its citizens, and in the management of a state, a certain degree of violence or force is indispensable. That error has been caused by the lack of an explicit teaching on state management by the Buddha himself.

This is why I have such enormous respect for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, because for the first time in this world he talked about a violence-free nation, a violence-free state, non-violent national defence, and so on. He demonstrated how to implement the principle of non-violence in the management of a state. And in particular he explored how to incorporate non-violence into every sphere of life, for example justice, and the social order.

All of these aspects have been dealt with by the present Dalai Lama, who has brought out a complete, alternative model of the state and social system, with which the Tibetan people in exile have been able to continue their national struggle, free from any kind of violence. I think this is another crucial aspect of the legacy of the present Dalai Lama. And for that reason, I would like to dwell on this subject a little further.

The Global Dimension: Five Great Challenges

As I mentioned earlier, the Dalai Lama’s way of looking at things traces the sequence of The Four Noble Truths. First of all, we have to realize what suffering is, and then we identify the causes of suffering, and so on. The Dalai Lama’s far-reaching insight allows him to analyze things in a holistic way and to sum them up very succinctly, so that anyone can understand without much difficulty. He categorizes the challenges and problems facing us in the twenty first century into five great challenges, or five great threats to the survival of humanity, as well as all other sentient beings, on this small planet called earth.

His Holiness maintains that the first problem facing this earth is the indiscriminate increase in population. If we compare present figures with those of two hundred years ago, we can see the scale of the increase. And with the rise in population, people’s needs and requirements grow, creating the conditions for more conflicts and refusal to share scarce resources. This is one of the greatest challenges for modern humanity. The second challenge is social and economic inequality. Among human societies inequality has increased almost beyond belief over the last hundred or two hundred years. In ancient times, inequality existed, but with certain natural limits. Today, inequality is vast and all-pervasive. Take the social and economic inequality between north and south, between the so-called developed world and the under-developed or developing world. It is a huge gap, which can never close or be reconciled as long as inequality continues to grow at the same pace as today. Within continents, within nations, and within cities, the gap between rich and poor becomes not only increasingly flagrant, but quite unbearable. This again will cause conflict, war and violence. Of course, inequality itself is a form of structural violence. Our economic and social systems have the causes of inequality in-built within them. So unless the system is changed, you can never make people equal. You can talk about equality in words, but in reality, it is very difficult to achieve. The third challenge is direct violence, which includes violence in the form of war and huge clashes between nations, the fear of war and the ever-present possibility of war, the problem of terrorism that now threatens almost every country, violence among communities, and violence within the family. Violence and murder are even taking place among children in the classroom at school. In addition, there is the violence of economic, social and political exploitation and domination. All are rampant and on the increase, day by day. These days human beings can not feel safe anywhere on earth. Everywhere they face the danger of being killed, tortured, imprisoned, or taken as a hostage. Day in, day out, we are constantly watching, hearing, and reading news of destruction, violence, and more violence. The fourth great danger and challenge is environmental degradation. The whole environment is degrading, and the eco-balance has been disturbed, to such a degree that people can no longer easily find the basic requirements for sustaining life. In order to survive, we all need water to drink, and air to breathe. Clean drinking water or clean, unpolluted air have become more and more scarce. I remember, during my life-time, twenty or thirty years ago, that wherever you went in India, water was freely available to drink. Today you have to carry water with you, or you have to purchase water packaged in bottles by multinational companies. You even have to buy just simple drinking water, and this is solely due to environmental degradation and pollution. And now too every breath you take is harming your health and your life. In some smog-ridden cities, there are special booths where you can pay to go and breathe oxygen.

The effects of global warming are truly alarming. People tell us that the hot summers we are now experiencing used to happen a hundred years ago, and they go back into the records to prove it. But in our lifetime, the summers are getting hotter and hotter as each year passes. The sea level is rising every year, and the glaciers are receding every year. Many of you must have visited India, and you may know about the impact of climate change there. For the Hindus, there is a very sacred place in Kashmir, called Amarnath, where hundred of thousands of pilgrims go every year. It is a cave in which a natural Shiva lingam forms each year, when a trickle of water freezes as it drips through the rock. But this year because of the change in climatic conditions, it did not freeze, and they had to create the lingam artificially. Recently too I was sending a batch of pilgrims off to Mount Kailash and I told them that it was good that they were going this year, because after a few years there may be no Mount Kailash; it may become a barren rock, without any snow or glaciers. And, as we know, this global warming is a direct result of environmental degradation. The fifth threat, strange and yet real, is so-called religious intolerance. Actually this is a contradiction in terms. There cannot be any such thing as religious intolerance. Yet people accept it. But the truth of the matter is that a religious mind cannot be intolerant at all, and wherever intolerance is present, there can be no religious mentality. Religion and intolerance simply cannot co-exist. Yet unfortunately, the name and the institution of religion have been conscripted to serve the cause of conflict, violence, and war. How tragic it is that religion, which is the basic source of compassion and love, the basic source of salvation for humanity, and the basic source of teachings on morality and ethics, is being used, and its name exploited, in the cause of conflict and division. These five great challenges, then, constitute the suffering of humanity today, and the suffering of this life of ours. We have to overcome them individually, as well at the level of society as a whole. Otherwise, the entire spiritual tradition that lives in the minds of individuals inhabiting this earth may disappear completely, and quite soon. If we look at these challenges, it is clear that each one of them on its own has the power to destroy the whole earth. Yet we are facing not one, but five. Of course, there are also many others, but broadly summed up, these five represent our greatest challenges. Identifying the Source

How can we meet these challenges and overcome them? In the Dalai Lama’s analysis of the situation, what are the root causes of all these problems? He goes back to the Buddhist tradition for the answer: ignorance, greed, and hatred. These three mindsets are the negative emotions that form the root cause of every one of our problems. During the last two hundred years or so, human negative emotions, the kleshas, have been purposely increased and exploited on a large scale. Before the industrial revolution and the advance of technology, the human community produced commodities and goods in accordance with its needs. There were not so many complex problems, nor was there any need to exploit greed or hatred. In time, with industry and technology, humanity began to produce commodities on a much greater scale than what was required and could be consumed by the community, and so they needed a market. Ways had to be found through which surplus manufactured products could be consumed. The easiest way was to exploit and to intensify human greed.

This is a very easy task. To reduce the negative emotions is difficult, and yet to increase them is all too simple. Any kind of method or device will do. And businesses have done excellent research. They have taught human beings to forget their own identity, and to live with comparison, which leads inevitably to competition. Comparison and competition breed acquisitiveness, so much so that people forget what it is that they really need. Gandhi made it very clear when he said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed.”

So now you have no freedom to decide what your true needs are. You are being continuously schooled, brainwashed and indoctrinated into what you think you need. And you are perpetually comparing yourself with your neighbour or somebody else. If he has one car, why shouldn’t you have one, or if he has two, why shouldn’t you have three? You need one pair of shoes for the house, another for badminton, another for football, another for trekking, another for work, so that a single person cannot get by without at least twelve or fifteen different pairs of shoes.

By now this has thoroughly conditioned our minds, and we are convinced that these are real needs, without which we cannot live, or lead a decent life. Comparison and competition, themselves based on hatred, continue to swell our greed and fuel our craving for more, robbing each and every individual of his or her freedom. In order to have more, we have to employ all kind of methods, fair or foul, just or unjust, because we have to earn more money to accumulate more so-called necessities. The outcome: we are completely dominated and controlled by greed and ignorance. And this is where we forget our responsibility.

Universal Responsibility

All the challenges we have mentioned, which are caused by the exploitation of greed and hatred through ignorance, can be countered by love, compassion and the recognition of our own responsibility. In Tibetan we call these three jampa, nyingjé and lhaksam, respectively. The word lhaksam means ‘to take responsibility’, which the fourteenth Dalai Lama has articulated in the form of a very modern aspiration—universal responsibility.

The principle of universal responsibility is a real gift of the present Dalai Lama. All the challenges we face, roughly characterized by the five challenges I mentioned earlier, can be met and countered if we can as individuals develop and practise a sense of universal responsibility—a feeling of responsibility for everyone. Of course, a person who aspires to liberation for himself or herself alone will also feel some sense of responsibility, but it will not be a universal one. Universal responsibility implies feeling a connectedness with the entire universe, with all sentient beings, and with all the living beings on this earth, and a concern and a responsibility for them all. For example, if I commit an unwholesome action of some kind, its effects will not be limited to the immediate subject or object. It will have a universal implication. This is a phenomenon that scientists also recognize today. A pin dropped here in France has repercussions a long way away; even light years from here, it can have some kind of effect. This is a reality. As was explained by the Buddha, the actions of every single individual have a relationship with, and effect on, the entire universe, whether it be directly or indirectly. It is an understanding of this universal interconnectedness that underlies what is meant by lhaksam. This is what gives universal responsibility the elevated quality it has, and keeps it from ever being ordinary in its outlook. And it is only the development of this sense of universal responsibility that can allow us to tackle our five major challenges, and many others as well.

I personally believe that this unique way of expressing the meaning of lhaksam, as universal responsibility, is really one of the present Dalai Lama’s great contributions to the world. And it is up to us to continue this legacy for the benefit of people in times to come.

Secular Ethics

The Dalai Lama speaks not only about universal responsibility but also about secular ethics. Of course, ethical teachings belonging to the various religious traditions are still very much in existence. Each one of them is extremely important. Whether we are able to abide by these ethical systems or practise them in our lives or not, each religion teaches a very high standard of morality and ethics. On the other hand, there are many people in this world who do not belong to any spiritual tradition, and do not have faith in or reverence for any religious teaching. They represent a huge proportion of the earth’s population. They too need some kind of morality, a code of conduct and an understanding of ethics. Many aspects of ethical behaviour are not necessarily confined to religious teachings or tradition; they apply to non-believers and to the whole of society. It is often said these days that “man is a social animal”. We have to live together in society, and whether you are a believer or a non-believer, you still have to be sociable. You need a certain code of behaviour so as not to forsake your responsibility towards the rest of the people in society, with whom you are constantly dealing. Of course the word ‘secular’ in secular ethics is a loaded term and the concept of secular, or secularism, has many different connotations. I believe you can find more than fifty different meanings in the dictionaries. Broadly speaking, however, secular can be interpreted in three ways: anti-religious, non-religious, and indifferent to religion or believing in the equality of all religion. Mahatma Gandhi’s interpretation of secularism is that of equal respect for all religious traditions. That is the easiest option. It means that you do not have to believe in a religion, and yet you have no right to disrespect religions: you treat them all with equal respect.

When we use the word secular here in relation to secular ethics, we are referring to all those who do not believe in a religion, but who are willing to lead the life of a civilized person. Civilized human beings must adhere to certain ethical principles. I believe that those of us who consider ourselves religious practitioners have a responsibility: to inspire an interest in secular ethics among those who don’t have faith in a religion, but who are educated and civilized and will respect these kinds of moral values. This vision of secular ethics can be implemented in many different dimensions—as ethics for business people, ethics for politicians, ethics for professionals and ethics for people from any walk of life. Without even touching on religious teachings or scriptures, we can talk about ethical values for everyone. So the concept of universal responsibility and the concept of secular ethics are equally of tremendous importance for us all.

The Scientific and Spiritual Dialogue

Then there is yet another field in which the present Dalai Lama has made a decisive contribution, one to which I alluded earlier. That is the encounter between science and spirituality, and the ongoing dialogue between scientists and spiritual practitioners. Here we have an interaction in which neither discipline interferes with the methods or laws of the other, and where scientific knowledge and religion, scientists and spiritual practitioners, are coming together to find a common ground in their commitment to serve humanity.

In the past, most scientists used to believe that religions preached just blind faith, and therefore they were irrational and irrelevant to human development. But today, many leading scientists feel that the spiritual and contemplative traditions cannot be ignored. My own personal view is that in science blind faith is even more prevalent than in the religious traditions. Scientific findings and conclusions are often accepted blindly without further inquiry until and unless they are proved wrong by someone else. This is common knowledge. Medicines can be prescribed for decades, only to be revealed as having harmful side-effects which were not detected at the outset. As scientific knowledge is based on the ordinary human mind, it is bound to make many errors. Science has not sought to develop an enlightened mind; it simply uses the ordinary mind to search for some other phenomenon, and therefore there are many limitations.

However, science embraces a number of important fields of its own, particularly technology, which is based on scientific knowledge and has an immense potential for both good and bad. Take one example: this temple in which we find ourselves today depends on many aspects of modern technology. Yesterday too I was talking with the directors of Rigpa who explained how electronic media have helped them disseminate the teachings of Buddhism and the teaching of Sogyal Rinpoche very widely and with comparative ease. There are times when I really appreciate modern technology. How wonderful it is that I can carry the entire Kangyur and Tengyur, the ‘Word of Buddha’ and its Indian commentaries, on compact discs in my pocket.

Yet at the same time we have to realize that modern technology has also created destructive weapons that can not only destroy the whole of this beautiful temple, but blow up the entire area very easily within a flicker of a second. Humanity has even developed weapons that can leave buildings and their infrastructure intact, but kill all the human beings inside them in a flash. Our power of destruction seems to have completely outstripped our power to be constructive. I was informed by one military strategist that the weapons accumulated by a certain nation have the power to destroy the earth thirty-two times over. I asked him, “What’s the use of that? Isn’t once enough?” How foolish it is that people are dying of hunger, dying without clothes, without education, and without even the most basic healthcare, and yet some nation cares to stockpile a destructive power that can obliterate this earth thirty-two times over. Of course, after the first onslaught, the power itself will also have disappeared. It is not as though it is going to return and be able to destroy the world thirty-one more times. But even so, they hoard weapons with such terrible power. In my opinion, this is the most naked example of human stupidity. Who could be more foolish than the people who accumulate these weapons?

Yet science and technology can be supplemented and influenced by morality or spirituality, so that they move towards greater constructiveness, and reduce their tendency to be used for destruction. This highlights how important it is for scientists to engage in dialogue with spiritual masters. I have known some leading scientists who believed strongly in such an approach. The late David Bohm, for example, had quite extensive dialogues with Jiddhu Krishnamurti, in which I had the opportunity to participate. I have also had separate discussions with Fritjof Capra, an Indian scientist called Rajendra Prayadarshi, and several others. These individuals believe that scientific knowledge as a whole can be immensely benefited by exposure to spiritual traditions, particularly Buddhist metaphysics and abhidharma. They feel that that this could then influence science and technology in a positive direction, curbing their destructive use, and inculcating a more spiritual attitude among scientists and world leaders that could be beneficial to the entire universe.

This collaboration between spirituality and science is another important facet and outcome of His Holiness’s vision. Not only has he had many encounters with scientists, but he also seems very popular among them. He has inspired and initiated a number of dialogues and conferences on mind and consciousness, which is where science approaches very close to Buddhist concepts and contemplative experience. Sometimes scientific knowledge, as it progresses, naturally seems to reach a stage where science itself shades into spirituality.

The Path that Leads to Peace

Here, then, is one more aspect of the Dalai Lama’s legacy. He knows that science and spirituality have different orientations and different paths, but for a certain distance they can travel together. In the teachings, we talk about three paths taken by individuals with different outlooks: the common path of the ordinary person, the common path of the medium person, and the uncommon path of the great person. Scientific enquiry cannot travel as far as nirvana, of course. Yet science and Buddhist engagement in social service can go quite far down the common path together, and that is marvellous. The Dalai Lama’s argument is that we are all human beings, and whether we belong to one of the religious traditions, whether we are non-religious, whether we are involved in the interface of spirituality and science—whatever our faith or persuasion in fact—individuals pursuing different paths can join together to help one another and to help others.

This approach is, I believe, both thoroughly rational, and eminently practical as well. Because we can try it and put it into practice, without any difficulty or hindrance. In a very down-to-earth way, without any need for dissent or argument, we can join together and try to solve the issues facing humanity and sentient beings. This is a real possibility. It is the direction in which the Dalai Lama has moved, and he is taking large numbers of his followers with him. This whole approach represents an important and very real part of his legacy.

His long-term vision, perhaps his ultimate goal, is of a human society that lives in peaceful co-existence, free from violence. The reduction of violence remains always a prerequisite, because without eliminating force and violence we can never achieve that peaceful society. Reducing violence means cutting military and armed forces, it means disarmament, it means creating zones of peace and it means designating sanctuaries for the preservation of the environment. These are the kind of step-by-step programmes which will allow us to build a peaceful co-existing human society, free from violence of any kind.

When the Dalai Lama talks about the reduction of military forces and disarmament, he invariably speaks of inner disarmament, because without inner disarmament, outer disarmament will never be possible. This inner disarmament depends on the reduction of doubt and suspicion, and a deepening in our ability to have confidence in one another. The Dalai Lama always advocates the resolution of conflict through dialogue, negotiation and person-to-person contact. This is the path that he follows, with complete sincerity, in the process of resolving the Sino-Tibetan conflict and the issue of Tibet. The Middle Way Approach that he is pursuing so wholeheartedly embodies at its core the principle of dialogue and the rejection of violence of any kind.

On many occasions the Dalai Lama has said that the twenty-first century must be a century of dialogue, and a century in which we seek to resolve conflict peacefully and by working towards mutual agreement. To achieve his ultimate vision of a violence-free society, in which we can all exist side by side with one another in peace, we have to take the steps necessary to reduce friction between religious traditions, to reduce social and economic disparity, to reduce violence and destruction, arms and armed forces, and to encourage a genuine process of dialogue aimed at resolving conflict and finding solutions for our enduring problems. So, these are the few thoughts which I wanted to share with you, from which I think you may be able to grasp some of the key elements of the legacy handed to us by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, which we need to preserve, promote and carry further into the future.