On 11th May, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the most powerful spiritual leaders of the world visited Rotterdam, GHRD's EVS volunteer and intern attended this event.
Barbara Mojzes
His
Holiness the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the most
powerful spiritual leaders of the world gave a thought-provoking public lecture in Rotterdam in front of 11,000 people.
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| Photo: Jurjen Donkers |
The
79-year old Dalai Lama, currently living in exile in India surprised the audience with his down to earth attitude,
spontaneity and great sense of humor. Wearing an orange baseball cap during his
teachings made the lecture even more
enjoyable and reminded us about how often we are concerned about improving our body instead
of improving our mind.
As the head of a 500 year old religion, the Dalai Lama was not afraid to connect his
beliefs to more modern theories from Quantum Physics in relation to questions of
existence and the present time. For example, he spoke about a theory which came up with the possibility that time may not even exist. This is because, he argued,
if the present moment we are living in turns into the past every
second, and in the same second, the future becomes the present, does the present
moment exist at all?
His
Holiness then explained the three principal aspects of the Path. These are
renunciation (the determination to be free), bodhichitta (the altruistic
aspiration for enlightenment) and wisdom. We all, “Dharma Friends, Spiritual
Brothers and Sisters” want happiness not suffering, but we need to know how
suffering and happiness come about. Suffering is always a result of our own
actions and the main reason or all the suffering in the world is ignorance,
due to the gap between appearance and reality. It is not technology, state governments
or weapons that are our biggest enemies, but our own selfish attitude and ignorant
minds.
Sara Fiorentini
Since
I started working for human rights protection, one of the main issues I have
had to face is that the more religious authorities influence the social and
political choices of a country, the less a real integration between different
communities is possible.
It
is undeniable, indeed, that religions have a great effect on society as well as
the opposite, in a dialectical relationship. I
have always believed that religions can find a common ground to
peacefully coexist and promote the protection of fundamental rights which
are recognized as intangible precepts. Nevertheless, if we do not contemplate
the possibility of creating a neutral structure that allows different religions to
express freely and to identify their common features, it seems impossible to
state the existence of these universal principles.
To
this end, I was highly inspired by the Dalai Lama’s speech about the
possibility to get a human rights-framework that allows different religions to
coexist in a peaceful way on the basis of secularism.
He
stated that every religion talks about love and compassion, as well as teaching self-discipline because it is fundamental to avoid impulsivity
and greed. Therefore, the only difference between religions rests on the way in which they promote love and compassion, that is to say that religions do not
contradict each other.
The
only way to gain a peaceful coexistence between religions is to build every
State’s rules on secular principles able to reflect the fundamental teaching of
love that every religion shares. According to this pattern, a tolerant society
is possible: a society which rests on moral ethics and promotes both individual
and communal values. A State should promote these principles by delegating
educational tasks to individuals, families and small communities that when working
together, have the capacity to build up a local, national and then
international idea of tolerance and mutual respect.
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