ASSIGNMENT

Assignment

Assignment

Part I

The Dalai Lama believes compassion is the key to internal and external peace. According to the Dalai Lama, compassion allows people to develop tolerance and forgiveness and health themselves. His holiness also believes that the roots of compassion sprout from when we are infants. What he means by this is that when we are infants, we are all helpless. Our first contacts and experiences of compassion is when we are cared for by our mothers. The Dalai Lama also states that he has learned more about compassion from his mother than all of his teachers (Lamas) together. Furthermore, the Dalai Lama believes we are all born with compassion; however, it is environment and society which destroys this compassion. In a speech the Dalai Lama made on September 13th, in Burbank, California, his holiness went on to use Hitler and Stalin as examples of people who had their compassion destroyed by society/environment. Both were innocent infants at one point, filled with compassion. Sadly however, society alienated them and caused them to grow into evil figures. One of his most famous quotes regarding compassion was that which he stated, "Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion." The message of compassion and the meaning of it is a great inspiration to us all, whether we believe in his views or not.

A charismatic figure and noted public speaker, his holiness is the first Dalai Lama to travel west where he has helped to spread Buddhism, as well as his views on it. In 1950, the People's Republic of China had occupied Tibet, during which time his holiness had been enthroned the Head of State. However, after the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, Tenzin Gyatso fled to India, where he established the Central Tibetan Administration, responsible for preserving the Tibetan culture and education, among the other thousands of refuges who accompanied him on his trip to India. From that point, the Dalai Lama has been recognized widely for his trips throughout the west coast, to numerous events where he has shared his vision and thoughts with the rest of the world. His holiness believes that Buddhism is a tremendous potential for transformation that exists naturally in the human mind. Furthermore, he believes that one must have deep insights into the nature of reality, as well as a compassionate heart to follow the path to Buddhism. His holiness, surprisingly, also compares religion (Buddhism) and science together. He states that modern neuroscience has developed a rich understanding of the brain mechanisms that are associated with both attention and emotion. Similarly, he notes that Buddhism has a deep understanding of the emotions of man, and how compassion is associated with the human heart. The Dalai Lama, to this day, continues to travel the word, spreading his message of Buddhism and what it means to be a Tibetan Buddhist.

As most know, the Dalai Lama is recognized as a ...