Critical thinking class: "Ethics for the new Millennium" by Dalai Lama

Introduction

This essay is based on responding to two of the anecdotes provided in the esteemed works of Dalai Lama by the name “Ethics for the new Millennium”. Dalai Lama is the spiritual and activist leader of the Tibetan people, whose determined efforts for the attainment of human rights and world peace have brought him international recognition and success. His thoughts are considered to be an authentic source of moral lessons and inspiration for the entire humanity. In this paper we will study two of his famous anecdotes to reflect overt his teachings and apply them to the past or present religious, political, ideological belief systems and other movements.

Explanation for the Anecdote I

This anecdote opens new avenues of thought and inspiration for the new generation and ponders over the fact that the universal truth might be very extensive and that knowledge and wisdom are some qualities and virtues which cannot be fully achieved in any age. There is a lot more to education and knowledge than what we think we have achieved. Similarly, when we attain a certain degree or level of education from an academic institution, we think that it is the end of our education and that we are in full terms an “educated” person now. However, that is not true, from another perspective. As a human being begins to gather knowledge, he sees that it is a whole ocean and he has just taken a dive into one part of the entire ocean. A whole other world remains unexplored for him.

This anecdote is one of the simplest yet most stirring and enlightening messages of Dalai Lama which can be explained in a number of ways, justifying the variety of religions, education systems, and valuable wisdom sources for the world. In spite of its extensiveness and enormity, the human race reserves itself to few sources and thinks they have conquered the whole world. The behaviour of a child in gathering a few drops and treating it like the whole ocean is understandable but the same approach cannot be implied or justified form the point of view of a youth who must be ready to explore more things as he is ended up with the very few first ones. Only this approach can lead the humanity towards thinking in new ways and exploring and sharing new ideas, brining innovations and modified ideologies to the world.

Connection with past and present religious, political, ideological belief systems and movements

The teachings of Dalai Lama can be compared and applied to a comprehensive structure of the past and present ideologies in the context of politics, economics and social systems of the world. His teachings are mainly universal and open new horizons for guidance of the entire humanity at large. According to his views, the entire human existence is base4d on few simple lessons that reflect the working of the entire humanity and compels an individual to ponder over the teachings of the scholarly ...